[2] His district includes both coastal and central portions of San Diego, as well as the suburbs of Poway and Coronado.

[5][6][7] Peters has said that he took out student loans and participated in his school's work-study program, through which he was given jobs answering phones and cleaning pigeon cages.

[23] Serving as a member of the city council during this time, Peters was elected to chair the transition committee in charge of this project.

[31][32] During the 2012 congressional election campaign, his Republican opponent, Brian Bilbray, made the scandal a major issue.

He ended the year having consumed more than 1 million gallons of water for his home, which sits on a 34,848-square-foot lot near Mount Soledad, and for an adjacent landscaped parcel.

[34] Peters cited a reduction in sewer spills and beach closure days as accomplishments during his city council tenure.

[42] In January 2011, he said one of his top priorities was to decommission the South Bay Power Plant in Chula Vista to make room for better use.

[42] In the year Peters served as chair, the board of commissioners reached a deal with the former operator of the plant for its demolition.

[43] The Port also conducted community outreach for six months to gather ideas for improving San Diego's waterfront "front porch" between the airport and Seaport Village.

[47] On election night the vote was too close to call, but Peters's small lead increased each day as more absentee, vote-by-mail, and provisional ballots were processed.

Under California's "top two" primary system, he faced the second-place finisher, former city councilman Carl DeMaio, in the November general election.

[60] In October 2013, Peters was one of nine Democratic co-sponsors of HR3425, an unsuccessful proposal to delay any penalties under the PPACA until four months after the program's website was fully functional.

[60] Months later, the Supreme Court decided Obergefell v. Hodges, making the act de facto federal law.

The Speaker pro tem, Ted Poe, declared the House was in recess, and the video feed to C-SPAN was shut off.

[62] In 2019, Peters sponsored the bipartisan Super Pollutants Act, which according to a press release from his office "aims to slow climate change by regulating black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons, and methane–some of the most potent greenhouse gases.

"[69] In 2021, Peters voted against moving forward with the Build Back Better Act, leading to protest from environmentalist and progressive groups.

[89] Peters has called climate change "a global emergency and imminent threat that requires us to work across party lines to take bold, immediate action.

[citation needed] He also wants to regulate methane, hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon, which he believes contribute to climate change.

[90] Peters called the Trump administration's response to COVID-19 "abysmal" and said that "other countries look on with a mixture of horror and pity for how this has gone for us.”[84] He pushed to oppose a patent waiver that would allow developing nations to create their own vaccines.

[96] The bill's provisions direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to "establish minimum interregional transfer capabilities", better coordinating construction of electrical transmission lines.

[101] In 2019, Peters supported a bill to lower drug costs, but in 2021, he played a leading role in preventing its passage.

[102] Peters was one of three Democrats on the House Energy Committee to oppose allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, except in a small subset of cases.

[103][104] In September 2021, he and Representatives Kurt Schrader and Kathleen Rice joined Republican members to block committee passage of such a bill, 29-29.

Over his career, pharmaceutical PACs and employees have donated $860,465 to his campaigns, the second-most of any industry, according to Open Secrets.

By mid-September in the 2022 election cycle, pharmaceutical industry contributions to Peters exceeded those of all other House members and candidates at $88,550.

[90] Peters supports the DREAM Act and creating paths to citizenship for longtime immigrant U.S. residents.

[90] Peters has led efforts to improve infrastructure at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

"[90] Peters considers the border relations between San Diego and Mexico one of his district's top priorities.

He has led efforts to upgrade the San Ysidro Port of Entry to reduce border waits.

[91] In 2022, Peters was one of 16 Democrats to vote against the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.