Harper has worked persistently for nearly a decade to improve access to healthy food in Englewood and West Englewood. In the Illinois General Assembly, she has authored and passed bills to foster urban agriculture in order to provide fresh, locally-grown food to the more than 80,000 people in Cook County who live more than a mile from a large-scale retail food establishment. In 2018, Harper led the passage of legislation establishing Urban Agricultural Zones, which incentivize cities to use vacant lots to sell locally-grown foods, providing an economic boost to low-income areas. That same year, she was chief-sponsor of the Farmer Equity Act, which requires Illinois to consider women farmers and farmers of color when making policies and to provide those same farmers with information about state and federal assistance.

In the lead-up to Illinois legalizing recreational cannabis in 2019, Harper worked to ensure the legislation guaranteed that the economic benefits of the new industry would flow to Black and brown Illinoisans who have been most targeted by the war on drugs. Harper chaired the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’s efforts to legalize recreational cannabis sales in Illinois, hosting a yearlong set of workshops to incorporate community input into the bill. Her work led to provisions in the law that expanded opportunities for expungement of cannabis arrest records, and which removed barriers to minority applicants by increasing access to capital, licensing and training. In 2020, Harper publicly raised concerns about inequities in how cannabis dispensary licenses applications were scored and awarded, spurring Gov. J.B. Pritzker to allow rejected applicants to revise their application and challenge their score. And in Feb 2020, Harper chief-sponsored a bill to create the Cannabis Equity Commission in order to help ensure Illinois’ cannabis industry is as equitable as it was intended to be.

In 2019, Harper became the first African American woman to serve as the chairperson of the Illinois House Agriculture & Conservation Committee. In that role, she has helped expand urban agriculture in order to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to food deserts and create community-based jobs. She also has helped address the needs of Illinois farmers and other agricultural businesses to help continue to grow one of the state’s top economic sectors.

In 2020, Harper was elected as Chair of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, giving her a leading voice in setting the robust Black Agenda to improve economic access, equity and opportunity, as well as bolster workforce development. During the 2020 legislative sessions, Harper led hearings focused on improving economic equity in a number of sectors, including housing, small business, banking, procurement, labor unions, agriculture, the cannabis industry, and energy. In those hearings, Harper and the Caucus recommended policies that would increase capital for Black businesses, to fosters business incubators in Black communities, and provide better home financing and down payment assistant to Black communities, among other policy aims. The Caucus addressed pressing issues in its 2020 Black Agenda, which included legislation to: XXXX

Harper has a long track record of supporting equitable economic growth in her district and in Illinois as a whole. In 2019, she introduced the Employee Background Fairness Act, which would limit employers’ ability to refuse to hire a person based on their criminal record. That same year, she introduced and passed the Blockchain Business Development Act, which helps to open the door for blockchain tech companies to locate to Illinois, creating local jobs. In 2019, Harper voted to pass a law that raised Illinois’ minimum wage to $15 per hour, and in 2017 she voted to override former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto in order to modernized state law requiring equal pay for women. Harper has advocated for equity in the state’s clean energy economy, and the 2020 Clean Jobs Midwest report found that Harper’s 6th District has 6,277 clean energy jobs, the second most of any IL State House District and more than 11% of all such jobs in Cook County.

Harper created the House Economic Opportunity & Equity Committee, the General Assembly’s first committee dedicated to advocating for policies that create fair and equitable economic growth in the state of Illinois. She chairs the committee, providing her a position to help spur the economic investment and opportunities needed by the state’s Black and brown communities.

In 2019, Harper was chief-sponsor of a new law establishing the SNAP Restaurant Meals Program, allowing elderly, disabled and homeless residents to use food stamps to buy hot meals at participating restaurants. Previously, SNAP recipients could use food stamps only at grocery stores and farmers markets. The law is particularly helpful for people who for one reason or another have difficulty in preparing meals, which would have continued to limit their access to nutritional food.

In 2017, Harper introduced and passed a law requiring Illinois to track food deserts and provide an annual report on their location and health impacts. The law was an essential first step to ending food deserts by supplying cities with the information needed to ensure there are healthy food options for all residents.

Harper is the former executive director of Grow Greater Englewood, a nonprofit working to cultivate a healthy and resilient food system and to educate residents about food, nutrition and gardening. Harper cofounded the group in 2013 in order to address the lack of healthy, affordable food access in the Englewood and West Englewood communities.

In 2020, Harper introduced the Right to Garden Act, which would limit cities’ abilities to prohibit residents from maintaining home gardens, making it easier for residents to grow food on their own property.

In 2018, Harper led the passage of legislation establishing Urban Agricultural Zones, which incentivize cities to use vacant lots to sell locally-grown foods, providing an economic boost to low-income areas.

In 2017, Harper introduced a bill requiring all ammunition sold in Illinois to be serialized and for sales to be recorded in a centralized database so that bullets from crime scenes could be traced to the person who fired them. Though the bill did not pass, she continues to push for policies to make it more difficult to commit gun crimes in the state. In 2018, Harper worked to pass legislation that created new safety requirements for Illinois gun dealers, including mandatory background checks on gun buyers and new rules that cracked down on illegal gun trafficking.

In 2019, Harper was appointed to the House Firearm Public Awareness Task Force. She was selected for the role due to her continued advocacy for a multifaceted approach to reducing gun violence that focuses on empowering communities through economic development and job creation, enacting criminal justice reform that allows law enforcement to focus resources on combating violent crime and providing a trauma-informed response for survivors and families impacted by gun violence.

Harper has repeatedly introduced the Illinois Violence Reduction Act to fund violence-reduction efforts in minority districts through community-based organizations. Her efforts have led to emergency violence-reduction funding being included in the Illinois state budget. She led the fight for that funding to go toward youth services, trauma-informed counseling services, public awareness campaigns, and job readiness training programs.

Harper has opposed a “tough on crime” approach to criminal justice due to its staggering toll on communities of color without making communities safer. In 2019, Harper introduced legislation to overhaul Illinois’ sentencing laws, easing reliance on unfair mandatory minimum sentences and providing judges with discretion to use alternative sentences. “Adopting smart sentencing reform will not only help make our responses to crime more just, it will make Illinois a safer place to live and work,” Harper says.

In 2019, Harper introduced legislation to create the Trauma Response Fund. The bill aimed to taxed ammunition sales to provide funding and mandated protocols for schools to help students recover from traumatic events, such as shootings in the school community. Harper also volunteers as a member of the Violence Reduction/ Trauma Response Team, which works to provide the Englewood and West Englewood communities the tools to respond to and recover from traumatic and violent events.

In 2018, Harper introduced and passed legislation requiring Chicago Public Schools to engage in more long-term planning and incorporate more community input into its facility planning processes. That bill also required CPS to adopt a firm policy on what interventions it would use to address under-enrolled schools. It also required the district to develop a “school transition plan” so that in the case of a school closure, students are provided options to enroll in higher-performing schools and to ensure that disabled and struggling students have their academic, social and emotional needs met in their new school. “CPS will have to listen to our students and families through direct work with schools that have low enrollment instead of waiting until it is too late and then closing them,” Harper says.

In 2017, Harper introduced a bill to use surplus Tax Increment Finance (TIF) dollars to pay for more CPS school nurses, psychological services, special education, and social services. CPS has only 114 nurses on staff for its 642 schools – a nurse for every 3,169 students. The number is insufficient to deal with the medical and psychological problems faced by students, many of whom might receive their only medical treatment at school. Harper’s bill was supported by the supported by the Chicago Teachers Union but did not pass. “The trauma that our children experience on a daily basis is not being dealt with,” Harper says. “Schools need to be equipped to handle the psychological and emotional challenges their children face, as well as the educational ones.”

In order to prevent sex-offenders from working in schools, Harper introduced and passed legislation in 2019 requiring the State's Attorney to inform school administrators if a school employee had been arrested and was being prosecuted for a sex offense.

Harper successfully passed legislation in 2017 creating a new state commission study causes, treatments and potential cures for rare diseases. Harper created the commission to study how the state programs could provide aid, health care coverage, or improved quality of care to children and adults suffering from uncommon diseases for which treatment is difficult. The commission also reports on the screening of newborn children for the presence of genetic disorders.

In 2017, Harper introduced and passed a new state law requiring public schools to provide a room, other than a bathroom, for mothers to nurse their babies. The law also requires schools to provide students with access to a refrigerator to store their milk and prohibits schools from academically penalizing students for taking time to nurse or pump. "We just want to make sure we have healthy babies and a supportive environment for young mothers," Harper says.

In 2017, Harper introduced a bill to use surplus Tax Increment Finance (TIF) dollars to pay for more CPS school nurses, psychological services, special education, and social services. CPS has only 114 nurses on staff for its 642 schools – a nurse for every 3,169 students. The number is insufficient to deal with the medical and psychological problems faced by students, many of whom might receive their only medical treatment at school. Harper’s bill was supported by the supported by the Chicago Teachers Union but did not pass. “The trauma that our children experience on a daily basis is not being dealt with,” Harper says. “Schools need to be equipped to handle the psychological and emotional challenges their children face, as well as the educational ones.”

In 2019, Harper sponsored a bill that expanded preventative health care access for minors by allowing them to obtain medical care related to sexually transmitted disease or substance abuse without obtaining parental consent. Such medical care might include obtaining birth control, HIV prevention medication and certain vaccines, such as the HPV vaccine. “One of my most important priorities as a legislator is to make sure young people have the tools that they need to live safe and healthy lives,” Harper says.

In 2019, Harper was the lead sponsor of a public act that required the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice to provide soon-to-be released incarcerated individuals with civics education in order to reduce recidivism. Curriculum for the program includes current affairs, government, voting registration and rights, as well as simulations of the democratic process including elections. “We must explore every avenue to help successfully reintegrate individuals being released from prison into civic society,” Harper says.

When Illinois voted to legalize and regulate cannabis in 2019, Harper fought to ensure that the law expanded opportunities for the expungement of arrest records. The war on drugs has disproportionately targeted Black and brown Americans, and therefore Harper has worked to ensure that Illinoisans with past marijuana convictions are able to have their records cleaned and to have eligible police records destroyed. The law, which includes a mix of automatic expungements for arrests and pardons for eligible convictions, opens up the possibility of expungement for 700,000 cannabis cases.

In 2016, Harper sponsored legislation to help people convicted of certain first-time felonies have more time (60 days) to vacate their records if they successfully completed alcohol or drug treatment as a condition of probation. Only participants without a previous felony conviction on record who have not already had a judgment vacated under the program may request this option. A criminal conviction results in a host of long-lasting collateral consequences that dampen prospects of securing a job, finding stable housing, obtaining employment training or education—the very things needed to attain productive community citizenship.

In 2017, Harper was the lead House sponsor of a law requiring communities throughout Illinois to locate their lead pipes and service lines so that they could be removed. The law also sought to protect schoolchildren from lead poisoning by requiring testing of all drinking fountains and other sources of drinking water in public schools. Water contaminated with lead can cause young children to suffer permanent brain and nervous system damage, can lead to high blood pressure and kidney damage in adults, and can cause miscarriages and premature births for pregnant women. Illinoisans of color are substantially more likely to live in communities with lead pipes. Harper continues to fight to expedite lead-pipe removal. “It’s such a huge undertaking to think about testing all the water sources in the state for high levels of lead, but I think what we’ve done makes sense — require the testing in schools, because lead contamination hits the children the most,” Harper says.

Harper has supported numerous pieces of legislation to improve Illinois’ environmental health and clean-energy employment, including legislation to: prevent coal ash pollution (SB0009); phase out the emission of the pollutant ethylene oxide (HB3888); promote renewable energy sources, improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emission and increase employment opportunities related clean energy projects (HB3624); implement a “Pay as you Save” model for renewable energy generation and energy storage projects (HB3328)

Harper chairs the Environmental Justice Subcommittee within the House Energy & Environment Committee, giving her a prominent pulpit from which she is fighting to reduce pollution and promote green jobs in underserved communities. Harper has used the committee to advocate for clean drinking water by removing lead pipes, for equitable growth of the clean energy economy, for clean-job training in environmental justice communities, and for reducing exposure to toxins in communities of color.