Cory Booker
Historical Details
Position on Issues
For| Read My Position
"I support a ban on assault weapons - weapons of war that are specifically designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible. Everytown for Gun Safety defines an assault weapon: 'Assault weapons are generally high-powered semiautomatic firearms where each round has up to four times the muzzle velocity of a handgun round.'"
For| Read My Position
"'I oppose criminal prosecution for individuals apprehended while crossing the border,' Booker told The Post. He would support civil penalties, his campaign told The Post. During the second Democratic debate, Booker said, '[T]he criminal courts is what is giving Donald Trump the ability to truly violate the human rights of people coming to our country, who no one surrenders their human rights. And so, doing it through the civil courts means that you won't need these awful detention facilities that I have been to'"
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Facebook Page, 2017
"Dreamers are our friends, neighbors and coworkers. They are business owners, leaders in our communities, and serve in our military.
"The Trump Administration's termination of DACA cruelly threatens the 22,000 DACA recipients living and working in New Jersey with deportation. It's also a direct hit to our state's economy amounting to $1.6 billion in annual losses to NJ's GDP if Congress does not act to protect these individuals from deportation.
"Ending the DACA program isn't just cruel and inhumane - it's a bad policy that hurts our economy and doesn't make our communities safer."
Against| Read My Position
Speaking against a Republican health care reform bill that removed some insurance benefit requirements, Booker said, "This will cost American lives if it ever becomes law. This will mean death, pain, and suffering to people's families. I'm not interested in the politics. This is something that my colleagues, people I respect across the aisle, they just can't support. For God's sake, for the sake of our country and what we stand for, they cannot pass this legislation."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Senator Booker believes it is incumbent on Congress to pass comprehensive, common sense legislation that mandates background checks on all firearm sales, including sales between private parties.
"Senator Booker also supports taking more robust steps to help keep firearms away from the mentally ill, and to combat illegal gun trafficking.
"Senator Booker took to the Senate floor in July 2016 to support a filibuster aimed at getting the Senate to act on common sense policies to reduce gun violence, including closing the so-called 'terror gap' loophole and implementing universal background checks on all gun purchases."
Against| Read My Position
"These are policies that hurt Americans, that undermine the quality of life, that makes us a nation where we see grievous actions going on as opposed to empowering women with the ability to make their own healthcare decisions"
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2015
"Planned Parenthood plays a vital role in our country. Yet time and again, Planned Parenthood has faced politically-motivated efforts in Congress to end their federal funding. These misguided efforts would hurt America's public health safety net and jeopardize women's health. It's time to turn the page and focus on expanding - not restricting - healthcare access and affordability for women and families."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Raise the minimum wage to $15/hour."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Pass legislation to codify the protections guaranteed by Roe v. Wade."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Senator Booker recently led a year-long effort to extend critical tax credits for wind and solar in the Senate's end-of-year government funding legislation. The inclusion of five-year extensions of these credits provided certainty to renewable energy producers across the country and helped ensure greater adoption of these technologies."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Make tuition-free community college and vocational training a reality across the country."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Facebook Page, 2018
"While the Trump tax cuts made the Koch Brothers 'richer' - real wages, for everyone else, are actually less than they were before the passage. The $1.5 trillion GOP tax giveaway for the rich has led to soaring corporate profits and CEO pay at the expense of everyone else."
Other| Read My Position
"'I support aggressive action to combat China's unfair trade practices. As president, I would work with our allies to develop a coherent trade policy that holds China to account and puts American workers on an equal playing field,' Booker told The Post."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Increasing the resources we devote to modernizing infrastructure will make our economy and our country more attractive to investment, and will help create jobs."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2017
"Descheduling marijuana and applying that change retroactively to people currently serving time for marijuana offenses is a necessary step in correcting this unjust system. States have so far led the way in reforming our criminal justice system and it's about time the federal government catches up and begins to assert leadership."
For| Read My Position
"I support Medicare for All. There are different ways we can get there. Right now, there are several bills in the United States Senate that move our country closer to Medicare for All, and I'm a sponsor of them. The most important thing is to keep the ultimate goal in mind: affordable health care for every American, because health care is a human right."
Other| Read My Position
Booker has stated his support for a Medicare for All plan that would eliminate private insurance that covered the same services. However, in response to a New York Times survey, Booker also said he would support"Americans having the choice between a 'public option' health care plan run by the government, and private health insurance."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Facebook Page, 2019
"This administration continues to lie and mislead the American people in its desperate attempt to build support for the president's wasteful and ineffective border wall."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Facebook Page, 2016
"We must help our communities fight the opioid epidemic. Opioid addiction has taken a devastating toll on families in New Jersey and across the country. We cannot stand idly by and watch this growing epidemic jeopardize the health and welfare of so many of our friends and neighbors."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Facebook Page, 2014
"Almost 60 million Americans - seniors, survivors, and the disabled - rely on Social Security for food, rent, and other essentials. That's why it's so important we defend Social Security."
For| Read My Position
"Fixing Social Security is not as complicated as people make it. It is unfair that if you're making $100,000, $150,000, you're paying a higher percentage of your income into Social Security than somebody who's paying a million dollars. We need to make sure that we create a fairer, more progressive Social Security tax situation so that if you're making a million dollars, you're paying more into that system. Having changes to that cap to Social Security would more fully fund Social Security." (Quote from CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls, Mar 27, 2019)
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Facebook Page, 2018
"Last year, Congress voted nearly unanimously-419-3 in the House and 98-2 in the Senate-to pass legislation authorizing new sanctions against Russia for meddling in our election. Despite a veto-proof majority, and the fact that Trump reluctantly signed it into law, it's now clear that this administration has no intention of enforcing these sanctions. Instead, they published an official 'Russian oligarchs' list which the Treasury Department confirmed was compiled from Forbes Magazine.
Americans must demand leadership that takes seriously foreign interference in our electoral process, and this administration clearly is not providing it."
Other| Read My Position
"I am committed to working with my Senate colleagues to do everything we can to make college more affordable with better ways to refinance tuition debt and ease the burdens of getting financial aid."
For| Read My Position
"Subscribes to scientific consensus that global warming is man-made. Supports cap-and-trade or carbon tax approach in dealing with greenhouse gas emissions."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2018
"Make no mistake, I had concerns about the Iran nuclear agreement when I voted on it, but an imperfect deal with years remaining to conduct further diplomacy was and remains better than a nuclear-armed Iran. The President's decision puts the U.S. in default of our commitments to the international community and our closest allies. It jeopardizes the ability of the IAEA to keep inspectors on the ground in Iran and maintain continuous monitoring of Iranian nuclear sites, putting the security of our allies, including Israel, at risk. And it is an unequivocal blow to our friends and a gift to our adversaries, moving the United States further down a path of isolation and retreat and adding further instability to the Middle East. That's why countless national security experts of both parties, including retired military officers and former diplomats, have spoken out in support of remaining in the deal."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2017
"A decision by President Trump to withdraw the United States from this agreement would be a historic blunder that would put the interests of a few big polluters and climate deniers before American security, the economy, and the environment. The rest of the world is charging ahead with or without the support of the United States government. The United States can either lead the world and reap the benefits of new jobs, new innovation, and new opportunities, or the world can leave us behind."
Voting Record
H J Res 31 (2019)
Final 2019 federal budget bill, including $1.4 billion for 55 miles of physical barrier on the border with Mexico, $415 million for humanitarian relief at the border, $12 billion for disaster relief, and $3.3 billion for highway and bridge infrastructure.S 1 (2019)
Reauthorizes a cooperation agreement with Jordan, authorizes sanctions against Syria, extends a loan gaurantee program with Israel, and increases protections for state and local governments that refuse to invest in or contract with companies which boycott Israel.S Amdt 5 (2019)
Republican bill to end the government shutdown and fund the government through September 2019. The bill includes $5.7 billion for a border wall.
H J Res 46 (2019)
Ends the national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border declared by President Trump.
S Amdt 6 (2019)
Democratic bill to end the government shutdown and fund the government through September 2019. The bill does not include $5.7 billion for a border wall.S J Res 7 (2019)
Prevents the U.S. from fighting in or assisting in Yemen's civil war.S 2155 (2018)
Eases some of the financial regulations of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
S 139 (2018)
Extends so-called "section 702" surveillance by the NSA under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
HR 195 (2018)
Stopped a federal government shutdown by funding the government through February 8, 2018. This bill also extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years. This bill does not include an extension of the immigration program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or any other immigration-related policy.
S 756 (2018)
Makes various reforms to the criminal justice system, such as mandating de-escalation training for correctional officers, improving feminine hygiene for prisoners, and adding more leniency to sentences for non-violent offenders.
HR 2 (2018)
"Farm bill" that authorizes a variety of agriculutral programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The final version of this bill did not include stricter work requirements for SNAP, as originally proposed. The bill also legalizes industrial hemp.
HR 1628 (2017)
"American Health Care Act" that repeals parts of the Affordable Care Act (also known as "Obamacare") and revises many health care laws. For example, this bill would cap Medicaid funding, repeal various insurance coverage requirements, and replace the requirement to buy health insurance with a penalty the next time you get insurance if you allow your coverage to lapse.
HR 1 (2017)
Reduces the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, reduces the individual income tax rate for high earners from 39.6% to 37%, increases the income threshold to qualify for the alternative minimum tax, and repeals the mandate to purchase health insurance.HR 1370 (2017)
Stopped a federal government shutdown by funding the government through January 19, 2018.S Con Res 3 (2017)
Sets the federal budget. This bill also establishes rules that pave the way for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare."
H J Res 43 (2017)
Allows states to withhold federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
H J Res 42 (2017)
Effectively allows states to drug test anybody claiming unemployment benefits or food stamps.
S J Res 34 (2017)
Overtuns a rule from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that requires all internet browsing and app usage data be subject to the same privacy requirements as private personal information. The FCC rule is stricter than previous regulations, which had various privacy requirements depending on the sensitivity of the online information.
