David Price represents North Carolina's Fourth District a rapidly growing, research-and-education-focused district that includes all of Durham, Franklin, Granville and Orange counties as well as parts of Chatham, Wake, and Vance counties. He received his undergraduate degree at UNC-Chapel Hill and went on to Yale University to earn a Bachelor of Divinity as well as a Ph.D. in Political Science. Before he began serving in Congress in 1987, David was a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University. He is the author of four books on Congress and the American political system.
As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and member of the House Budget Committee, I have fought consistently for robust investments in education, innovation, infrastructure, and the other things that make our nation strong, while also working to promote fairness and fiscal responsibility in the federal budget process.
In the current Congress, I serve as the Chairman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, which oversees federal transportation and housing funding. I also serve on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee and the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee.
I believe we are at a tipping point in the short history of campaign finance reform: We can either stand by the common-sense reforms enacted after the Watergate scandal, or we can cede control of political campaigns entirely to the wealthy and monied interests. The responsible choice is clear.
I have been at the forefront of Democratic efforts to protect our electoral process and have authored legislation, the Empowering Citizens Act, which would modernize and refine the presidential campaign financing system, create a new small donor matching system for congressional campaigns, and establish clear rules on coordination between candidates and "Super PACs." These commonsense, concrete steps would diminish the influence of high-dollar special interests in our elections and encourage grassroots participation at all levels of politics.
I am the author of the "Stand By Your Ad" requirement, which requires candidates to appear in, and claim responsibility for, the content of their campaign ads. I also reintroduced my “Stand By Every Ad” legislation, which would extend the original Stand By Your Ad requirement to Super PACs.
America's children are her greatest resource, and federal support for public education is essential to ensuring that our young people can fulfill their potential and grow into the leaders, innovators, and productive workers of tomorrow. As a product of our state's public university system and a career educator myself, I have always regarded education as my highest priority in the Congress. My successful legislative initiatives include the Advanced Technological Education program at the National Science Foundation, which supports innovative curricula and teaching methods at community colleges; the law making interest on student loans tax-deductible; and national scholarships for prospective teachers modeled on our state's successful Teaching Fellows program.
Today, the challenges facing our education system are many, from reforming and improving the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, or "No Child Left Behind"), to making sure children from all walks of life, including those with disabilities, have equal opportunities to learn. In order to keep the doors of opportunity open to all students who strive for a bright future, we must ensure that a college education is accessible and affordable; I have supported student loan reforms which have eliminated "middlemen" and made more funds available to students on better terms. We must also take additional steps to attract and retain teachers and to provide our students with the resources they need to succeed.
As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I am fighting to avoid teacher layoffs and other ill-advised cuts in education funding. I believe strongly that quality education is the essential key to our economic competitiveness and prosperity, and that current efforts to cut education funding in the name of reducing the budget are dangerously misguided and counterproductive.
As your Representative, I will continue to fight to preserve and expand educational opportunities in the Fourth District and throughout the country. As Congress continues to debate education policy, I hope you will keep in touch with your views.
The wise stewardship of our natural resources is critical to our nation's national security, public health, and quality of life, and I am a staunch supporter of efforts to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat from environmental contamination.
In order to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment – today and for future generations – we must continue to build on landmark environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. We must also continue to provide robust funding for programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the National Park Service, which help protect important wild places and make them accessible to the public. Coming from a family of avid animal lovers, I am also a strong supporter of legislation to protect animals, wildlife, and the habitat on which they depend.
In the Fourth District, we also understand the importance of new energy and environmental technologies to our economic development, and I have worked as a member of the Appropriations Committee to promote federal investments in environmental research, renewable energy technologies, and other "green" industries that will be essential to our future economic competitiveness. I am a member of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, and together we are working to promote a more sustainable national energy policy that includes conservation and renewable energy provisions and moves us away from our dependence on fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, in the previous Congress our landmark environmental laws and our investments in a cleaner and greener future came under threat like never before. As your Representative, I will continue working to resist attempts to undercut critical environmental laws and to provide adequate funding for energy and environmental research. As Congress debates these important issues, I hope you will keep in touch with your views.
Our nation is facing new and renewed national security challenges. The brutal attacks in Paris and San Bernardino underscore the grave threat posed by Daesh, also known as the Islamic State. President Obama’s multifaceted strategy for confronting this threat has succeeded in recovering more than 40 percent of the territory held by Daesh in Iraq, but we must not relent in our efforts to combat this scourge.
American foreign policy should emphasize our role as a force for global peace and stability and as an exemplar of democratic values. In the current Congress, I serve as co-chair of the House Democracy Partnership, a bipartisan commission of the House of Representatives that provides support to parliaments in developing democracies. I was also instrumental in securing congressional support for the Iran Nuclear Agreement, which I strongly believe will prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and I have spearheaded successful efforts to improve transparency and accountability for private military contractors.
I have always believed that reasonable measures that reduce gun violence and keep firearms out of the wrong hands are entirely consistent with the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have tried to advance commonsense reforms that protect our communities from harm while still allowing responsible, law-abiding citizens to own and use guns. Our current laws are failing us, and I refuse to believe that this issue is too complicated or too politically divisive to be addressed comprehensively and effectively.
As a Vice Chair of the House Democrats' Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, I have helped lead the effort within Congress to help prevent tragedies from recurring. The Task Force's proposal calls for a reinstatement of federal bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, universal background checks on gun sales, and expanded support for mental health services. The proposal also encourages the expansion of critical law enforcement activities to reduce gun violence--such as local gun buy-back programs--and removing misguided restrictions on research into the causes of gun violence in our communities.
On the Appropriations Committee, I have led efforts to eliminate the federal ban on funding for gun violence research, which has been in place for decades. I strongly believe that this ban is outdated and misguided, and that academic research could provide important insights that could help reduce the impact of gun violence.
In an effort to jump-start consideration of comprehensive reforms, Democrats in Congress have also introduced several stand-alone bills to strengthen and improve our nation's gun laws. Among other measures, I am a cosponsor of legislation to expand background checks and close the "gun show loophole" that allows as many as 40 percent of all guns sold in the United States to change hands without proper screening; legislation to repeal the so-called "Tiahrt restrictions" that prevent federal agencies from enforcing anti-gun trafficking laws; and legislation that would impose stricter penalties on gun dealers who skirt the law.
These bills represent sensible–and in some cases, bipartisan–reforms that would have a measurable impact on the safety of our schools and communities without preventing law-abiding citizens from using guns for self defense or recreational purposes. President Obama has made clear that achieving progress on this issue is a priority for his second term; it is now up to Congress to fulfill its responsibilities and pass comprehensive legislation to reduce gun violence.
All Americans should have access to a safe, affordable place to call home, but too many families in North Carolina and around the country are denied this basic necessity. Greedy, irresponsible behavior in the subprime mortgage market, abetted by lax or nonexistent regulation has made matters much worse and contributed to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, leaving far too many families in desperate situations.
As the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, I strongly support adequate funding for a broad range of programs designed to promote affordable housing, homeownership, and community development. We have a responsibility to work together to bring the American dream within reach for as many as possible.
We must ensure that our government makes good on its obligation to provide them with adequate health care, educational and career opportunities, and other support services. We must also ensure that those who continue to serve on active duty have the support they need from back home, whether it is adequate protective equipment, compensation for extended or repeated tours of duty, or sufficient training and recuperation time between tours.
I firmly believe that, while we must work to reduce the deficit and eliminate the debt, we must ensure that our national checkbook is not balanced on the backs of men and women who have served–and sacrificed–for our country.
As a member of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Appropriations, I have fought over the years to ensure that the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) have the resources they need to meet the needs of service members and veterans in the Fourth District and across the country.
As Chairman of the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, I lead the committee that oversees federal transportation and housing funding. These are vitally important issues in the Fourth District and throughout North Carolina. Our highways and railroads are crumbling and overcrowded, and affordable housing is all too scarce in our communities. I believe that since the House flipped in 2011, the policies of the Republican majority have left these programs chronically underfunded.
First and foremost, we must maintain our roads, highways and interstates, and bridges, which are critical to our economic prosperity as well as our quality of life. But new and widened roads alone cannot solve the traffic congestion and other problems that have become a part of daily life for many Fourth District residents. I am a strong supporter of "smart growth" development, which emphasizes greater coordination of housing, public transportation, and economic development plans at the local level, as well as an advocate for a "complete streets" policy that improves transportation options for all users – including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, older persons, individuals with disabilities, and motorists. I have worked with local leaders to advance a plan for expanded bus and regional rail, and have also helped lead the fight in Congress to expand and improve high-speed rail in critical corridors, including the Southeast. We simply must develop a true multi-modal transportation strategy in order to keep pace with our community's needs.