The high cost of housing is our region’s greatest challenge, one felt intensely by thousands of working families and employers who struggle to hire and keep workers. Congress needs to step up with innovative and cost-effective ideas to address this crisis.

1. Authorize federal tax credits to revitalize empty downtown buildings into affordable multifamily housing.
2. Establish a loan guarantee program for homeowners who want to install backyard homes (ADUs) to increase the supply of affordable rental housing while helping struggling homeowners pay their mortgage.
3. Boost sales inventory by doubling the exemption on capital gains taxes.
4. Provide tax relief to middle-class families and homeowners with targeted restoration of the SALT deduction.
5. Establish a “Resilience Savings Program” to enable homeowners to affordably invest in cost-saving retrofits, such as solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and batteries. The program would cut skyrocketing utility costs while allowing homeowners to invest in risk—and insurance premium—reduction.
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The high cost of living weighs on American families, with lasting impacts of inflation from recent years. Beyond housing costs (see section), I will work to reduce the bills that most burden families’ budgets through the following priorities:

1. Groceries: Review the FTC’s role in supermarket consolidation, eliminate agricultural subsidies that make food more expensive, and reduce tariffs.
2. Health care: Promote transparency and competition in drug pricing, and reduce deadweight insurance administrative costs.
3. Child care: Provide a larger, means-tested Child Tax Credit, increase Child Care and Development Fund support for low-income families, and support long-term investments to expand the supply of child care.
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As mayor of San Jose, I forged strong partnerships—among our police, community service officers, non-profit organizations, and other partners—to avoid the severe spikes in violence that other big cities faced. In Congress, I will strengthen and support these partnerships through the following priorities:

1. Disrupt the cycle between incarceration and drug abuse by restoring federal parole—with incentives to remain clean—while providing addiction treatment in jails and prisons. 
2. Fund the Victims of Crime Act to support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. 
3. Enact sensible gun ownership policies, including keeping guns out of the wrong hands with a federal “red flag” law, sharing information with law enforcement, and regulating ammunition. 
4. Fund the American Climate Corps and other service programs to employ young adults. 
5. Pass a federal theft ring statute and partner with local law enforcement to deter high-level and petty thefts.

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As mayor of San Jose, I led coalitions and initiatives that battled against the gas industry, large corporate utilities, and billionaire developers. Under my leadership, San Jose reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 36%, launched a lower-cost community choice clean energy utility, protected open spaces against development, and developed sustainable transportation and infrastructure. In Congress, I will advance the following climate priorities:

1. Accelerate the transition from fossil fuels by supporting home investments in clean energy, imposing a carbon dividend, halting new offshore drilling and fracking, and eliminating federal subsidies to oil and gas production.
2. Protect and preserve precious open spaces, including championing federal funding for wetlands restoration, coastal protection, and natural adaptation to sea-level rise.
3. Improve grid capacity and reliability through distributed generation and storage, and permitting reform.
4. Prepare our communities for the impacts of climate change by directing federal funding to protect against floods, heat, droughts, and wildfires.
5. Reduce our reliance on plastic, especially single-use plastics.
6. Fund the American Climate Corps to leverage the energy and idealism of our young adults into climate conservation and resilience projects.
   

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When core principles lie at stake, we must fight. In Congress, I will work to restore and protect the fundamental rights that have endured assault in recent years. Following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Congress must prohibit states from restricting abortion services, eliminate medically unnecessary obstacles to reproductive care, enable women to travel freely between states to receive medical assistance, and make federal funding available for abortion services. I will work to gain ground on reproductive freedom with creative solutions that may draw less partisan opposition, such as expanding telehealth. I will fight to strengthen our elections—an essential institution of our democracy—by protecting election administrators from intimidation or partisan removal, restoring federal scrutiny over voting discrimination, creating baseline standards for voter access and registration, constraining gerrymandering, and limiting the influence of foreign and dark money.
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