Repeated fruitless attempts to subpoena testimony on the controversy from former Bush political guru Karl Rove led to a 2008 Judiciary Committee vote to hold Rove in contempt of Congress. Rove and another Bush aide, Harriet Miers, agreed in March 2009 to testify before the committee on the issue.

Since election to Congress, Sanchez has targeted the issue of bullying. In 2003, she introduced the Bullying Prevention for School Safety and Crime Reduction Act that sought to provide federal funding for anti-bullying funding in schools. The bill was included in a 2004 Justice Department authorization bill, but the Senate failed to pass it.

In 2008 and 2009, Sanchez introduced legislation inspired by the suicide of Missouri teen Megan Meier, who killed herself in 2006 after being bullied online by a local mother posing as a teen. Sanchez's bill sought to make online bullying a felony and was criticized by conservatives as a means of censorship.

The Economy

In 2003, Sanchez sponsored her first piece of legislation seeking to increase the cap on the Small Business Administration's microloan program from $35,000 to $50,000. The bill, reintroduced in 2005, never it made to the House floor.

Sanchez voted against both versions of the $700 billion financial bailout bill in fall 2008, citing a lack of assistance to homeowners struggling to pay off mortgages.

In 2009, Sanchez was one of the first co-sponsors of legislation authored by House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) to loosen bankruptcy rules allowing judges to modify mortgage terms in order to let people keep their homes. Under Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which individuals traditionally declare, the only kind of debt a judge is forbidden from modifying are primary home mortgages. The bill has passed the House and is awaiting a vote in the Senate.

Sanchez supported the $787 billion economic stimulus package that passed in February 2009.

Immigration

Sanchez often invokes her family's name when dealing with immigration policy and has sought to provide rights to undocumented aliens.

Sanchez was one of the harshest critics of the 2005 Real ID Act that sought to deny undocumented immigrants access to driver's licenses. "Republicans are using national security as a facade to alienate law-abiding and taxpaying immigrants," she said. "What we should be doing is allowing these immigrants a path to citizenship." The bill was attached to a 2005 military spending bill, which passed with only 58 House dissenters, including Sanchez.

Latin America

In 2003, Sanchez wrote letters to President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox that helped broker an extradition treaty ensuring that American killers who flee to Mexico are returned to the U.S.

After a six-day visit to Colombia in 2006, Sanchez publicly voiced opposition to free-trade agreements with the country on the grounds it would hurt workers in both countries, particularly Colombian women. Though officials from both nations reached a U.S.-Colombia trade pact earlier that year, Congress has yet to ratify the agreement.

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