CHARLOTTE — Representative Deborah Ross (D) serves North Carolina’s second congressional district, which includes much of Wake County. While the Democrat may not specifically represent the Charlotte area, her vote is pivotal for issues that may impact your family or the Charlotte community.
Recently, Rep. Ross made a stop in the Queen City, where she spoke with Channel 9 reporter Hunter Sáenz and laid out plans to tackle large issues across the state.
Ross says the task at the top of her list is to tackle rising housing, health care, and childcare costs. The representative alluded to the high rents throughout Charlotte coupled with high-interest rates, which set prospective home buyers back.
“Number one is the cost of housing, and I know that in Charlotte, people are not able to afford their first home, and rents are going up. A lot of that is because interest rates have been higher; it’s been more expensive to build new homes and apartments,” Ross said. “And Congress needs to renew and extend the Low Income Tax Credit, which gives builders a tax credit for building affordable housing.”
Rising healthcare costs are also a big motivation for Rep. Ross, who is looking to limit the number of people involved.
“I’m working in a bipartisan way to kind of cut out the middlemen for drug prices,” Ross told Sáenz.
With more parents returning to the office and daycares shutting down across the state, childcare is needed now more than ever. but the cost continues to rise.
With more parents returning to the office and daycares shutting down across the state, childcare is needed now more than ever. but the cost continues to rise.
“We know that the child tax credit is back on the table in Congress, so that was available during the pandemic,” Ross said. “It lifted families and children out of poverty, but it expired. But we are now looking at it again.”
As far as transportation, Rep. Ross is hopeful the federal government’s infrastructure law that provides funding for a Richmond-to-Raleigh line will bring positive change over the next few years.
“I am so excited that the federal government, through the infrastructure bill, is investing a billion dollars in the Raleigh to Richmond line, making that train go faster from Raleigh to Richmond, which would open up North Carolina to the northeast and the south,” Ross said.
On a national scale, Ross is passionate about giving a chance to the children of immigrants.
“There is another group of young people, about 250,000 of them, who came here with their parents legally, and they came on their parents’ visas as minors, but they age out of their visas when they’re 21,” Ross said. “In the past, they’ve just been able to get their documentation. But because our immigration system is so broken and we have so much of a backlog, right now, they’re not able to get their paperwork renewed, and they have to self-deport.”
When it comes to Middle Eastern affairs, Ross’ focus is not on one side or the other, but on the safest way to get hostages away from Hamas and back home.
“The question is, what is the best way to bring all the hostages back, including American hostages who are being held right now by Hamas, and get to a point where Palestinians can have a safe place to live? What we’re seeing is that even when we had a temporary ceasefire, Hamas violated it,” Ross said. “And so what we need to do is have a multi-lateral negotiation for how to end this war, how to have Palestinians have a safe place to be recognized, and that we need to get all these hostages out and make sure that Hamas can never, ever do what it did to Israel on October 7.”
(WATCH BELOW: South Carolinians cast their votes for the 2024 Democratic primary)
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