U.S. House of Representatives
Elections 1998 In 1998, Napolitano was termed out of the State Assembly and decided to run for a State Senate seat being vacated by
Charles Calderon. She would be facing a difficult race against fellow termed-out Assemblywoman
Martha Escutia. Three days before the candidate filing deadline, U.S. Representative
Esteban Torres announced his retirement, hoping the late timing of his decision would help his son-in-law, James "Jamie" Casso, win the seat. Napolitano switched races at the last moment and narrowly defeated Casso in the Democratic primary, 51% to 49%. A 2009 story first reported by Bloomberg News and further detailed by the
Los Angeles Times questioned the personal loan interest rate that the
Federal Election Commission authorized Napolitano to use during her 1998 campaign for Congress. Both Bloomberg and the
Times noted that the FEC had accepted the argument that the 18% rate was equivalent to the early withdrawal penalty that Napolitano was subject to by withdrawing $150,000 from her employee retirement fund and then lending that money to her campaign. Both sources also reported the rate dropping to 10% in 2006, and cited FEC filings as of December 31, 2009, indicating that $221,780 in interest had been paid.
The Hill reported that FEC filings for the campaign reporting period ending September 30, 2010, indicated that the debt had been completely retired. In July 2023, Napolitano announced her intention to retire from Congress and not seek re-election in 2024.
Tenure In 2011, Napolitano voted against the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 as part of a controversial provision that allows the government and the military to indefinitely detain American citizens and others without trial.
Natural Resources Committee Napolitano has been a member of the
House Committee on Natural Resources since the 106th Congress and was selected as chair of the
Water and Power Subcommittee for the 110th Congress. She has promoted conservation, water recycling, desalination, and sound groundwater management and storage to address Southern California's need for adequate water quality and supply. She is proud of her legislative efforts on a number of fronts—assisting in the implementation of the
CALFED Bay-Delta Program, a water management plan for the State of California, protection of the ecosystem in the Bay-Delta and promotion of the use of advanced technologies. She is also a member of the
Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus.
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee At the start of the 110th Congress, Napolitano became the most senior new member of the
House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, with jurisdiction over America's aviation system, surface transportation, freight and passenger rail, the inland waterway system, international maritime commerce, the
Economic Development Administration, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' support of the nation's water resources, and the federal clean water program. Napolitano's experience includes six years on the California State Assembly Transportation Committee, and current work on rail safety and congestion relief in the
San Gabriel Valley.
Hearings: •
Oversight of U.S. Airline Customer Service: May 2, 2017. Napolitano posed questions to the witnesses, including
Oscar Munoz, after committee chair
Bill Shuster left his chair. Her questions were critical of the airlines' plans to impose self-regulation in response to recent customer service controversies. As the founder and chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus, Napolitano further asked whether the airlines provide mental health services to their employees because of the stressful nature of flight attendant jobs and increasing demands that airlines make of flight attendants. William J. McGee, the country's foremost expert and advocate on consumer rights as the Aviation Consultant for
Consumers Union responded that this was "an excellent question because… right now we have a situation where employees are under tremendous strain because of the executive decisions that are putting flight attendants in the front lines of many of these situations. Flight attendants have a primary responsibility to ensure safety, evacuation, and of course customer service, but we have asked them to be bouncers, and police officers, and all kinds of other things, so there is no question that there is an issue of training as well."
Congressional Mental Health Caucus Statistics showing one in three Latina adolescents contemplated
suicide prompted Napolitano to spearhead a school-based Latina adolescent
mental health program in three local middle schools and one high school. She and
Tim Murphy co-chair the
Congressional Mental Health Caucus. The bipartisan caucus included more than 70 members during the 108th Congress and over 90 members during the 109th Congress. As co-chair, Napolitano has hosted congressional briefings on children's and veteran's mental health needs, working on proposals to improve VA mental health services. A key priority is legislation to provide mental health parity in health insurance.
Congressional Hispanic Caucus During the 109th Congress, Napolitano chaired the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which continues to address national education, immigration, health, and civil rights issues, and the impact these policies have on the Hispanic community.
Committee assignments For the
118th Congress: •
Committee on Natural Resources •
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources •
Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries •
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure •
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management •
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit •
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials •
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment (Ranking Member)
Caucus memberships •
Medicare for All Caucus • Congressional Hispanic Caucus • Congressional Mental Health Caucus (Co-Chair) •
Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus •
Congressional Equality Caucus •
United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus •
House Baltic Caucus •
Congressional Arts Caucus •
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus •
Congressional Progressive Caucus •
Congressional Taiwan Caucus ==Political positions==