During the 116th Congress’s first 100 days, Rep. Greg Stanton has focused on delivering results to Arizona families.
“Since day one, we put our heads down and got straight to work delivering results,” said Stanton. “In everything we take on, I’m focused on ways we can improve the lives of everyday Arizonans—by creating good jobs, protecting our environment, strengthening health care options, and making our communities more inclusive.
“I advocated for committee assignments that I knew would be important to the issues we face in Arizona—infrastructure, transportation, immigration. I’m proud to represent Arizona on the Judiciary Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to make sure our community’s perspective is always represented.
“We’ve built a great team to serve Arizona’s ninth district, too, and every day they work to make sure our residents have a friendly and reliable connection to the federal services they rely upon.”
Getting the Government Working Again for Arizonans
House Democrats took the majority in the middle of a harmful 35-day government shutdown that affected more than 800,000 federal employees. Arizonans felt the impact more than other states—ranking among the top 10 hardest hit. On Day One, Stanton stood up for federal workers and voted to reopen the government and end the shutdown; and he voted 11 times total to get the government working again before the President ended his standoff. On the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Stanton investigated the shutdown’s impact on the nation’s airports and air traffic safety.
Sounding the Alarm to Protect Luke’s F-35 Program
Concerned by reports that military construction funding at Luke Air Force Base may be diverted to fund a border wall, Stanton and Reps. Ruben Gallego, Tom O’Halleran, Ann Kirkpatrick sent a letter to Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to sound the alarm and demand answers. Two critical projects at Luke AFB totaling $40 million, the F-25 A Squad Ops #6 and an Aircraft Maintenance Facility, were on a list of projects at risk. After Stanton’s efforts, the Defense Department announced it would no longer sweep funds from Luke AFB.
Planning for Arizona’s Water Future
This week, the House unanimously passed the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Authorization Act to safeguard the water supply for 40 million people in the Southwest. H.R. 2030 authorizes the DCP, which was developed by the seven Colorado River Basin States to safeguard the water supply through 2026. Stanton joined other Arizona delegation members to advocate for the plan at a Natural Resources Subcommittee meeting before it went to the full House.
Investing in Water Infrastructure in Arizona
Small and rural communities across Arizona often lack the significant financial resources to make much needed repairs and replacement of their aging infrastructure, so Stanton introduced the Environmental Infrastructure Assistance Act to help them fund water-related infrastructure projects. The bill would provide $150 million through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help local governments and publicly-owned water systems with design and construction of water-related infrastructure projects. Despite Arizona’s needs, it has not received its fair share of infrastructure funds—but other states are benefiting from similar environmental infrastructure programs. This bill would bring those much-needed dollars home to Arizona, too.
Serving the People Arizona’s in 9th District
So far, Stanton’s team in the District has addressed casework for 200 constituents, attended multiple community resource fairs including the Tempe Care Fair, and connected with diverse organizations at more than 50 local events. Stanton has worked hard to be as accessible as possible, holding multiple roundtables on topics such as the government shutdown and health care affordability. He held town halls on H.R.1 and Democracy reform and set up a regular “Coffee with the Congressman” listening session—the most recent coffee event took place at the Nile Café in Downtown Mesa.
Creating a Permanent Pathway to Citizenship
Fighting for comprehensive immigration solutions has always been a priority for Stanton. He co-sponsored H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act, which was introduced in March. His House Judiciary Committee held the first hearing on the impact of DACA and TPS. Creating a pathway to citizenship would have a significant positive impact in Arizona, home to more than 26,000 DACA recipients, and nearly 2,000 individuals protected under TPS. Additionally, 5,300 families with mixed immigration status live in the state.
Changing the Rules to Let Dreamers Serve
Stanton brought national attention to an outdated policy that blocks DACA recipients from working in the U.S. House of Representatives when he brought Ellie Perez as his guest to the State of the Union Address. Stanton is co-sponsoring the American Dream and Promise Act, which would overturn the rule and allow Dreamers like Perez to serve on congressional staffs.
Fighting for High-Speed Internet on Tribal Lands
Only 53 percent of Native Americans living on tribal lands have access to high-speed internet service compared to 82 percent of all households nationally. To address this, Stanton introduced an amendment to the Save the Internet net neutrality bill that directs the FCC Chairman to engage with and collect feedback and data from tribal stakeholders and providers of broadband internet to evaluate access on tribal lands. Stanton’s amendment was adopted and included in the final bill, which passed the House this week.
Strengthening Health Care and Protecting Pre-Existing Conditions
On day one, Stanton voted to intervene as a party in the Texas v. U.S. lawsuit to defend the Affordable Care Act in court—and he has continued to fight for health care access. Stanton was appointed co-chair of the New Democrat’s Health Care Task Force. In response to group’s advocacy efforts, House Leaders introduced H.R. 1884, the Protecting Pre-Existing Conditions and Making Health Care More Affordable Act, which will protect Americans with pre-existing conditions and make coverage more affordable.
Stanton is a co-sponsor of H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act, which will address the climate crisis first by prohibiting federal funds from being used to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and ensuring America honors its Paris Agreement commitments. This bill lays the groundwork for further action to protect the environment and natural resources for future generations.
Helping Local Governments Invest in Energy Conservation
Stanton worked with Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas to introduce a H.R. 2088, a bill to reauthorize and increase funding for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program. Through this proven block grant program, Stanton is helping open new opportunities for local governments to take action and invest in energy conservation and create new jobs.
As a co-sponsor of H.R. 1, the For the People Act, Stanton is fighting for a transformative set of reforms that will shine a light on dark money and return political power to the public. From 2008 to 2016, the amount of outside spending to influence elections increased ten-fold, rising to $1.4 billion during the last presidential election. And during each of the last four election cycles, more than $140 million was spent by groups that refuse to disclose their donors. H.R. 1 would change that by making it so special interest groups can no longer hide donations—bringing dark money out of the shadows for good.
Making Common-Sense Gun Violence Prevention a Reality
For the first time in more than two decades, the House passed significant gun violence legislation. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Stanton participated in the first hearing on gun violence prevention in nearly a decade and passed H.R. 8, a universal background check bill to stop guns from getting into the wrong hands.
Standing Up Against Discrimination
Stanton is a co-sponsor of H.R 5, the Equality Act, which would finally provide LGBT individuals full protection under federal law. The bill has the support of more than 150 leading businesses and 288 organizations across the U.S. And 7 out of 10 Americans from all political affiliations agree it’s the right thing to demand equal rights. The Judiciary Committee held the first hearing on the Equality Act, where Stanton addressed the positive economic impact of inclusive laws.
Ensuring Equal Pay for Equal Work
Stanton co-sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act to end gender-based wage discrimination by closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act of 1963—and the House passed the bill in March. Ensuring equal pay will cut in half the poverty rates for both working women and single mothers, benefiting more than 25 million children. It also has the potential to bring an additional $900 billion each year to the U.S. economy through spending on goods and services, education, homeownership, and more.