Profiting from student loans is usury, and we just can't continue to allow it.
There's nothing normal about graduating with massive student debt, where you live in fear of predatory debt collectors and wage garnishers even as you are starting to live your life.
When I was a little girl, my dad always said to me that I was going to be this great businesswoman, that I was going to be the CEO of IBM. So that's what I came into the world thinking, that I was going to go into the business world and make my mark there.
I come from a state in India that is a matrilineal state, Kerala. And so women really are seen as very powerful.
I'm not a complainer. I'm a doer. So if I see something is wrong, then I feel like I have to get in there and try to fix it.
I have a little yoga ritual that I do just to move my body around. Whatever I do, it's usually very fast because often I don't have the kind of time that I would like to.
I've always thought of the United States as a place where so much was possible and so many opportunities were out there.
As an immigrant, I have lived, in a way, the American dream, and I want to make sure that opportunity is available for everybody.
Policy is about real people and real stories, and sometimes we forget that.
Some people have called me the anti-Trump, and I'm so proud.
Sometimes when really terrible things happen, something beautiful emerges out of it.
I think what I learned is that just because somebody says you can't talk to them or just because somebody says they don't have an answer for you, you don't stop.
If you're an opposition party, you are actively using the power you have to oppose the ideas of the other party.
People who think that the immigration system is easy and people should just apply legally - it just isn't that easy.
I never thought I would run for office.
There were not that many people who were willing to come out and stand up for Muslims or stand up against the abuses of the Bush administration. That was post-9/11, so I think there was a lot of fear at the time about exactly what that meant - were they unpatriotic if they stood up?
Diversity is not just about the fact that the pictures look better. I mean, they always do look better!
My message to women - including women of color - stand strong. Refuse to be minimized or patronized. Let all the small guys out there be intimidated by you.
Racism, sexism, and age-ism are all alive and well in the U.S. House.
I'm the first South Asian woman to be elected to the House of Representatives.
