The Role of Kamala Harris in The Senate

The Senate is formed of one hundred members, two from every fifty states, who are elected to serve for a term of six years. Senators were first appointed by the State legislatures but they are now elected through popular or majority vote. The Senators from each state in America work altogether to establish a world of exclusive circumstances and tend to look at the national impact of proposed legislation and bills to be able to shape the course of each and every perspective of American life. The two senatorial positions in each state consist of the Senior United States Senator and the Junior United States Senator. In California, both the Senior and Junior senator are in the Democratic Party. The Senior United States Senator of California is Dianne Feinstein and the Junior United States Senator of California is Kamala Harris. Feinstein took the office since November 1992, while Harris just has been serving since 2017. Kamala Harris is the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. Kamala Devi Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California. Harris was raised in an African-American neighborhood of Berkeley where she was brought to civil rights demonstrations as a child. Harris' parents divorced when she was seven years old. At the age of 12, Harris, her mother, and sister Maya, moved to Canada where she expressed her rapid political instincts by organizing a protest against a building owner who would not let neighborhood youngsters to play on the lawn. Harris studied political science and economics (B.A., 1986) at Howard University and she then earned a law degree (1989) from the University of California, Hastings College. In 1990, Harris earned admittance to the State Bar of California Harris and later then joined the Alameda County District Attorney, whereas she worked as a deputy prosecutor for eight years. In 1998, Harris became managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. In 2000 she was appointed the chief of its Community and Neighborhood Department and head of the Division on Families and Children. Throughout the time, she set up the State's first Children's Justice Bureau.

In 2003, Harris defeated officer Terence Hallinan, which was her former boss, to become the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. Harris’ accomplishments in this role consist of the launch of the 'Back on Track' which was an initiative that cut recidivism, an act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior, by proposing job training and additional educational programs for low-level and drug offenders, instead of putting them in jail. Nonetheless, in easter of 2004, the controversy rose around Harris’ first major decision as San Francisco’s district attorney by deciding not to seek the death penalty for a gang member who fatally shot police Officer Isaac Espinoza. According to a CNN article, “Harris wrote that she wanted to honor her commitment to the people of San Francisco to oppose the death penalty. 'The district attorney is charged with seeking justice, not vengeance”. In 2009, Harris wrote a book called Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer, where she addressed potential adjustments to the whole criminal justice system. In 2010, Harris defeated Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley (Republican), winning 46 percent of Cooley's 45 percent vote. Kamala Harris was then elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California's Attorney General (from 2011–17) after completing two terms (from 2004 to 2011) as San Francisco District Attorney. Harris announced her candidacy in early 2015 and her campaign path consists of immigration and criminal-justice reformations, minimum wage increases, and protection of women’s reproductive rights. Broadly recognized as a rising star within the Democratic party, she was selected to run for the U.S. Senate position that was held by Barbara Boxer. Representative Loretta Sanchez (Democrat) was defeated by Harris in 2016 to win the U.S. Senate seat. Harris got 62% of the vote as Sanchez’ 38% so she easily won the 2016 election.

Issue Areas

Kamala Harris’ role remains constant in the U.S. Senate, to fight for the rights of all California people. She has founded and co-sponsored legislation when she took the office to increase wages for working people and to be able to expand access for working parents to childcare, to liberalize the frail criminal justice system, to cut taxes for the middle class, to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, to make education tuition-free for the widespread majority of Americans, to make health care a right for all Americans (Medicare for all), to uphold military families and veterans, and many more. Kamala is working hard to protect and support children and students. She organized the Bureau of Children's Justice in California and fought to decrease truancy in elementary school so that a child can exercise their right to an education. Harris became acknowledged for her style of prosecution and by questioning witnesses through hearings and trials, which then drew criticism from the Republican senators. Harris also joined a course that involved the New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and the Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in an attempt to push President Donald Trump from the White House after only one term. On January 21, 2019, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Harris was interviewed on Good Morning America and she stated that she was running for president of the United States in the year 2020. Kamala Harris has spent her experience battling injustice. Harris knew how to stand up to the power and is determined to spend her life fighting for those who could not protect themselves.

Harris serves on the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Committee on the Budget, and the Committee on the Judiciary. In August of 2019, Harris declared that she was 'not comfortable' on Senator Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All bill anymore even though she supported it way before. The formal health care plan of Harris constructed differs in a variety of ways from Sanders’ model. Harris’ proposal abstains from some of Sanders' controversial revenue-raising initiatives by refusing to increase middle-class taxes to fund coverage for health care. Harris’ 'Medicare for All' aims at a phase-in period of ten years that sustains a significant role for health insurers while continuing to expand the program to cover more people in America and even undocumented immigrants. Harris set out her proposal in July of 2019 to allow the federal government to implement values for specific prescription medications to reduce drug prices for patients in the United States. According to a website called OnTheIssues.org, “This is about understanding, again, that health care should be a right, not a privilege. And it is also about being smart,' (Harris, August 2017). Harris also recently stated in early February in 2019 to make healthcare a fundamental right, not just a privilege for the wealthy.

Kamala Harris is a child of immigrants, and she grew up acknowledging a mere truth that immigrants do not just belong in America, but are also part of America’s foundation. As a Senator, she led the charge against the severe anti-immigrant policies of President Donald Trump and voted against Trump's funding for the border wall. Harris supports the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals which is also called the DACA program. DACA protects young people or children who attain to the United States illegally. After Harris' first Democratic debate, back in June 2019, she recollected her visit to a private detention facility in Homestead, Florida. When Harris and Julián Castro, the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, were not permitted to enter the center, she brought it upon herself to figure out what was happening through the locked doors. As Harris walked down the road, she mentioned that she was able to climb a ladder, to gaze over the barrier, where she saw children lining up by gender being walked back into their barracks. According to an article on a website called Mother Jones “The policies of this administration have been facilitated by laws on the books that allow them to be detained as though they have committed crimes. These children have not committed crimes, and should not be treated as criminals” (Harris, July 2019).

On January 20, 2021, Harris will progress to restore the DACA protection and security to the children and young people. She stated that she would release the children from cages as they were not supposed to be there in the first place. Harris wants to review and possibly improve the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also called ICE. But while serving as San Francisco's District Attorney, she supported a capital policy that turned undocumented immigrant minors over to ICE if they were held to have committed a crime. Harris would also widen the protection for their parents and including the veterans who are undocumented and who have served the country. Harris co-sponsored an act called the REUNITE Act. The REUNITE Act is to reunite separated refugee families and also proposed a bill to improve the regulation of detention facilities for immigrants as well as to end the building of new facility installations.

Kamala Harries continues to believe that America is stronger and greater when we invest with the key partners such as India, Japan, Korea, and Mexico, in the significant partnerships and alliances from NATO to the World Trade Organization and United Nations. The United States is the most powerful at confronting world challenges when we work with our allies. American leadership and principles also involve planning for a range of different arising threats, which include cybersecurity and the global white supremacist terror threat. In statements to a North Charleston small-business Conference, Harris promised to help restore America's international image, that she said President Donald Trump must have damaged. According to OnTheIssues.org, 'What we have seen recently is a president who is conducting foreign affairs by tweet. On Day One, I would make it very clear that I value the importance of diplomacy. I value relationships. And that does not take any strength from us, any power from us--it gives us power' (Harris, March 2019). Harris stated in her first press conference as a presidential candidate that the president cannot just conduct foreign policy through tweets. Harris is opposed to Trump's trade war with China and his tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Mexico, and Canada. Although she accused China of involving in 'unfair industrial policies and outright theft of American intellectual property.' In May, there was an escalating tension between the United States and North Korea. Harris stated that “We cannot put our arms and embrace this North Korean dictator in the way this president has done.” In June, during the Democratic debate, Harris stated, “You want to talk about North Korea, a real threat in terms of its nuclear arsenal. But what does [Trump] do? He embraces Kim Jong-un, a dictator, for the sake of a photo op.” The assumption of this statement is that engaging Kim Jong-un in talks makes the world more dangerous, when in fact it is the only way to formally cease the Korean War. Harris is also a big advocate of the Israeli government's close relations to the United States, as she even called the connection between the two countries 'unbreakable.' In 2017, through a discussion of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, she stated, 'do everything in my power to ensure broad and bipartisan support for Israel's security and right to self-defense.' She advocates a 'political solution' to the War in Afghanistan and wants to end the country's U.S. military involvement. She voted against a bill by the Senate denouncing President Donald Trump's withdrawal of United States troops from Syria.

Opinions

Kamala Harris started from being a prosecutor to a senator, hence her arguments and her way of questioning reflect that. Senators should truly gather and represent all Americans, they are someone who wants to see a reversion to functioning government. Harris has been achieving more prestige media attention through social media by simply expressing presidential aspirations The better way to be able to gain media exposure nowadays is Twitter. Harris is not just communicating through Twitter but also through public conferences where she would directly talk to people. Recently, she has been having interviews and conferences where she would talk about her presidential ambitions and allowing people to ask her questions about the current issues in California, including students. The only thing that is that Harris is inconsistent, she would support and co-sponsor a bill at first and would suddenly oppose later, which is Senator Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All bill. Despite her decisions as a District Attorney like legalizing marijuana, truancy, and many more prosecutorial history, she could still be a strong contender running for the position of being a president if she continues being consistent about making decisions. We all make mistakes, but to become a successful leader, mistakes should be avoided.