Ruben Gallego

Ruben is the son of Hispanic immigrants, was the first in his family to attend college, and served in the military before becoming a politician. He has risen in prominence, assuming the leadership position in the House Hispanic Caucus and dedicating much of his attention to immigration reform. There’s even been some buzz around him challenging Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in the Democratic primary as progressives of the party have soured on her decision-making.

Sadly, this pandemic has shown major flaws in our system and Ruben has been a leader in fighting for the Native American tribes. Ruben introduced the Tribal Medical Supplies Stockpile Access act which would give Indian organizations access to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) of drugs and medical supplies that can be tapped if a public health emergency exhausts local supplies. As of now, the tribal health authorities have limited access. Hopefully this gives them access to needed medical supplies.

Ruben had his eyes on immigration this year. Ruben is the son of Hispanic immigrants, giving him a personal connection to the issue. Ruben was one of a few dozen Congressional leaders to sign a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas calling for ICE to cut ties with local police. Ruben was the original cosponsor of the Averting Loss of Life and Injury by Expediting SIVs (ALLIES) Act, a bill designed to expedite the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) process as the U.S withdrew from Afghanistan. Also, he might have a big year in store in 2022 as some Democrats have hinted at running him against Kyrsten Sinema in the Arizona Senate primary.

It’s never a surprise when a notable member of the government releases a book, but Ruben’s feels a bit unique amongst the rest. His new book is titled ‘They Called Us Lucky’ and it chronicles his combat experiences in Iraq. In a recent interview he described the painstaking process of writing the book that so many in his unit have been wanting to write for a while. “1 out of 3 of us were either dead or wounded and then some men had to go home because they couldn’t deal with the stress anymore… I accepted that I was going to die,” he said. This one is certainly on our Christmas list!

That would actually be smart water, legislatively speaking, and it’s potentially coming to a faucet near you thanks to Ruben and his new Water Infrastructure Modernization Act. The bipartisan bill looks to provide grant funding to invest in smart water technologies, which monitor water loss and collect critical data surrounding water resiliency. Essentially, this is all a fancy way of saying that water remains one of our most critical resources and it only makes sense that we synergize the latest technologies to maximize it. Anyone who lives in a state plagued by droughts—ahem, Cali fresh over here—knows just how precious our custodianship on this matter truly is.