Ayanna Pressley

I think we eliminated debtors' prisons in something like 1833.

I still hear from folks in my district, Massachusetts 7th, and across the State, about the continued availability and marketing of these predatory loans.

In times of struggle, the options shouldn't be a debt trap interest rate or nothing at all.

To be clear, unless you believe that poverty is a character flaw, there is absolutely no justification for triple-digit interest rate installment loans.

What we are seeing is really intergenerational trauma, poverty, and poor health outcomes.

This is child abuse. This is elder abuse. This is abuse, period--par for the course of this administration, where the cruelty is the point.

Poverty is not a character flaw; it is a result of failed and often cruel policymaking.

Make no mistake about it: Housing is health.

I find very often we tend to stereotype and present a very shallow narrative as to who experiences homelessness or is on the precipice of experiencing it. The reality is that struggle is certainly not a character flaw, and hardship is…

My bill, the Comprehensive CREDIT Act, will greatly improve a fundamentally flawed credit reporting system, providing much-needed relief for families across the country. It works to protect consumers from unfair and misleading credit…

In this country, our credit reports are our reputations, determining where you can live, where you can work, and how much it will cost you to finance everything from a car to a college degree. But our credit reporting system is…

In my district, the Massachusetts Seventh alone, black girls are six times more likely to be suspended from school...

This technology is clearly biased, inaccurate, and even more dangerous when used in schools, where black and brown students are disproportionately already over-policed and disciplined at higher rates than their white peers for the same…

I worked with my colleagues Representative Clarke and Representative Tlaib on legislation to protect those living in HUD public housing from this technology.

We know that the logical end of surveillance is often over-policing and the criminalization of vulnerable and marginalized communities.

Letter from the American Civil Liberties Union; submitted by Rep. Pressley.

Letter from the Massachusetts Teachers Association; submitted by Rep. Pressley.

Letter from the American Federation of Teachers, Massachusetts; submitted by Rep. Pressley.

Letter from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; submitted by Rep. Pressley.

Letter from the BTU; submitted by Rep. Pressley.

HUD does not use eviction rates as a tool for grading public housing authorities (PHAs), correct?

Eviction isn't just the condition of poverty. It is a cause of poverty.

We have broken families because of broken systems and broken promises, and, I think, because of a deficit of empathy.

The reality is that most Americans struggle in order to realize the American Dream, which means that what is synonymous with the American experience is hardship.

It is odd but consistent that this Administration's modernization efforts betray the fundamental mission of what they hope to modernize.