SANDY KENNEDY FOR CONGRESS

It is not possible to uphold a woman’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and equal protection of the laws when a state pauses her constitutional rights while she is pregnant, denies her a medically necessary termination of pregnancy until she is on the verge of death, or when her doctors cannot exercise their medical expertise out of fear of prosecution and loss of their medical license.

• Protect women’s rights to all medically advisable reproductive medical care without exceptions
• Protect in vitro fertilization (IVF)
• Protect right to contraceptives
• Equal pay for equal work
• Wage transparency requirements
• Legislative protection of females for all pregnancy related medical care including terminations of pregnancy, and instead of bans, use a purely medical standard of viability, without government intrusion. At or near viability, c-section if termination is advisable for the health of the mother.
• Positive legislative measures for women, teens and families to support births (without coercion or delay), to provide resources and support through pregnancy and infancy, such as nurseries in colleges, childbirth credits, increased child tax credits, universal pregnancy and infant medical care, etc.
• Propose legislation for Pregnancy and Infant Medicare
• Protect teens in high school from having to disclose menstrual periods—eliminate all disclosure rules–both voluntary and mandatory–something that started as a voluntary disclosure, and has been slow-walked to discussions of mandatory requirements.
• Prevent states from tracking medical activities in state and across state borders, and from seeking information about medical activities across state borders
• Protect health privacy (for all people) against government intrusion
• Red flag laws for protection against domestic and repeat violence (for both sexes)
• Protect women’s rights to equal protection, human rights and constitutional rights, without diminishment during pregnancy
• Educate members of Congress and the public on why bans on terminations of pregnancy violate women’s and girls’ constitutional rights
• Protect women’s and girls’ constitutional liberty rights
• Protect women’s and girls’ reasonable expectations of liberty and privacy
• Protect bodily autonomy as constitutional rights to liberty, life, be secure (4th Amendment), equal protection and privacy
• Assure that public health funding and military funding include all of the above legislative protections, and eliminate the Hyde Amendment.
• VOTE YES ON AMENDMENT 4, PROTECTING WOMEN.
• WOMEN WILL NOT GO BACK.

Things to consider: 

Rape and incest are severely underreported.  It is unreasonable to expect women and young girls to damage their familial and friend relationships by reporting rape and incest as a condition to receiving a termination of pregnancy. Exceptions for the life of the mother are not enough, because they make doctors wait until the risk of death is unreasonably high before starting reasonable, ordinary and necessary medical treatment

Life is not black or white. Medical care is not black or white.  Absolute criminal bans have no place in medical care for pregnancy.

Government has no legitimate interest in elevating the rights to life and health of an embryo or fetus over the rights to life and health of a woman or girl.

Medically, a pregnancy is measured from the first day of a woman’s last menstrual cycle, which could be a full month or more before conception, which means that 6 week bans result in 100% bans on terminations of pregnancy.

Constitutional rights are federal rights, not states’ rights. Individuals’ health and life are individual rights, not states’ rights.

Examples of conditions that require terminations of pregnancy:

• Water breaks before the embryo or fetus is viable
• Cancer, need for chemotherapy or radiation, pregnancy causing / worsening cancer
• Preeclampsia (potentially deadly high blood pressure)
• Nonviable embryo or fetus, or not likely to survive a short time after birth
• A girl’s body, mental state, or maturity level are not developed enough for her to go through pregnancy or give birth
• Mental or physical conditions that should reasonably rule out or mitigate against pregnancy and birth
• Severe prenatal genetic defects or conditions
• Already deceased embryo or fetus
• Ectopic pregnancy

It is not possible to uphold a woman’s human rights or constitutional rights to life, liberty, and equal protection of the laws with bans on termination of pregnancy, because states pause her constitutional rights to life, health and equal protection while she is pregnant, deny her medically necessary terminations of pregnancy until she is on the verge of death, cause medical providers to shut down and leave the state, and prevent doctors from the free professional exercise of their medical expertise out of fear of prosecution and loss of their medical license.

Doctors’ constitutional liberty rights are violated also. 

Women have dangerous health conditions even after viability of the fetus.

Bans on terminations of pregnancy are overbroad, criminalizing and ensnaring innocent efforts to obtain medical care.

Bans on terminations of pregnancy tend to flip the burden of proof to guilty until proven innocent.

Bans on terminations of pregnancy violate reasonable expectations of privacy, and the doctor-patient privilege and confidential relationship.

Bans on terminations of pregnancy are inhumane and lack compassion for the health and lives of women and girls.

• Investigation into an excess profits tax on food, basic essentials, and other items, intended to support affordability, whether to be put into effect under limited conditions, or to be permanent.
• Limit on lender requirements that borrowers maintain property insurance on residential property–tie to mortgage balance
• Investigate legislation to address the high cost of property insurance
• Strengthen monopoly laws to be more effective in the purpose of the law to increase competitive pricing for the consumer, to address lack of enforcement.
• Legislation banning trading interests in residential properties
• Equal pay for equal work
• Wage transparency requirements
• Raise the minimum wage, which has gone too long without proper adjustment.
• Legislation to assess companies for a de facto wage subsidy (that they received in support of employee wages) if disproportionate numbers of their employees chronically receive federal aid, food stamps, federally subsidized housing, Medicaid, etc., possibly with guidelines to avoid the assessment.
• Increase the $500,000 exemption from income on the sale of primary residence
• Restrictions on, or penalties for, corporations’ or individuals’ ownership of hundreds or thousands of residential properties for profit, where that drives up the cost or lowers availability of housing
• Legislation codifying the requirement to disclose cash sales of residences to avoid money laundering motives for the commercial purchases of residential properties
• Legislation decentivizing, restricting, imposing limits on, or banning conversion of residential properties to commercial use even in mixed-use areas or residential areas bordering commercial uses, and incentivizing a return to residential use of previously converted residential property.
• Investigate into the present sufficiency of federal housing subsidies and incentives to build / own low-income housing, and promotion of the programs
• Codify / protect (to the extent required) Biden-Harris programs to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025, and promotion of the programs
• Cap the amount of “reasonable” compensation, wages, salaries, bonuses that qualify as deductions from income in calculating corporate or partnership income taxation to something less than high double or triple-digit millions.
• Legislation for fair and reasonable protection of union activities to help restore the middle class, such as the PRO Act
• Strengthen legislation prohibiting child labor and reversing the trend toward child labor
• Strengthen legislation requiring safe working conditions
• Protect provision of low-income cell phones and internet service
• Consider legislation providing basic school supplies through public schools.

• Support and participate in writing effective, reasonable immigration reform legislation
• Allow asylum applications to be submitted from South and Central America, to reduce the stress on the border
• Legislation as needed to support Biden’s task to Harris of incentivizing investment in Central and South American countries that are the source of the greatest numbers of immigrants
• Legislation to incentivize free elections, human rights, constitutional revision and free trade in Venezuela, including retroactive compliance with the outcome of the last election, to reduce immigration crisis from Venezuela to the U.S.
• Greater funding for border patrol, border activities, equipment, drones, and offices
• Greater funding and more immigration judges to process the backlog of 3 million immigration and asylum applications
• Authorize and set standards, rules and processes for when DHS or a President will be authorized to shut the border
• New quotas and limits, which are outdated since the 1980’s
• Humane immigration reform, ensure that processes are aligned with human rights standards and preserve individuals’ dignity, rights, health, and safety
• Prompt path to citizenship for Dreamers and long-term residents of the U.S.
• Policy of keeping families together, no separation of children from adults or parents.
• Eliminate unnecessarily harsh and oppressive laws and regulations, such as the requirement to leave the country to apply for citizenship, requirements to stay out of the country for 10 years if one leaves during an application process, etc.
• Green Card Veterans: Raise awareness about the deportation of military veterans and pass legislation that would allow for the return of previously deported green card veterans and their families.
• Allow immigrants temporary work permits whenever it can feasibly be done so they can support themselves, such as for agriculture or construction in Florida, to reduce the need for public support and to gain more contributions to federal taxes, Social Security, Medicare etc.
• It is unconstitutional for Florida to enter into an alliance with Texas to fly immigrants to other states, and not a proper use of Floridian’s property tax dollars.
• Border legislation to stop fentanyl from coming into the country
• Hearing or expert report on border management, wall, fentanyl, trafficking, etc.
• Better processes for suspected human trafficking

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are constantly under attack by Republican politicians. Billionaires and multi-millionaires should contribute substantially more toward the income stability of people in need. There is no legitimate reason Social Security should be threatened with shut down year after year. It is unjustifiable and inexcusable that working people have contributed to Social Security for decades, and are threatened with it not being available for them when they retire.

• Strengthen Social Security by raising the income cutoff to contribute to Social Security. The cutoff should approximate whatever is necessary to make the programs fully and sufficiently solvent, and rates may be lower. A “donut” to avoid overtaxing the lower portion of 1% would likely be required. The top 1%, minus the “donut,” should be taxed substantially more.
• Legislation requiring Medicare to negotiate all drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, and cost protection for insulin and inhalers
• Legislation requiring and setting conditions under which Medicare and Medicaid would pay for dietary supplements where effective and less expensive than drugs
• Legislation protecting the retirement age from being raised
• Protect Social Security reserves and administrative staff from cuts
• Protect spousal and children’s Social Security death benefits from cuts
• Floridians should have the Medicaid and other benefits Congress has passed for the people.
• Protect Medicare from cuts in benefit levels and amounts paid to providers

• Federal fair voting standards (standardized mail-in ballot rules, paper ballot requirement, single federal deadline for federal candidates to qualify to be on ballots)
• System to prevent voting in two states or the wrong state, while still protecting Floridians’ constitutional rights to privacy
• Legislation restoring the right to vote after release from incarceration, even if you owe criminal fines and fees, because inability to pay should not eliminate your constitutional right to vote.
• John Lewis Voting Rights Act, or other legislation to protect against suppression of the right to vote
• Redistricting by neutral organizations, to prevent gerrymandering.
• Supreme Court decision in Citizens United has created a situation in which big interest money is exerting extreme control and power over our elections. As part of election fairness, we need new campaign finance rules, including public campaign finance laws, to assure that elections are fair and not dominated by big money, such as Big Agriculture, Big Food, and Big Pharma.

There is no plausible argument for governmental fiscal responsibility without the wealthiest taxpayers paying their fair, reasonable share of taxes. Our past history of greater tax fairness was also a time of greater shared prosperity. Credit: Inequality.org

In the 1950’s, the highest tax rate was 92%. In 1963, it was lowered by JFK to 72%. In the 1980’s, it was lowered to 50%. Now it is 37%, but billionaires and multi-millionaires don’t pay that amount because they have the ability to take $350 million or more each, in deductions for charitable donations.

The “Trickle Down” theory was never supported by actual facts, and does not qualify as equal protection of the laws. The national debt does not benefit from “trickle down.” And the people have not benefited from “trickle down.”

• Strengthen Social Security by increasing the income cutoff for Social Security contributions, and making the wealthiest taxpayers pay their fair share of Social Security on full or substantially more income.
• Make billionaires pay their fair and reasonable share of taxes so that we can pay down the national debt and fund the people’s work.
• Eliminate excessive income exclusions and deductions that allow billionaires and multi-millionaires to pay low or no taxes
• Lower the amount of allowable charitable deductions for the wealthiest Americans
• Cap the cost of “reasonable” compensation, wages, salaries, bonuses (as deductions from income in calculating corporate income taxation) to something less than high double or triple-digit millions. (If excessive compensation were to be paid, the excessive portion would be treated as profit and taxable.)
• Eliminate “Trickle Down” as a theory of taxation
• Refocus federal taxation law on what is needed to pay down the national debt while also funding the people’s work
• Increase contribution limits to dependent care accounts, and increase child tax credits

• Protect and respect the members of NATO
• Support dialogue with Russia on freeing Ukraine, and refocusing Putin’s legacy on peace and free elections for Russia
• Not withhold National Defense measures as negotiation tactics to extract budget concessions or approval of unrelated bills
• Not withhold military raises, promotions or reassignments as negotiation tactic to extract budget concessions or approval of unrelated bills
• Prompt budgeting to protect military pay and functions.
• Support continuing U.S. dialogue and incentives with Venezuela, to avoid pushing Venezuela toward Russia and China, & because of their oil reserves and proximity to the U.S. Also, dialogue regarding the recent election which Maduro is alleged to have stolen.
• The United States must maintain an active role in keeping the world safe for OUR democracy, OUR constitution, and OUR country.
• Not allow terrorists and authoritarian dictators to violate a country’s sovereignty, which is extremely destabilizing for peace in the United States as well as the rest of the world.
• Aid to Ukraine
• Aid to Israel to fight terrorism
• Humanitarian relief to Gaza
• Temporary and Permanent Ceasefire in Hamas War, and negotiate return of all hostages.
• Support to Gaza and Israel for Gaza and West Bank nation-building
• Not allow China to buy farmland in the United States

Strong support for our Space Industry and Military. 

Clean air, water and food are not privileges—they are essential for health and life of individuals, wildlife, and fisheries, and for the environment. Republicans resist regulations that protect all of us.

• Make it easier to get fresh, safe drinking water and clean food
• Shut the revolving door between industry and agencies so that the fox is not guarding the henhouse
• Greater congressional action to prevent harm to the public where agencies have failed to take sufficient action—-for example, to lower the rate of disease, lower healthcare costs, and lower the high U.S. death rate that is far in excess of other countries
• Put the burden on companies to establish the safety of their additives, ingredients, and practices, before they start using them, and eliminate the use of the category “generally recognized as safe” where no unbiased research and evidence exists in support of it.
• Labeling of GMO’s, and disclosure of how modified
• Ban hormones for livestock
• Ban the use of antibiotics solely to make animals grow unnaturally bigger, which causes resistance to antibiotics, and contributes to people getting obese for the same reason as it makes animals grow unnaturally faster
• Ban the practice of plumping meat with saline-injected water and phosphates to make more profit, which not only steals money from the consumer, but also health and life.
• Ban toxins, harmful ingredients, non-food ingredients added to food, such as the “yoga mat chemical” added to bread to make it chewy or toast quicker.
• Ban toxins and harmful additives in cigarettes—why have we been allowing more than 7000+ chemicals to be added to cigarettes, at least 69 of which are known to cause cancer, and people are dying?
• Act against PFAS, fluoride, solvents and even salt added to drinking water. Added fluoride and cumulative excess salt cause harm.
• Require foreign and domestic livestock to be vaccinated and free of HPV and toxoplasma gondii, to eliminate the spread of disease and reduce cancer by preventing people from getting HPV and toxoplasma gondii. Cattle are the sole natural reservoir of HPV. Lamb is a major source of toxoplasma gondii.

Most experts consider Trump’s presidency to be among the most punishing to the environment in recent history. During his time in office, Trump officially reversed, revoked, or otherwise rolled back nearly 100 environmental rules, regarding clean air, water, wetlands, wildlife, toxic chemicals and safety, drilling and extraction, infrastructure and planning, carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, cars and trucks, mercury emissions from power plants, and loosening efficiency standards for a wide range of products.

• Protect environmental regulation by revising environmental statutes to address the overruling of the Chevron decision
• Conduct unbiased federal research by disinterested researchers, regarding environmental policies—not research that supports predetermined “conservative policies,” as proposed by Project 2025, and not accept research conducted or funded by the industries or interests being regulated.
• Investigate and act to restore clean water in the Indian River Lagoon
• Community outreach requirements to assist in reduction of harmful industry activities, such as the practice of dumping hot water directly into the Lagoon.
• Consider issue of change in port design to allow water flow to restore estuaries & Lagoon generally
• Continue to oppose fracking and drilling in Florida or off the coasts of Florida, to avoid destruction of or damage to aquifers, scenic beauty, tourism, waterways, and natural resources.
• Protect the right to breathe clean air, and be free of gases, particulates and pollution that harms health, increases risk of death, and harms our environment.
• Achieve reduction of air emissions in District 8–for example, persistent visible yellow streaks of air pollution along the coast in Brevard County
• Reduction of single-use plastics
• Legislation to make alternative energy feasible for more people
• Legislation to encourage the cattle industry to humanely capture methane, or to revert to grass feed instead of feed lots—a substantial factor in climate change
• Take action on the best information available
• Support reduction of Florida’s carbon footprint by 30% by 2030.
• Protect wildlife, coral reefs, and fish. (Vote NO on proposed Amendment 2 which calls for hunting of what little Florida wildlife we have.)
• Sustainable agricultural practices, water consumption, building codes, and trash disposal

• Propose legislation to better protect elders across the nation, in assisted living facilities and nursing homes, to assure they get a reasonably healthy diet, standard proper dose of insulin at standard times, ban abuse of chemical restraints, ban practice of disposing of medication before genuinely expired
• Legislation to protect people’s ability to age in place (in their homes)
• End the practice of the United States government docking elderly veterans’ retirement paychecks at the demand of states, particularly states in which the veteran is no longer living. This practice ends up being without notice and without effective recourse when the elderly veteran is mentally or physically incompetent to dispute the issue.
• Assist and protect veterans’ ability to get health care and mental health care.

The United States spends the highest percentage of GDP on healthcare, yet has a life expectancy that is years lower than comparable nations, and a rate of preventable death far higher.  For life expectancy, the United States ranks 30^th of the 38 wealthiest nations. The United States’ rank is not acceptable.

• Shut the revolving door between industry and agencies so that the fox is not guarding the henhouse
• Codify requirements that Medicare negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to hold drug prices down, and cost protection for insulin and inhalers
• Fund better access to mental health and addiction treatment services
• Revise patent law to assure reasonable costs of pharmaceutical drugs
• Propose requirements and conditions for Medicare and Medicaid to pay for dietary supplements where effective and less expensive than drugs
• Neutral, unbiased research and fact finding in support of healthcare
• Investigation and creation of programs to vaccinate livestock to eliminate dangerous and carcinogenic organisms in meat, and require domestic and imported meat to be reasonably free of preventable organisms  
• Protect health freedom to the greatest extent compatible with truth and safety
• Encourage dialogue, not censorship, for all of us to better assess what is the truth

• Require medical schools to provide greater nutritional education, curriculum such as proposed by the Institute of Functional Medicine

• Require teaching health in grade school
• Require adequate recess, physical education, and exercise in grades K through 12

• Bring back basic cooking and life skills in schools
• Impose limits on pharmaceutical and unhealthful food advertising
• Ban partnerships, endorsements, and financial ties between pharmaceutical industry and public health organizations

• Mandate to eliminate unhealthy foods from schools, child-care and healthcare facilities, prisons, etc., and replace with rigorous nutritional standards consistent with current science
• Change campaign finance laws so that political donations from entities like big food, big farming, and big pharma can no longer control the political process
• Revise the Farm Bill. Agricultural policies must support public health, not commodity products like corn and soy.80% of government subsidies presently go to soy and corn that are used to create junk food
• Ban marketing to children for fast food, junk food, liquid calories, and processed food. This has been done in over 50 countries. We should follow suit.
• Promote school and prison food gardens

• Repeal federal mandatory minimum sentences, incentivize states to do the same
• Mandatory federal requirements to allow DNA testing for post-conviction cases, and vacate convictions where the DNA does not match
• Treat youthful offenders appropriately under new science showing immature brain development
• Legislation to reduce violence in non-emergency police encounters:
  • Create federal duty to intervene when an unreasonable risk of death has been created, or other unreasonable or improper treatment
  • Mandatory reporting requirements for improper use of force, or improper procedures
  • Federal Decertification Registry of officers fired from prior jobs
  • National Training Standards (to be set with involvement of experts) that is not alarmist, does not exaggerate risks to police officers, includes de-escalation and problem-solving skills, bias and sensitivity training, and training on people with autism. The prevailing standard overwhelmingly errs on the side of sheltering police misconduct. 
  • Disallow pretextual stops, and address police incentive structures that encourage pretextual practice
  • Disallow use of pain compliance in non-emergency situations, which increases the risk of death and violence
  • Disallow carotid restraints under most circumstances
  • Funding for police departments to establish the above processes and to conduct the initial training/retraining.

• Legislation, or amend the Civil Rights Act, to reduce the disproportionate number of deaths of persons of color in police encounters. For details, see Criminal Reform section, above.
• Requirement to teach factually accurate Black History in grade schools and high schools
• Protect DEI measures, amend or modify where needed to comply with new changes in the law
• Repeal federal mandatory minimum sentences, incentivize states to do the same
• Mandatory federal requirements to allow DNA testing for post-conviction cases, and vacate convictions where the DNA does not match.
• Treat youthful offenders appropriately under new science showing immature brain development
• Equal pay for equal work
• Wage transparency requirements

 To achieve genuine peace and domestic tranquility, we must restore our culture of tolerance, and then move forward to a culture of acceptance of individual differences.

• LGBTQ status must be protected just as race or gender status are protected
• Protect marriage and marital status for insurance and other benefits
• Ban discrimination in housing, public accommodations, access to credit, education, jury service, and federal programs
• Secure and protect people’s rights to be themselves
• Assure availability of appropriate support and treatment for those who need it
• Expand mental health and suicide prevention services
• Ban conversion therapy

Legislation for mandatory instant criminal background checks and conceal-carry permits (78% of all gun sales, those through licensed firearm dealers, are already subject to background checks through the Natl. Instant Criminal Background Check System. This measure would close the gaps, because 80% of guns used in crimes are sold through unlicensed gun dealers.)

• Raise min. age to own a semi-automatic weapon to 21
• Require training on gun ethics, safety, morals, laws, responsibility
• Legislation funding and providing greater access to mental health care, resources, and options, particularly for victims of bullying and youths at risk or in crisis.
• Legislation requiring guns to be stored safely in homes
• Suicide reduction initiatives
• Strengthen protection against domestic violence
• Propose greater dialogue to achieve broader consensus on measures to reduce the incidence of mass shootings, particularly in schools

• Strengthen HIPAA laws to require actual medical privacy, not notices of privacy policy
• Legislation to protect the privacy and non-transferability of genetic data from any and all sources.
• Prevent hospitals and providers from forcing patients to waive privacy, or to accept policies that disclose medical information, in exchange for receiving medical care
• Protect health privacy against government, corporate, and public intrusion, including disclosures of medical health, history and diagnoses required as a condition to receive medical treatment.
• Prevent hospitals and providers from disclosing or sharing medical information, other than the amount reasonably required for medical treatment
• Assure that females in public and private schools are not required or encouraged to report or disclose menstrual periods or any other bodily information
• Prevent states from tracking medical activities in state and across state borders, and from seeking information about medical activities across state borders