As California’s senior Senator, Dianne Feinstein has built a reputation as an independent voice, working hard to find commonsense solutions to problems facing California and the nation.
Since her election to the Senate in 1992, Senator Feinstein has built a significant record of legislative achievements across a wide range of issues.
Senator Feinstein led a bipartisan group of senators in passing legislation to drastically increase the fuel efficiency of cars. She was a leading voice in the effort to legalize gay marriage and ensure rights for LGBT Americans. She’s a champion for the preservation of the Mojave Desert, Lake Tahoe and California’s forests. She helped create the nationwide AMBER Alert network, passed bills to criminalize border drug tunnels and has long focused on improving California’s water infrastructure and reducing the threat of wildfires. She also continues to advocate for commonsense gun laws.
Education remains the primary tool to get a good-paying job and support a family. Senator Feinstein believes Washington must do more to improve the quality of K-12 education and increase the affordability of higher education.
College affordability
The cost of higher education dissuades too many young people from enrolling in college, and the burden of student loan debt prevents too many borrowers from buying a home, opening a business or starting a family.
Senator Feinstein supports proposals to allow student loan borrowers to refinance both their federal and private student loans at lower interest rates, in the same way homeowners can refinance the mortgages. These changes would save borrowers hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Senator Feinstein has consistently used her role on the Senate Appropriations Committee to fight for robust funding of many federal financial aid assistance programs, including the Pell Grant, Federal Work-Study, and the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) programs, that support millions of undergraduate students pursuing a degree.
In addition, Senator Feinstein has been a supporter of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which forgives federal student loans for borrowers who have worked for ten years in the public sector as long as they have made 120 qualifying monthly payments. She has consistently supported efforts to protect and strengthen the program. Senator Feinstein also backed the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has developed new tools to help students learn about options for paying for college and repaying student loans.
Expansion of early-learning programs
Research has clearly demonstrated the effect of early learning programs on a child’s long-term educational attainment. Children who attend preschool are more likely to graduate from high school and college than children who don’t attend preschool.
Senator Feinstein supports universal access to early learning programs and has long supported funding for the expansion of early childhood education. That is why she fights for the funding of programs such as Head Start and Early Head Start, which provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children, and promotes cognitive development for young students.