Vice President Kamala Harris — Resources
President Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him. Below is a list of VP Harris’ qualifications and accomplishments.
Kamala Harris’ qualifications:
Vice President of the United States (2021 – Present)
- See extensive list of accomplishments below
President of the US Senate (2021 – Present)
- Set a record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a VP in history
- Presided over vote to confirm Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court
United States Senator (2017 – 2021)
- Served on key committees such as Judiciary Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Attorney General of California (2011 – 2017)
- Oversaw the largest state justice department in the country
District Attorney of San Francisco (2004 – 2011)
- Established the office’s environmental justice unit
- Created a ground-breaking program to provide first-time drug offenders with the opportunity to earn a high school degree and find employment
Family and Children’s Services Division Lead at San Francisco City Hall (2000 – 2003)
- Focused on child abuse and neglect cases
Assistant District Attorney — San Francisco (1998 – 2000)
- Served as chief of the Career Criminal Division, supervising five other attorneys
Deputy District Attorney — Alameda County
- Specialized in prosecuting child sexual assault cases
Law degree — University of California Hastings College of Law
- Served as president of the university’s Black Law Students Association chapter
Undergraduate degree — Economics & Political Science — Howard University
- Worked as a mailroom clerk for California senator Alan Cranston, chaired the economics society, led the debate team, and joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority
Click each section to see some of VP Harris’ accomplishments:
Taking on Big Banks
Kamala Harris won a massive $20 Billion settle for California homeowners
Kamala Harris fought for homeowners during the mortgage crisis — and won
- Attorney General Kamala Harris secures $18 Billion for struggling homeowners
- $18 Billion For California Homeowners In Mortgage Settlement
- “State Attorney General Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the nationwide settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses could be worth up to $18 billion to Californians who were among those hardest hit by the crisis.”
- Vox: “During the housing crisis, Kamala Harris won a historic mortgage settlement case that helped more than 84,000 California families”
- Attorney General Kamala Harris announces $210 Million settlement with Standard & Poor’s for inflating mortgage-backed securities ratings
As Senator, Kamala Harris fought against Trump’s questionable banking practices
Kamala Harris has a long history of standing up to big banks that try to take advantage of Americans
- Article: Kamala Harris’ record on business: Fighting banks, backing unions
- Kamala Harris blasts Chase CEO Jamie Dimon over sneaky forced arbitration clause
- Article: For California, Attorney General Insisted on Better Terms in Foreclosure Deal
Safe and Affordable Housing
Senator Kamala Harris teamed up with Rep Waters to fight for affordable housing
Senator Kamala Harris repeatedly introduced bills to help Americans with the rising cost of rent
- Senator Kamala Harris Reintroduces “Rent Relief Act” to address the rising cost of rents afflicting low-income households
- Senator Kamala Harris introduced the LIFT (Livable Incomes for Families Today) the Middle Class Act to provide middle class and working families with a tax credit to address the rising cost of living.
- Kamala Harris revives tax credit push to help people pay for housing costs
Vice President Kamala Harris is actively helping to expand and increase affordable housing
- Vice President Harris Announces First-of-Its-Kind Funding to Lower Housing Costs by Reducing Barriers to Building More Homes
- Vice President Harris Announces $5.5 Billion to Boost Affordable Housing and Address Homelessness
- Vice President Harris Announces New Private and Public Sector Efforts to Align Tens of Billions in Investments in Underserved Communities
Kamala Harris has consistently worked to improve housing safety
- Sen. Kamala Harris unveils bill to require carbon monoxide detectors in public housing
- VP Harris hosts White House summit to replace lead pipes
- Video: Harris’ lead pipe replacement summit
Immigration Policy
“I’ve worked with many elected officials and heard many promises, but this was the first time I heard an elected official show up and be there and not shy away after their race was over. [Kamala Harris] has been checking in with immigrant rights groups regularly.”
-Polo Morales, political director for The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)
Senator Kamala Harris was the first Senate Democrat to announce she would vote against any spending deal that did not include a DACA fix, setting the bar for other Democrats
Senator Kamala Harris kept DACA recipients front and center and successfully pushed the Democratic Party to do the same
- Senator Kamala Harris repeatedly used her platform to keep “young immigrants’ plight in the public eye – and pushed her party to take a hard line in negotiations to give them permanent legal status.”
- Senator Kamala Harris was “one of the most vocal champions of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program”
The first bill Kamala Harris introduced in Congress was the Access to Counsel Act, to ensure basic legal and human rights protections for people detained at the border
- Kamala Harris’ immigration gamble
- Sen. Kamala Harris pushes to guarantee access to legal counsel for those detained upon entry to the U.S.
- What this bill would do:
- Under the bill, if a person detained at the border asks to speak to their attorney, they must be allowed to do so.
- It would also increase access to attorneys for unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central and South America.
- It would also require that people detained at the border or another point of entry have the opportunity to access an attorney before they can relinquish their legal status.
- It would also require that people be held for as short a time as possible, and have access to food, water and toilets while they are held.
- It would also require that, if an attorney is not physically available, there is an option to speak to them by phone or video.
Senator Kamala Harris led the fight to prevent John Kelly from becoming Trump’s Department of Homeland Security Director
In 2017, the membership director at United We Dream (the biggest DREAMer advocacy organization) said that Senator Kamala Harris “is modeling the kind of leadership we should expect from other Democrats…I see her as our new emerging champion in the Senate.”
Attorney General Kamala Harris regularly connected legislators with immigrants and immigration nonprofits
- She brought California state senators into her office to meet with undocumented immigrants
- She brought high-end California law firms into her AG’s office and connected them with immigration nonprofits
- Kamala Harris “wanted her first press conference as a senator-elect to be with CHIRLA, and to focus on the need to defend immigrants. Two days after Election Day, Harris stood by the podium as a mother explained in Spanish why she feared deportation. Activists by her side chanted, ‘Si, se puede!’”
Attorney General Kamala Harris crafted legislation that put millions of dollars into legal services for the refugees of the child migrant crisis
Attorney General Kamala Harris personally met with many immigrants to learn about their experiences and their struggles
- “In June 2014, Harris met with a refugee from El Salvador in her office in downtown Los Angeles. Before fleeing the country, the young woman had seen a friend get shot and killed while the two were sitting on a park bench.”
- “Harris took dozens of meetings with immigration nonprofits and migrants themselves, including with pregnant women and women who had fled violent abuse in their home countries.”
Attorney General Kamala Harris “personally helped write California’s brief in US vs. Texas, the case over the constitutionality of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program that made it to the Supreme Court”
Attorney General Kamala Harris made clear to California law enforcement “that they could not hold immigrants indefinitely”
As district attorney of San Francisco, Kamala Harris created free legal clinics in immigrant-heavy parts of the city
- She also started a job training program for ex-convicts that allowed undocumented immigrants to participate.
Kamala Harris “has a real-world understanding of how immigration policy intersects [with] criminal justice policy on the ground. This stuff is personal to her. She is an expert on the issue.”
-Daniel Suvor, who served for three years as Harris’s chief of policy in the AG’s office
“There’s been no new voice on this issue more electrifying than hers…Harris was the first Senate Democrat to say exactly what activists and those terrified by the threat of deportation for DACA recipients have been waiting to hear.”
-Ben Wikler, Washington director at MoveOn.org
Criminal Justice & Justice System Reform
Kamala Harris helped lead Senate Dems’ work to pass sweeping police reform bills after George Floyd’s death
Kamala Harris has consistently pushed for transparency in policing, and led the first statewide agency in the country to use a policy body camera program
- ‘Top Cop’ Kamala Harris’s Record of Policing the Police
- Under Harris’s watch as attorney general, the California Department of Justice in 2015 became the first statewide agency in the country to adopt a body camera program.
- Senator “Harris has continued to endorse body camera measures since joining the Senate, most notably a bill that would have provided federal funding for police body cameras to state and local authorities”
Kamala Harris introduced a bill to require the Department of Homeland Security to create pilot body camera programs for border patrol and immigration enforcement agents
Kamala Harris launched Back on Track, a reentry initiative aimed at reducing individuals returning to jail/prison
- Harris worked with the state Legislature and the Republican governor to get Back on Track signed into law as the model reentry program for the state.
- Back on Track had a reoffense rate of 10%, compared with rates of more than 50% among similar populations elsewhere in California.
- Back on Track: A Problem-Solving Reentry Court
Attorney General Kamala Harris worked to stop people from ending up back in jail/prison
Kamala Harris developed the Bureau of Children’s Justice (BCJ) to support the legal rights of children
Kamala Harris worked with Rand Paul on a bipartisan bail reform bill
Kamala Harris teamed up with Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Richard Durbin to introduce the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act
- Article: Kamala Harris Went to Prison So Others Won’t Have To
- The Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act would “among other things, place female federal prisoners closer to their families, offer them parenting classes, and establish an ombudsperson at the Justice Department to make sure prisoners’ complaints about their conditions were at least heard.”
- Kamala Harris visited Central California Women’s Facility, “a place where no senator has set foot for at least a decade” in preparing her prison reform legislation.
Kamala Harris joint sponsored a bill to make lynching a federal crime
As California Attorney General, Kamala Harris fought to increase transparency and decrease racial bias in the justice system
- Attorney General Kamala Harris launches OpenJustice, a first-of-its-kind criminal justice open data initiative
- Attorney General Kamala Harris releases new OpenJustice data showing racial disparities in adult arrest rates
Kamala Harris launched and later expanded implicit bias police trainings
- Attorney General Kamala Harris kicks off first-of-its-kind law enforcement training on implicit bias & procedural justice
- Attorney General Kamala Harris expands implicit bias & procedural justice training to California highway patrol
Prosecuting Human Trafficking & Drug Trafficking
- Attorney General Kamala Harris prioritized prosecuting transnational gangs known for trafficking drugs, firearms, and humans.
- Kamala Harris’ office led a groundbreaking study on the impacts of transnational criminal organizations and human trafficking in California.
- Kamala Harris called out the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on their trafficking and drug policies.
Maternal Health
Vice President Kamala Harris launched the first-ever Maternal Health Day of Action
- “This past December, Vice President Kamala Harris launched the first Maternal Health Day of Action and announced a White House call to action to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates in the United States.”
- Vice President Kamala Harris Hosts First-Ever White House Maternal Health Day of Action
- ‘This challenge is urgent’: Kamala Harris holds summit to address pregnancy-related deaths
VP Harris has regularly worked to decrease maternal death rates and save mothers’ lives
- Kamala Harris Rolls Out Plan to Reduce High U.S. Maternal Mortality Rates
- Kamala Harris says U.S. must address maternal mortality “crisis”
- Harris pushes for expansion of maternal healthcare, Medicaid postpartum coverage
- White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis: Two Years of Progress
Kamala Harris is fighting to end maternal health disparities and save Black moms’ lives
- Kamala Harris will reintroduce bill tackling racial disparities in maternal health
- Harris pushes to make Black maternal health a national priority
- Kamala Harris Is Fighting to Protect Black Mothers from Medical Bias
- Black Women Are Dying During Childbirth. Sen. Kamala Harris Is Working to Change That
Abortion Rights & Reproductive Freedom
VP Kamala Harris leads the White House push for abortion rights and reproductive freedom
- VP Harris serves as top White House messenger in abortion fight
- Vice President Kamala Harris Launches Reproductive Freedoms Tour
- Vice President Kamala Harris Joins Rally for Reproductive Rights at Howard University
- Vice President Harris targets Trump as she rallies for abortion rights
- Harris Tours the Country in Support of Abortion Rights
- VP Harris quietly convenes abortion rights allies for 2024
Kamala Harris fought for abortion rights in the US Senate
- Kamala Harris goes viral grilling Kavanaugh on laws restricting the male body
- Watch Kamala Harris Expertly Question Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Reproductive Rights
- Senator Kamala Harris kept a reproductive rights lawyer on staff
As Senator, Kamala Harris worked to oppose anti-abortion bills and judges
- Received 100% / A ratings from reproductive rights groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro Choice America
- Received 0% / F ratings from anti-abortion groups such as National Right to Life and Susan B. Anthony Pro Life America
- Opposed and spoke against the confirmations of Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett
Lowering Prescription Drug Costs
As attorney general, Kamala Harris won several fights with big pharma over unlawful drug pricing and marketing practices.
- Harris won $46 million for California from GlaxoSmithKline for illegal marketing
- Harris won $89 million for California from Johnson & Johnson for unlawful marketing practices
- Harris won $23 million for California from McKesson for inflating drug prices.
Kamala Harris has a plan to lower national drug prices by authorizing the federal government to set the rates for certain prescription drugs.
- Harris’ plan, titled “People Over Profit,” contains similar provisions to legislation rolled out by Senator Bernie Sanders, which Harris co-sponsored.
- Harris’ plan also contains provisions such as importing drugs from Canada and penalizing drug makers for raising prices faster than inflation.
- The plan slaps a tax of 100% on all profits drug makers earn from selling a drug above the set fair price.
Kamala Harris has stated that, if Congress fails to act to lower drug prices, she could use executive actions as president to launch an investigation into drug makers who sell medications at lower prices in comparable developed countries or increase their prices faster than inflation.
Harris Cosponsored the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act
- Would require the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services negotiate the prices of covered drugs and either establish a formulary for covered drugs, or require changes to PDP formularies that take into account CMS negotiations. [S. 99, 116th Congress]
“The Biden-Harris administration has been by far the strongest yet in challenging outrageous drug prices and starting the country down a long road toward medicine affordability.” -Peter Maybarduk, director of the access to medicines program at Public Citizen
Health Care
As California Attorney General, Kamala Harris fought to lower medical costs
- Kamala Harris and the Push to Cut Hospital Bills in California
- “She took on the drug and hospital industry as California attorney general, seeking consumer relief from anti-competitive pricing.”
Attorney General Kamala Harris shut down scam health care websites
Kamala Harris has consistently fought to tackle the Opioid Crisis
- Attorney General Kamala Harris files lawsuit against pharmaceutical company for inflating prices for opioid addiction treatment
- Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris announces rollout of more secure prescription drug database
Kamala Harris works to address health disparities
Kamala Harris fights for accessible, affordable health care
- Kamala Harris describes her “plan for Medicare For All”
- Kamala Harris says health care keeps Americans up at night
- “Affordable health care should not be a privilege. It should be a right.” -Kamala Harris
- Kamala Harris: A Tireless Champion For Health Care
Kamala Harris is supports 6 months paid family & medical leave
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- Harris’ plan “would put the United States in line with most of the world’s developed countries by offering parents generous paid time off to care for a new child. It would also apply to workers who need to take time off to care for a sick relative.”
- Video: Caregivers for Kamala
Mental Health Care
- VP Kamala Harris helped increase funding for Mental Health professionals in schools
- Senator Kamala Harris introduced the Mental Health Professionals Workforce Shortage Loan Repayment Act to create a new student loan forgiveness program for mental health professionals who agree to practice in areas with a shortage of mental health professionals.
Lowering Costs for Workers & Families
VP Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act
- List of Inflation Reduction Act successes 1 year after its passage
- Senate passes Democrats’ sweeping climate, health, and tax bill
- Vice President Kamala Harris breaks deadlock in Inflation Reduction Act “vote-a-rama”
- U.S. Senate approves bill to fight climate change, cut drug costs
VP Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to expand the child tax credit through the American Rescue Plan, and has advocated for it across the country ever since
- VIDEO: VP Kamala Harris speaks about Child Tax Credit
- Vice President Kamala Harris Leads Biden-Harris Administration Day of Action to Ensure Americans Get the Tax Credits They Deserve
- VIDEO: Vice President Kamala Harris Celebrates ‘Child Tax Credit Awareness Day’
- VP Harris promotes Expanded Child Tax Credit in Facebook post
- Harris spreads the word about signing up for expanded child tax credit
As Senator, Kamala Harris consistently fought for tax credits for low and middle-income workers
- Kamala Harris Proposed A Bold Tax Credit To Help Low- And Middle-Income Workers
- Harris’ LIFT Act Would Bring New Benefits to Low-Income Students and Young Workers
- Harris tax plan focuses on middle class relief, not the ultra-rich
VP Harris recently announced a new rule to prohibit medical bills from being included on credit reports
- Biden/Harris administration will bar medical debt from credit reports
- How Kamala Harris is tackling medical debt
See also: Lowering Prescription Drug Costs
Good Jobs & a Living Wage
In the Senate, Kamala introduced the 21st Century SKILLS Act to connect unemployed, dislocated, or underemployed workers with skills training, union apprenticeships, and other educational opportunities.
For years, Kamala Harris has actively supported raising the federal minimum wage
- She was part of the “Fight for $15” as early as 2016
- Article: Kamala Harris marches with McDonald’s workers demanding higher wages in Las Vegas
- Photos: Kamala Harris strikes with Las Vegas fast food workers
Standing with Workers & Unions
As Attorney General, Kamala Harris won settlements with companies that mistreated workers
As Senator, Kamala Harris introduced and fought to create a “domestic workers’ bill of rights”
- Kamala Harris introduces a bill to give housekeepers overtime pay and meal breaks
- Jayapal, Harris Announce Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to strengthen protections and benefits for all domestic workers
- Kamala Harris and Pramila Jayapal want to give domestic workers full workplace rights
- National Domestic Workers’ Alliance: All about the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
VP Kamala Harris helped lead the push for more unionized federal workers
Kamala Harris fights for farm workers and food service workers
- As California’s attorney general, Kamala “lobbied the governor to sign California’s landmark law in 2016 providing phased-in overtime and to strengthen state rules preventing worker deaths and illnesses from extreme heat.”
- Harris marched with McDonald’s workers in Las Vegas demanding $15 hourly pay.
Senator Harris repeatedly introduced legislation to provide overtime pay for farmworkers
- “The 2019 version of Fairness for Farm Workers Act would give overtime pay to those who work more than 40 hours a week in the field. It also ends exemptions to employers in industries such as small-scale farming, sugar processing, and cotton ginning from overtime pay requirements.”
Kamala Harris consistently shows up to labor protests, stands with workers, and supports efforts to unionize
- Senator Kamala Harris stands with Downtown Detroit Security Workers to unionize in Detroit
- Kamala Harris rallies with labor activists in Boston
- Biden, Harris meet with Amazon and Starbucks organizers
- Pittsburgh unionized Google contractors met with Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Walsh
- Harris urges union members to vote, show their power
- Video: Kamala Harris meets with union workers, Black business owners in Wisconsin
- Vice President Kamala Harris walked the picket line with UAW in 2019
VP Kamala Harris chairs the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment
As Attorney General, Kamala Harris worked with the U.S. Department of Labor to combat wage theft
Kamala Harris has a clear, longstanding record of standing with unions and workers
- Largest Federal Worker Union Praises Biden’s VP Pick of Senator Kamala Harris
- Article “Kamala Harris has fought for public sector unions and upholding civil service laws”
- Kamala Harris has a 98% lifetime rating from the AFL-CIO for standing with workers over greedy corporations
- UFW applauds Biden choice of Harris, citing her ‘fight for equal treatment & protection of farm workers’ and support for overtime pay plus genuine agricultural immigration reform
- Kamala Harris praised as ‘tireless fighter for working people’
Combating Hunger & Supporting Farm Workers
- Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America describes Kamala Harris as one of the anti-hunger movement’s “great champions in the Senate.”
- “[Kamala] is about as good as they get on food and hunger” -Jessica Bartholow, policy advocate for the nonpartisan Western Center on Law & Poverty
Senator Kamala Harris fought to feed low-income kids and seniors
- Kamala Harris introduced the FEMA Empowering Essential Deliveries (FEED) Act to let the federal government pay all costs necessary to allow states and localities to partner with restaurants and nonprofits to prepare nutritious meals for vulnerable people such as low-income children and seniors
Senator Kamala Harris worked to feed American families impacted by the pandemic
- Kamala Harris introduced the Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2020 to expand Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for Americans in need during the pandemic.
Senator Kamala Harris has consistently worked to feed students
- Kamala Harris requested that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allow college students continued access to SNAP benefits if the COVID-19 crisis has left them jobless.
- Kamala Harris signed onto a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue that described the food insecurity that existed among college students before the pandemic hit.
- Kamala Harris introduced the Basic Assistance for Students in College Act to ensure that students receiving Pell Grants, attending community colleges, or minority-serving institutions could afford necessities such as food.
Kamala fights to support the people who provide our food
- Kamala Harris has joined farmworker marches to fight for food worker justice
- Kamala Harris pushed for grocery workers to receive hazard pay during the pandemic
- Harris cosponsored the Agricultural Worker Program Act of 2019 to give “blue card” status to farmworkers who have done agricultural labor for at least 100 days over the past two years, giving them a legal right to work in the U.S. and providing a path to a green card.
- Kamala “led the fight for equal treatment and protection of America’s farmworkers as a U.S. senator by authoring the current federal bill providing overtime pay after eight hours a day for agricultural workers”
Senator Harris repeatedly introduced legislation to provide overtime pay for farmworkers
- “The 2019 version of Fairness for Farm Workers Act would give overtime pay to those who work more than 40 hours a week in the field. It also ends exemptions to employers in industries such as small-scale farming, sugar processing, and cotton ginning from overtime pay requirements.”
- https://nfwm.org/news/fairness-for-farm-workers-act-introduced-in-congress/?amp=1
Environment, Energy, & Climate Justice
As California AG, Kamala Harris Took a Political Risk to Fight Climate Change
Attorney General Kamala Harris prosecuted polluters in California
Kamala Harris helped secure funds for clean and renewable energy
Kamala Harris helped secure funding to fix wildfire damage and prevent future wildfires
- Vice President Kamala Harris announces $600 million to fix wildfire damage in California
- “November’s federal infrastructure bill includes $3.2 billion over five years for wildfire prevention”
- Vice President Kamala Harris Thanks Firefighters in Brentwood in Surprise Visit
- Remarks by Vice President Harris on Wildfire Resilience Funding
Kamala Harris helped secure funding for drought resistance
Kamala Harris teamed up with Cory Booker & Tammy Duckworth to fight for climate justice
- Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Tammy Duckworth introduced the Environmental Justice for All Act
Kamala Harris is working to address climate change
- Harris and Ocasio-Cortez Team up on a Climate ‘Equity’ Bill, Leaving Activists Hoping for Unity
- Exclusive: Kamala Harris to introduce comprehensive environmental justice bill in Senate
Clean Water
“[Harris] has introduced water legislation that emphasizes racial and economic justice and would provide…federal funding that will be necessary to provide safe, affordable drinking water for all.” -Mary Grant, Food & Water Watch’s Public Water for All campaign director
Kamala Harris has consistently championed lead pipe removal projects
- ‘We just have to get rid of the lead’: Kamala Harris visits Milwaukee to highlight push to replace lead pipes
- Vice President Kamala Harris pushes for lead pipe replacement
- VP Harris hosts White House summit to replace lead pipes
- Video: Harris’ lead pipe replacement summit
Kamala Harris pushed for a comprehensive investment to keep water affordable as part of the coronavirus relief package
Kamala Harris worked with experts to introduce and champion several water quality bills
- Introduced a bill to protect consumers from utility shut-offs
- Introduced a bill to ensure the nation’s water supply is safe and sustainable
- Introduced the Water Justice Act of 2019.
Broadband Internet
VP Harris helped secure high-speed broadband internet access for millions of American households
- White House unveils $42.5B to connect every American to high-speed broadband internet
- White House promotes 1 million affordable broadband program sign-ups
- Vice President Harris Delivers Remarks on Affordable, Accessible High Speed Internet
VP Harris helped expand high-speed broadband internet access for rural Americans
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces Availability of $25 Million to Help Expand High-Speed Internet Access in Rural Areas
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces Nearly $700 Million to Connect People in Remote and Rural Areas to High-Speed Internet
Elder Care & Support for Seniors
Kamala Harris fought hard against Trump’s Plans To Slash Medicare and Medicaid
- 2019: Harris called Trump’s budget proposals to cut Medicare “yet another piece of evidence for why we need a new president.”
- “This budget says a lot about the President’s priorities: cut $845 billion from Medicare, while spending billions on his vanity project, the wall. This would hurt our seniors and is yet another piece of evidence for why we need a new president.” -KamalaHarris, 3/11/19
- 2017: Harris voted against Trump’s plan to slash Medicare by $473 Billion.
- 2017: Harris Voted Against Trump’s Plan To Slash $1.3 Trillion From Medicaid.
Senator Kamala Harris joint sponsored legislation to expand Social Security benefits and “strengthen the retirement program for generations to come.”
- The Social Security Expansion Act sought to increase benefits by about $1,342 a year for seniors making less than $16,000 annually and increase cost-of-living adjustments by more accurately measuring the spending patterns of seniors.
Attorney General Kamala Harris fought to stop elder abuse
- Attorney General Kamala Harris Collaborated with AARP California to Protect Seniors from Fraud & Abuse
- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Announces Nurse Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for “Convenience Drugging” Elder Patients
- Kamala Harris and fellow senators demanded that the Trump Administration not strip nursing home residents of legal rights
Kamala Harris Cosponsored Legislation To Block The Expansion Of “Junk” Insurance Plans
- Harris cosponsored a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn a Trump administration health care policy that allows the expansion of short term health care plans that do not have to guarantee coverage for pre-existing conditions or cover essential health benefits (SJ Res 52, 116th Congress)
- “Time and time again, this administration has attempted to strip away protections for the millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions, and their latest attempt to sell junk health care plans is no different.” – Sen. Kamala Harris Press Release, 8/1/19
“Senator Harris has supported expanding Medicare and doing so in a way that maintains choice for beneficiaries among plan options, which resonates with Vice President Biden’s proposal to give individuals age 60 and above the option of enrolling in Medicare and offering a public option more broadly.”-Dr. Zirui Song of the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston
Video: Caregivers for Kamala
Kamala Harris: A Tireless Champion For Health Care
LGBTQ+ Rights
Kamala Harris led the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in California
- Article: Kamala Harris Single-Handedly Changed the Course of LGBTQ History
- During her time as DA, “Harris opposed both Proposition 22 and Proposition 8, which limited marriage to one man and one woman.”
- As Attorney General, Kamala Harris played a key role in restoring marriage equality in California.
Kamala Harris fought to stop hate crimes against LGBTQ+ youth
Kamala Harris abolished gay & transgender “panic defenses in criminal trials
- Article: Kamala Harris led efforts to abolish gay and transgender “panic” defenses in criminal trials
Attorney General Kamala Harris officiated the first same-sex marriages in California after Prop 8 fell
- Kamala Harris officiated the first post-Prop. 8 same-sex marriage in California
- Video: Kamala Harris officiates first post-Prop. 8 / DOMA same-sex marriage in California
- Kamala Harris marks 20 years since first officiating same-sex marriages and reunites with gay couple she wed
Kamala Harris has taken a lead role in advocating for LGBTQ+ rights as Vice President
- Kamala Harris Makes Historic Visit to Stonewall Inn, Vows to Fight Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate
- VP Harris has hosted several Pride Month receptions
- VP Kamala Harris met with WNBA star Brittney Griner and wife Cherelle Griner before Brittney’s first game after her release from captivity in Russia.
President Biden has honored Kamala Harris’ work on marriage equality
- President Biden gifted VP Harris with the pen he used to sign the Respect for Marriage Act in December 2022 to honor her fight for marriage equality.
Gun Safety
- Senator Kamala Harris cosponsored the Disarm Hate Act to prohibit individuals convicted of all violent hate crimes from purchasing and possessing firearms.
- Senator Kamala Harris co-sponsored legislation to close the boyfriend loophole and prohibit stalkers from purchasing or possessing firearms
- As California Attorney General, Harris led the fight to pass a Red Flag law, becoming only the third state at the time to do so.
- Kamala Harris “championed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), which included $300 million in additional funding for STOP School Violence Act grants and more than $1.5 billion for states and communities to make our schools safer, improve access to mental health services, and help young people deal with the trauma and grief resulting from gun violence.”
- VP Kamala Harris leads the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention
- VP Harris launched the Biden-Harris Administration’s Safer States Initiative to provide states with additional tools and the support they need to reduce gun violence and save lives.
- VP Harris helped launch the first-ever National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center to support the effective implementation of state red flag laws.
Education
Kamala Harris held predatory for-profit schools accountable
- Attorney General Kamala Harris obtains $1.1 Billion judgment against for-profit school operator
- Attorney General Kamala harris announces $168.5 Million settlement with K12 Inc., a for-profit online charter school operator
- Harris cosponsored the Students Before Profits Act to protect students from deceptive for-profit college practices.
Kamala Harris secured funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Kamala Harris, Doug Jones secure robust funding increase for HBCUs
- Senators Kamala Harris And Doug Jones Announce Boost In HBCU Federal Funding
- Kamala Harris helps get millions for HBCUs
Kamala Harris fought to expand access to STEM
Kamala Harris helped secure funding for new and improved school buses
- Vice President Kamala Harris, in Seattle, touts electric school buses, infrastructure bill
- “Harris, while in the Senate in 2019, had originally sponsored legislation to provide funding to electrify the nation’s school buses”
- Biden-Harris Administration announces nearly $1B in awards for clean school buses across the nation as part of Investing in America Agenda
- Harris, EPA announce $1 billion awarded to schools for electric buses
Kamala Harris is working to stop banks from taking advantage of student borrowers
Kamala Harris fights for low-income students
- Kamala Harris introduced the Basic Assistance for Students in College Act to ensure that students receiving Pell Grants, attending community colleges, or minority-serving institutions could afford necessities such as food.
- Article: Kamala Harris Admits Evil Scheme to Educate Low-Income Kids
Kamala Harris supported educator strikes in Los Angeles and in Oakland, California
Kamala Harris has consistently fought for students
- Kamala Harris advocated for the full funding of IDEA and enforcing civil rights laws designed to protect every child’s right to an education
- Education has been a central interest of Kamala Harris since early in her career
Kamala Harris has consistently fought for teachers
- 6 Reasons Why Educators Are Excited About Kamala Harris
- Kamala Harris promises teachers a raise if she’s elected president
- Vice President Kamala Harris to Educators: ‘You Are Essential to Our Democracy’
Democracy & Functioning Government
VP Kamala Harris has cast 33 tie-breaking votes in the US Senate, often to confirm key judicial and commission nominees to keep government systems functioning smoothly
California Attorney General Kamala Harris fought for transparency in politics by attempting to make the Koch brothers reveal the names of donors who contributed more than $5,000 to their Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
Kamala Harris regularly speaks out for women in government
- Harris uses UN speech to champion women’s role in democracy
- Gender equality makes democracy stronger, says Kamala Harris
As Vice President, Kamala Harris has stood up for democracy “at home and abroad”
- Kamala Harris bridges the fights for democracy at home and abroad
- Watch Kamala Harris’ Full Jan. 6 Speech: Democracy Won’t Stand If We Don’t Defend It
Voting Rights
Kamala Harris fought for voting rights as a US Senator
- Senator Kamala Harris cosponsored the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
- Senator Kamala Harris introduced the VoteSafe Act to make it easier and more accessible for voters to cast their ballots during the pandemic
VP Kamala Harris is leading the White House fight for voting rights
- Harris warns voting rights ‘under assault’ as family and activists honor MLK
- Biden taps Harris to tackle voting rights legislation
- Kamala Harris talks voting rights legislation in NBC News exclusive: ‘We will not give up’
Kamala Harris is working to ensure all Americans can exercise their right to vote
- Harris has met with Native Americans and Americans with disabilities multiple times from 2021 to 2023 to discuss how to break down their barriers to voting.
- Kamala Harris launched a nationwide “Fight for Our Freedoms College Tour,” where she traveled around the country to mobilize college students to fight for their right to vote.
- Democracy Docket — Kamala Harris’ Record on Voting Rights
Supporting Military Veterans
- Attorney General Kamala Harris fined a questionable charity millions of dollars for pocketing money that was supposed to help veterans
- “AG Harris charged the group with ‘excessive compensation’ for its executives, as well as ‘improperly divert[ing]’ funds to purchase country club memberships and a suburban Washington, D.C. condominium (and, apparently, simply pocketing money for themselves along the way).”
- “In 2013, as CA attorney general, Harris sued Corinthian Colleges, a now-defunct chain of for-profit schools that aggressively targeted veterans in its deceptive advertising.”
- In 2016, AG Kamala Harris won a $1.1 billion judgment against Corinthian Colleges “for practices including advertising inflated job placement rates and using official military seals in its marketing without authorization.”
- AG Harris then “joined other state attorneys general in urging the Department of Education to forgive the federal student loan debt of veterans and other students defrauded by Corinthian ,” which later “came to fruition when she was vice president.”
- As Senator, Kamala Harris co-signed a letter with other Senators shaming the Trump administration’s VA leadership for creating “access standards that ‘will significantly increase the overall cost and amount of care VA will send to the community’ without consulting Congress.”
- Vice President Kamala Harris helped pass the PACT Act, a significant expansion of benefits and services for America’s military veterans
Foreign Policy
Kamala Harris has repeatedly called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza
- Video: Kamala Harris calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
- Harris calls for ceasefire, says “people in Gaza are starving”
- Harris escalates administration calls for Gaza ceasefire
Kamala Harris has been working behind the scenes and publicly to demand more humanitarian aid in Gaza
- Kamala Harris issues sharp rebuke of Israel over ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza
- Kamala Harris pushes Israel on aid to Gaza
- Israel-Gaza war: Kamala Harris urges more aid for starving Gazans
- “Vice President Kamala Harris met with a member of Israel’s wartime Cabinet who came to Washington in defiance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the Biden administration intensifies its efforts to push more humanitarian aid into war-battered Gaza.”
- Kamala Harris presses Israel war Cabinet’s Benny Gantz on Gaza aid and Rafah
- Harris urges a Gaza cease-fire for hostage deal, presses Israel to ease aid delivery
Kamala Harris has consistently been critical of Israeli government while supportive of Israeli citizens
- Harris: Israelis deserve security, don’t ‘conflate’ them with the Israeli government
- Harris pushes Netanyahu to ease suffering in Gaza
- Harris more willing to criticize Netanyahu than Biden
- Harris says she “will not be silent” on humanitarian crisis in Gaza
- Kamala Harris tells Benjamin Netanyahu ‘it is time’ to end war in Gaza
VP Kamala Harris has repeatedly met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and consistently pushes for continued US support of Ukraine
- Vice President Kamala Harris announces added funding through USAID and the State Department to support the people of Ukraine
- US VP Harris embraces call for war crimes probe of Russia
Kamala Harris launched and ran the “Central America Forward” Initiative
- Vice President Harris Launches Next Phase of Public-Private Partnership for Northern Central America
- Remarks by Vice President Harris at the Central America Forward Launch Event
Kamala Harris traveled to Singapore and Vietnam in 2021 to strengthen relationships and expand economic cooperation
- Clips and quotes from the trip: https://sg.usembassy.gov/vp-harris-trip-singapore-vietnam/
See also: Kamala Harris’ extensive policy experience on immigration
Marijuana Policy
Kamala is working to decriminalize and legalize marijuana
- Kamala Harris co-sponsored Senator Booker’s marijuana legalization bill
- Kamala Harris voted to legalize hemp
- Kamala Harris introduced a bill to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level
Transportation
Kamala Harris recognized California’s transportation struggles and fought to fund improvements
- “I would urge your department, under your leadership, to help us resolve this…Because again, we are talking about thousands of jobs and infrastructure concerns that California has around transportation” -Senator Kamala Harris to Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao
- “Following the exchange between Secretary Chao and Senator Kamala D. Harris…the U.S. Department of Transportation today announced Secretary Chao will sign and execute the Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) for the Caltrain Modernization Pacific Corridor Electrification Project (PCEP).”
Kamala Harris understood before many politicians that mobility is a human rights issue — and leaders must be bold in addressing it
- Kamala Harris: “Here’s the truth: infrastructure spending isn’t a transportation issue for most Americans — it’s a human rights issue.”
- Kamala Harris co-sponsored a bill to give transit authorities access to zero-interest loans to purchase electric buses, which she tied to sustainable jobs access for poor workers.
Additional Work & Wins
Kamala Harris works to support Indigenous communities
VP Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass COVID relief for Americans
Kamala Harris chaired the National Space Council
- Vice President Harris Convenes Renewed National Space Council
- NASA Leadership Participates in Vice President-Chaired National Space Council Meeting
- Vice President Harris Convenes Third National Space Council Meeting
- VP Harris Announces Selections to the National Space Council’s Users Advisory Group
- The US National Space Council Is Back and Focused on Security
- National Space Council meeting emphasizes international cooperation
