High-quality education and fair wages are key to our nation’s success. I support investing in education from universal Pre-K to affordable college, raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, protecting unions, and ensuring equal pay—because hard-working El Pasoans deserve better jobs and higher incomes.
Legislation Supported by Congresswoman Escobar
Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2025: This legislation seeks to strengthen labor laws to empower workers to organize and bargain collectively, aiming to protect union rights and enhance workplace democracy.
National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights: The legislation would extend common workplace rights and protections to the 2.2 million domestic workers in the United States, who are currently excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and other key labor and safety laws that most of the workforce relies on. The legislation would also improve job quality by ensuring paid sick days, written agreements, and other benefits.
Protect America's Workforce Act: This legislation would rescind President Trump's Executive Order 1425 which stripped a million federal workers of their right to collectively bargain. This bill would also restore federal workers’ fundamental right to collectively bargain and restore their union contracts.
Department of Education Protection Act: This bill aims to safeguard the Department of Education from attempts to abolish or diminish its authority, ensuring the continuation of federal support for public education.
Stop the Wait Act of 2025 - This legislation would phase out the initial waiting period for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and eliminates the waiting period for certain disabled individuals to become eligible for Medicare.
Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act: This legislation would protect the safety and health of indoor and outdoor workers who are exposed to dangerous heat conditions in the workplace. It would protect workers against occupational exposure to excessive heat by requiring the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to establish an enforceable federal standard to protect workers in high-heat environments with common sense measures like paid breaks in cool spaces, access to water, limitations on time exposed to heat, and emergency response for workers with heat-related illness. The bill would also direct employers to provide training for their employees on the risk factors that can lead to heat illness and guidance on the proper procedures for responding to symptoms.
The Build Housing with Care Act: This legislation would invest $500 million to construct child care centers co-located in affordable housing developments and cover the costs of retrofitting to help family child care providers operate in housing developments. The bill prioritizes projects that are located in child care deserts or rural communities, as well as projects that include qualified Head Start providers and providers primarily serving low-income children.
Young Americans Financial Literacy Act: This legislation would require the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to award competitive grants to eligible institutions for the establishment of financial literacy education programs for young people and families.
Protect Our Letter Carriers Act of 2025: This legislation would strengthen the safety and security of Postal Service workers by modernizing infrastructure, enhancing prosecutorial efforts, and updating sentencing guidelines to deter these serious offenses.
Model Employee Reinstatement for Ill-advised Termination (MERIT) Act: This legislation would reinstate federal employees who were unjustly fired by Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative that targeted federal workers. In addition to rehiring these workers, the MERIT Act gives them the back pay they deserve.
Rights for the TSA Workforce Act: This legislation would ensure that all 65,000+ Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees – including frontline Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) – are afforded the same worker rights, protections, and pay system afforded to other Federal workers under Title 5 of the U.S. Code. This legislation is introduced as the Trump Administration moved to cancel TSA’s current collective bargaining agreement.
IDEA Full Funding Act: This legislation would ensure all children with disabilities can access a free, high-quality public education. In 1975, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) to provide these essential educational opportunities, and this legislation ensures that Congress fulfills its commitment. Under IDEA, the federal government committed to pay 40 percent of the average per pupil expenditure for special education. However, that pledge has never been met, and current funding is below 13 percent. The IDEA Full Funding Act would require regular, mandatory increases in IDEA spending.
Campus Housing Affordability for Foster Youth Act: This legislation would allow eligible students in, or formerly in, foster care as well as emancipated youth, to use the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Choice Voice Program – known as Section 8 vouchers – to pay for college campus housing.
Enhance Access to SNAP (EATS) Act: This legislation would expand Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility to all college students attending 2- and 4-year universities who meet traditional SNAP income and eligibility requirements. Current SNAP eligibility rules only include college students working 20 hours per week or participating in a federal or state work study, or those who meet very specific exemptions. The EATS Act would permanently ensure that low-income college students have equitable access to SNAP benefits by amending the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to include “attending an institution of higher education” as another form of qualification in addition to work.
Funding for Local Education & Workforce Development
$9.875 Million from the Environmental Protection Agency for Socorro ISD to purchase 25 fully-electric school buses that replace decade-old diesel and gas-powered vehicles in the district’s 200-bus fleet.
$2.8 Million to provide reliable access to public broadband service, via wireless mesh service, to an estimated 3,256 students across two school districts throughout the community—Fabens and Tornillo ISDs.
$2 Million to bridge academic and equity gaps in the south side of El Paso by offering after-school enrichment centers focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM), literacy, social emotional development, and health and fitness.
The office of Congresswoman Veronica Escobar also manages the following Youth Programs open to Texas 16th youth:
Congressional Art Competition — A nationwide high school arts competition is sponsored by the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Congressional App Challenge — A challenge for middle school and high school students to encourage participation in STEM education, develop coding skills, and create original applications that better their communities.
Congressional Youth Advisory Council — A leadership opportunity for high school students with an interest in public service and the legislative process. They will work with our office to research topics and bills.
Service Academy Nominations — Each year the Congresswoman has the privilege of nominating a limited number of extraordinary youth to four of the five service academies.
Internships — Part-time and full-time internships in Congresswoman Escobar's Washington, DC and El Paso offices. These positions are a unique and exciting way to gain experience in a congressional office and a window into the federal government.
