Issue Position: Protecting Vulnerable Children

Issue Position

As one of the senior Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, I successfully authored the "Protect Our Kids Act," which created the National Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect. After holding its first field hearing in San Antonio at my request, the Commission held field hearings around the country to create a coordinated national strategy to ensure every child has a happy, healthy upbringing and earlier this year, released its comprehensive report. For my efforts, I was honored with the Congressional Champion for Real and Lasting Change Award from Save the Children.

I was horrified by the Trump Administration's decision to tear children from their mothers at the border, treating young infants whose families were legally seeking asylum with intentional cruelty. I vigorously fought family separation as a policy, and I worked to respond to many of the heartbreaking individual stories which came to me from the border. Our humanity and compassion toward vulnerable children should know no borders.

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