Rep. Michelle Steel had a tumultuous start to her congressional career after testing positive for COVID-19 while the Capitol was under attack on Jan. 6. At the time, the former Orange County supervisor had only recently been sworn in to represent California's 48th Congressional District.

Steel told "Inside the Issues" host Alex Cohen it was an interesting introduction to the job as she went from receiving her first dose of the vaccine to finding out her coronavirus results to being locked down in her office for nine hours during the insurrection.

"The National Guard came in, and they were changing their clothes to tactical gear, and I said, something's really serious, and we started watching TV inside of our office, and that's the way I figured it out," she said.

The congresswoman denounced the actions of all those involved in the riot but says it's important for Congress to move forward now that more than six months have passed.

"The FBI has been investigating, and they actually investigated. They have more than 200 people right now. And then the bipartisan report from the Senate already came out," Steel said. "So we really have to move on and go back to work for our constituents."

Currently, Steel is focusing her attention on the Fraud Protection Act, a bill she's putting together with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield. The bi-partisan bill would create a task force to investigate unemployment fraud during the pandemic and require states to recover lost money.

"I am just very much concerned about our taxpayers, they're going to receive their 1099 form but without getting paid," she explained. "So states have to do a better job when government federal funding comes in, and they didn't do a good job. And it's not just California but other states too."

Since she's been in office, Steel has also dedicated her efforts toward education and looking into admission policies at Yale University. She argues the college's administration discriminates against students by focusing on subjective traits such as likeability rather than a person's academic successes. 

"We found out that they are not really looking at a student's merit the way they are supposed to get accepted by these universities," she added. "They are doing some discrimination right there because just by looking at the essays and looking at their application, not meeting these people individually, and then they are grading these kids."

Steel said she will continue crafting legislation to combat these practices and others while sitting on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Education and Labor Committee this year.

Click the arrow above to watch the conversation.

Let "Inside the Issues" know your thoughts and watch at 8 and 11 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.