Don Quinn

Civil Rights

In addition to the multi-faceted assault on our civil rights at the federal level, many experience a similar assault on their rights in their workplace every day. Congress must act to narrow the gap in access to justice between employers and employees by legislating what constitutes workplace discrimination and clearly laying out a path for employees to follow so that they are not quickly and summarily dismissed by the courts. Learn more

Congress can also move quickly to improve workplace protections for the nearly 47,000 civilian federal workers that call the 3rd Congressional District home. As it stands today, federal workers have 45 days to file a complaint of discrimination from the date of the incident. Compared to this, non-federally employed people have between 120 and 300 days to take the same action. This must be rectified to ensure that federal workers have at least the same workplace rights as their non-federally employed counterparts. Learn more

From protecting children first amendment rights to read whatever they want to bringing the pressure of the federal government down on states that attempt to squash debate and silence opposing points of view, we have to take our values – the values of liberty, equality, and unfettered democracy back to Congress and fight the pitched battles necessary to protect the republic. Learn more

The first and most important priority of the next Congress should be to revisit critical civil rights legislation and strengthen it with language that is clear, concise, and requires no fancy interpretation by unelected courts to protect the rights of the citizens. Doing this will serve to prevent a conservative-stacked court system from working overtime to erode and derail many of our most cherished and fundamental rights. Learn more

Defense / Veterans

As a member of Congress, I will work to change the way the VA does business. While funding is always something we discuss, what our veterans need is a streamlining of the processes and procedures that are involved with getting benefits. We will work to actively reduce the amount of paperwork and the number of hoops veterans are made to jump through to get their benefits. I will introduce bills to halve or even quarter the amount of time the VA has to render a decision on benefits. Our VA doctors and health providers are some of the best in the nation, our job is to get veterans out of the administrative bureaucracy and in front of these providers. Learn more

As many Gulf War veterans will tell you, we have to classify the illnesses and conditions Gulf War veterans experienced more carefully and pass laws that acknowledge conditions like Gulf War Syndrome. At the same time, we have to work faster and harder to ensure that Vietnam veterans and Korean War veterans are not still on some long waiting list being denied their benefits. Streamlining, modernizing, and properly written laws and guideline are the only way to solve the current bureaucratic nightmare that veterans have to deal with every day. Learn more

Contractors who do evaluations for the VA need to have very clear standards guided by specific and detailed law and criteria for evaluating a veteran’s conditions and needs. The vague language of the current rules too often is used to deny veterans their benefits or delay them for years or even decades. Learn more

Economy

At the same time, we have to continue to onshore jobs and manufacturing, creating a strong economic base within our own country and start to move away from our uncompromising support of Chinese industry. Learn more

Education

As a veteran who benefitted from the G.I. Bill, and a lawyer who fought for other veterans to receive the benefits they earned, I’ve seen firsthand how better education benefits can make a college degree possible. We need to stop crippling every future generation with backbreaking debt by regulating lending, college tuition costs, and providing opportunities for those who want to go to trade schools. Funding, growing, and encouraging trade schools is going to be central to my push for improving the lives of everyday Americans, as is working to ensure that all Americans, all Marylanders, can afford to pursue their education goals without being driven into decades of debt. Learn more

Environment / Energy

Hurricanes and severe storms in the Atlantic, as well as other severe weather events, are projected to only become more frequent and intense in the near future. These events threaten the existence of entire communities as perpetual destruction of housing and businesses make rebuilding more and more costly. We must invest in our nation's emergency response and disaster recovery programs to ensure that our communities can safely respond and withstand these threats and prevent displacement and destruction of at-risk lives and property. By fully funding recovery programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and encouraging the streamlining of assistance applications can ensure that survivors of severe weather events get the assistance they need to fully recover. By encouraging federal collaboration and support of state and local-level response agencies, we can ensure that the first responders serving our communities have the resources they need to do their jobs in the face of a worsening climate. Providing people with solutions in the face of worsening disasters, climate migration, changing ecosystems, and rising waters has to become a top priority for Congress, even as we continue the battle to turn the tide on climate change. Learn more

Congress must work to take decisive action to lower our dependence on fossil fuels in the next five years. While we are forced to depend on fossil fuels for every aspect of our lives, from industrial production to the cars we drive, it continues to poison our air and change our climate. Reducing our dependence on fossil fuel through the expansion of alternative energy sources will not be detrimental to our country’s economy. On the contrary, turning away from fossil fuels is not only sound environmental and climate policy, but also domestic policy which allows us to turn inward for the production of our energy needs - increasing our independence on the geopolitical stage. Learn more

Access to healthy food is a subject rarely broached in Congress despite the fact that Americans eat some of the most chemically treated, biologically enhanced food on the planet. Due to a lack of easily accessible, and financially appropriate alternatives to this chemical-laden food, Americans’ health levels are consistently the lowest amongst developed nations. Congressional direction and federal oversight of food production and distribution is needed to ensure that every American can access the healthy food they need to live a healthy life. Dramatic changes in what food producers are allowed to put into food, and what food grocers can sell is the only way to address our rapidly lowering levels of public health - hand in hand with legislation to make healthcare more affordable. Working to provide Americans with healthier outcomes and better food is something we should all be able to agree on. Learn more

Addressing climate change and its impact is one of the central tasks of our time. Unrestrained use of fossil fuels in the United States and across the world is driving unprecedented changes in the world’s climate that threaten to make portions of the world uninhabitable in the near future. Learn more

Clean water, like clean air, means ensuring that all citizens have access to and the right to clean drinking water, and water for recreation. For Marylanders, this means a clean and restored Chesapeake Bay. Contaminates like nitrogen, phosphorus, and other chemicals continue to make their way into our waterways - like deadly PFSAs (Forever Chemicals) that have been found in over a dozen tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. We have spent decades studying and understanding these challenges and now have comprehensive ideas on what is needed to address it. What is needed is swift and yes, costly, action by Congress to prevent chemicals from flowing into our waterways and then our bodies. Learn more

Foreign Policy

We also need to be aware that the geopolitics in places like the middle east, Africa and Asia are shifting and our own struggles internally have caused us to lose face with our friends, while simultaneously losing the respect of our competitors. A strong Congress that passes budgets, balances domestic and foreign priorities, and rejects anti-democratic ideals is a critical piece to retaining or even regaining our place at the head of the table. Learn more

We must work collaboratively with our allies to shore up defenses in Europe and across the NATO alliance. We must equally pay attention to our allies in the South Pacific, and create new friendships through pacts, trade, and treaties. Learn more

Guns

Finally, there is no recreational or sporting justification for high volume magazines or weapons designed for military usage. Such weapons must be limited to, stored with, and controlled by well-regulated structured militia that have a command structure and follow the Uniform Code of Military Justice, military gun handling regulations, and other systems to ensure that their members are qualified to be considered a well-regulated militia. Learn more

Guns have found their way into the history and cultural narrative of America. As a result, they are not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Any fears to the contrary are simple scare tactics used to drum up votes by conservative politicians in Washington. What our community needs is common sense gun legislation – something that most safe gun owners would agree are reasonable and necessary. Learn more

Background checks that include a health history, verification of mental instabilities, domestic violence, or homicidal/suicidal ideations must be the norm when purchasing a gun regardless of where the gun is purchased. A comprehensive database, accessible to gun sellers and law enforcement, of people not allowed to have guns is the only way to limit them from getting into the wrong hands. Learn more

Raising the minimum age from 18 to 21 (the legal drinking age) for all individuals who want to purchase a gun and limiting the amount of ammunition that can be purchased by one individual over a six-month period are simple but effective steps. Learn more

Healthcare

First, we need to pass legislation that allows the federal and state governments to negotiate the price of prescription drugs for all senior citizens, specifically those who are receiving benefits, like Medicare from the government. This legislation must also be expanded to include recipients of Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, Affordable Housing, and all other forms of government assistance. Learn more

Forth, the insurance industry must be regulated to prevent it from constantly increasing prices and making health care decisions by proxy. Instead, doctors and other health care professionals, along with the patients, must be free to make whatever medical decisions are necessary for the patient’s health. Passing common sense legislation that prohibits any interference by insurance companies in the providing of health care is a simple solution that we can all agree on. Learn more

Second, we need legislation that will place reasonable but strict caps on the price of critical lifesaving medications like insulin, albuterol, and paxlovid. As such drug companies must be required to set their prices once per year with government oversight and be unable to change them again until the next year. All price changes must come with advanced notification and be reviewed by a Prescription Drug Affordability Board that makes recommendations on whether to approve or deny proposed increases to the federal government. Learn more

Third, it is unconscionable that Americans have to pay more for the same drugs as people living outside of the United States. Companies must be prohibited from selling any prescription medication in the United State for more than they charge outside the United States. Learn more

Housing

Renters know that finding affordable, accessible rental housing has been a struggle for decades. Here in Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District, 1 in 5 renter households spends more than 50% of their income on housing costs. As a result, more and more families are facing displacement and homelessness. Across the U.S. full-time, minimum wage workers can only afford a one-bedroom rental home in just 7% of counties. The federal government should expand housing assistance to families, while increasing the supply of housing across the country. Housing assistance voucher programs must be expanded, and emergency rental assistance programs and legal aid programs serving renters facing foreclosure must be sustained and expanded. To build more housing, the national Affordable Housing Trust Fund should be bolstered to provide funds for the preservation and creation of affordable homes. Tax credit programs funding housing construction should be reformed and expanded to ensure that the promise of affordable units in exchange for tax benefits becomes true. Taking these actions can ensure that every family in America has access to affordable homes in communities of their choice and make sure their communities. Learn more

The federal government must work to grow the country’s homeownership rate and ensure that all families can access benefits. Policy leaders know the right solutions: increasing down payment assistance for first-generation homebuyers, bolstering foreclosure prevention programs (like the COVID-19-era Homeowner Assistance Fund), and providing adequate funding to meet this critical need. We have to help more families achieve the American Dream of homeownership, even the playing field for Black and Latino families, and prevent our neighbors from losing their homes to the mortgage company. I will fight for these (and more) common-sense solutions to our housing crisis. Learn more