113th Congress: Brad Schneider, D-Ill. (10th District)

By Ashley Kongs, CQ Staff

Brad Schneider has a straightforward response when asked why he decided to run for Congress: “Our kids deserve better; we deserve better; and we should be doing better.”

Schneider says that the experiences of raising a family and owning a small business have most shaped the goals he has established for his time in Congress. His top priorities include fixing an economy struggling to grow, helping middle-class families who are facing economic uncertainty and helping young people concerned about their futures.

A key component of Schneider’s goal of reshaping the economy is high school education. He believes that “every kid, regardless of where they are, deserves a good education” and that the United States should be graduating all of our students “career- or college-ready” in order to help young people reach their full potential.

Schneider’s fiscal proposals include an overhaul of the tax code, with first allowing the George W. Bush-era tax cuts to expire.

As a professional consultant, Schneider says, he has made a career of finding common ground among different groups and developing solutions to difficult problems. It is this ability to bring together disparate groups that Schneider hopes will help him accomplish a top goal that he has laid out for the 113th Congress (2013-14): to help change the discourse and encourage the parties to work together.