Richard Neal
Liberal
Democrat
House Representative
Massachusetts - District 1
Current Position: US House Representative MA-1
Running For: House Representative - District 1
Policy Positions
Economic Policy
- For federal investment in passenger rail expansion (East-West Rail) and infrastructure projects in western/central Massachusetts, secured through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
- For maintaining and supporting military installations, including securing new F-35A aircraft fleet for Barnes Air National Guard Base
- For directing federal community project funding to local infrastructure, education, healthcare, and social service organizations in his district
- For pandemic-era economic relief measures, including stimulus checks, expanded Child Tax Credit, expanded unemployment benefits, and the Paycheck Protection Program
- For the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS and Science Act as tools for economic recovery and growth
- For middle-class tax cuts and expansion of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit
- For tax incentives to promote affordable housing development
- For using tax credit programs (New Markets Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits) to fund local economic development projects
- For expanding federal tax benefits to Puerto Rico, including permanently fixing Child Tax Credit eligibility and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit via a 3-to-1 federal match through the American Rescue Plan
- For strengthening and protecting Social Security, including cosponsoring legislation to increase benefit amounts, writing the Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act to fix the Windfall Elimination Provision, and reforming oversight of the Social Security payee program
Business & Labor
- For expanding access to higher education and workforce training, including increasing the American Opportunity Tax Credit and supporting apprenticeship and technical training programs
- For organized labor and workers' right to unionize, maintaining a strong pro-labor voting record
- For pension protection reform, including passage of the Butch Lewis Act to secure multiemployer pension systems
- For prevailing wage requirements and apprenticeship incentives in clean energy projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act
- For directing federal relief funding, such as through the CARES Act follow-up legislation, to support minority-owned and women-owned small businesses
- For expanding retirement savings opportunities through the SECURE Act and SECURE Act 2.0, the Butch Lewis Act to protect multi-employer pensions, enhancements to the Saver's Credit, and allowing long-term part-time workers to participate in employer 401(k) plans
Health Care
- For expanding rural hospital access, including advocating for changes to Critical Access Hospital Designation to reopen North Adams Regional Hospital
- For the Affordable Care Act, including efforts to protect and expand it, lower premiums, extend subsidies, and protect coverage for preexisting conditions
- For lowering prescription drug costs through Medicare negotiation, capping out-of-pocket costs, capping insulin prices, eliminating vaccine costs, and penalizing companies for price hikes above inflation
- For expanding Medicare negotiation power and extending negotiated drug prices to private insurance through the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act
- For increased investment in medical research and health innovation, including bringing ARPA-H hub investment to Massachusetts
- For protections and reforms for elder care and nursing homes, including sponsoring the Elder Justice Reauthorization and Modernization Act and the Nursing Home Ownership and Accountability Act
- For addressing healthcare inequities in rural and underserved communities through policy research and reform proposals
- For extending Affordable Care Act benefits to DREAMers
Education
- For increased federal funding for HBCUs and minority-serving institutions, including an $85 million grant program for Black and Hispanic colleges and $225 million in permanent annual federal funding for HBCUs
Environment
- For aggressive climate action, having led passage of the Inflation Reduction Act's climate provisions, including clean energy tax incentives, emissions reduction goals, and clean manufacturing investment
- For integrating environmental sustainability into broader policy areas such as trade, infrastructure, and health care
- For reducing healthcare industry greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging the sector to adopt greener practices
Civil Rights
- For LGBTQ+ equality and civil rights protections; championed the PRIDE Act to correct discriminatory tax treatment of same-sex married couples, cosponsored the Equality Act and Protecting LGBTQ Youth Act, opposed Trump's ban on transgender military service, voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, cosponsored the Student Non-Discrimination Act, repeatedly voted for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, voted against a constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman, voted against banning same-sex couples from adopting in DC, voted for the Gay and Lesbian Youth Suicide Prevention Act, and signed an amicus brief opposing the Defense of Marriage Act
Voting Rights & Democracy
- For providing opportunities for Puerto Rican self-determination on statehood, and for securing federal disaster relief and infrastructure support for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria
Immigration & Foreign Affairs
- For comprehensive immigration reform, including pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and DREAMers, expedited work visas, and expansion of America's work visa program
- For birthright citizenship
Public Safety
- For stronger gun safety measures, including reinstating a federal assault weapons ban, banning bump stocks, universal background checks, expanding firearm prohibitions for domestic abusers and stalkers, 'No Fly, No Buy' policy, CDC funding for gun violence research, mental health reporting to background check systems, raising minimum age to purchase guns to 21, and opposing arming teachers
- For the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which enhanced background checks, addressed dating violence loopholes, and expanded mental health and violence intervention programs
- For allowing lawsuits against gun manufacturers for firearm deaths; against protecting gun makers/sellers from liability for misuse
- Against reducing the gun purchase waiting period from 3 days to 1
- For expanding opioid addiction treatment and prevention efforts rather than imposing stricter criminal penalties; authored legislation adding opioid treatment providers to Medicare coverage, reformed Medicare payment structures for psychiatric facilities, worked to enforce mental health parity in insurance coverage, and supports protecting Medicaid expansion under the ACA
- For police reform measures including banning chokeholds, eliminating qualified immunity for police officers, banning no-knock warrants in drug cases, establishing a National Police Misconduct Registry, and ending racial/religious profiling, as an original cosponsor of the Justice in Policing Act of 2020
- Against the use of military force against American civilians
- For making lynching a federal hate crime
- Against the death penalty; has voted repeatedly to end the practice and make it harder to carry out
- Against increased prosecution and sentencing for juvenile crime; for funding alternative sentencing programs instead of more prisons and expanding re-entry services for formerly incarcerated people