We see the same disparity when it comes to women’s access to health care. Yet despite all of this support, members of Congress from the most extreme districts have blocked even basic gun safety legislation.

It also showed support for background checks for private and gun-show sales from both gun owners and nonowners alike (77 percent and 87 percent, respectively). Here are three examples of just those kinds of policies that have broad, bipartisan support but are stymied by gerrymandered districts.Ī 2017 Pew Research poll found that 89 percent of adults favor preventing a person who is mentally ill from purchasing guns. Because if we stop partisan gerrymandering, it could clear the gridlock holding up progress on countless common-sense solutions to critical challenges facing our nation. That’s why I co-authored legislation with fellow members of the California delegation to require all states to establish independent, citizen-controlled redistricting commissions. As districts have become more politically extreme, we are left with fewer representatives who are charged by their constituents to work in a bipartisan fashion to move our country forward. This sinister practice has eroded public trust and contributes to deep and intractable dysfunction in Congress. Instead of being responsible to their constituents, it polarizes our politics and makes legislators more accountable to special interests. Unfortunately, across the country most states still have a system where districts are drawn by politicians to protect their own jobs. This commission charges a diverse group of stakeholders from across the state with setting district lines - taking politicians out of the process and making our democracy more transparent and accountable to those it serves. But if we reform redistricting nationwide, we could break this logjam once and for all.īack in 2008, California voted to end gerrymandering - when politicians draw the boundaries of federal and state districts to help one political party more than the other - and instead established the California Citizens Redistricting Commission. This is due in large part to partisan gerrymandering that polarizes our political institutions. We just see no action on them in Congress. In reality, there is broad, bipartisan agreement among Americans on many important issues facing our nation. In the current political environment, it often feels like there is more that divides us than unites. Originally published in the Ventura County Star Member-Designated Transportation Projects.FY2022 Community Project Funding Requests.FY2023 Community Project Funding Requests.FY2024 Community Project Funding Requests.

Dc gridlock google maps