ILLINOIS — Rep. Bill Foster (D, IL-11) is set to defend his seat in Illinois’s 11th Congressional District during the Nov. 5 General Election.
Foster, the incumbent, is challenged by Republican candidate Jerry Evans and write-in candidate Anna Schiefelbein, an Independent.
Here are Foster’s responses to Patch’s candidate questionnaire:
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Name: Bill Foster
Town of Residence: Naperville
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Position Sought: United States House of Representatives Illinois District 11
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Family: I am married to my wife Aesook and have two children Billy and Christine
Education: University of Wisconsin–Madison (BA, Physics); Harvard University (PhD, Physics)
Occupation: Co-Founder and President, Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc (1974 ~ 1983);
Scientist at Harvard (1979-1983) and Fermilab (1984-2007)
Campaign website: Billfoster.com
The single most pressing issue facing our district is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.
The most pressing issue is our continued post-COVID economic recovery and lowering costs for hard working families. While overall inflation has dropped steadily from its pandemic highs, too many Americans are struggling to make ends meet. To address this, we need to raise workers’ wages to help low and middle-income families afford essentials. I support the PRO Act, which will ensure every worker has the right to form a union, and the Raise the Wage Act, to gradually raise the minimum wage and eliminate the lower minimum wages for tipped workers and people with disabilities. I also support policies to restore the Child Tax Credit expansion, lower child care costs, expand SNAP benefits, build more affordable housing, bring down the cost of college, and strengthen the ACA to make healthcare more affordable.
What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?
The American people are facing many challenges right now: from the continuing recovery of our economy, to gun violence, to the right-wing assault on reproductive freedom, to the challenges posed by advances in AI and the need to better protect our climate for future generations. To tackle these issues, we need leaders who lead with science and a deep understanding of the policies that are debated in Washington.
My background as a scientist at Fermilab and the founder of a high-tech manufacturing business gives me an important perspective on how to deal with the challenges facing our nation. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and I understand the challenges many of those business owners face, especially as their costs rise with inflation and they face increased global competition. From my science background, I also understand the key importance of federally funded R&D; we can only make progress against challenges like climate change and cancer if the federal government helps develop the technologies to conquer them.
Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform:
First, climate change. As a former scientist at a Department of Energy National Laboratory, I’ve led efforts to strengthen research into green technology. Second, reproductive rights, which are especially under threat after the Dobbs decision. Ensuring access to reproductive health services, including abortion and birth control, is critical both as a human right and for families’ financial stability. Third, as a member of the Financial Services Committee, I’m focused on ensuring all Americans have access to banking with fair terms. We can help families become homeowners, avoid loans designed to keep them in debt forever, and prevent people from being charged exorbitant fees for simple mistakes.
Finally, the biggest threat to our democracy is the loss of faith in free and fair elections – people must be able to exercise their right to vote and know that their vote will be counted and that the outcome of the election will be respected. For that to happen, we need politicians who reject false accusations of election fraud unless they are able to point to verifiable evidence that substantial fraud took place.
I am proud that while states across the country are trying to make it harder to vote, Illinois is leading by example – passing measures to protect voting rights and make it easier for citizens to cast their vote. This includes same day voter registration, early voting, and mail-in voting. I was proud to vote for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act which would restore protections of the Voting Rights Act and strengthen the ability for the federal government to intervene in instances of voter discrimination or disenfranchisement.
If you gain this position, what accomplishment would define your term in office as a success?
I regularly work with my Republican colleagues and on a host of issues. In my role on the Speaker’s bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, I am helping craft a bipartisan list of recommendations to combat the threat of – and harness the power of – AI. We share many of the same goals here, such as ensuring Americans stay safe from heightened national security threats and ever more convincing scams. My Improving Digital Identity Act, which would make it easier for Americans to detect deep fake scams, has enjoyed Republican support.
Why are you running for office?
After a successful career in both business and science, I succumbed to my family’s recessive gene of late-onset political activism and thinking about how I could best serve my fellow citizens became very important to me. Answering that question is why I decided to leave my job at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to run for office, and it keeps me motivated to serve in public office.
I am the only PhD physicist in Congress, and I bring with me a wealth of experience gained from a career that required prioritizing research and scientific evidence to draw conclusions and make recommendations — something we need much more of in Washington.
Explain your attitudes toward fiscal policy, government spending and how taxpayer dollars should be handled by your office?
Our federal deficit exploded following President Trump’s tax cuts for the rich, which already added over a trillion dollars to our national debt. I’m proud to support measures that make sure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes, which will not only bring down our nation’s deficit but ensure our economy works for everyone, not just those at the top. To that end, I was proud to support the Inflation Reduction Act, which will erase $300 billion from our nation’s debt by requiring corporations to pay at least 15% in taxes and increase enforcement against wealthy tax cheats.
I was also proud to support measures to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, and I will continue to support broadening the scope of this policy to include more and more drugs. Not only would this lower the prices everyday Americans are paying for their medications, but it would save the government $322 billion over the next decade. As our population ages, keeping these costs fair will be more and more important to both the government’s and everyday Americans’ budgets.
Health care spending including Medicare and Medicaid is a major driver of our long-term budget deficits, and diabetes and obesity-related costs represent over one-third of those costs. This Congress I am working to push for the widespread and low-cost distribution of semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and related anti-obesity drugs. These medications have shown incredible promise in helping obese Americans lose weight and reduce related health problems — a problem that has puzzled doctors for decades. If we succeed at leveraging our ability to negotiate price reductions on these drugs, they could provide an extraordinary cost-saving to Medicare and Medicaid as fewer Americans will face serious, expensive obesity-related health conditions like Type II Diabetes.
What would you do to help constituents struggling with the ever-increasing cost of living?
Inflation is now below 3%, down significantly from 9% during COVID. When inflation was at its peak I supported policies like the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act to fix supply chain issues that were driving up the cost of goods. Despite falling inflation, many families are still feeling the pain from earlier price hikes. To address this, we must raise workers’ wages and help families afford life’s essentials. To that end, I support the PRO Act, which protects the right to form a union, and the Raise the Wage Act, to raise the minimum wage. To help families afford essential goods and services, I also support policies to restore the Child Tax Credit expansion, subsidize child care, expand SNAP, build affordable housing, and strengthen the ACA.
Regarding the migrant crisis: Should the Biden Administration stiffen requirements for asylum seekers, and should Texas provide more notice to Illinois when busing migrants to the Chicago area?
Like many other communities across the Chicagoland area, my district has seen an increase in migrant arrivals from the US-Mexico border since the beginning of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s partisan stunt. It’s shameful that far-right Republicans are treating migrants and their families as political pawns and peddling anti-immigrant rhetoric.
This situation is further proof that our immigration system is badly broken and we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform. I strongly support comprehensive immigration reform. We must pass the Dream and Promise Act, which I voted for, to allow undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to gain a path to citizenship. We also must recognize that parts of our economy depend on undocumented immigrants, and allow these people to perform their work legally. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which I voted for last Congress, does this for farmworkers. We also must ease immigration for students and high-skilled workers. My Keep STEM Talent Act would allow students who earned STEM graduate degrees here to stay and contribute to our economy. Finally, we must make our immigration court system both just and quick, so asylum seekers are not stuck in limbo.
Should state or federal funding be provided to help municipalities address the arrival of asylum seekers?
The federal government has a responsibility to address this issue and provide Illinois with resources to manage the influx of migrants. We also need to provide adequate resources to the immigration courts to reduce the backlog of asylum cases. I have joined my congressional colleagues from the Chicagoland area in calling on the Biden administration to provide resources to communities that are managing migrant arrivals as a result of the partisan stunts by the governor of Texas. It is appalling that human beings are being used as pawns – being sent on buses with little regard for their own safety. The federal government has a duty to provide our communities with the resources needed to manage this situation in a humane manner.
Is the federal government doing enough to secure the borders? Why or why not?
Our immigration system is broken and Congress needs to pass comprehensive immigration reform. We had an opportunity to do this back in 2013, but then-Speaker John Boehner refused to allow a vote on a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate and would have passed in the House if brought up. That 2013 bill provided tens of billions of dollars for border security, a strict but fair pathway to citizenship for long-time undocumented residents who were able to pay a modest fine, pay back-taxes, and pass a criminal background check; and going forward it provided workable adjustments to immigration quotas and strong enforcement of e-verify and to ensure that we to return to a just and humane immigration system based on the rule of law. It’s been disheartening to see far-right Republicans, including Donald Trump, call for Congress to do nothing because they’d rather score political points. I hope that serious Republicans will reject this cynicism and work with Democrats to finally get this done.
Do you support your party’s nominee in the presidential race?
Yes
Should the US stop funding Israel and support a ceasefire in Gaza?
I support Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas terrorism and to make sure Hamas can never again inflict the barbaric violence on innocent Israeli civilians that we witnessed on October 7. Hamas must immediately release every innocent hostage in their custody.
While I support Israel in its self-defense, I have expressed deep concerns with how Prime Minister Netanyahu has conducted the war in Gaza. The mounting and unnecessary civilian death toll and worsening humanitarian crisis are unacceptable. They are not in accord with American principles or interests; nor do they make Israel safer. Maintaining the current strategy also jeopardizes efforts to permanently dismantle Hamas and secure the release of all hostages.
I urge President Biden to continue using America’s leverage to urge the Israeli government to pursue a long-term peace founded upon a sustainable two-state solution that respects international law and the interests of both the Israeli and Palestinian people.
Should the U.S. continue providing aid to Ukraine?
The United States has a moral obligation to assist Ukraine in its self-defense against Putin’s unjust invasion. This is especially true as Ukraine agreed to turn over their nuclear weapons in the 1990s in return for a guarantee that their territorial sovereignty would be defended by the international community. If we don’t adhere to that agreement, it would set a dangerous precedent in our efforts to reduce the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Furthermore, allowing Putin to illegally annex Ukraine will endanger our allies in Eastern Europe and will lead to further confrontation. America and our allies in NATO should continue to support Ukraine as it defends its democracy.
Should candidates be disqualified from holding office if they faced misdemeanor charges related to Jan. 6, 2021?
No candidate should be barred from office if they simply “faced charges” but were not convicted. Under our laws, persons convicted of a misdemeanor are typically not barred from state or federal offices, although a misdemeanor conviction may prevent them from obtaining a security clearance, and may be a factor preventing their confirmation by the Senate.
I voted to impeach President Trump, and would vote so again, for failing to perform his sworn duty to uphold the Constitution in the run-up to January 6th.
What occurred at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an insurrection, an attack on our democracy, and an assault on our cherished tradition of a peaceful transfer of power. It was an attempt by a mob to overturn a democratic election, done while President Trump refused to do anything to try and stop it. There is no legitimate evidence of widespread fraud during the 2020 presidential election, and President Biden was legitimately elected. President Trump had multiple opportunities in court to present evidence of his claims, and in each instance the courts found no justification for overturning the results of our free and fair election.
President Trump lost fair and square, but instead of accepting the results, he spent his remaining time in office casting doubts on the integrity of our democratic system and our elections.
What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?
I encourage everyone to learn more about my positions at billfoster.com
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