How did you get into politics?
I was an investment banker for about fourteen years. In my spare time I organized math and science programs in my old junior high school in Anaheim, California. I went to talk to my congressman about expanding the program and when I didn't get any response, I came home that night and said, "I'm going to run for Congress." I ended up winning my seat by 984 votes.
How do you do what you do? Describe your process.
First and foremost, we introduce legislation. We research a problem and then write a law to try to solve that problem. Every member of congress sits on a committee, and generally we do work that sits within the jurisdiction of our committee. First, the members of a committee debate legislation. If it is passed in committee, it can go forward to the full Congress, where it's debated as well, and, if passed, on to the Senate. Then the President has to say yes or no to whatever the Senate and the House have agreed on.
How many people are involved in what you do?
There are 435 members of Congress; 60 of those are women. There are 52 members of the defense committee, on which I am the senior woman.
What do you like most or dislike most about being a congresswoman?
The hardest thing for me is flying back and forth between California and Washington D.C. every week. The best thing is the quality of the women who serve in the Congress. They're amazing. They help each other. They're smart. They're tough. All of us are very anxious for more women to enter Congress, especially younger ones. We believe that the more the younger women get started in politics, the sooner we will get a woman president in the White House.
What was high school like? Were you into politics?
Not really. For a couple years I was a senator for my class. My parents didn't encourage any extracurricular activities that they considered frivolous. So I couldn't go to football games or pep rallies. But if I was at the library or at work--I used to scoop ice cream--that was fine.
Did your college major relate to your work?
Not really. My first two years I was pre-med, because I thought I wanted to be a dentist. About midway through college I decided I really enjoyed business so I switched to economics and finance.
Tell us about your amendment to the Violence Against Women bill.
I sit on the defense committee, so I work on issues related to the military. Some women came to me and said they had noticed a problem--abused spouses married to service members didn't really have anyone to turn to. So first we did a little bit of investigation: Are abused spouses really not getting help on bases? And that's what we found. So we wrote a bill to remedy the problem. It took two years to pass. Now we're working on a plan that would basically allow the commander of the base to get domestic violence workers in a neighboring city to come on base and help with the situation.
Check out >Representative Sanchez's website!
