Ahead of the November general election, the Southern California News Group compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.
MORE: Read all the candidate responses in our Voter Guide
Name: Brad Sherman
Current job title: Member of Congress
Political party affiliation: Democrat
Incumbent: Yes
Other political positions held: Member, Board of Equalization
City where you reside: Sherman Oaks
Campaign website or social media: www.bradsherman.com
Californians will decide on a proposition this November that would scale back some of Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved measure that reduced penalties for certain theft and drug offenses. What is one way the federal government could help states like California balance criminal justice reform with enforcing the law? (Please be specific with your proposal, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)
I do not believe that criminal justice reform and enforcing the law are in conflict with one another. Our local police need adequate resources to maintain community safety. We also need a comprehensive approach to instances of police misconduct. That is why I helped introduce the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and have continued to champion this monumental bill since it was first introduced in Congress. That legislation would ban the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants in drug cases, prohibit racial profiling, limit the use of military-grade weapons in community policing, make it easier to prosecute the excessive use of force, and require the use of police body cameras, among other reforms.
Recent efforts to expand the federal deduction for state and local taxes, called SALT, have failed. What changes would you like to see, if any, to SALT? (Please keep your answer to 200 words or less.)
One of the many reasons why the Trump tax law – which added trillions of dollars to the national debt – was such a failure was because it created a $10,000 limit to the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, which allows taxpayers to subtract state and local taxes paid including property taxes from their federal income tax obligations. That Trump tax law is set to expire at the end of 2025 but I’ve been working in Congress to work towards a bipartisan solution to eliminate the cap as soon as possible.
President Joe Biden has called for an overhaul of the U.S. Supreme Court, including mandatory ethics rules. What reforms, if any, do you believe the Supreme Court needs, and how would they be enforced? (Please be specific with your proposal, and keep your answer to 250 words or less.)
First and foremost, the Supreme Court needs to be held accountable to a binding ethics code and restrictions on the acceptance of corrupt gifts that are the same as the rules which Members of Congress must abide by. Justices Alito and Thomas have been caught failing to report gifts from Republican mega-donors that have interests before the Court. This is simply unacceptable in a democracy. Unlike Congress and the executive branch, the Supreme Court has no staff or office in charge of enforcing ethics rules. I have supported legislation like the Supreme Court Ethics Act to require the issuance of a specific code of conduct and the establishment of an independent Ethics Investigations Counsel to ensure Supreme Court justices maintain the utmost standards of ethical conduct.
Should there be an age limit imposed on presidential candidates? What about Congress or Senate? If so, what is that limit?
I agree that for the good of the country, Donald J. Trump should drop out of the race, since he clearly does not have the mental acuity needed to serve as the most powerful person in the world. But voters are wise enough to decide for themselves who should represent them. I believe they will reject Trump for so many reasons. Likewise, voters should consider a host of factors in selecting Senators and Congressmembers.
Would you support legislation that protects women’s access to in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments nationwide? Why or why not? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit your response to 200 words.)
As a member of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, I have joined nearly every other Democrat as a cosponsor of the Access to Family Building Act – legislation to establish a federal right to fertility procedures like IVF. On the other hand, more than half of House Republicans have supported the Life at Conception Act, which would ban IVF nationwide.
We must remember that the only reason we are having this conversation is because Trump’s Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade and by doing so, allowed state laws defining life as beginning at conception to prevail. In 2022, when Democrats were in the majority, the House passed the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have codified Roe v. Wade, but the Senate troublingly failed to act. Next year, it is a top priority for myself and other Democrats in Congress to pass a law enshrining the right to reproductive freedom into federal law.
The Republican Party’s platform, following the summer convention, calls for the “largest deportation effort in American history.” Is this something you support? If so, what would such an effort look like? If not, how would you assuage concerns about border security? (Please be specific in your response, and keep it to 250 words or less.)
The idea of a mass deportation goes against the American way. We can all agree that the situation at the border needs to be fixed. The Senate had reached a bipartisan border deal that would have been an important step in the right direction of improving the immigration and asylum process, increasing border security, and combating drug trafficking. I did not agree with everything in the bill, but was ready to support common sense, bipartisan solutions to address these problems as I have throughout my career. But Donald Trump convinced Republican Members of Congress to renege on that deal, because he wanted to use the border as an election issue. Democrats are waiting at the negotiating table for Republicans to decide that they actually want to solve these problems. Until that time, I will continue to strongly advocate for programs like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) deferring deportation to U.S. undocumented residents from countries experiencing armed conflict or natural disasters. For the latter, I have been successful in getting the State Department to grant TPS for countries like Ethiopia in the middle of a civil war. I have also worked to maintain the so-called Lautenberg Amendment which was originally enacted to facilitate the entry of Jewish refugees into the U.S. after the fall of the Soviet Union but now allows for other persecuted religious minorities such as those in Iran to have the presumption of refugee status for entry into the U.S.
Cost of living is high on the list of concerns among voters, particularly among younger people. What is one bipartisan proposal you have to alleviate concerns about high prices or cost of living? (Please be specific in your response, and limit it to 200 words.)
One of the most important programs which put money directly into everyday Americans’ pockets was the expanded Child Tax Credit in the American Rescue Plan Act, which was refundable and available in monthly installments. For several years now, there has been bipartisan consensus on the importance of the Child Tax Credit, and we must work to reinstate the expanded version of this tax credit that existed at the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration. To address affordability concerns, I also believe that we must make aggressive use of the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice’s antitrust authorities to break up monopolies, and I have been a strong supporter of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s work – an agency established by a law that I helped write which has returned over $20 billion to consumers who were wronged by bad financial actors.
Californians continue to point to housing affordability as one of their top concerns. What is something the federal government could do to lessen the financial burden people feel, whether that’s with renting or buying a house? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit it to 200 words or less.)
As a senior member of the Financial Services Committee, one of my top priorities has been ensuring homeownership is accessible to Valley residents. In particular, I have worked to raise Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage limits which allows families living in areas with high housing costs – like in LA County – to have improved access to mortgages and better interest rates. I have also worked to reduce the financial regulatory burdens that often stand in the way of constructing new single-family homes, condos, and apartment buildings, and have been working with the Biden-Harris Administration to reduce fees for first-time homebuyers to get Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured loans.
What do you see the federal government’s role as in helping local municipalities tackle homelessness? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit it to 200 words or less.)
As your Member of Congress, I have secured $10 million dollars for local homeless shelters, food pantries, and local public housing projects, which will continue to be a priority of mine in the coming years. The Westside also has seen a particular rise in homelessness for veterans, and disabled veterans in particular. In the past few months, I have been tirelessly working to get the Department of Housing and Urban Development to fix their definition of income for the purposes of determining veterans’ eligibility for housing assistance by excluding VA disability benefits. Homeless disabled veterans were finding it near-impossible to receive HUD housing assistance because they received “too much” money in disability assistance from the VA. Thanks to my efforts and several calls with the Biden-Harris Administration, HUD announced in August that they would be making that change, opening the door to housing many of the homeless disabled veterans near the West LA VA Medical Center.
After Tesla chief executive Elon Musk shared an AI-generated video purporting to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ voice, Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to enact legislation to make it illegal to manipulate someone’s voice in an ad. What is something the federal government could do to protect people from deep-fakes, or false AI-generated images, videos and audio? (Please be specific in your response, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)
Since I first entered Congress, I have been working towards solutions to the many threats posed by Artificial Intelligence. We need a federal ban, or at least strict disclosure requirements, on deep-fakes and other AI-generated images in our elections and in general. I am also concerned that actors are now having others profiting off of their likenesses and voices, and I support extending property rights to actors’ likenesses and voices to prevent this.
What is one local infrastructure project you would push to secure funds for in the federal budget? (Please be specific in your answer.)
The Valley vitally needs expanded transportation options through the Sepulveda Pass along the 405. Once LA Metro soon decides on which alternative design to proceed with for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project – after robust community input – it will be my highest local priority to deliver the necessary federal funds to complete the project as quickly and efficiently as possible. In the meantime, I am working with my congressional colleagues from Los Angeles to secure funding for LA Metro projects that expand public transportation leading up to the LA 2028 Olympics.
What is one environment or climate policy you’d champion if elected? (Please be specific with your policy proposal, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)
This past summer, Summer 2024, was the hottest on record. We must act now to avert climate change and drastically reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions while working diplomatically with other nations to help bring down their own emissions. Throughout my time in Congress, I have secured over $20 million to acquire open space to expand public lands and recreation opportunities in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, including by completing the Backbone Trail. Recreational trails are indeed infrastructure. If re-elected, I will continue this work to bring federal funds to increase public lands in the nation’s largest urban national park.Relatedly, several oil and gas leases for offshore drilling along California’s coast still exist in nearby Santa Barbara County. I support legislation that would prohibit oil and gas drilling off California’s beautiful shores, to protect our coastal economies reliant upon tourism, and the diversity of our coastal ecosystems and sea life, from the negative environmental consequences of oil and gas drilling.
What’s the No. 1 song on your playlist while you’re on the campaign trail?
Beach Boys – Surfin’ USA
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