still be eligible for student loans. Castor has served on the House Energy & Commerce Committee since 111th Congress. During her membership in the Health Subcommittee, the subcommittee worked toward progressive reform for Florida families, businesses, and university medical and nursing colleges . Since the Affordable Care Act passed, Castor has worked to educate Floridians about new patient protections and rights, and about enrollment in the marketplace exchange. She was critical of Governor Rick Scott and the Republican-led Florida legislature for not accepting more than $50 billion in federal funding to expand Medicaid to provide health care access to more than one million Floridians. With the assistance of the National Association of Children's Hospitals, she and Representative Dave Reichert founded the bipartisan Children's Health Care Caucus, dedicated to improving quality of health care and health care access for children . Comprehensive immigration reform Castor supports comprehensive immigration reform. She applauded President Obama's 2014 announcement on immigration accountability executive action. Climate change Castor chairs the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. As chair, she has been credited as a driving force behind the movement and helped allocate federal funding for the issue. LGBT rights Castor supports same-sex marriage. In 2005, she was the lone Hillsborough County commissioner to vote against a resolution to ban gay pride activities and events. In 2013, the Hillsborough County Commission unanimously reversed its position on the ban. In 2013, Castor filed an amicus brief in support of the Supreme Court striking down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and applauded the Court when it did so later that year. In both 2019 and 2021, Castor co-sponsored and voted for the Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act to "prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition of an individual, as well as because of sex-based stereotypes." U.S.–Cuba relations Castor supports normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba. She visited Cuba in April 2013. Gun policy Castor is an outspoken advocate for gun control. After the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, she participated in John Lewis's Congressional sit-in to demand that those on the No Fly List lose the right to purchase firearms. Castor has spoken about her perception of Florida's lacking gun legislation, saying, "My home state of Florida has some of the weakest gun laws; we lack expanded