Questionnaire: U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, incumbent, District 22

Your name: Ted Deutch

Your age: 54

Family status: Married

What is your address and how long have you lived there?

12373 Cascades Pointe Drive, Boca Raton

For 22 years

Please tell us about your education and the highest degree you attained.

BA and JD from the University of Michigan.

Please outline your work history for the past 15 years. (Please do not attach a resume.)

For the last ten years I have served as a Member of Congress. Before that I served as a Florida State Senator and worked as an attorney in the law firm Broad and Cassel.

Have you ever been arrested, charged or convicted of a crime? Or have you ever received a “withheld adjudication” or had a matter sealed or expunged? If yes, please explain.

No

Have you ever been a plaintiff or a defendant in a civil action, including bankruptcy or foreclosure, or had a restraining order issued against you? If so, please explain.

No

Are you a member of any civic groups? If so, please name them.

I’m active in many community organizations.

Have you ever run for office before? If so, where and when?

I successfully ran for Florida Senate in 2006 and have successfully run for Congress six times.

Why are you running for this office?

I am running for Congress to respond effectively to the coronavirus pandemic, to support our working families and businesses during this economic downturn, to pass laws that make our communities safer from gun violence, to get big money out of politics, to protect and support our seniors in South Florida, and to lead the effort to combat climate change.

Why should voters vote for you?

I work hard and effectively in Congress and I will always listen to and support my constituents. I have proven that I advocate for the causes that matter to South Florida and I have shown that I can successfully pass laws that support our community.

What grade would you give Congress for how it works, and why?

The House of Representatives deserves an ‘A' for passing critical legislation related to the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn. The House also passed landmark gun safety legislation, criminal justice reform, and bills that would expand voting rights and limit the influence of big money in politics. The Senate deserves an “F” for ignoring over 500 vital pieces of legislation passed by the House.

How would you assess the performance of President Trump?

President Trump has been the worst President in my lifetime. The President has repeatedly lied to the American people, violated the separation of powers enshrined by our Founders, obstructed justice, and politicized the impartial work of the Department of Justice. President Trump has also completely failed to effectively lead a competent response to the coronavirus and the associated economic meltdown.

Top issues: In your view, what are the top three issues facing our nation?

The top issues facing our nation are:

1) The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Trump Administration and the DeSantis Administration have both failed in their responses to the coronavirus pandemic. We need genuine executive leadership that will institute mask mandates, develop effective testing and tracing programs, tie business openings and school openings to scientific data, and respond to the economic needs of our residents, including small business owners and those who have lost their jobs.

2) Economic Downturn: The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a devastating economic downturn unseen since the Great Depression. Congress has responded with assistance to households and businesses. In May, the House passed the Heroes Act, an additional round of assistance to help individuals, businesses, and states and municipalities with the economic fallout. Unfortunately the Senate and the Trump Administration have refused to support this needed assistance and failed to even negotiate with Democrats on a fair package.

3) American Democracy: The Trump Administration has betrayed the Constitution and our Founders’ vision with executive overreach and unconstitutional and illegal actions that strip away guaranteed rights of all Americans. This includes a willingness to accept election help from Russia, attacks on mail-in voting and restricting access to voting, the demonization of immigrants and foreigners, the support of dangerous racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories, and a failure to respond to the need for significant policing and criminal justice reform to undue structural racism in our society.

Impeachment: What is your take on the outcome of President Trump’s impeachment trial?

The office of the presidency is the highest office in the executive branch. It has vast powers, but those powers must be balanced with accountability. That is why Congress is vested with the sole power of impeachment and that is why I voted to impeach the president when presented with clear evidence of his abuse of power and obstruction of congressional oversight.

Through the course of the House Intelligence Committee and House Judiciary

Committee investigations, I heard hours of testimony from fact witnesses, read through hundreds of pages of evidence and legal analysis, and consulted with Constitutional scholars. It is clear to me that the president ordered his subordinates in the White House and his associates outside of government to attempt to extract political favors from the Ukrainian president by illegally withholding aid in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia and obstructing the congressional investigation into Trump’s abuse of power.

I did not take my vote lightly; the vote on impeachment was one of the most serious votes I will ever cast. But when the president abused his power to solicit foreign interference in our election and put his personal and political interests above our national interest, he was cheating American voters before they even had a chance to vote in the 2020 election. And the president’s obstruction of the United States Congress is unprecedented in our nation’s history.

After the Senate acquitted Donald Trump and failed to remove him from office, his

threats to our democracy have continued. He has made the intelligence community’s job to defend against Russian attacks on our elections nearly impossible and installed political loyalists in important roles like the Director of National Intelligence. Republicans in the Senate have even been drafted into launching an investigation into Ukraine that plays into Russia’s efforts to undermine the 2020 election.

Even after Trump was acquitted by the Senate, we must continue to do everything we can to defend the integrity of our elections and ensure that not even the president is above the law.

Election security: Does more need to be done to ensure fair, free and safe elections in these turbulent times? If so, what?

The intelligence community unanimously confirmed that our elections are under attack. The Republican-chaired Senate Intelligence committee released a five-volume report including stunning findings of Russia’s attacks against our elections. The Mueller investigation brought charges against Russian military intelligence officers who launched a campaign of hacking against the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. Locally, the Department of Homeland Security sent a team to Palm Beach County’s election offices to investigate a ransomware attack. All of government must work together to defend the integrity of our elections.

That is why I supported two important pieces of legislation to protect American voters. Firstly, the SAFE Act, passed the House in June of 2019, would fund modernization of our election infrastructure, require paper ballots for verification, and elevate security standards for vendors and election systems. Secondly, the SHIELD Act, passed the House in October of 2019, would create a duty to report offers of illegal foreign campaign assistance, require additional transparency in online political ads, and close loopholes to prevent foreign funding of American elections.

Health care: If you support the Affordable Care Act, what do you believe could be done to improve it? If you don’t support the Affordable Care Act, what do you propose? Do you favor letting people import drugs from countries like Canada?

The COVID-19 pandemic has put health care even higher on the priority list for the American people. I believe that every American has the right to high-quality health care regardless of their income.

I support building on the progress we’ve made in health care under the Affordable Care Act.

The ACA improved coverage and slowed cost growth for the 156 million Americans (49%) who get their health care through their employer by putting caps on out of pocket spending, improving preventive services, and solidifying protections for people with pre-existing conditions. It also expanded coverage to more than 20 million Americans and dropped the uninsured rate until Donald Trump began his efforts to sabotage the law.

Florida has consistently led the country in enrollment on Healthcare.gov, where 1.7 million Floridians have enrolled in affordable, quality coverage with the help of subsidies that drastically cut their premium costs.

To improve it, Florida should immediately accept federal funding to expand Medicaid to 800,000 people who don’t currently qualify. The state should also drop its efforts to repeal the law in the courts.

I also have voted in favor of legislation to expand subsidies and make coverage more affordable for higher income middle class families who currently do not qualify for subsidies.

Cuba: Did you support President Trump’s reversal of President Obama’s Cuba policy? What should happen there?

I supported President Obama’s reforms to the Cuba-Unites States relationship, including the establishment of direct flights to Cuba from South Florida. But I believe we missed an opportunity at the time to achieve reciprocal actions from Cuba, particularly pertaining to political prisoners and an expansion of political freedoms. However, I do not support President Trump’s reversals of these reforms. We should have a functioning embassy in Cuba. Limitations on remittances, travel, and economic reforms instituted by President Trump will only hurt the Cuban people and should be reversed.

National debt: Before the coronavirus, the federal deficit was expected to top a trillion dollars this year. How would you have us think about our nation’s mounting debt?

The coronavirus pandemic and the associated economic downturn required Congress to pass trillions of dollars of assistance to individuals and businesses. Although this spending added significantly to our federal deficit, doing nothing would only have further devastated our economy and hurt vulnerable citizens.

We must reform our spending and find new revenues so we can enact a budget in the coming years that will allow us to begin lowering our federal deficit. The best way to lower the deficit is to grow our economy through measures that help everyone achieve financial success and security, not just the top 1%. Unfortunately the Trump Administration blew up the deficit when it passed the $1.5 trillion tax cut benefitting the wealthiest Americans and corporations.

Climate change: What should be done, if anything, to address climate change?

Climate change is an existential threat. In Florida, it is an immediate one.

Sea level rise in South Florida outpaces the global average ten fold. Fort Lauderdale’s over 150 miles of inland waterways put our district at risk of extensive damage. In our communities it isn’t uncommon to see flooding on sunny days during the king tides when sea water rises up through the bedrock. And climate change is putting us at greater risk of devastating storms.

To combat it, we need to put a price on carbon. For too long we have allowed the fossil fuel industry to shift the devastating costs of their products off their bottom line and on to our communities, our kids, and our planet.

But we can’t make the monumental shifts necessary without bipartisanship. That’s why I launched the Climate Solutions Caucus to bring together Republicans and Democrats from across the country to discuss the threat climate change poses to our communities and develop legislation that will set us on a path toward a clean energy economy.

I introduced the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act to charge fossil fuel companies for the carbon they extract and pay those fees out in monthly checks to every American.

Experts at Columbia University have estimated that the bill would reduce carbon emissions by 38% by 2030 and 90% by 2050. The fees collected from polluters would total $2 trillion over ten years and would pay out $250 monthly checks to a family of four by 2022 and $350 by 2030. These fees and dividends would simultaneously push our economy away from fossil fuels while also helping American families purchasing power for clean energy choices.

Money in politics: Have we had enough of campaign finance reform or should something be done about the influence of money in politics? If so, what?

I was the first member of Congress elected in the Citizens United era. I believe money in politics is the linchpin issue that makes all of our other challenges harder to solve. Getting money out of politics will restore the voices of the American people in our elections and produce a government that is more responsive to their concerns over the wish lists of the wealthiest few.

It’s been over a decade since Citizens United. We know the Supreme Court got it wrong. We know the rules against coordination between Super PACS and campaigns aren’t working.

The Democracy for All Amendment I introduced is bipartisan and supported by nearly every Democrat in Congress. It would immediately overturn Citizens United by allowing Congress to set reasonable limits on spending in our elections. It repudiates the Supreme Court’s holding that money is speech and will stop the very wealthiest billionaires from drowning out the voices of American voters.

I also supported landmark reforms in H.R. 1 The For the People Act which includes legislation I authored to require executive branch officials to disclose their political solicitations. The bill also will make it easier for Americans to vote, raise ethics standards, and require disclosure of those who fund dark money groups.

Erosion of trust: People are losing faith in institutions -- government, politics, corporations, the media, organized religion, organized labor, banks, businesses. Do you worry about the future of our democracy?

Yes, I’m very concerned about the future of our democracy. Our democratic institutions have survived since the founding of our nation because the public has kept them honest. Their legitimacy comes from public trust. But President Trump, lacking any respect for these American institutions, has actively sought to erode the public’s trust if it helps him personally – either his political position or even his personal finances. He has spent the last four years lashing out at an independent media, our elections process, businesses, and even his own government agencies and civil service employees. A President Biden would take measures to restore the independence of these institutions from a president’s whims and restore public faith.

Infrastructure: When President Trump was elected, there was bipartisan agreement to do something about our nation’s infrastructure needs. What happened?

Our nation must invest in infrastructure. Such an investment would put Americans to work fixing and rebuilding our aging roads, bridges, highways, and ports. It would expand and strengthen our broadband network, fix drinking and wastewater systems, transform our power grid, and invest in other essential modern infrastructure. In July I voted for a comprehensive infrastructure bill that would invest over $1.5 trillion in these and other sectors. I have long supported an infrastructure bank that would allow government to leverage its investments with private industry.

Unfortunately, President Trump has been unable to work effectively with Congress on almost any issue, including infrastructure. I would support action right now to invest in infrastructure, but we lack partners in this effort in the Senate and White House.

Ethics: Does more work need to be done on ethics reform in Congress? If so, what?

As Chairman of the House Ethics Committee I am proud of my leadership during the #MeToo movement where I led aggressive investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate relationships involving Members of Congress and congressional staffers and established precedents to deal with such issues publicly. I am proud of the ethics reforms passed by Congress last session that gave significantly stronger rights and support to staff who have experienced sexual harassment or threats to employment based on race, ethnicity, and sexual identity. However, much more can be done, including better training and more protections and legal counsel for accusers.

Abortion: Do you believe reforms are needed around the issue of abortion?

Women have the constitutional right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health. Unfortunately, too many states are passing restrictive abortion laws with the true goal of shutting down the procedure. While the Supreme Court recently sidestepped ruling on abortion rights before the election, the future of Roe v. Wade is in danger of being reversed against the wishes of the vast majority of American women. Abortion must be legal, safe, and accessible, and I oppose so-called reforms that strike at a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.

Education: What is your assessment of the changes and proposals made by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos?

Secretary DeVos came into office with no experience and a mission to chip away at our public school system. She’s elevated the interests of private schools over what’s best for our public school teachers and students. She went after Obama-era policies designed to protect victims of assault, reversing them to instead favor the accused. She led a federal school safety panel but refused to consider the role of gun violence. She has also made alarming claims about allowing school districts to use federal grants to buy guns for classrooms. Federal judges have repeatedly ruled against her decisions. Her tenure will be remembered as prioritizing special interests and failing the 56 million children in public schools.

Venezuela: A great many of the 300,000 Venezuelans who live in this country live in South Florida. What more can or should be done to address the chaos in Venezuela?

Last year I visited the border between Colombia and Venezuela to meet with Venezuelans suffering because of the disastrous policies of Nicolas Maduro. We saw the humanitarian resources provided by the United States and the UN that are sitting in warehouses unable to be delivered because Maduro continues to block the international community from helping those in need. The United States must take a firm stance against the Maduro regime while demanding that humanitarian aid be allowed to enter so Venezuelans can access food, water, and basic supplies.

Here at home, we must extend Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans. It is unconscionable to force Venezuelans in the United States to return to a county where their lives would be in danger. I was proud to support three bills introduced by my Florida Congressional colleagues and passed by the House, which would extend TPS for Venezuelans, restrict weapons sales to the illegitimate Maduro regime, and send humanitarian aid to Venezuelans, including those who fled to neighboring countries.

FERPA: The state commission investigating the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is critical of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA.) It’s been used to prevent law enforcement officers from sharing vital information about such serious events as a serial rapist on a campus, academic favoritism to athletes, biased admission policies and accidental injuries and deaths. It’s also allowed Broward’s school district to withhold what its personnel knew about Nikolas Cruz. Do you see a need for change and if so, how would you make it happen?

After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I have worked closely with the families of those who were killed to be sure that their voices are heard and to help achieve the change we need to prevent this from happening in other schools.

I worked with parents who were part of the state commission to get additional clarity about FERPA from the U.S. Department of Education. I believe that we can maintain privacy protections while also ensuring that those protections are not abused. Privacy protections shouldn’t allow anyone to avoid accountability for their actions and should not be a barrier to the safety of our students, teachers, staff, and communities.

Homelessness: Like other metro areas, homelessness remains a big issue in South Florida. What should be the federal government’s role in addressing this problem?

Throughout my career in Congress I have been a strong supporter of federal programs to end homelessness. Federal funding is amplifying the amazing work of innovative non-profit organizations in our community that are helping get people into homes and address all of the various factors that contribute to homelessness from health care to hunger.

I introduced legislation to establish additional funding streams through tax return check-offs to finally end veteran homelessness, the Homeless Veterans Assistance Fund Act.

We need to do more to encourage affordable housing in South Florida. I am working on legislation to amplify affordable housing and health care collaboration. I want to incentivize real estate developers to build housing in communities that are integrated with health care institutions like hospitals.

There are already good examples of this model working to improve the lives of people in low-income neighborhoods, like apartment buildings near hospitals that include on-site job training for careers in health care.

These innovative communities address housing needs immediately and follow up with programing and opportunities to address the social determinants of health that disproportionately impact people who lack secure housing.

Gun safety: The House has passed significant gun control measures. One mandates background checks on all gun sales, including firearm purchases made privately, whether it be online or at gun shows. The other lengthens the review period for a background check from three to 10 days. Do you support these measures? If so, is there anything that could get the Senate to move?

I support a comprehensive set of gun safety legislation and have been one of the loudest voices in Congress to demand the Senate take up legislation passed by the House.

A strong background check system has the support of over 90 percent of the American people. That is unheard of in any other policy area. Gun owners and even NRA members want to be sure guns don’t go to people who have shown they will not be safe and responsible. It is clear that the corrosive influence of money in politics is getting in the way of the will of the American people who want stronger gun laws.

I support: universal background checks, extending the period for background checks, limiting gun sales to 21+, updating the National Firearms Act to put serious regulations on semi-automatic rifles, limits on high-capacity magazines, background checks for ammunition called Jaime’s Law, named after MSD student Jaime Guttenberg, and a renewed assault weapons ban. All of these proposals are consistent with the Second Amendment and will help keep our communities safe.

School safety: It’s been a little over two years since the nation’s worst high school shooting happened in Parkland. How would you assess the progress in making schools safe, and what more should be done?

In the over two years since the shooting I have become close with many of the survivors and worked closely with them to turn their pain into purpose and to achieve school safety reforms.

Just weeks before the shooting I introduced the bipartisan STOP School Violence Act to fund evidence-based programs that will reduce social isolation, improve mental health, and help prevent violence. I have worked with groups like Sandy Hook Promise formed after the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012 to bring these programs into schools around the country. STOP School Violence Act will send $125 million to schools around the country to keep our schools safe.

I have also introduced bipartisan legislation, the School Violence Prevention and Mitigation Act, to offer schools funding for infrastructure improvements to guard against attacks. This legislation includes incentives for states to pass Alyssa’s Law, named after MSD student Alyssa Alhadeff, to install silent alarms in schools to quickly alert police to school emergencies.

Everglades: What do you make of the Army Corps designating the southern reservoir as a “new start,” which will cause delay?

I disagree with the Army Corps’ decision to designate the Southern Reservoir as a “new start.” The new reservoir is a continuing part of the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) to help reduce the water levels in Lake Okeechobee and hopefully prevent the need for diverting large quantities of water through estuaries. It serves a part of the plan for restoring the natural flow of water from Lake Okeechobee through the Everglades. These are goals that will no only help achieve Everglades restoration, but keeping algae-infested water out of the estuaries will help local economies and improve public health for communities in the region. Designating the project as a “new start” could require additional bureaucratic hurdles. We should all be working together to move this and the other CEPP projects forward as quickly and efficiently as possible.

An imperial presidency. To an extent unseen before, even during the Nixon Administration, President Trump has claimed to be exempt, at least while in office, from laws that apply to others. What would you propose and/or support in response to this?

No President is above the law. Unfortunately, President Trump has flouted the law and the Constitution. Current DOJ guidance has suggested that sitting Presidents cannot be indicted. Therefore I have introduced legislation extending the statute of limitations on crimes that have been committed by sitting Presidents but cannot be currently prosecuted. We should also pass new laws strengthening the Hatch Act so executive branch employees can be punished for political activity on the government’s dime. We also need new legislation to crack down on unconstitutional executive orders, like President Trump’s diversion of appropriated money to build his foolish wall and stealing from the Social Security trust fund.

Integrity and independence in government: By dismissals, demotions and transfers, President Trump has extinguished the independence of the inspectors general and the ability of other agencies to perform their duties without fear of presidential reprisal. What, if anything, will you do to protect the independence and integrity of our civil servants?

Inspectors General provide a vital public service. As independent officials, they are charged with identifying fraud, waste, and abuse in government and making sure government employees, whether they are career employees or political appointees, follow the law. For decades, they have kept administrations accountable, something that the American public deserves in its government.

President Trump’s attacks on these officials have exemplified his distorted belief that the federal government should work for him to further his personal interests. His dependence on acting cabinet members and officials, the number of unfilled vacancies, and the short tenure of many top-ranking officials all show how he is willing to risk an agency’s operational capacity in order to keep a firm power grip on all agencies and dismiss people that get in his way. President Trump and his appointees have spent four years trying to chip away the authority of these inspectors general, which were established in the wake of a different era of rampant government abuse - the Watergate scandal.

Getting rid of President Trump will go far in protecting our civil servants, but Congress must also consider ways to further protect the independence of these officials. I supported legislation passed this Congress by House Democrats to strengthen Congressional oversight over presidential decisions to place Inspectors General on nonduty status.

Is there anything you want us to know about your opponent(s) or anything else, for that matter, that we didn’t ask about?

NA

Is there anything about yourself that we didn’t ask about that would embarrass you if an opponent found out?

No

How much money have you raised so far? Please include today’s date.

$1,050,000

How much money has been raised by groups independently supporting your campaign? Should any of them make false charges against an opponent, would you repudiate them?

I am legally required to have no contact or coordination with any outside groups raising or supporting my candidacy. That said, I am aware of no groups and would respond to any false charges if made.

Have you received any other endorsements? If so, which ones?

Human Rights Council PAC

SEIU

AFL-CIO Broward County

FL LGBTQ Democratic Caucus

Palm Beach County Human Rights Council

Giffords PAC

Democratic Veterans Caucus of Florida

Dolphin Democrats

National Organization for Women PAC

Brady Campaign

Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund

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