Congresswoman Porter has led the fight to secure the protections and support Americans with disabilities deserve.

Congresswoman Porter has been working to improve health care and expand services for Americans living with disabilities. She is a voice for improving and modernizing Social Security assistance, which has been a lifeline for families. She supports the Social Security Fairness Act of 2021, which would eliminate provisions that reduce benefits for people who depend on them. She also cosponsored the Stop the Wait Act, which would eliminate the mandatory waiting periods that delay eligible individuals from receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). To make sure that the Social Security Administration has the resources needed to reduce service delays for families requiring assistance, Congresswoman Porter also supported increasing the agency's funding in the appropriations process.

When Congresswoman Porter saw people unexpectedly losing their Social Security benefits, she led a letter to the Social Security Administration asking them to simplify the appeal process. She also led a letter demanding the Social Security Administration reverse a new policy that would allow employees without relevant experience to conduct disability hearings.

Congresswoman Porter believes that no one should be denied life saving care because of a disability. She introduced bipartisan legislation to protect patients with disabilities from discrimination when seeking an organ transplant. She was also proud to champion bipartisan legislation to lower the threshold at which families can deduct medical expenses from federal taxes which become law in 2020. Without Congresswoman Porter’s efforts, 4.4 million families with high health care costs, who deduct medical expenses from their taxes, would have seen their taxes increase for 2020. 

The law forbids discrimination against patients with disabilities, but insurers often exploit loopholes to deny coverage when it’s beneficial to their bottom line. Congresswoman Porter led her House and Senate colleagues in calling upon the Biden Administration to strengthen protections against disability-based discrimination. She also led an effort to protect individuals with disabilities from discriminatory pricing stemming from health metrics that are biased against individuals with disabilities. 

Congresswoman Porter believes that all people should have equal access to our public resources. In her first hearing as Chairwoman of the Natural Resources Oversight Subcommittee, she provided a voice for those with disabilities who cannot experience our public lands because they lack accessible infrastructure. To help individuals with disabilities get the protection they need, Congresswoman Porter wrote a letter urging the Biden Administration to ship masks directly to the millions of Americans with disabilities who cannot safely or easily travel to public pick-up locations.

Congresswoman Porter has introduced the Mental Health Justice Act to reduce violence against individuals with mental illnesses and disabilities. The legislation would provide communities with the resources they need to create mental health provider first responder units.