Highlights of Senator Boxer's Record on African-American Issues

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Tremendous progress has been made toward the goal of ending discrimination in America and in ensuring that every American has an equal opportunity to fulfill the American dream. Unfortunately, the legacy of more than two centuries of discrimination and disenfranchisement endure. Senator Boxer is dedicated to fighting discrimination and tearing down the barriers to equal opportunity.

• Voting Rights:  The right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights in a democracy. Senator Boxer is committed to ensuring that every American has the right to vote and that every vote counts. 
  • In 2006, she supported extending the Voting Rights Act, to ensure that minorities would not be discriminated against in the voting booth.
  • Following the allegations of vote tampering and voter suppression among minorities in Ohio during the 2004 presidential election, Senator Boxer was the lone Senator to join the late Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones in challenging the certification of Ohio's electoral votes.
  • Senator Boxer introduced legislation to require that electronic voting machines produce a paper record so that voters can verify their votes before they are counted.
  • Senator Boxer has been a cosponsor of the Count Every Vote Act, which provides meaningful comprehensive election reforms.
  • Senator Boxer was a co-sponsor of then-Senator Obama's Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, which strengthened protection of the right to vote.
     
• Civil Rights:  The ideals embodied in the civil rights laws of the 1960s remain an unfulfilled goal. While a member of the House, Senator Boxer cosponsored the Civil Liberties Act of 1987, the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, and the Civil Rights Acts of 1990 and 1991. She has continued that strong commitment to civil rights in the Senate.
  • She cosponsored and strongly supported the Civil Rights Act of 2008, to strengthen the nation's civil rights statutes by, among other things, making it easier to show that an employer's policies have had a discriminatory impact on minorities.
  • She supported legislation to prohibit law enforcement agencies around the country from engaging in racial profiling.
  • She has supported the Hate Crimes Prevention Act to expand and enhance enforcement of the federal hate crimes law, as well as legislation to assist local law enforcement agencies in investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.
  • She supported creating a position at the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute unresolved violations of civil rights that occurred before 1970 and that resulted in an individual's death.
  • Senator Boxer fought for passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to ensure that victims of wage discrimination can seek justice. The act was the first signed into law by President Obama on January 21, 2009.
     
• Educational Opportunities:  In American society, education is the great equalizer.  But that is only true if everyone has the opportunity for a high-quality education.
  • Senator Boxer has continuously supported legislation recognizing the importance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and their contributions to higher education across the country.  For example, in 2007, Senator Boxer supported legislation to provide $170 million in grants for HBCUs.  The bill, now law, also created a new designation of Predominantly Black Institutions, which are eligible to receive $30 million in grants for programs in science, technology, engineering, among others.
  • Senator Boxer has supported increasing the maximum Pell Grant — the program that provides college assistance to low-income students — and she introduced legislation to ensure that students are not penalized with a reduction in their Pell Grants because they attend low-cost colleges, primarily community colleges.
  • In the digital age, we risk leaving millions of students behind who cannot afford and do not have access to a computer and a high-speed Internet connection.  Senator Boxer wrote the law to provide companies with an enhanced tax deduction for donating new and nearly-new computers to schools, and she supported the economic stimulus package enacted earlier this year, which includes nearly $75 million for California to purchase up-to-date computers and software for schools.  In addition, Senator Boxer has been a leader in expanding broadband services, authoring bipartisan legislation to make it easier for companies to provide consumers with access to high-speed Internet connections.
  • Senator Boxer authored a provision of the Higher Education Act in 2008 to increase funding for Upward Bound, a program for at-risk and disadvantaged high school students to help prepare them for college.
  • Senator Boxer is a leading Senate advocate and champion for after school programs to give children a safe and enriching place to go at the end of the school day. She wrote the law that authorizes federal funding for after school programs — the first such law of its kind. And she continues to fight to see that the program is fully funded.
     
• Quality, Affordable Health Care:  African-Americans face some unique health care issues and have historically suffered from a lack of access to high quality health care services.
  • Senator Boxer has supported legislation to improve access to health care services for minorities and to eliminate the racial and ethnic disparities in health care.
  • She has strongly supported increased federal funding for research into diseases such as sickle cell anemia and diabetes that disproportionately affect minorities.
  • In the 1990s, she wrote one of the first bills in the United States Senate to create a Patients' Bill of Rights — to ensure that medical decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by HMO bureaucrats.
  • She cosponsored the law that created the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), providing millions of low-income children access to health care. Recently she fought to expand SCHIP for almost 700,000 children in California; it finally became law in early 2009.
     
• Environmental Justice:  As Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Boxer is fighting for an expanded Superfund program — to clean up toxic waste sites around the country, many of which are located in low-income neighborhoods.  In addition, she supports reinstating the requirement that polluters — not taxpayers — pay for the cleanup of toxic Superfund sites.
• HIV/AIDS in Africa:  As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Boxer has been one the leaders in the Senate in the effort to fund international HIV/AIDS relief — a disease that reached epidemic proportions in sub-Saharan Africa.  She has introduced legislation to dramatically increase funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development's HIV/AIDS program, and she continues to push for even greater funding.