Legislative Accomplishments:
In 2012, Rep. Wasserman Schultz helped NSU secure a $15 million federal grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create a world-class research facility dedicated to the study and support of coral reefs. The grant was one of 12 awarded by the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as a result of a nationwide competition. NSU was one of only two institutions to receive the largest amount awarded at $15 million.
In 2021, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured more than $200 million in emergency funding for colleges and universities in South Florida in response to severe financial fallout from COVID-19 as part of President Biden's American Rescue Plan Act.
In 2021, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured $22 million in funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct a technical investigation into the cause of the collapse of Champlain Towers South that claimed nearly 100 lives in Surfside, FL.
In 2023, Rep. Wasserman Schultz helped secure $15.7 million in combined grants for Broward County and the City of Fort Lauderdale from the first-ever round of funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s new Railroad Crossing Elimination (RCE) Grant Program.
In 2024, Rep. Wasserman Schultz joined the U.S. Department of Transportation in announcing a $53.3 million federal grant for the Port Everglades Regional Emissions Reductions Project.
In 2024, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured $637,195 for the City of Dania Beach to construct an Emergency Operations Center for quicker, more effective disaster response coordination.
114th Congress: H.R.1998 - HERO Act of 2015. Rep. Wasserman Schultz sponsored this legislation to train and hire wounded military veterans to aid law enforcement in investigating child exploitation. This bill was signed into law by President Obama as part of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.
114th Congress: H.R.1257 - Rape Survivor Child Custody Act. Rep. Wasserman Schultz sponsored this legislation to encourage states to allow women to terminate the parental rights of rapists. At the time, 21 states, including Washington D.C, had no statute allowing women who may want to keep their child to restrict or terminate parental rights of men who father through rape. This bill was signed into law by President Obama as part of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.
114th Congress: H.R.398 - Trafficking Awareness Training for Health Care Act. Rep. Wasserman Schultz was the Dem co-lead of this legislation to train health care providers in identifying and assisting victims of trafficking. This bill was signed into law by President Obama as part of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.
114th Congress: H.R.5571 - Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act. Rep. Wasserman Schultz sponsored this bill to establish statutory rights for sexual assault survivors, including no-cost forensic medical examinations, collection and preservation of evidence, and written notification prior to destruction or disposal of a rape kit. This bill passed the House in 2016 as part of the Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act.
In 2020, Rep. Wasserman Schultz passed legislation that required renaming military bases named after Confederate officers in order for construction funding to commence at those bases.
As Chair of the MILCON/VA subcommittee, Rep. Wasserman Schultz split out women’s healthcare at VA from the general medical care fund to ensure women veterans receive appropriate treatment within the VHA system.
Rep. Wasserman Schultz successfully included a provision in the FY24 MILCON/VA bill to end animal testing at VA.
In 2025, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured report language to prevent cuts to NOAA’s hurricane hunters and protect research capabilities at NOAA that keep Americans safe from extreme weather and climate threats from Trump Administration cuts and closures.
In 2024, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured $425 million in funding for Everglades restoration and continuing progress on the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir.
In 2021, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured $1.1 billion in funding for Everglades restoration, the largest-ever federal investment in this effort, as part of President Biden’s bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
In 2020, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured $29 million in funding for Port Everglades to begin work on the first phase of a long-awaited deepening and widening project designed to spur economic activity.
In 2020, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured an additional $35 million in funding for the Army Corps’ Florida Everglades restoration efforts.
In 2019, Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s provision banning drilling activities on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts passed the House as an amendment to an omnibus package including several appropriations bills. The amendment prohibits any funds from being expended by the Department of the Interior to conduct oil and gas pre-leasing, leasing, and related activities in outer continental shelf planning areas around Florida.
In 2019, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured House passage of an amendment blocking oil drilling in the Everglades protected area.
In 2019, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured enactment of appropriations language to authorize the Central Everglades Planning Project, a massive suite of restoration projects to restore South Florida’s natural freshwater flows, as well as funding of $200 million for the federal cost-share of Everglades Restoration.
In 2016, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured $1.9 billion for the Central Everglades Project to improve water flow in and around the everglades, as well as more than $335 million in funding for the Port Everglades Harbor Dredging Project.
In 2014, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured $65.5 million for Everglades restoration as well as $41 million for nationwide beach renourishment in the Energy and Water Appropriations Act, which helped protect South Florida beaches against shore erosion.
In 2014, Rep. Wasserman Schultz delivered $3 billion in funding for Florida environmental protection and economic development in the Water Resources Reform and Development Act, including authorizing funds for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, the Broward County Water Preserve Area, and Port Everglades expansion.
118th Congress: H.R. 6831 - VERDAD Reauthorization Act. Co-led with Rep. Salazar. This bill would extend expiring provisions in the VERDAD Act of 2019, including authorization for sanctions against the Maduro regime and prohibition on arms sales to the regime. The bill was reported favorably by HFAC.
118th Congress: VOICE Act – Imposes targeted sanctions on individuals responsible for undermining the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election. Several of the regime officials targeted by this bill were designated for sanctions by the Biden Administration.
118th Congress: AFFECT Human Rights in Venezuela Act – Directs U.S. support for an independent, international fact-finding mission into crimes against humanity by Nicolás Maduro.
Rep. Wasserman Schultz founded and has secured $45M in funding for the Alcee L. Hastings Program for Advanced Cancer Screening.
In 2024, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured nearly $7 million in funding to promote breast cancer awareness among young women, through a program enacted by Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s EARLY Act.
In 2024, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured $10 million for the Alcee L. Hastings Program for Advanced Cancer Screening in Underserved Communities, which she created in 2021 to increase equitable access to cancer screening in underserved communities.
In 2022, Rep. Wasserman Schultz and Rep. Billy Long launched the bipartisan Family Building Caucus to draw national attention to the medical challenges faced by millions of Americanswhen trying to start a family and pursue solutions.
In 2019, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured $500 million for Department of Defense cancer research and $110 million for peer-reviewed metastatic cancer research at NIH.
In 2014, Rep. Wasserman Schultz was honored with the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s Betty Ford Lifetime Achievement Award for her legislative efforts to fight breast cancer, including the EARLY Act.
In 2013, Rep. Wasserman Schultz created a medical research panel to study metastatic cancer through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program at the Department of Defense. This task force has conducted advanced research on all cancers, seeking common causes, treatments, and cures for tumor growth.
In 2025, Rep. Wasserman Schultz led hundreds of Congressional Democrats in filing four amicus briefs with the Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in National TPS Alliance v. Noem, an effort to reverse the Trump Administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans and Haitians.
119th Congress: H.R.3310 - Venezuela TPS Act. Redesignates Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status. Introduced in 2025. Co-led with Soto and Salazar.
119th Congress: H.R. 1348 – Venezuelan Adjustment Act. Would allow Venezuelan TPS and parole recipients to adjust to lawful permanent resident status. Co-led with Soto and Salazar.
117th Congress: H.R. 6907 - Cuban Family Reunification Parole Act. Restores the Cuban Family Reunification Parole program, which was frozen by the first Trump Administration. This program was resumed by President Biden as a result of advocacy by Rep. Wasserman Schultz.
116th Congress: H.R. 549 – Venezuela TPS Act of 2019. Rep. Wasserman Schultz co-led this legislation to designate Venezuela for TPS along with Reps. Soto, Diaz-Balart, and Murphy. This bill passed the House in 2019.
116th Congress: H.R. 2217 – Families, Not Facilities Act. Restricts the ability of ICE to engage in inappropriate civil immigration enforcement actions that harm unaccompanied immigrant minors and to ensure the safety and welfare of unaccompanied immigrant children.
115th Congress: H.R. 6256 – Congressional Access to Children’s Detention Facilities Act. This bill prohibits DHS and HHS from restricting Members’ access to any facility in which immigrant children are detained. The bill language has been partially included in annual appropriations bills for these agencies.
In 2013, Rep. Wasserman Schultz led the Congressional Latino-Jewish Caucus in introducing a bipartisan framework of principles for comprehensive immigration reform.
119th Congress: H.Res.597 - Condemning the attack on the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994, and encouraging accountability for the attack. Also introduced in 118th Congress. This resolution was sponsored alongside bipartisan leaders of the Latino-Jewish Caucus.
In 2025, Rep. Wasserman Schultz joined Reps. Jerry Nadler and Brad Schneider in founding the Congressional Jewish Caucus.
Serves as a Vice Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, which advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Privacy and Digital Safety:
118th Congress: H.R. 3547 – Doxing Threat Assessment Act. This bill directs the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a threat assessment of participation by foreign malign state and nonstate actors in targeted digital harassment of American individuals, organizations, and groups. The bill was partially incorporated into the FY24 Homeland Security Appropriations Act which was signed into law by President Biden.
114th Congress: H.R. 744 - STOP Identity Theft Act. This legislation directs the Department of Justice to dedicate resources to bring more perpetrators of tax return identity theft to justice. It also amends the federal criminal code to better protect organizations from identity theft and subject tax fraud-related identity theft to additional criminal penalties. The bill passed the House in 2012 and 2014.
In 2025, Rep. Wasserman Schultz led 165 Democrats in opposing President Trump’s plan to cut Social Security disability benefits by restricting eligibility for older disabled workers. Her efforts led to the Trump Administration abandoning the plan, preserving access to life-saving financial assistance for more than 400,000 Americans with disabilities.
115th Congress: H.R.4705 - Me Too Congressional Ethics Act. Rep. Wasserman Schultz sponsored legislation to require sexual harassment cases involving Members of Congress to be automatically referred to the Ethics Committee, putting an end to the days of sweeping congressional harassment under the rug. This bill passed the House as part of a broader package of sexual harassment reforms in 2018.
In 2024, Rep. Wasserman Schultz secured the unanimous adoption of an amendment by the full House Appropriations Committee to ensure Members of Congress have unrestrained access to conduct oversight at U.S. Postal Service facilities to help ensure delivery delays, lost or undelivered mail, equipment shortages, or worker concerns are fully and swiftly addressed.
