Strengthening Maternal Health and Reproductive Freedom
Christina strongly believes that women deserve to make their own health choices, but they need access to high-quality care and the full range of reproductive health services to make that a reality. On the Council, Christina is taking action to improve maternal health outcomes and expand reproductive health options for residents:
- To provide more DC residents the opportunity to begin families, Christina introduced and championed the ExpandingAccess to Fertility Treatment Amendment Act that requires infertility diagnosis and treatment to be covered by insurance. Coverage begins for private insurance in January 2025.
- As chair of theCouncil’s Committee on Health, Christina has overseen the new Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center on the St. Elizabeth’s campus to ensure it opens on time in early 2025. The opening of Cedar Hill will mark the first time since 2017 that there will be a labor and delivery unit east of Anacostia River.
- Christina championed and funded the Maternal HealthResources and Access Act which requires that doula services be covered for DC’s Medicaid and Alliance program beneficiaries.It became law in 2022.
- Recognizing the growing concern about the mental well-being of postpartum individuals,Christina established and funded a Perinatal Mental Health Task Force within the Department of Health Care Finance to study and provide comprehensive policy recommendations to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
- Christina expanded health care options for labor and delivery by establishing the certified midwife credential with the Board of Nursing through the Certified Midwife Credential Amendment Act. This allows certified midwives to be eligible forMedicaid reimbursement and operate at maternity centers.
- Christina strengthened DC’s role as lifeline for individuals across the country seeking abortion carein the wake of anti-choice policies advancing across the country by passing the EnhancingReproductive Health Protections Amendment Act to protect individuals who support or assist individuals choosing to self-manage their abortion care.
- Christina partnered with colleagues to fund thenurse-led home visiting program for families.
Tackling Public Health Challenges
Christina became the chair of the Council’s Committee on Health in 2023. Since that time she has worked to improve access to critical health care infrastructure, enhance support for behavioral health and substance use treatment, enhance patient care and outcomes, increase healthy food access, and strengthen the healthcare workforce.
- Under Christina’s leadership, the Committee on Health passed Prior Authorization Reform Amendment Act of 2023, which streamlines and enhances transparency of the insurance prior authorization process for healthcare services to prevent unnecessary delays or denials of needed medications or procedures. She also ensured the bill was fully funded.
- DC has a growing population of seniors, but a dwindling number of direct care workers needed to help residents in need age in place. Recognizing the need to address the workforce issues in our long-term care industry, Christina introduced the Direct Care Worker Amendment Act of 2023 to eliminate barriers to licensure and certification for certified nurse assistants and home health aides, and establish a new minimum wage for this sector. The Council will take a final vote on this bill in the Fall.
- Christina introduced and passed the Copay Accumulator Amendment Act of 2023 which ensures that patients can reach their deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums sooner, potentially lowering their overall healthcare expenses.
- Health is not just about insurance coverage, but also how individuals can take care of themselves. Christina believes that food is medicine and has worked to ensure stable funding for the Healthy Food Access Grant programs, including Healthy Corners, Joyful Food Markets, Home-Delivered Meals, and Produce Plus. Additionally, she funded a new Grocery Access Pilot Program that will launch later this year and provide 1,000 residents the ability to purchase groceries online without delivery fees.
- Implementation of regulations for ambulatory surgical facilities have stalled in DC since 1985. Christina worked with DC Health to finally pass the Ambulatory Surgical Facility Amendment Act of 2023, which responds to the evolution of medical treatments and surgical techniques.
Improving Public Safety & Justice
Every DC resident wants to live in a safe community. Improving public safety is top of mind every day for Christina. While she does not support policies that would revert to a posture of mass incarceration, the District has lost its way when it comes to accountability for breaking the law. Like many, Christina has been frustrated that the District had not seen the decrease in criminal activity that other cities have seen and she has been working on solutions to reverse the trends:
- Christina supported Secure DC, an omnibus of 10 different bills, aimed at bolstering law enforcement’s ability to apprehend those who commit crimes, enhancing penalties for certain serious crimes, and improving information sharing among agencies.
- Christina amplified the need for the District to treat the opioid and fentanyl epidemic as a public emergency given the staggering number of lives lost and intersections with crime. Not only did Christina champion the Sense of the Council on the Opioid and Fentanyl Epidemic Resolution of 2023 which led to Mayor Bowser declaring a public emergency, she has also ensured that the Opioid Abatement Advisory Committee got up and running. Under her leadership the Committee on Health has funded programs for substance abuse and behavioral health services targeted outreach grants in Wards 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8; a school-based behavioral health student peer educator program; and forensic toxicology testing.
- Timely public safety responses are critical for a functioning public safety system. To increase capacity at the Office of Unified Communications (OUC), Christina introduced the Retired Firefighter and Police Officer Redeployment Emergency Amendment Act that allows retired firefighters and police officers to be rehired at OUC as 911 call takers and dispatchers without resulting in decreases to their pension benefits. This puts public servants with relevant expertise and knowledge acquired over decades on the front lines of emergency response into the heart of OUC operations. Retired firefighters have already been hired as a result of this legislation.
- For Christina, public safety also means traffic safety. It is important to remove negligent and scofflaw drivers from our roadways and increase traffic safety for all drivers, bikers, and pedestrians in the District. That’s why Christina introduced the Automated Traffic Enforcement Effectiveness Amendment Act, which would make traffic violations captured by an ATE system point-eligible, and the License Suspension Reform Amendment Act, which would suspend the license and registration of all vehicles owned by or registered in the name of any person charged with a DUI, with fleeing the scene of an accident, or of negligent homicide while driving. Elements of these provisions were included in the STEER Amendment Act of 2023 which is now law.
- Christina promoted the planning and implementation of safe routes and safety infrastructure around schools with the Safe Streets for Students Amendment Act which codifies safe passage programs, expands the school crossing guard program, and outlines new requirements for traffic safety infrastructure around all public schools.
- Christina worked to restore funding for the Court Urgent Care Clinic located within DC Superior Court after its funding was slated to be cut. This program serves individuals at the courthouse who need immediate mental health and/or substance abuse services.
- After a series of puzzling and frustrating hearings, Christina worked to increase funding and oversight for the Department of Public Works and the Department of Transportation to improve compliance with the District’s traffic laws.
Bolstering Education & Opportunities for Students
Prior to being elected to the Council, Christina spent several years working on PK-14 education policy on the federal, state, and local level. While there has undoubtedly been progress with public education in DC in the past two decades, the past few years have felt stagnant. If we want to accelerate the pace of student achievement and close the gaps between students of different socioeconomic levels, DC needs more innovation, stronger investments in student supports, a turnaround when it comes to chronic absenteeism, improved planning and community engagement, focused attention on teacher and school leader development and retention, and more transparency in budgeting and decision making. Christina has worked to bolster our public education system in several ways:
- Recognizing the growing concerns around youth behavioral health and risky behaviors, Christina has worked to expand the District’s school-based behavioral health program – including increased funding to provide services in every DCPS and public charter school, increase the salaries for clinicians, and work collaboratively on solutions to address clinician vacancies. Christina also established a student peer educator program to train and supervise students in behavioral health support and services for their peers.
- DC has a significant number of young people who have asthma and diabetes, but do not have medication plans on file with their schools. In order to provide access to life-saving medications like albuterol and glucagon, Christina introduced, passed, and funded the Access to Emergency Medications Amendment Act to authorize public school employees to be trained to administer medications and provide undesignated emergency medications on site.
- Believing that all students deserve access to recreational and out-of-school time opportunities regardless of disability, Christina worked with a group of parents to introduce the Out of School Time Special Education Inclusion and Standards Amendment Act, which requires the Mayor to develop standards to ensure that students with special needs can participate in extracurricular activities.
- After bureaucratic backlogs plagued the ability of afterschool programs to hire staff, Christina introduced and worked to pass the Educator Background Check Streamlining Amendment Act to streamline the background check process for educators, out-of-school times workers, and other volunteers.
- Each year on the Council, Christina has advocated for and secured increases in funding for out-of-school time and the DC Public Library system, providing students with access to more learning and cultural opportunities outside of the classroom.
- To guarantee that DC is systematically reviewing school facility capacity and growth, Christina ensured that our public school attendance zone boundaries will be reviewed and updated every 10 years with the passage of the Attendance Zone Boundaries Amendment Act. Prior to DCPS review of boundaries in 2014, it had been 30 years since any changes had been made.
- Supporting all of our public schools, Christina worked to increase and preserve the facilities allotment for DC public charter schools to ensure students in that sector have access to safe and healthy learning environments.
- Christina worked to increase funding for adult learners in the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula to ensure those students receive the resources they need.
- Christina advanced a framework in higher education that provides college athletes with robust protections for the name, image, likeness (NIL) rights while also creating a level playing field for athletes and institutions competing across state lines with the College Student Athlete Compensation Amendment Act. Christina’s bill was incorporated into another bill that passed the Council.
Christina has several bills currently pending at the Council on issues ranging from universal free school meals, sexual misconduct on college campuses, increasing FAFSA completion rates, improving student loan borrower protections, and several commonsense school transparency and accountability measures.
Enhancing our Economy & Affordable Housing Options
DC is only 69 square miles, but the inequities across the city are stark. We should all be proud of the growth and development that has happened in the last 20 years, but dismayed that DC government has not used all the tools at its disposal to ensure that progress happens everywhere, and that residents who have lived in DC for decades can afford to stay, raise their families, start businesses if they desire, and retire with dignity.
- To provide renters with more time to consider their options when a landlord raises rent, Christina introduced and worked to pass the Fairness in Renting Clarification Amendment Act which increase the notice requirement for rent increases from 30 day to 60 days. It also prohibits landlords from charging any fees beyond a maximum application fee.
- In an effort to reduce barriers to homeownership, Christina introduced the Community Land Trusts’ Access and Homeowner Support Amendment Act of 2023 community land trusts (CLTs) into the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) structure, granting registered community land trusts an automatic third right of refusal to purchase multifamily housing. It would also provide registered CLTs with the second right of refusal for properties on the tax sale list before they are available to private buyers. The legislation had a hearing in 2023 and is awaiting approval by the Committee.
- Recognizing the link between home environments and health, Christina expanded resources for the Department of Energy and the Environment for mold inspections and remediation.
- To accelerate development of much-needed mixed-use residential projects at unimproved District Metro stations, Christina introduced the Unlocking Housing at Metro Property Tax Exemption Amendment Act. This bill would provide a 20-year tax exemption for projects meeting specific criteria with the goal of encouraging additional transit-oriented development through joint development agreements. This bill can help facilitate amazing changes at the Anacostia, Congress Heights, Brookland, Deanwood, Fort Totten, and Friendship Heights stations.
- DC’s hospitality industry has been working to recover from the impacts of the pandemic and remain viable in an increasingly competitive region. To address the astronomical liquor liability insurance costs in DC, Christina worked with Councilmember Brooke Pinto & the restaurant and nightlife industry to introduce the Dram Shop Clarification Amendment Act which reforms the liquor liability laws for DC.
- Christina has become a trusted steward of the District's finances and believes that we should continue to find efficiencies within our government to meet the needs of our population, while also being judicious regarding revenue increases.
Supporting Working Families
There is an old proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” For Christina, the village is not just your family or neighborhood--it’s also institutions and systems who have the power to support the efforts of raising a child. The Council has a responsibility to create policies that make it easier for working families to exist, Christina has taken that responsibility to heart:
- Access to high-quality and affordable early care and learning is vital to families, and the early childhood educators in DC deserved a raised. Christina led the creation of the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund which improved the pay and benefits for over 3500 early childhood educators in the childcare setting, including access to affordable health coverage for these workers. And, when its future was under attack, Christina fought to preserve the funding.
- Christina improved food access for residents post-pandemic with the Give SNAP a Raise Amendment Act which increased the maximum monthly allotment for every Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP) participant by 10%.
- Christina closed gaps in what government assistance programs will cover such as essential items like diapers by securing recurring funding to establish a diaper bank grant program to assist families. It’s been operating since 2022.
- Christina worked to expand paid family leave benefits for District government employees with the District Government Paid Leave Enhancement Amendment Act to expand parental leave, establish a new medical leave benefit, and streamline the leave bank programs. She also expanded the private sector Paid Leave program to provide 4 more weeks of medical leave benefits (now a total of 6 weeks) and an additional 2 weeks for a new prenatal leave benefit.
