Protecting Our Rights
The Pacific Northwest has a strong tradition of promoting tolerance and protecting liberty. Maria is proud of our Northwest values, and she believes we have a shared responsibility to protect the rights of all Americans. As we enter the information age and more personal information becomes publicly available, Maria knows that protecting our privacy rights is more important than ever.
Protecting Our Privacy Rights
Maria is troubled by reports of a massive database collecting telephone records of ordinary Americans to create a massive database, in addition to intercepting actual calls and emails, and she has called for full and complete answers on all domestic spying activities and better Congressional oversight. She is working to protect Americans from unscrupulous online brokers who traffic in the sale of cell phone records, a growing Internet crime that violates personal privacy. Maria is leading the national fight against identity theft and has worked to better equip law enforcement to fight this growing crime, including investigations into the correlation between identity theft and meth addiction.
Protecting Women's Health Care Rights
Because Maria believes that abortion should be safe, legal and rare, she has worked hard to secure funding for family planning and contraception. Maria is working to ensure equity and require health plans to put contraception on equal footing with other health services. Maria was the only Northwest senator to vote against the nominations of both Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to protect the rights of all Americans.
Securing Equal Rights for All Americans
Maria opposes a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage because she believes it would be wrong to amend our Constitution to limit the rights of any American. Maria believes that marriage laws should continue to be decided at the state level. Maria is working to ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and she has supported legislation to provide equitable tax treatment for domestic partner health insurance benefits.
Protecting Our Voting Rights
Maria believes that promoting public trust and confidence in our election process is crucial to protecting our democratic institutions. To make certain that every citizen’s vote is counted, Maria worked to pass the Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act to help ensure fair, accurate elections in Washington and nationwide. During national election reform, Maria fought to protect Washington state's popular and secure vote by mail option.
Reforming the Patriot Act
Maria is committed to reforming the Patriot Act to protect our freedom and privacy. She continues to work to include a sunset provision in the act to give Congress the opportunity to reassess whether these new tools are making us safer. Maria’s efforts helped close the "library loophole," and she continues to fight to protect Americans from warrantless subpoenas and "sneak and peak" investigations. Maria is concerned that many Patriot Act provisions, particularly those sections dealing with electronic eavesdropping and computer trespass, remain seriously flawed and may infringe on civil liberties. She believes that Congress can do more to find the right balance between protecting our civil liberties and fighting terrorism and is working to find a bipartisan solution.