We need to fix a fragmented, profit-driven system that leaves most New Yorkers without access to essential, affordable care.

Action Items

• Expand the Affordable Care Act coverage, and Medicaid and Medicare coverage, with lower deductables and more services included.

• Reduce drug prices

• Build toward universal coverage, starting with primary care

Taxpayers fund drug research, but companies charge the world’s highest prices.

Action Items

• Ensure taxpayer-funded research benefits the public

• Restore and protect federal research funding

• Expand federal drug-price negotiation authority and reduce pharmaceutical monopoly power

NY-12 is unaffordable—skyrocketing rents, outrageous food prices, and wage stagnation. Transit delays, overcrowding, and unreliable service isolate older adults and working families across NY-12 costing residents time, wages, and independence. The federal government must be a stronger partner to New York City and New York State in stabilizing housing costs, expanding food access, and ensuring we can afford to live where we work and travel hassle free. It must also better serve the over 10% of NYC Y-12 residents who live with a disability, yet face barriers in transportation, employment, housing, and access to health care.

Action Items

• Expand access to  affordable and safe housing

• Modernize public transit infrastructure

• Modernize and fully enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act to guarantee true accessibility

• Update and reform federal disability benefits to reflect today’s economic realities

Structural racism remains embedded in housing, health care, lending, and economic systems. Discriminatory executive orders have widened inequities, demanding targeted federal investment and accountability to protect Black, Latino, LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities. Because of Donald Trump’s unprecedented expansion of Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE), New Yorkers are now arbitrarily threatened, harassed, detained, and deported. We need a functional immigration and asylum system that protects migrants and immigrants and provides supportive services to them.

Action Items

• Reverse discriminatory executive actions and require federal equity audits across all agencies and close the racial wealth and home-ownership gap through fair housing and equitable lending

• Protect sexual and reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, and inclusive health care for all

• Restore humanity and safety to immigration policy and expand federal support for legal, health, and housing services for migrants and asylum seekers, building long-term integration pathways through language access and workforce programs

Executive overreach and unilateral budget rescissions have undermined basic checks and balances, stripping funding from programs essential to NY-12—from Medicaid and NIH research to USAID humanitarian assistance and affordable housing investments.

Action Items

• Restore congressional power of the purse

• Strengthen congressional investigative and oversight powers across all federal agencies

• Tie federal funding to measurable outcomes

Childcare costs crush families. Early education must be universal. And America’s care system is collapsing due to staffing shortages.

Action Items

• Expand federal guarantees and integrated services

• Strengthen and stabilize the workforce by expanding the pipeline and improving retention through federal wage and loan-forgiveness authority

Create a National Service Corps to fill critical care-work shortages across childcare, disability services, public health, home- and community-based care, and mental-health support

A healthy democracy depends on civic participation, trust in public institutions, and a government that listens, collaborates, and works with communities to solve problems. NY-12’s strength comes from its engaged residents, diverse voices, and global perspective—and the federal government must do more to support that civic fabric.

Action Items

• Expand civic participation

• Improve government transparency, accessibility, and responsiveness

• Support community problem-solving

NY-12 is home to people and visitors from all over the world. It also houses the United Nations, dozens of missions, diplomats, and international NGOs—making the district a global center of diplomacy and humanitarian engagement. U.S. foreign policy must restore leadership, strengthen multilateral institutions, and uphold human rights at home and abroad.

Action Items

• Restore U.S. leadership in the multilateral institutions essential for global stability

• Make civilian protection and human rights the foundation of U.S. foreign policy

• Reinforce democratic accountability and prevent unilateral presidential action in foreign affair

From extreme heat and wildfire smoke to severe storms and emerging pathogens, NY-12 faces rising climate and health threats as federal agencies responsible for protection have been weakened. We must restore national resilience systems, so our communities are safe today and prepared for tomorrow’s emergencies.

Action Items

• Restore and expand federal climate-resilience infrastructure to protect NY-12 from storms, heat, and air-quality hazards

• Rebuild the nation’s public-health capacity to prevent and respond to future outbreaks

• Coordinate federal, state, and local systems

Recent federal cuts, political interference, and the hollowing out of scientific agencies have undermined the research, public-health surveillance, and innovation systems that NY-12’s hospitals, universities, and biotech firms rely on. Restoring independent science is essential for national competitiveness and the health and safety of our communities.

Action Items

• Restore federal scientific funding to rebuild the nation’s research backbone

• Protect scientific integrity and independence across all federal agencies

• Ensure taxpayer-funded research benefits the public, including expanded federal price negotation and authority

While AI and tech hold significant promise, most tech companies design platforms to maximize profit, not well-being. From screen-related anxiety, to sleep disruption, cyberbullying, and data breaches, the harms, particularly for children, are well documented.

Action Items

• Establish federal standards for children’s online safety

• Enhance data protection measures

• Strengthen digital literacy