Carolyn Bourdeaux

Healthcare
CAROLYN WILL FIGHT FOR:

• Ensuring universal access to affordable, quality health care by strengthening the Affordable Care Act (ACA), protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and creating a robust affordable public option health insurance plan for individuals and small businesses.
• Lower prescription drug costs by allowing the federal government to negotiate prices for prescription drugs.
• Ending surprise billing.

Health care policy is personal to Carolyn. For ten years, Carolyn’s father suffered from a debilitating, prolonged illness and her mother cared for him. Her parents drained their bank accounts to pay for her father’s prescription medications. Now every day, she hears from Georgia families struggling with the rising costs of prescription drugs, insurance costs, and costs of medical care. Across our country, there are seniors who can't afford the care they need. Parents struggle to afford the insulin their children depend on to survive, and families and businesses are paying staggering sums for basic health insurance. This is a crisis.

Carolyn will fight for the millions of Georgians who are either uninsured, under insured, or struggle with the costs of insurance and prescription drugs. Due to both poor state government policy decisions (i.e. refusing to expand Medicaid) and the Trump Administration’s war on the Affordable Care Act, Georgia has the third highest rate (13.7% or 1.4 million Georgians) of those without health insurance, ranks 50th in childhood immunizations, 47th in low birthweight babies, 40th in diabetes, 43rd in infant mortality, and Georgia has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country. Health outcomes are much worse for low-income and minority communities, particularly with respect to maternal and infant mortality.

Carolyn believes strongly that affordable, quality health care is the right of all Georgians. The Affordable Care Act was a great step forward in guaranteeing that right, but the current pandemic has highlighted the fact that more needs to be done. We must begin to separate access to health insurance from our places of employment. Losing a job should not mean losing health insurance. Carolyn supports the creation of a robust public health insurance option to compete with private sector options already offered on the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges as well as lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 50. Carolyn will encourage the Governor and General Assembly to expand Medicaid and help over 500,000 currently uninsured Georgians obtain health insurance.

To decrease the cost of health insurance, Carolyn will work to increase subsidies and cap premiums for those health insurance policies offered on the exchanges, while ensuring that all insurance plans cover essential health services. Carolyn will also fight all efforts to eliminate the ACA’s protection for people with pre-existing conditions.

The high cost of prescription drugs is a significant barrier to keeping Georgians healthy. Carolyn supports efforts to allow the federal government to negotiate prices for prescription medications. Due to the size of the Medicare and the potential public option plan population, the government has significant leverage to negotiate lower prices. Carolyn supports allowing the importation of drugs deemed safe by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from other countries and efforts to improve the supply and reduce the cost of generic drugs.

Carolyn will also work to end surprise billing. Surprise billing occurs when patients are treated at an in-network hospital but is treated by an out-of-network physician. About 20 percent of visits to the emergency room and 10 percent of elective in-patient care results in a surprise bill. A surprise bill can result in a significant out-of-pocket cost to patients. Carolyn supports the legislation that will protect patients and take them out of the middle of insurer-provider disputes.

Confronting Injustice
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

• Establish a system of data collection on cases of police violence and establish a National Registry of Police Misconduct
• Pass legislation that ends the transfer of military weaponry to local offices, bans racial and religious profiling, and establishes federal use of force standards for police
• Pass the Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act of 2019

There have been 5,000 fatal shootings by the police in America since 2015. Black Americans are killed by the police at a rate twice as high as white people. This is not acceptable.

The federal government does not track police violence with any kind of reliable data collection and local police offices only have to report cases of police brutality on a voluntary basis. Carolyn will work to implement an effective program of data collection on the federal level. This will allow the federal government to track statistics, identify patterns, and investigate police misconduct across the country.

Carolyn will also fight to establish a National Registry of Police Misconduct. This registry should house records of every example of police misconduct from across the country. By giving every local police office in the country access to this information, we can prevent officers who were fired for violence from relocating themselves and perpetuating their brutality.

Additionally, Carolyn will work to pass H.R. 4408, also known as the Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act. This bill amends existing law and bans the use of chokeholds by police officers.

Carolyn also supports passing legislation that ends the transfer of military weaponry to local police; formally bans racial and religious profiling; and establishes federal use of force standards for police, with provisions that define clear legal consequences for offenders and ensure third-party investigation into offences.

Education & Job Training
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

• Make investments in our public education system because every child, no matter where they live, deserves a world-class education.
• Expand programs like Pell Grants to make it easier to afford higher education, while also working to fix the student loan debt crisis.
• Invest in job training and apprenticeship programs, because career training is essential to upward mobility and a stronger economy.
• Provide universal pre-k to give every child the head start they need to be successful.

Carolyn is proud to send her son to Gwinnett public schools because she knows the value of a public education and how critical our schools are to ensuring that all our children have a bright future. Carolyn supports increased federal funding for Title 1 schools (those with high number of students from low-income backgrounds), fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Act to help schools hire and retain highly qualified special education teachers and increase resources available to prepare and retain teachers.

Higher education is a key to economic success but is out of reach for far too many. Carolyn was only able to afford to go to college through the help of her community and programs like Pell Grants. Now, as a professor at Georgia State University, Carolyn sees the struggle too many of her students go through to afford the rising costs of higher education. To help make college more affordable, Carolyn supports increased funding for programs such as Pell Grants and supplemental loan programs. She believes that anyone who wants to pursue a higher education should not be held back simply because they cannot afford it.

In addition to helping prospective students afford college, we also need to provide relief for those already struggling with student debt. The student loan debt crisis is growing and if we don’t act now, the consequences will be catastrophic. Carolyn supports programs that enable folks to pay back their student loans proportionally to their income so that no one is paying more than they can afford. For those students who go into careers in public service such as teachers, nurses, police, firefighters and the military, Carolyn supports strengthening the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

With the increased need for skilled labor, workforce training and apprenticeship programs need to be readily available and affordable for those coming out of high school and for those looking at a new career. Carolyn supports increased investments in technical education programs as well as apprenticeship programs. Workers in changing industries are being left behind, and it’s important that they have opportunities to retrain for good, quality jobs.

High quality early childhood education is an important factor in later success in school. Carolyn supports universal, affordable, and high-quality early learning opportunities for every child. This can be accomplished through a combination of tax credits, strengthening and expanding Head Start and Early Head Start, as well as partnering with states to offer universal pre-K for three and four year olds.

Social Justice And Economic Opportunity
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

• Create a savings bond program for children from low income families that will help address intergenerational poverty, and ensure all children graduate from high school with resources to invest in a college education, a home loan, or a small business.
• Use congressional oversight to ensure strict enforcement of housing and employment anti-discrimination laws.
• Invest in world class education for all of our children and address disparities in discipline, learning, and educational opportunity head on.
• Address racial disparities in our health care system.
• Achieve meaningful criminal justice reform.

Carolyn believes all families want the same opportunity for their children, they just face different barriers to achieving it. The average wealth of a white family is ten times that of a black family reflecting generations of discrimination and inequality. The wealth gap is the direct result of public policies like redlining that made it difficult for black Americans to purchase homes, and their modern day counterpart of discriminatory lending practices. Homes are the most common way for Americans to accumulate intergenerational wealth. Carolyn supports ending the practice of modern redlining by prohibiting banks from discrimination in housing loans.

She also will support investment in policies to create a savings bond program for children from low income families, with a goal of addressing structural, intergenerational poverty. The federal government will contribute to these funds each year, and at 18, these children will have resources to invest in higher education, buying a home, or building a small business.

Ensuring educational equality is also fundamental to opportunity for all of our children. Carolyn is proud to be a professor at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, at Georgia State University, a public university that focuses on first generation college students and graduates more African American students than any university in the country. She also knows first hand the struggles her students face in getting a college degree and is committed to making sure higher education is affordable for all families. Carolyn also supports moving towards universal pre-K and investing in quality child care so all of our children start school ready to learn.

In the 7th district, she also often hears from African American families who talk about discrimination in the K-12 school system, including significant disparities in disciplinary actions taken against black children. Discrimination in education cannot be tolerated and she will work with organizations such as Black Men United for Children and Humanity to make sure our community tracks and swiftly address disparities in education.

We must also take significant measures to address the racial disparities in our health care system laid bare by both the coronavirus and Georgia’s shocking black maternal mortality rate. Carolyn will fight to make sure that all Americans have affordable quality health care, and that health care policy is designed to be sensitive to racial disparity in health outcomes.

Last, there is no denying the devastation that our broken criminal justice system has inflicted on black and brown communities. Carolyn will advocate for policies that reverse the disturbing reality of this system including: ending mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenses, restoring voting rights to formerly incarcerated individuals, closing sentencing disparities, and instituting systems that better reintegrate people back into society.

Restoring Our Democracy
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

• Ensure we have free and fair elections, where every voice is heard and every vote is counted.
• Ensure our electronic elections systems are secure from hacking and foreign influence.
• Fix our broken campaign finance system and curb the influence of special interests.
• End partisan gerrymandering -- voters should be picking their elected leaders, not the other way around.

Hold regular town halls and meet and greets in both Gwinnett and Forsyth Counties to ensure everyone has a chance to be heard. The first piece of legislation Carolyn will co-sponsor when elected to Congress will be Congressman John Lewis’ Voting Rights Advancement Act, which restores portions of the Voting Rights Act scrapped by the Supreme Court. But we must go beyond this to ensure that everyone who is eligible and wants to vote, can vote. Carolyn supports same day voter registration as well as legislation to stop the disastrous voter purges conducted by Georgia’s Secretary of State. She will also support legislation to ensure that our election systems are secure from hacking as well as inappropriate foreign influence.

Given the public health emergency of the coronavirus, Carolyn has been a fierce advocate for a comprehensive “vote-by-mail” system in Georgia: a voter shouldn’t have to risk life and health to vote.

Meaningful solutions to pressing issues like health care, our environment, and gun violence are held back due to the influence of special interests that spend billions to push their own corporate interests. Carolyn is committed to campaign finance reform, rolling back the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, and getting special interest money out of politics. She has already taken steps to make a difference here as well. She has pledged to never accept contributions from corporate PACs and to instead hold at least 4 public town halls every year she’s in Congress. She believes that our leaders should be responsive to the people in their district -- not powerful special interests.

Districts are drawn to favor one side over the other, so much so that politicians do not believe they can be held accountable. Our current lawmakers are more afraid of losing reelection than the consequences of disenfranchising their constituents. This is why Carolyn supports non-partisan redistricting. By un-rigging the district maps that protect unresponsive politicians, we can start to break the gridlock and polarization in Washington.

For our democracy to work, voters need to have confidence that our election process is free and fair and that their representatives are listening to them, never to special interests.

Economic Recovery In The Aftermath Of The Pandemic
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL SUPPORT A FAIR AND BROAD BASED FAMILIES-FIRST ECONOMIC RECOVERY BY FIGHTING FOR EFFORTS THAT:

• Support the recovery of Georgia’s small businesses from the economic fallout of the pandemic.
• Ensure that the social safety net including the unemployment insurance system as well as food and housing assistance programs have the resources necessary to allow families in need to support themselves until we can get our economy back on its feet.
• Fix our broken health care system to ensure all families have affordable, quality health care.
• Raise the federal minimum wage and match it with the Earned Income Tax Credit to ensure every family can make a living wage.
• Help spur economic recovery by creating good-paying jobs through key investments to repair our crumbling and insufficient infrastructure with a focus on tackling climate change.

Over one million Georgians have lost their jobs since the economy was shut down. Carolyn experienced the pain of economic hardship first hand, as her family went bankrupt before she went to college. She knows that federal and state governments have a responsibility to assure that struggling families have the resources to support themselves. She was also Senate budget director in Georgia and helped the state navigate the Great Recession and knows the even greater challenges our community will face during this crisis.

Carolyn will work to ensure that the unemployment insurance system, food nutrition programs, and housing assistance programs have the necessary funds to assure every worker has the resources they need to support their families until our economy recovers.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and have been decimated by the pandemic. As our economy begins to recover, our local factories, shops, restaurants and bars must have access to the capital they require to reopen and hire back their workers. Carolyn will support the funding of existing programs and, if necessary, the creation of new programs to ensure the availability of small business grants and loans to all that are in need.

In order to jump start our economy with good paying jobs as well as strengthen our economy for the future, Carolyn supports a major program that rebuilds our roads, bridges, transit, and broadband infrastructure. We must move from a crumbling and outdated 20th century infrastructure to modern and strong 21st century infrastructure.

Many of the heroes during this crisis have been the low-wage workers that stock our grocery shelves and staff the check-out counters, cook and serve at our take-out restaurants, and staff our nursing homes. But too many of the workers we now recognize as essential to all of us do not make a living wage. When a minimum wage job in Georgia does not pay enough to support a family, one of the first steps we need to take in recovering our economy must be to guarantee a living wage. The costs of rent, gas and food increase every year, and our wages have not kept up. Carolyn supports increasing the federal minimum wage and pairing it with increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit to ensure that everyone can make a living wage.

Expanding Transit & Mobility
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

• Fully support federal programs to expand funding for new methods of public transit in Georgia’s 7th district.
• Support the development of an electric vehicle charging grid to facilitate the transition to zero emissions transportation.
• Modernize our infrastructure with funding to address local transportation bottlenecks.

As a commuter to downtown Atlanta from Georgia’s 7th, Carolyn knows the misery of sitting in traffic as well as anyone. She knows that expanding transit and transportation options is a key to improving mobility and unlocking economic opportunity and is an essential investment as we fight climate change.

In Congress, Carolyn will support legislation to make significant investments in our infrastructure, including transit, commuter rail, and support for electric vehicles and other technologies that help us develop the green economy we need for the 21st century and unlock business opportunity for this district.

The gridlock in this area has begun to choke off jobs and economic opportunity. Most recently, WestRock and NCR relocated from the 7th district to Atlanta to be closer to transit options. As an aide to Senator Ron Wyden, Carolyn worked to successfully expand federal funding for light-rail systems that are now seen as a model for the entire nation. She additionally worked to support programs that better coordinate transportation with land use planning.

She will bring this knowledge and background to fight for our district in Congress. For years, residents of the 7th district and all Georgians have sent their taxpayer dollars to Washington to support transit initiatives and infrastructure in other states - now it is time for an investment in our community.

Expanding transportation options is not only the smart thing to do, it is the right thing to do. Exhausting commutes damage the environment and have a negative effect on the health of Georgians. Everyone in our district should be able to afford accessible, safe and reliable methods of transit -- creating a truly connected community.

Gun Safety & Reform
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

• Protect Americans’ right to safely own a gun; while passing common-sense, lifesaving gun safety measures.
• Implement universal background checks on all gun sales, including at gun shows, a move that is supported by nearly all Americans, including a majority of gun owners.
• Ban assault weapons, high capacity magazines, bump stocks, silencers, and armor piercing bullets.

For years, Congress has consistently failed to take meaningful action while innocent people, including children, fall victim to gun violence each day. Our children should not have to live in a country where active shooter drills are part of a normal routine in school. People should be able to enjoy the movie theater, mall, concert, or nightclub without fearing for their safety.

The majority of Americans, including gun owners, support gun safety measures that are meant to keep weapons out of the wrong hands. No one with a history of domestic violence should be able to purchase a weapon. Carolyn will fight to close the “boyfriend loophole” and protect the on average 52 women who are murdered monthly by their partners with firearms.

It's time to close the “Charleston loophole” and mandate universal background checks on all gun sales, including at all gun shows. This will ensure that weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands, including those on the FBI terrorist watch list.

We also need to keep our communities safe by banning items that present undue safety concerns. Assault weapons, silencers, high capacity magazines, bump stocks, and armor piercing bullets are not necessary for self-protection or hunting. These common-sense reforms will save lives and make our communities safer.

Gun manufacturers and dealers must be held accountable for their products. Carolyn will also work to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which gives gun manufacturers and dealers broad immunity from legal liability. The firearms industry must also be better regulated. Carolyn supports increased funding for the ATF so they can more aggressively take enforcement action on those irresponsible gun dealers and manufacturers who are supplying the illegal market for gun crimes.

Carolyn grew up around guns in a family of gun owners and was taught from an early age that owning a gun is a serious responsibility. In Congress, she will stand up to the NRA’s divisive, false narrative that suggests that we cannot both implement common-sense gun safety laws while also respecting Second Amendment rights. We can do both.

Fixing Our Immigration System
For too long, we’ve had a broken immigration system. We need to reaffirm our commitment to building a country that is diverse, inclusive, and global while also addressing valid border security concerns and upgrades.

IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

• Pass comprehensive immigration reform that deals with problems along our border while also recognizing legal status for those who have been contributing to our society.
• Protect DREAMers and establish a clear path to citizenship for them.
• Reject any policies that separate children from their parents at the border and reaffirm our country’s values of welcoming immigrants and celebrating our diversity.

Reform the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We cannot be a country that closes our border and turns people away “because we are full,” nor can we continue to have leaders who use vile, xenephobic language that demeans entire groups of people. We need an immigration system that is humane and reflects our country’s history and values.

Meaningful immigration reform isn’t about separating children at the borders or building walls and fences -- it’s about establishing a system that’s fair and lays out a clear procedure for our immigrants. Carolyn is committed to fighting for comprehensive immigration reform that recognizes economic realities, deals with security along the border, and offers a pathway to citizenship for those who have lived here and contributed to our society, including our DREAMers.

We must recognize the plight of refugees who are fleeing for their own safety, and we should increase the number of immigration judges to swiftly hear their cases and reduce the amount of time refugee-seekers have to await trial.

Part of immigration reform must also address security concerns along our borders. This means a combination of deploying new technologies, giving border agents the tools they need to effectively patrol the border, and working with other countries and our allies to deal with those who seek to cause harm.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must be reformed so that immigration enforcement represents our values. There must be increased oversight from Congress and independent inspectors, independent ombudsmen for detained immigrants, expanded safeguards for citizens erroneously targeted, improved agency standards through mandatory reviews and updates, increased professionalism through training, and reinstating enforcement priorities.

Addressing The Climate Crisis
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

• Address climate change with the seriousness it deserves.
• Invest in clean energy jobs and technologies; helping to clean our environment and boost our economy.
• Reduce the influence of special interests, whose corruption of our system has impeded progress to address climate change.

Climate change is an existential threat to our way of life and will significantly impact the well-being of our children and future generations. The science behind climate change is clear. It’s time that we pass serious measures to curb the troubling trends of warming temperatures, heightened levels of CO2, and rising sea levels while we still can.

First and foremost, Carolyn believes that the United States needs to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. We are now the only major country that is not part of the historic partnership. We must reverse the Trump administration’s decision to pull back from the world stage at a time when American leadership is paramount.

But solely rejoining the Paris Agreement is not enough. The existential threat of climate change calls for a Marshall Plan level of investments and regulatory efforts to ensure we move swiftly toward 100% clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy in electricity generation; 100% zero emissions for all new light-duty passenger vehicles, medium-duty trucks, and all buses; and 100% zero-carbon pollution for all new commercial and residential buildings.

By investing in clean-energy jobs, we can take important steps to curb pollution and grow our economy. We should not let China or Europe take the lead. Carolyn believes that we can use this crisis as an opportunity and invest in millions of high-quality jobs creating solar panels, building wind turbines, and revamping our infrastructure to support green transit. Carolyn additionally supports investing in critical research to invent new technologies. Tackling climate change will not just lead to a more sustainable environment; it allows for the creation of a vibrant, green-based manufacturing revival.

Unfortunately we’ve failed to take serious action to curb climate change because special interests like big oil and gas companies have spent millions to elect their allies and then tell them to vote in their interests -- and against their constituents. Carolyn supports eliminating the billions of dollars in tax subsidies and tax breaks enjoyed by the fossil fuel industry and refocusing those funds to the green economy. Carolyn has taken the bold step of refusing contributions from corporate PACs because she believes that it’s important that our leaders are fighting for the well being of people in their districts -- not powerful special interests.

Veterans And Military Families
CAROLYN WILL FIGHT FOR VETERANS AND MILITARY SERVICE MEMBER FAMILIES BY:

• Assuring all veterans have access to affordable and comprehensive healthcare, including mental health care, that meets their specific needs.
• Supporting services for military families.
• Supporting transition from active duty to civilian life.

Carolyn will work to fully fund the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Increased funding will help fill the thousands of currently vacant positions as well as allow for an increase in pay which will help lessen staff turnover. A fully funded and staffed VA will help cut the wait time for services. Carolyn also supports the expansion of community-based medical options and telehealth services. Such services would be of particular benefit to veterans in more rural areas.

The stress and trauma faced by many of our military service members can result in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues. Veteran suicide is a severe and growing problem (60,000 veterans took their own lives between 2008 and 2017). Carolyn will work to guarantee veterans access to mental health care through expanding the number of mental health and addiction clinicians treating veterans and investing in training for mental health providers.

We must not only honor the sacrifices made by our service members, but we must honor the sacrifices made by their families by giving them the support they deserve. Due to the many relocations of our military service members, military parents face unique childcare issues. Carolyn will support increased funding for high-quality child-care in military communities. The safety and adequacy of military housing is a significant problem for our military families. Due to neglect much of military housing needs renovation, including lead abatement. A 2019 poll of military families found that 56 percent had negative or very negative experiences with their housing. Carolyn will fight for increased federal oversight of housing contractors to assure military housing is safe.

The transition from active service to civilian life is often difficult for our veterans. Carolyn will work to increase job training and apprenticeship opportunities for veterans, increase assistance in starting small businesses, and support programs that help connect veterans to jobs. Carolyn will work to expand and improve the GI Bill through expanding options for the utilization of the GI bill and expanding outreach efforts to increase awareness of the GI Bill. On any night approximately 35,000 veterans are homeless. Carolyn will fight for the investments needed for rapid re-housing through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services for Veterans Family program and permanent supportive housing through the Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program.

Jobs & The Economy
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

• Increase investments in job training and apprenticeship programs so that everyone has a path to a living wage.
• Ensure that college is affordable by increasing Pell Grants, service loan forgiveness programs, and ensuring that student loan payments are pegged to income.
• Increase funding to ensure Georgia has the infrastructure needed for a 21st century high tech economy.
• Support legislation that helps us build a green jobs economy to address the climate crisis.

Our economy cannot continue moving forward until our workers earn a living wage. The cost of rent, gas, and food increases every year. Yet wages have not grown as they should. We need to increase the federal minimum wage to account for inflation and also pair this with the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, to ensure that all hard-working individuals are able to achieve a living wage.

Small business is the backbone of our local economy. Carolyn will work to give targeted tax relief to our small community businesses. Carolyn will also work to ensure that the reasonable and necessary regulations faced by small businesses are implemented in an efficient and business friendly manner while also partnering with our local business community to identify and then work to eliminate those regulations that are overly burdensome and/or no longer serve the purpose they once did.

Many studies show that education is the key to the 21st economy, and college or career training and apprenticeships programs are essential to upward mobility. However, the costs of higher education have skyrocketed as states have disinvested in our public universities. No young person should be unable to go to college because he or she can’t afford it. Programs like federal Pell Grants used to cover 80 percent of the cost of higher education, today, they only cover around 30 percent. In order to make college more affordable, Carolyn supports legislation that would significantly increase the maximum Pell grant value for individuals already eligible and would also expand the benefits of Pell grants to more middle-class Americans.

Carolyn has visited some of the union run training centers in the metro area, and she is strongly supportive of their apprenticeship programs that give young people a path to a career and a good wage. She will work to increase investments in job training and apprenticeship programs so that everyone has a clear career pathway that leads to a living wage job.

Most of us living here in Gwinnett and Forsyth face a “soul-sucking commute.” The time we spend stuck in traffic could be spent on so many other things, including being with family. Infrastructure investments must be made in our district in order to attract businesses and preserve our quality of life. Carolyn supports a significant federal infrastructure bill that will help repair our crumbling roads and bridges, fund a variety of transit options, and employ Georgians at a time of record unemployment.

Over 330,000 Georgia households do not have access to broadband internet. In normal times this lack of a 21st century high-tech infrastructure would be a significant economic development disadvantage. In the age of pandemics where schools are forced to move to on-line learning and many businesses are requiring their employees to work from home, those households without internet access are facing an educational and economic crisis. Carolyn will work to ensure that any infrastructure legislation includes funding to guarantee every household has access to high speed broadband internet.

Last, Carolyn believes that we must invest in new technology and infrastructure to address the climate crisis. This is going to entail creating incentives for millions of high-quality jobs creating and installing solar panels, building wind turbines, building electric cars, and revamping our infrastructure to support transit and alternative fuel power generation. Carolyn additionally supports investing in critical research around clean energy innovation and new technologies. Tackling climate change will not just lead to a more sustainable environment; it also opens the door to a vibrant, green-based manufacturing revival.

Women's Issues
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL:

• Fight for equal pay through support for the Paycheck Fairness Act
• Work to ensure paid family medical leave
• Stand up and fight for a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, including the right to choose
• Support efforts to lower the Georgia maternal mortality rate, including advocating for Medicaid expansion
• Support finally ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment

Women who work full time, year-round are paid, on average, only 82 cents for every dollar paid to men, resulting in a gap of $10,194 each year. On average Latina women are paid 54 cents, black women 62 cents, white women 79 cents, and Asian women 90 cents for every dollar paid to white men. At the current rate, the wage gap will not close until 2059. Carolyn will work to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act which would help break the harmful patterns of pay discrimination and strengthen the workplace protections for women.

The Equal Rights Amendment has been ratified by the 38 states needed to add an amendment to the Constitution. However, the Mitch McConnell controlled Senate refuses to extend the deadline for ratification. Carolyn will use her power in Congress to continuously advocate for and protect this vital amendment as we work to finally ratify it.

Carolyn strongly supports a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, including the right to choose. Although the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized a woman’s right to privacy and control over her own body as a constitutional right, anti-choice advocates have worked for years in states like Georgia to pass laws to undermine women’s reproductive health. Most recently, the Republicans in Georgia passed legislation to criminalize abortion, with penalities of up to 10 years in prison for doctors and women. This legislation passed in a state where women are more likely to die in childbirth than any other state in the country. Carolyn has worked to expand women’s reproductive health care for years and will support legislation to codify Roe v. Wade and make sure that women have access to contraception.

Georgia today has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country - a rate equivalent to maternal mortality in Uzbekistan. The situation is even worse among minority and low-income communities. Carolyn will support efforts to increase the number of maternity care health professionals in underserved areas, support Medicaid expansion in Georgia, make pregnancy a qualifying life event allowing people to enroll in the Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance plans outside of open enrollment periods, support increased funding for implicit bias training among health professionals, and support nationwide efforts to examine maternal deaths.

Giving families time off to bond with their newborns, newly adopted children, or to care for a sick family member without facing financial stress is essential, and Carolyn supports the development of a national paid family medical leave policy. The United States is the only developed country in the world that does not provide even a modest form of paid family leave -- it’s time for this to change.

LGBTQIA+ Rights
IN CONGRESS, SHE WILL FIGHT TO:

• Pass the Equality Act that would make explicit the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics.
• Pass the Do No Harm Act which would clarify that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is intended to protect religious freedom without allowing the infliction of harm to other people.

Carolyn was proud to work for now-Senator Ron Wyden when he became the first U.S. Senate candidate, and then Senator, to publicly support marriage equality in 1995 -- a policy that Carolyn advocated for even then. In Congress, Carolyn will continue her fight for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Federal laws protect the civil rights of people on the basis of race, national origin, biological sex, disability, and religion. Unfortunately, our laws do not provide the same protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity. A recent survey found that 25 percent of LGBTQ+ respondents experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity in the previous year, with over half reporting that discrimination negatively affected their work and community environments.

To ensure that the LGBTQ+ community receives the anti-discrimination protections that they deserve, Carolyn supports passage of the Equality Act. The Equality Act builds on existing civil rights law to explicitly protect sexual orientation and gender identity from discrimination under federal law. The Equality Act would prohibit discrimination in public spaces and services, including retail stores, banks, legal services and transportation, as well as federally funded programs on the basis of identity.

Carolyn also supports the Do No Harm Act to clarify that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was intended to protect religious freedom while also protecting others from harm. RFRA was passed over 20 years ago with the purpose of protecting minority religious groups’ constitutional right to freely exercise their religious beliefs and was supported by a broad coalition including many in the civil rights community. Certain court rulings on RFRA allow businesses to discriminate based on the owner’s personal religious beliefs. The Do No Harm Act ensures that religious freedom is used as a shield to protect the Constitutional right to free exercise of religion and not as a sword to discriminate.

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