Lucille Elsa Roybal-Allard is the U.S. Representative for, serving in Congress since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 33rd from 1993 to 2003 and as the 34th from 2003 to 2013, includes much of southern Los Angeles, as well as a number of eastern suburbs such as Downey, Bell and Bell Gardens.
The congresswoman is the first Latina to serve as one of the 12 "cardinals," or chairs, of a House Appropriations Subcommittee, as well as the first Latina to serve on the House Appropriations Committee. She is also the first woman to chair the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; the first woman to chair the California Democratic congressional delegation; and the founder of the Women's Working Group on Immigration Reform. Her Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act has been instrumental in reducing underage drinking and its consequences. From her position on the House Appropriations Committee, she has spearheaded many federal projects that have created jobs and improved the lives of her constituents, including the new federal courthouse in Downtown Los Angeles, the Metro Gold Line Lightrail Eastside Extension, the deepening of the Port of Los Angeles, and the ongoing revitalization of the Los Angeles River.
She currently sits on the House Appropriations and Standards of Official Conduct committees. She has also served as the chair of the California Democratic congressional delegation and of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. She has also been active in the Congressional Children's Caucus and on the Democratic Homeland Security and the Livable Communities task forces. She is the first Democratic Mexican-American woman to serve in Congress. She and Nydia Velazquez of New York City were the second and third Latinas elected to Congress after Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami. She and Velazquez are the first Latina Democrats to serve in that body, and the first two elected to a full term. She is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the House Baltic Caucus.
Legislation
Roybal-Allard introduced the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act of 2013 into the House on March 20, 2013. The bill would amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize grant programs and other initiatives to promote expanded screening of newborns and children for heritable disorders. Roybal-Allard argued that "newborn screening not only transforms and save lives - it saves money." According to Roybal-Allard, in California "newborns are screened for more than 40 preventable and treatable conditions – and for every one dollar California spends on screening, it yields a benefit of over $9 as we prevent disease in children who are diagnosed with these treatable conditions." She is the original House author of The Security and Financial Empowerment Act, a bill designed to ensure that survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking can get help without fearing for the loss of their jobs or economic security. Portions of the SAFE Act were included in the House's 2019 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. She authored The Children's Act for Responsible Employment to address abusive and exploitative child labor practices in agriculture.
Political campaigns
In 1992, she won the Democratic nomination for the newly created 33rd District, which included a sliver of the area her father had represented for 30 years. She won handily in November, and has been reelected 13 times with no substantive opposition in this heavily Democratic, Latino-majority district. Her district was renumbered as the 34th after the 2000 Census and the 40th after the 2010 Census. As of the 2010 census, it is the most Latino district in the nation, with a Latino majority of 86.5 percent. Until 2013, she represented much of downtown Los Angeles.
Personal life
Roybal-Allard is married to Edward T. Allard III. She has two children, Ricardo Olivarez and Lisa Marie Roybal Elliott, two stepchildren, Angela Allard and Guy Mark Allard, and four grandchildren. Her husband is a management consultant and a retired Marine Corpscaptain. She lives in Downey, California. She also holds an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from National Hispanic University.
