On the Issues

Our Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

Serving her first term in the U.S. Congress, Gabrielle is known throughout the district as hard-working and responsive to her constituents. She fights for common sense solutions that benefit all of Southern Arizona. People on both sides of the political aisle recognize her as a tireless advocate for the issues critical to her district.

She sits on the three committees – the House Committee on Armed Services, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Science and Technology Committee where she serves as vice-chairman on the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. These assignments allow her to be a strong voice for the key issues that affect Congressional District 8.

Building a 21st Century Energy Plan

Gabrielle works to transform our nation’s failing energy policy with a serious commitment to energy independence. She is determined to see America reach a goal of 20 percent renewable energy by 2020 and a reduced dependence on foreign oil.

In her first year in office, Congresswoman Giffords introduced the Solar Energy Research and Advancement Act of 2007 that promotes research and development of renewable energy, which was included in a comprehensive energy package signed into law.

Gabrielle has a strong record across the board in moving to end America’s reliance on foreign oil. She introduced the Diesel Tax Parity Act, pushed to require oil companies to drill on land they already lease before opening up new areas and voted to repeal subsidies to oil companies in order to fund renewable energy.

Fighting for Our Troops and Our Veterans

Congresswoman Giffords, as the only member of Congress with a spouse on active duty in the military, knows first hand about the sacrifices that our veterans have made. On the House Armed Services Committee, she has led efforts to support a strong military and our veterans by modernizing the “GI Bill”, which expands educational benefits to our veterans.

Concerned particularly about the well-being of veterans, Gabrielle voted for the largest funding increase in the VA history, including $600 million additional funds for mental health programs, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury care.

With her intervention, she succeeded in saving 200 National Guard Fighter Wing maintenance jobs in Tucson that were threatened by Air Force budget cuts. Understanding the challenges for families with service personnel in combat, she also authored the 2008 law that allows members of the military who serve in combat zones to qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Developing An Effective Border Policy

From the moment she took office, Congresswoman Giffords has consistently pushed Congressional leadership to take up immigration reform legislation. In 2008, she authored the Employee Verification Act of 2008, which extends the federal E-Verify system for five years. This bill enacts common sense changes to the federal program for verifying the citizenship status of newly-hired employees.

To help Arizona face the economic impact of immigration, Gabrielle introduced the Border Health Care Relief Act, which will bring back federal tax dollars to Arizona to reimburse the state for the costs of providing emergency health care to undocumented workers.

Additionally, Gabrielle has authored two other bills on border security: the Tunnel Enforcement Act that ensures that there are criminal penalties for using tunnels to smuggle illegal aliens, goods, controlled substances, weapons, or terrorists; and the Border Security Accountability Act of 2008 which would require that the Department of Homeland Security report on activities, benchmarks and expenditures.

Restoring America’s Educational Advantage

Gabrielle has sought input from teachers, parents, administrators and business leaders across Southern Arizona in public hearings around the district before Congress approaches the reauthorization for the No Child Left Behind Act. As the law currently stands, she considers it “drastically underfunded” and supports changes that will give schools the resources they need, while expanding focus on math and science skills.

Congresswoman Giffords has co-sponsored legislation that would give scholarships to college students studying to be math and science teachers; the College Student Relief Act of 2007 which reduces interest rates on student loans, the America COMPETES Act which increases science standards in our nation’s schools, and National Science Education Tax Incentive for Businesses Act of 2007 which offers businesses tax incentives to help improve math and science education.

Providing Affordable, Quality Health Care

Congresswoman Giffords has consistently voted to prevent cuts to Medicare and maintain reimbursement payments to doctors. Working with health care providers and advocates, she helped to override the president’s veto of the Medicare Physician Payment Bill, protecting health care access for millions of seniors.

Gabrielle introduced the Safe and Effective Drug Development Act of 2007, which would provide for public-private partnerships to speed new scientific discoveries into new medical products and treatments.

Additionally, she has co-sponsored bills to increase breast cancer research, provide improved mental health care to wounded veterans, reduce costs for prescription medication by allowing certain drugs to be imported, and repeatedly voted to increase funding for children’s health care.

Supporting Small Businesses and Middle Class Tax Relief

With her experience as a small-business owner, Congresswoman Giffords was a co-sponsor of the Small Business Tax Relief Act, which signed into law this year. Gabrielle has also supported legislation to ease loans for small businesses, develop grants for entrepreneurs, provide opportunities for veterans to start up their own businesses and restore funding to Women’s Business Centers.

Gabrielle has pushed to put more money back in the pockets of middle-class taxpayers by limiting the expansion of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). This bill would protect more than 43,000 Southern Arizonans from higher tax bills.