Betty McCollum (DFL): 2024 Election Guide
Welcome to WCCO.com's 2024 Election Guide!
We reached out to Minnesota major party candidates running in U.S. congressional races this fall. Candidates were asked to provide answers to a set of political questions of high importance to voters.
Minnesota 4th Congressional District candidate and incumbent Betty McCollum submitted answers to the questionnaire below.
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What do you believe are the most pressing issues facing constituents served by the office you are seeking?
Constituents are very concerned about protecting women's reproductive freedom, reducing prices for working families and seniors, increasing wages, and defending voting rights and our democracy from MAGA extremism.
What are the three big goals or policies you hope to accomplish or pass during your time in office?
It is an honor to represent the families of Ramsey and Washington counties in the U.S. House. In Congress, I am the dean of the Minnesota and Midwest delegations and the lead Democrat on the U.S. House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and a senior member on the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee.
As Minnesota's only Appropriator, I will continue to secure multimillion-dollar federal investments in our state, and work with the Department of Defense to partner with innovative Minnesota companies to develop next generation technologies. Investing in research to destroy or mitigate the harmful effects of PFAS is a priority. Ensuring women serving in the Armed Forces and the female family members of active-duty military personnel are not denied access to reproductive healthcare is also a priority.
The Mississippi River Resilience and Restoration Initiative (MRRRI) is a bill I have authored that needs to become law. MRRRI protects America's greatest river by coordinating efforts on conservation and environmental restoration and expanding grant opportunities for state, local, and tribal governments, as well as nonprofit organizations.
My work to permanently protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) continues. The BWCA is a national treasure that belongs to all Americans, but Project 2025 - the Trump blueprint for extremism - calls for protections against toxic mining to be repealed. I am absolutely committed to advancing my legislation, the Boundary Waters Protection and Pollution Prevention Act, to permanently protect 234,000 acres of federal lands and waters from sulfide-ore copper mining
Do you think Congress should pass a federal law on abortion rights and what should it look like?
Minnesota is protecting abortion rights and reproductive freedom, but those rights are threatened by national abortion ban that is supported by MAGA Republicans. I support federal legislation to ensure that abortion is a legal health care procedure in every state and is treated as a health care decision made between a woman and her doctor. A woman's reproductive freedom should not vary based on where she lives. Congress must codify abortion rights nationwide.
According to polls, illegal crossings at the southern border and immigration policy are consistently ranked as a top issue for Americans. What do you propose to address these concerns?
It is vile how Trump and MAGA Republicans are scapegoating immigrants for every problem facing the American people. It is dishonest and dangerous. Immigration laws must continue to be enforced at our borders and Congress must act on reforms to protect Dreamers, asylum seekers, and refugees. A pathway to residency for foreign graduates of U.S. universities will help fill vacancies for highly skilled jobs our economy requires to grow.
If elected, Trump will use law enforcement and the military to arrest immigrants, imprison them in detention camps, and then execute mass deportations, including families. Trump torpedoed the bipartisan border agreement earlier this year because he thought it would work, thus hurt his chances to demagogue the issue on the campaign trail. When he was president, Trump attempted to negotiate with the Lao government for the deportation of long-time Hmong and Lao U.S. residents. He sought to block Somalis and others with his Muslim travel ban. In recent weeks, we've seen Trump and Vance launched false, vicious, racist attacks against legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH.
I remain committed to supporting and advancing lasting, bipartisan solutions.
What would you do to address violent crime and drug use?
Law enforcement officials have a difficult job and deserve our support. Law enforcement officers should be provided better training and equipment, better data about the injuries they incur in the line of duty, and better resources to support their mental health and community engagement. All this means more funding for local government and law enforcement, not less.
Congress must also ensure law enforcement is equipped to respond to any situation. I strongly support federal COPS grants to local law enforcement agencies, which have provided more than $16 million to law enforcement agencies since 2016, putting more than 100 additional officers in our communities. Additionally, I have supported funding to St. Paul and Washington County that provided radios, vehicles, and boats for water rescues to local law enforcement.
Guns are the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States. What do you believe the federal government should do to reduce gun violence?
Gun violence is an epidemic in our country. We need to end the proliferation of guns on our streets and remove them from the hands of criminals. We need to give law enforcement the tools to both be safe on the streets but also keep our neighborhoods safe from gun violence. I support a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. I support universal background checks and waiting periods for every gun purchase
Do you believe there should be term limits for members of Congress?
I support voters and their right to determine how long a member of Congress serves them.
What economic policies do you propose to address high prices and cost of living?
To improve the economy, we must build more housing, expand domestic manufacturing, and crack down on corporate monopolies that are ripping off Minnesotans.
Building more housing will not only create jobs and lower rent and mortgage costs; it will lower the cost of everything. We need more affordable housing in Minnesota to meet the growing demand from young people, working families, and newcomers to our state.
During the coronavirus pandemic, we saw the consequences of our over-reliance on foreign imports. When supply chains fell apart, prices soared. By expanding our domestic production of semiconductor chips and other technology, we can create thousands of jobs while creating a more self-sufficient economy in the long run.
Finally, corporate monopolies are gouging consumers. We pay more than we should for food and medicine than nearly any other nation in the developed world. We pay for technology in the form of our personal data, which tech companies have recklessly used to market to consumers. In some cases, tech companies have allowed our data to be stolen, exposing personal information to bad actors. The Biden Administration is actively enforcing antitrust law, and I support additional efforts to advance that progress.
What is the government's responsibility when it comes to climate change? How would you address it?
Climate crisis must be confronted on all levels - globally, nationally, and locally. There is no doubt that climate change is a national security threat and a threat to our economy into the future. In 2022, I voted to pass the historic Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), one of the most impactful investments in our families, communities, and our future. The IRA is the most significant action on climate in our history. Additionally, the IRA is creating goodpaying jobs across the U.S. while reducing the deficit. It is fully paid for by ensuring corporations and the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share, with no new taxes on families earning under $400,000.
We must continue working to transform our economy to be carbon-free in the coming decades, and invest in the infrastructure, supply chain, and workforce to build a green energy economy. Here in Minnesota, I stand with Governor Walz and the DFL Legislature who passed a nation-leading climate law that will establish a 100% clean-energy electric grid by 2040.
As government, health care, and financial institutions face increasing threats to cybersecurity, what measures should policymakers and Americans alike take to protect people from these ongoing threats?
Cybersecurity has been one of the top issues I've worked on in recent years. On the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, I worked to deliver millions of dollars in federal funding to Metro State University in St. Paul to build a cybersecurity program focused on training cybersecurity professionals to support national security and defend government
and small businesses from cyberattacks. Whether it's a foreign adversary trying to influence our elections or cybercriminal gang attempting to steal Minnesotans' data in exchange for ransom, we must remain highly vigilant about the threats we face online and proactively defend against them.
Who won the 2020 Presidential election? How confident are you in the integrity of our elections?
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 Presidential election, and it was a free and fair election. Nonetheless, on January 6, 2021, then President Trump incited a MAGA insurrection and violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to attempt to steal a free and fair election. Trump's insurrection failed and should now be prosecuted for his crimes against our democracy.