Abundance New York 2026 Congressional Candidate Questionnaire
Grace Meng
Congressional District NY-6
Background
Please briefly describe your background and why you are running for this office.
I’m the proud daughter of immigrants and a lifelong resident of Queens. I first ran for Congress because I saw too many of our neighbors – working families, immigrants, small business owners, seniors – being ignored by people in power. My community shaped me, and I’ve made it my mission to be a voice in Washington for those who have too often been left out of the conversation.
How are you differentiated from your opponent(s)? What does your path to victory look like in your district?
What distinguishes me in this race is my record of delivering real results. I don’t just talk about the issues facing our community – I’ve consistently taken those concerns and turned them into action. Many of the bills I’ve introduced came directly from constituents who walked into my office with a problem that needed solving. Whether it’s flooding on a neighborhood block, access to childcare, hate crimes, or the rising cost of prescription drugs, I’ve focused on getting things done.
I’ve helped pass major legislation and secured millions of dollars in federal funding directly for our district – from flood mitigation projects to grants for nonprofits, community health centers, local hospitals, and colleges. I’ve delivered funding for childcare programming, helped establish the first diaper bank in Queens, and brought resources home to immigrant-serving organizations. This is a proven track record of results that directly improve people’s lives.
As the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, I have used the Appropriations process to bring tens of millions of federal dollars back to Queens, and to make sure New York City gets our fair share of federal funding. I’ve shown that I know how to navigate Congress to produce results for the people I represent, from helping constituents directly with immigration and IRS casework, to funding local groups and institutions and making the federal government work for the people.
Our campaign’s path to victory is rooted in consistent presence, strong constituent service, and meeting voters where they are—both in person and through the platforms they trust. Representing one of the most diverse and geographically expansive districts in Queens, we’ve built a team that reflects the community we serve and provides services in multiple languages to ensure accessibility for all.
A key part of our ground game is staying deeply engaged across the district through regular community interactions, including mobile office hours that bring services directly to residents in harder-to-reach neighborhoods. This on-the-ground approach ensures that every constituent has a direct line of communication and support. At the same time, our campaign leverages a comprehensive communications strategy that blends traditional outreach with a robust digital presence. We engage voters through local and ethnic media outlets and utilize a wide range of social media and messaging platforms—including X, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and WeChat—to connect with different communities in the ways they prefer.
Across all channels, our message remains consistent: focusing on affordability, expanding economic opportunity, and ensuring public safety. By combining strong constituent services, culturally competent outreach, and a broad engagement strategy, we are building the relationships and trust needed for a winning coalition.
Government Delivery Reform
NEPA Reform: Congress should reform the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to reduce the time and scope of federal environmental review for housing, transit, renewable energy, and resilience projects. NEPA delays affect federally funded projects in New York, adding years and significant costs to critical infrastructure.
Agree
Capital Project Procurement Reform: Congress should give federal agencies and their state and local grantees more procurement flexibility—such as expanded other transaction authority and performance-based contracting—to speed up delivery of federally funded capital projects. This should include examining Buy America requirements and federal cost-sharing rules that inflate project costs.
I agree, but want to emphasize that this should not come at the expense of fair labor standards.
Additional context
(No response)
Housing
Expanding Housing: Addressing the housing affordability crisis requires increasing production of all kinds of housing, including market-rate units. Congress should increase federal support for housing production through funding and regulatory changes, including by tying federal transportation, infrastructure, and community development funding to pro-supply local policies such as zoning and permitting reform.
Agree
Homelessness: Congress should increase federal funding for Housing First approaches, including permanent supportive housing, as the primary strategy for addressing homelessness.
Agree
Transit-Oriented Development: Congress should incentivize transit-oriented development by conditioning federal transit funding on local zoning changes that allow more housing near transit stations.
I support expanding housing near transit, but federal policy should not impose uniform zoning requirements. Communities like Maspeth and Bayside have different infrastructure and density needs than Jackson Heights or Woodside, and planning should reflect those differences.
Build Code Reform: Congress should support research, funding, financing, and model codes that encourage cheaper construction methods (e.g., modular construction, mass timber) while maintaining safety.
Agree
Repeal the Faircloth Amendment: Congress should repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds to build new public housing units beyond the number that existed in 1999, to allow for the construction of new public housing.
Agree
Additional context
(No response)
Transit
Transit Cost Containment: Congress should act to reduce the cost of federally funded transit projects, including by reforming FTA New Starts and Capital Investment Grant requirements, streamlining federal review, and encouraging cost-containment practices as a condition of federal funding.
Agree
Bus Transit Investment: Congress should leverage its funding for bus transit to encourage the creation of busways and bus rapid transit where appropriate to increase the speed of buses and the efficiency of federal investments, including through programs like the FTA's Capital Investment Grants and Bus and Bus Facilities program.
Agree
Automated Camera Enforcement: Congress should remove or oppose federal restrictions that limit state and local use of automated traffic enforcement—such as red light cameras, speed cameras, and bike lane cameras—and should allow federal highway safety funds to support automated enforcement expansion.
Agree
Parking: New York City should charge more for parking and reduce or eliminate free street parking.
I would be open to hearing proposals around parking fees. However, I represent a highly residential district with several transit deserts. Many constituents depend on their personal vehicles to get around their neighborhoods, or go to work. Maspeth and Bayside look very different from Chelsea or the Upper West Side.
Additional context
I am proud to be a strong advocate for public transit and accessibility. I recently secured millions of federal dollars to install an elevator at the Forest Hills LIRR station and helped secure funding that helped install an elevator at the Flushing LIRR station. I have also rallied to urge New York State to invest in critical accessibility upgrades across subway stations. In addition, I have been actively advocating for the reopening of the Elmhurst LIRR station to expand transit options for the community.
Clean Energy & Climate Resilience
Solar Energy: New York State should preempt local regulations that effectively ban solar projects by establishing a ceiling on restrictions and should streamline solar permitting by adopting automated systems in order to enable more solar energy.
Agree
Nuclear Energy: Congress should support expanding U.S. nuclear energy capacity by funding new reactor designs, streamlining NRC licensing, and extending the operating licenses of existing plants in order to hit the goal of 100% zero-emission electricity generation by 2040.
Agree
Geothermal Energy: Congress should support the expansion of geothermal energy development through federal research funding, streamlined permitting, and incentives for deployment, including in dense urban areas like New York.
Agree
Transmission Co-Location: Congress should support legislation that prioritizes existing highway, railroad, and utility rights-of-way for the siting of new electricity transmission lines, reducing permitting delays and landowner conflicts while accelerating the buildout of transmission capacity needed to deliver clean energy.
Agree
Climate Resilience Investments: Congress should increase federal investment in climate resilience infrastructure, including coastal defenses, stormwater management, and cooling infrastructure, with priority given to socially vulnerable communities.
Agree
Buyout Reform: Congress should reform federal disaster buyout programs—including those administered through FEMA and HUD—to accelerate the relocation of families out of high-risk flood zones, with streamlined environmental review, standing funding, and expanded eligibility for renters.
Agree
Additional context
(No response)
Candidate Statement
Abundance Examples from Your Work: Please describe a specific example from your record (legislative, professional, or community work) where you championed a project or policy that is aligned with our agenda. What obstacles did you overcome, and what was the outcome?
I have consistently championed an abundance-oriented vision by advancing bold, large-scale investments in housing supply and stability. A leading example is my co-leadership of the Housing is a Human Right Act, landmark legislation that treats housing not as a scarcity-driven commodity, but as essential infrastructure that the government must actively expand.
Through this bill, I have pushed for over $200 billion in federal investment to dramatically increase affordable housing production, expand supportive services, and reduce homelessness nationwide. The legislation directly addresses systemic shortages by funding new construction, preserving existing housing, and prioritizing communities most at risk – reflecting a core abundance principle: building more to meet real human needs rather than managing scarcity.
This effort has not been without obstacles. Federal housing policy has long been constrained by underinvestment, fragmented programs, and political resistance to large-scale public spending. At the same time, rising housing costs and increasing homelessness have made the urgency greater while also complicating consensus. I have worked to overcome these barriers by building coalitions in Congress and partnering with national housing advocates to elevate housing as a fundamental right and a necessary public good.
The outcome is a transformative policy framework that reframes the national conversation: housing is a human right, and the government must act at scale to ensure it. By centering long-term supply, supportive services, and equitable investment, my work aligns with an abundance agenda focused on expanding access, removing structural bottlenecks, and delivering tangible improvements in people’s lives.
Legislative Priorities: If elected (or re-elected) to Congress, what are your top three legislative priorities? Please be specific about the policies you would advance and what you hope to achieve.
In the 118th Congress, Minority Leader Jeffries appointed me to the Regional Leadership Council, a 12-member board responsible for tracking the implementation of landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Representing New York, I worked closely with senior Administration officials to oversee these efforts. While I am proud of our progress in lowering drug prices, repairing our roads and bridges, and reshoring critical industries, I also saw firsthand the constraints of timely implementation. Too often, we see funding announced in press releases only to wait years, and in many cases, we are still waiting for that money to translate into shovels and ribbon cuttings. This slow pace ultimately undermines our legislative goals and makes it harder to deliver for the public. While process is important, our federal, state, and local partners must act with greater nimbleness and urgency.
This underscores my common-sense approach to lawmaking. During the pandemic, when millions of students were forced to learn from home, many lacked the reliable internet access needed to participate in virtual classrooms. To address this, Senator Markey and I created the Emergency Connectivity Fund through the American Rescue Plan. We knew the solution had to be easy to implement; we couldn't afford to wait years for a new bureaucracy to get off the ground. By using an existing federal framework, the program operated as a streamlined reimbursement model that paid for devices and broadband services, ultimately connecting millions of students. The first reimbursements were issued only months after the bill was signed into law, not years. This speed was highly unusual for a $7.17 billion program, but it underscores the urgency with which we acted to deliver results for our students.
In this Congress, as always, I’m focused on caring for and protecting our communities, transforming public safety, and working toward a more affordable New York with an economy that works for everyone.
Families deserve better. That’s why I’m fighting to make childcare more affordable through universal childcare and my Marshall Plan for Moms. I’m also fighting to lower the cost of health insurance premiums, keep lowering prescription drug pricing, and ensure that care is accessible from birth until the end of life. Families and kids should never worry about their next meal. This Congress, I’m working to pass my bipartisan Hot Foods Act, which would allow families to use SNAP to buy convenient, healthy foods like a rotisserie chicken.
In New York, we must transform public safety to make everyone safer. I’ve brought millions of dollars to Queens through the NYPD and non-profits to prevent crime with community-based organizations. My Hate Crimes Act was also signed into law to help protect all communities from acts of hate, and I am working to further prevent hate crimes with additional legislation. I’m also working to address the mental health crisis in our communities, by bringing $1 million to fund 988 in NYC. And finally, I’m fighting against ICE overreach with legislation to hold federal ICE agents accountable to the same standards as other law enforcement.
Life in Queens, like everywhere else, is way too expensive. We need to work toward an economy that works for everyone by lowering the cost of living, and increasing housing supply to make housing more affordable. Rep. Jayapal and I have a Housing Bill of Rights Act to increase funding for federal grant programs that we know work but that are chronically underfunded, while creating a new grant program that gives municipalities the flexibility needed to combat homelessness and affordability. We also need to make economic opportunity more accessible, and I’ve brought tens of millions of dollars to projects at my local colleges to build a skilled workforce pipeline for AI and the future, a Small Business Development Center, and working with K-12 schools to provide STEM education opportunities. Finally, we need to even the playing field by address corporate greed and making sure corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of taxes.
The people I represent deserve a federal government that works for them and improves the lives of working families throughout life’s phases.