"Orange County residents aren’t just my constituents. They’re my friends and neighbors – a community of people that I’ve known and loved since my childhood. That’s why I’ve worked so hard to accomplish the things I set out to do when I first ran for Congress.”
– Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez

For more information on each issue, please select from below. For more information on Congresswoman Sanchez's accomplishments, please click here.

Education


Homeland Security
Law Enforcement
Military/Defense Issues
Health Care
In Support of Working Men and Women
Economic Development
Veterans
Human Rights

Education


Improving Orange County’s education system is one of Loretta's top priorities in Congress. In fact, it’s what motivated her to get involved in politics in the first place. As a former Member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Loretta understands the challenges and opportunities facing America’s schools. She has fought hard to make sure that the federal government is investing in our students and providing adequate resources to local schools.
 Specifically, she has championed programs such as GEAR-UP and Head Start to make sure that disadvantaged children have as much opportunity to succeed as anyone else. Loretta is also working to make a college education a reality for any student who is qualified, advocating for increases in financial assistance through Pell Grants and other programs.

In the 111th Congress, Loretta is continuing to take action to prepare our students for competition in an increasingly global economy. In July, she introduced the U.S. and the World Education Act (H.R. 3359), which would expand international education and foreign language programs in America’s schools. Through initiatives like the U.S. and the World Education Act, Loretta is ensuring that our children are equipped with the skills they need to bring our country back to educational — and economic — prominence.

Homeland Security
Loretta is a leading voice on Homeland Security in the U.S. Congress. Currently, Loretta serves as the Vice Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee and is the Chairwoman of the Border, Maritime and Global Counter-Terrorism Subcommittee. She is also a Member of the House Armed Services Committee. Loretta has been a key player on many security issues, including securing our borders, protecting our ports, and making sure our roads and bridges are safe from potential attacks.
 Through her work, the Department of Homeland Security has become more proactive and more responsive to Congress and the American people.

A top priority of Loretta’s remains improving security at U.S. ports, which means controlling who has access to our ports, ensuring that ships and cargo receive proper inspection, and supporting initiatives that promote trade without compromising our security. Loretta also knows that Homeland Security begins and ends at the local level, in America’s neighborhoods. She is committed to making sure that first responders in Orange County have the equipment and financial support they need to protect our local communities.

As a regional and national center for business, trade and tourism, Orange County is a potential target for terrorism. Disneyland, Anaheim Stadium, the Arrowhead Pond and the Convention Center — all of these attract large numbers of people and are of critical economic and symbolic importance. For Loretta, protecting the people of Orange County and the areas in which they live, work, and play is priority number one.

Law Enforcement
The key to a strong community is the rule of law, and for that we need strong law enforcement. Loretta firmly believes in this principle, which is why she has been a solid and consistent advocate for law enforcement in Congress. She understands that programs like Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and Byrne Grants have allowed law enforcement officials to innovate and do their jobs better, and focus local resources on essential needs — keeping the peace and prosecuting criminals.

During her tenure in Washington, Loretta has brought critical funding to local law enforcement, including funds for purchasing body armor, support ballistics identification technology, and start-up grants for the Orange County Counter-Human Trafficking Task Force. As Vice Chair of the Homeland Security Committee, Loretta is a strong voice for local first responders, ensuring that they receive the necessary funding to undertake federally required mandates, and preserving programs like the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI), which helps secure local communities against potential terrorist attacks. Loretta recognizes that our police and firefighters are not only first responders — they are the front line in our battle against terrorism.

Military/Defense Issues
Loretta is the ranking female member on the House Armed Services Committee, and has been a vocal advocate for U.S. soldiers serving around the world, particularly those serving in combat zones. She personally worked to change the law to ensure that active duty Reservists serving in Iraq had access to TRICARE, the military healthcare system. She has also been a strong ally for women in military, helping rewrite the U.S. Code of Military Justice to include a meaningful sexual assault statute that punishes offenders and empowers survivors of abuse. And Loretta has helped local businesses in Orange County in the defense industry by assisting them in bidding for defense subcontracts. During her time in Congress, Loretta has brought more than $80 million in defense spending back to Orange County.

Health Care
One of the most important challenges facing America is the crisis in healthcare, and Loretta is working hard to ensure that Orange County families have access to quality, affordable care. She has fought to preserve time-tested programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and helped strengthen these initiatives by voting for the Affordable Health Care for America Act earlier this year. She supports efforts to secure funds for health research and to ease the shortage of health care professionals. She strongly believes seniors should be able to receive prescription drugs at affordable prices.


Because millions of senior citizens depend on Medicare+ Choice plans for health care, Loretta opposes any further cuts in the payments to Medicare Providers and supports restoring Medicare funding. Loretta has also been a strong advocate for preventative care, helping found the Center for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity at California State University, Fullerton to address the growing child obesity epidemic in her local community. Loretta is working with the University and community organizations to create opportunities for kids to get more exercise, while teaching them good nutrition and healthy habits at the same time.

In Support of Working Men and Women
Loretta has family roots in organized labor. She was a dues-paying member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and joined her peers on the picket lines during a major strike in 2002. Her parents both worked at a manufacturing plant where her father was a machinist and her mother was a secretary who also helped organize the plant workers.

Loretta has spent her tenure in Congress working to ensure that American workers are treated justly and fairly, and are given the support and respect they deserve. Loretta has been on the front lines of labor disputes, standing beside United Workers in preserving their pensions, and pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to come back to the table to negotiate with the Air Traffic Controllers. More than anyone, Loretta understands the importance of the organized labor movement, to individual workers and their families, to local communities, to the nation.

Economic Development
Loretta’s number-one priority is rebuilding Orange County’s economy and helping out-of-work Americans find jobs. As a former financial analyst, she is uniquely situated to help local businesses as they struggle to grow and thrive in a down market. She is a strong supporter of worker training and vocational education programs, like those provided by the Empowerment Zone of Santa Ana, which help equip local workers with the skills they need to get hired in an increasingly competitive job market. In the 111th Congress, she supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help put America’s economy back on its feet and create millions of new jobs in the process. Loretta is committed to helping local businesses in any way she can, and will continue to work hard to ensure Orange County’s business community is receiving its fair share of federal dollars.

Veterans
As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a leading member of the Military Personnel Subcommittee, Loretta is working hard to ensure Congress keeps its promise to honor America’s veterans. She supports full funding for veterans' health care programs and is fighting to provide adequate disability compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities.

In addition to caring for today's retired military, Loretta is also concerned about future veterans, particularly those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. When the New York Times reported that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were not receiving their GI Bill benefit checks in a timely manner, she led the entire California delegation in a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, demanding that the delays be resolved. She is also fighting hard against proposed cuts to veterans’ healthcare benefits and strongly supports increased services for significantly wounded veterans, including enhanced mental health screening and psychiatric care. As active duty and reservists transfer from military to civilian life, Loretta will continue to ensure that the federal government is fulfilling its obligations to our men and women in uniform and honoring veterans of all ages for their service.

Democracy and Human Rights
Loretta firmly believes that American foreign policy should be based on our bedrock values of democracy and human rights, and has fought hard to make sure that Congress and the Administration stick with those values. 

Nowhere is this more evident than in Loretta’s work as a champion of religious freedom and free speech in Vietnam. In the face of strong opposition by those who want to trade and give aid to Vietnam, Loretta has spoken out against the persecution of Vietnamese leaders in religious freedom, such as Father Ly, Thich Huyen Do, and Pastor Quang, and democracy activists, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que and Pham Ham Song. Loretta has called on Vietnam to release its prisoners of conscience. She has also introduced a resolution in Congress to safeguard and return religious property in Vietnam. For her work, Loretta has been criticized and discriminated against by the Vietnamese government – most recently they rejected her application for a visa because of her outspoken support for dissidents.



Loretta believes that the United States should champion the interests of the oppressed in every country that we have dealings with. She has opposed trade deals because they did not include sufficient protections for workers. She has insisted that women be adequately represented in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And she has supported democracy advocates wherever the face tyranny and oppressive rule. This is the American way, and Loretta believes strongly that it is the right way.