What types of transportation do you use during an average week, and how has this shaped your view of transportation policy?

I have relied on public transportation for most of my life. I took a public bus to middle school. During high school, I rode the CTA’s Yellow and Red Lines five days a week to get to volunteer opportunities across the city. I used public transit throughout college, and for the past five years I commuted downtown by Metra. While I now own a car, public transportation was not a lifestyle choice for most of my life. It was the only way I could get to school, work, and community commitments.

That experience shapes how I view transportation policy. Public transit is not a convenience. It is a lifeline. When service is unreliable, inaccessible, or underfunded, people lose access to jobs, education, healthcare, and family. I’ve seen firsthand how transit gaps disproportionately affect working people, students, seniors, and people with disabilities.

That’s why I view sustained investment in public transit as a top policy priority. Transportation policy should be built around reliability, affordability, and accessibility, not austerity. If we want an economy that works for everyone, people must be able to get where they need to go safely and affordably. Public transit makes that possible, and it deserves to be treated as essential infrastructure.

What are some transportation challenges in your district?

Transportation in IL-09 is facing a crisis that has been made worse by federal policy choices. Our region already struggles with aging infrastructure, accessibility gaps, workforce shortages, and a looming transit fiscal cliff driven by the loss of pandemic-era federal support. Instead of helping stabilize and modernize our transit systems, the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to withhold, delay, or freeze federal transit funding tied to projects in the Chicago region.

The president is making a political point at the expense of millions of commuters. When Congressionally approved transit dollars are obstructed, the consequences are immediate and deeply personal. This is not an abstract policy. It affects whether people can get to work on time, attend school, access healthcare, buy groceries, or move safely through their communities. For many residents of IL-09, public transportation is not a choice. It is the only way to meet basic daily needs.

For the next few years, this administration will be the biggest challenge to our transportation systems in IL-09. Working with the administration where possible is necessary, but fighting against it to protect Illinois commuters is even more crucial. As a member of Congress, I will defend Congress’s power of the purse, ensure federal transit funds are delivered as appropriated, and push for stable, long-term investments in reliable, accessible public transportation. Protecting transit is about protecting people’s ability to live and work with dignity.

How do you view Congress’s role in setting priorities for public transit, passenger rail, and strengthening accessibility in transportation?

Congress has a clear responsibility to make public transit a priority. People rely on it to get to work and school. It’s how millions access medical care and basic necessities. When transit systems fall into disrepair, the impact is immediate and real. Workers miss shifts, businesses lose customers, seniors and people with disabilities are cut off from daily life, and entire neighborhoods are left behind.

The federal government must ensure that communities have transportation they can actually count on. Buses and trains should be safe, run on time, and be accessible to everyone. No one should have to plan their life around constant delays, unsafe conditions, or inaccessible stations just to get to their job. Roads and bridges also matter. In my district, crumbling infrastructure and winter damage make daily commutes harder and more dangerous than they should be.

Congress’s role is not just to approve funding but to set clear standards and enforce them. That means prioritizing accessibility, directing resources to transit-dependent communities, and structuring grants so reliability, safety, and equity come first. Transportation is not a luxury. It is essential infrastructure. Congress must fund and protect it accordingly.

What’s your position on the Federal government and Illinois’ current transportation infrastructure spending, and if you could change anything, what would it be?

I would unfreeze the $2.1 billion in federal funding for the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line Extension project. Contrived accusations from the Trump administration about contracting procedures mean entire neighborhoods are cut off from their most essential transit option. That means people can’t get to their jobs, can’t access downtown, and can’t visit their family and friends in other parts of the city. That is immoral and unconstitutional. The executive cannot freeze funds that were duly appropriated by Congress just because he feels like it. That’s not how co-equal branches of government work. I will work to help Congress reclaim its power. Anyone who has taken Civics 101 knows that Congress has the power of the purse, yet that’s not the way our government is functioning right now. Reappropriating funds to build a transit system that better serves the constituents of my district is a fine place to start.

What is your position on investing to expand passenger rail service in Illinois, including the development of high-speed rail?

I am in favor of both proposals. The metropolitan Chicago area is the heart of the United States railroad system. Trains are in my district’s DNA. We should be the ones to lead the rest of the country in developing world-class rail service that boosts local economies, reduces the region’s carbon footprint, and gets passengers to their destinations with convenience, safety and affordability.

Federal funding for Illinois transportation projects – such as the Red Line Extension and Red-Purple Modernization projects – has come under threat from the Trump administration. How do you plan to shore up funding for critical infrastructure projects under a hostile federal climate?

Illinois’ transportation infrastructure is suffering not because projects lack merit, but because the executive branch has weaponized funding decisions. Under a hostile federal climate, my role as a member of Congress would be to make transportation funding a sustained legislative and oversight priority, not a reactive fight.

First, I would push to immediately unfreeze the $2.1 billion in federal funding for the CTA Red Line Extension through aggressive oversight. That means demanding hearings, issuing subpoenas if necessary, and forcing the Department of Transportation to publicly justify any deviation from congressional appropriations. Funds lawfully appropriated by Congress must be spent as directed. Restoring that norm requires enforcement, not requests.

Second, I would seek assignment to committees with direct jurisdiction over transportation and appropriations so Illinois is not sidelined when funding decisions are made. Committee work is where projects are protected, timelines are enforced, and hostile administrations are boxed in by statute.

Third, I would work to strengthen statutory guardrails that limit executive discretion to delay or freeze infrastructure funds once awarded. Congress can and should clarify timelines, penalties, and automatic disbursement triggers to prevent future abuse. Public transit could not be more essential for daily life in IL-09. I will treat transportation funding as essential infrastructure and use every legislative and oversight tool available to ensure it is delivered, regardless of who occupies the White House.

Our streets have become increasingly militarized in the past several months as the Trump administration has ramped up DHS and ICE activity in our cities. This past summer, Congress voted to increase the ICE budget larger than most of the world's militaries.

What is your position on ICE and related immigration enforcement?

Our streets have become increasingly militarized as the Trump administration has poured unprecedented resources into DHS and ICE. At a time when families are struggling to afford rent, groceries, healthcare, and basic necessities, Congress has approved an ICE budget larger than the militaries of many nations. Those dollars are not making us safer. They are being used to terrorize people.

In my district, residents are afraid to go to work, buy groceries, or take a walk without fear of being violently detained. Children go to school not knowing whether their parents will be home when class lets out. This is not public safety. This is state violence. ICE is notoriously secretive, but the outcomes are clear: people are seized without due process, held in inhumane conditions without adequate food, water, or sanitation, transferred far from their families, deported, and in some cases subjected to abuse.

As an elected Skokie School Board member in District 73.5, I acted to protect families by helping pass resolutions ensuring ICE could not enter school buildings without a judicial warrant. Schools must be places of safety, not fear. Beyond the school board, I worked alongside community organizations advocating at Village of Skokie meetings to push for similar protections on municipal property, reinforcing that local governments have a responsibility to use every tool available to defend their residents. That work reflects a simple principle: we cannot wait for Washington to act when harm is happening now.

I support abolishing ICE. No agency should operate with this level of impunity. Short of abolition, immigration enforcement must be bound by the same constitutional standards as any other law enforcement body. No warrantless searches. No home or workplace raids. No harassment of civilians. The Constitution applies to everyone.

Our priorities are upside down. Instead of funding raids and detention, we should be investing in immigration judges, legal counsel, and timely adjudication so cases are resolved fairly and humanely. We should expand community based alternatives to detention, protect mixed status families, clear green card backlogs, and create real pathways to citizenship. Fear is not governance. Justice, due process, and dignity are.