"In the neighborhood that I grew up in, in the city of Baltimore, one of the things that you tried to do was make sure that you were not considered a chump And what really bothers me is all of these other people who are lined up, they'll say, 'Well, is Kashkari a chump? We can go in there we'll get some money."

Cummings is additionally a sponsor of initiatives to increase access to college, reform public education and combat crime and drug abuse by addressing their underlying social causes.

The Economy

Since the onset of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, Cummings has pressed the Federal Reserve to better regulate the mortgage industry. He also introduced a resolution to support responsible lending practices and co-sponsored the Expanding American Home Ownership Act of 200, which expanded the services the Federal Housing Administration offers borrowers; and the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act, which protects potential homeowners from abusive practices within the mortgage-lending industry.

Cummings initially came out against the 2008 Wall Street bailout, stating that "Congress simply cannot bail out Wall Street while at the same time bailing on Main Street." He co-sponsored an alternative bailout plan that gave homeowners more protections and reduced the power of the Treasury secretary. But Cummings later dropped his opposition and voted for the 2008 bailout, citing the widespread inability of many of his constituents to obtain needed credit.

Cummings strongly supported the 2009 economic stimulus act. He praised its passage, but lamented the lack of funding for things like school construction." Cummings was the only Maryland representative of either party to oppose President Clinton's 1996 Welfare Reform Act.

Education

Cummings is committed to expanding and upgrading early childhood education. He supported the Head Start for School Readiness Act, a measure to allow an additional 10,000 children into the national Head Start program, increase teacher salaries and improve cooperation between Head Start and state and local child-care programs to increase full-day and full-year services.

He sponsored a bill to train more teachers to serve children with disabilities in integrated settings, and he supported the 10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science and Math Scholarship Act to recruit more math and science teachers. Cummings supported the reauthorization and full funding of the No Child Left Behind Act. He has also co-sponsored legislation with Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor George Miller (D-Calif.), to address U.S. high-school dropout rates.

Cummings has been at the forefront of efforts to make college education more affordable. At the start of the 110th Congress, Cummings supported a budget resolution to increase the maximum Pell Grant scholarship for higher education for the first time since 2003. He also co-sponsored the College Student Relief Act, which halved interest rates on student loans.

Cummings opposes voucher programs that would help defray the costs of private-school tuition for needy families. He insists that federal spending be directed toward needed improvements in public schools.

Law Enforcement

The urban problems of crime and drug abuse are high-priority issues for Cummings. He has hosted events throughout Baltimore's 7th district to educate parents, teachers and community leaders about the signs and language of gang activity; ways to communicate with young people about gangs; and safe means of reporting gang activity. He is currently sponsoring a bill to provide grant money for witness protection to cities and counties that average at least 100 homicides a year; the bill also provides training assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service.

Cummings co-founded the Congressional Caucus on Drug Policy and led efforts to renew the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He has supported many initiatives to rehabilitate convicted drug offenders, such as increasing access to buprenorphine, a treatment for opiate dependency, and expanding use of drug courts, which offer convicts pathways to addiction treatment. He co-sponsored the Second Chance Act, which provides re-entry services to people in jail.

The Maryland Democrat has taken decisive stands against racial discrimination in law-enforcement efforts. This year, he co-sponsored the Crack-Cocaine Equitable Sentencing Act, which equalized the discrepancies in mandatory minimum sentences for powder cocaine and crack-cocaine; sentences have historically been harsher for African-American convicts. In 1999, he co-sponsored the Traffic Stops Statistics Study Act, which called for documentation of the extent to which police are influenced by race when conducting traffic stops.

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