The health and vitality of a nation’s democracy can be measured by the willingness of the citizenry of a country to participate in the political process.
That is why I come to you today.
As you read this, the content of the omnibus appropriations bill is being hammered out. At this very moment, decisions are being made that will affect each and every one of us.
And I need your help.
Right now, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), leading the negotiations for the Senate Republicans, is trying to strike a bill from the legislative package that I sponsored, H.R. 493, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).
My speech was the first shot in the second battle over SCHIP, a battle that we’re going to keep fighting until we win it. Republicans are sorely mistaken if they believe that we are going to abandon this battle to provide health insurance for 10 million American children who need it most.
Like many of you, I awoke this morning to the news that Alberto Gonzales had submitted his resignation as Attorney General.
Following in the footsteps of his close friend Karl Rove, Gonzales exits the White House under a cloud of scandal. It must be made clear, however, that their resignations in no way mark the end to investigations into the abuses of power at the Justice Department. The Democratic Congress and I will continue to demand answers concerning the dismissal of eight U.S attorneys, as well as a host of other issues at the Justice Department.
Today I’m proud to say that just a short while ago, the House voted overwhelmingly, 411 to 8, to approve the Honest Leadership, Open Government Act of 2007.
Hi folks,
On this important day, the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Griswold v. Connecticut decision, I was honored to join the Women Donors Network and Communications Consortium Media Center as they launched their new website BirthControlWatch.org.
I spoke about my Prevention First Act, which serves an innovative and comprehensive way to protect women’s reproductive health, decrease the spread of STDs, and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies.
Prevention First achieves this goal by providing comprehensive access to all forms of contraception and sex education. I wanted to take a moment to review why it is necessary and what it will accomplish.
This community has been so important to me, and so important to the causes we have championed together, that I didn’t want to stay quiet on such a critical day. I wanted to give you my direct thoughts about what is occurring today in the House concerning the Iraq supplemental funding.
Let me say up front that what happened today was the result of a Presidential veto and a Republican minority that doesn't care that the American people want to end this war. That's the context, as I see it. Now, let's talk about the specifics.
It's been too long since I last posted here. There are so many important issues facing us today, from Iraq to the scandal surrounding Attorney General Gonzales to everything else, and I've been determined to get back in touch with you about all of them. We're working very hard in the House to hold the Administration responsible for its actions and to take all of the steps that the last Congress simply refused to.
In a few minutes, I will be heading over to the House chamber to begin the debate on House Concurrent Resolution 63 – the resolution opposing President Bush’s planned escalation of the war in Iraq. We will try to post video of my speech on the floor later this afternoon, but before I go, I wanted to share a few thoughts with you regarding the debate that’s about to take place.
Hi folks. I know all of us have our hands full with all of the challenges confronting our country. But I wanted to take a moment to share some good news with you about a bill that was blocked by members of the Republican House leadership during the last 12 years but that now looks like it's finally going to pass: the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act, or GINA (HR493).
I think that GINA is a clear example of legislation that a vast majority of Americans want to pass and that a Democratically-controlled congress is going to deliver on.
Simply put, GINA makes it illegal for group health plans and health insurers to deny coverage to a healthy individual or charge him or her higher premiums based solely on a genetic predisposition to a specific disease. The legislation also bars employers from using individuals' genetic information when making hiring, firing, job placement or promotion decisions.
Hi folks. Nearly one year ago, I was joined by Speaker-Elect Pelosi and Senators Reid and Obama to unveil the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act. It was a new covenant Democrats were signing with the American people.
And today as the incoming Majority of the 110th Congress, we Democrats are ushering in a new day by announcing a ethics/rules package that will restore integrity, openness, and honesty to Congress, and will hand the keys of government back to the American people. Serving in House is a privilege.
Democrats are determined to stop special-interest lobbyists from writing the legislation this body passes. That means ending the influence and access lobbyists buy with trips and gifts.
We will be introducing an ethics/reform package in the House Floor tomorrow which prohibits House Members and employees from accepting gifts and travel from lobbyists and the organizations that employ them.
Hi folks. Hope all of you are enjoying the Holiday season. I wanted bring to your attention a very troubling story concerning alleged censorship by the Bush White House, which Think Progress spotted last week, and the Washington Post and the LA Times reported on this week.
According to these reports the White House apparently intervened and forbid the publication of an op-ed on Iran by former Bush official Flynt Leverett. Mr. Leverett, a prominent analyst on Middle East, who served under President Bush on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the New America Foundation, revealed last week that the White House has been blocking the publication of an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. The column is critical of the administration’s refusal to engage in dialogue with Iran.
Hi folks. I wanted to come here and let you know that we are doing what we can to highlight today's huge story in the New York Times that a Bush Administration-mandated government web site posted information that served as a guide to building an atom bomb.
Congressional Republicans were so anxious to prove the President's case for war that they pushed for the release of documents which could have served as primers for the construction of a nuclear weapon.
We can clearly see how this Republican Leadership is failing in its pledge to protect our nation and undermining our chances for success in Iraq.
Hi folks. I am sure many of you here remember Shirlington Limousine, a Virginia-based company with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contracts. Shirlington Limo has been linked to unseemly scandals involving bribery and prostitution, which ended the career of disgraced former California Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
Shirlington Limo had a questionable past even before it worked for DHS, and it may have played a central role in the Duke Cunningham bribery case, a matter still under federal investigation.
So what has the DHS done to seek answers from Shirlington Limo?
I am mad as a wet hen about the disgusting stories coming out of Washington on yet another blockbuster Republican scandal.
As a mother and a grandmother, I am disgusted at reports that top Republicans in this House might have put political expedience ahead of the safety of the children in our care.
Instead of dealing with this problem immediately and directly, they chose instead to hide it for month after month.
And today, rather than accepting responsibility for the consequences of their inaction, Tony Snow is trying to pretend like nothing happened. There is simply no accountability among the Republican Leadership, no matter how severe the circumstances.
The safety of children on Capitol Hill should be more important than spin and political posturing.
I am going down to the House Floor in few minutes to debate HR 6166, Military Commissions Act of 2006, a critically important legislation the Republican leadership is presenting as a "bi-partisan" compromise. But it is nothing of the sort.
It was authored by the Administration and by the Republican leaders of this Congress.
As Chairman Hunter testified in the House Rules Committee yesterday, no Democrats were involved in the negotiations he conducted over the weekend to produce this bill.
Nor did the Rules Committee make in order any of the 16 amendments Democrats offered to address parts of this bill that most offend our democratic values and violate our traditions.
This closed rule means that Congress is turning its back on having a real debate on a legislation that will damage our credibility in the world for years to come.
Hi folks. I wanted to let you all know that tomorrow I am meeting Gary Abramson ("Reality Bites Back") and Dante Atkins ("Hekebolos"), two of our fellow DailyKos bloggers, who are heading the project, "Crashing the States." I am going to sit down with Gary and Dante tomorrow to talk about number of issues such as net neutrality, the lack of accountability in our war in Iraq, and culture of corruption in Washington.
So if you have any comments, questions that you would like Gary and Dante to ask me during this interview, please post them in the comment thread here. Gary and Dante will be lurking in the comment section later this evening. They will have the full wrap on this interview and their activities here on DailyKos.
Hi folks. I wanted to give you a quick update on everything we are doing to confront ABC on their "docudrama," The Path to 9-11.
Many of you suggested in the comments to my last post how we have to talk to Scholastic to keep this docudrama out of schools. Well today we are going to do exactly that. This afternoon around 4:15 at the Cannon House Office Building, Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. and I are going to have a press conference calling on Scholastic and ABC to keep this film out of out schools.
Hello folks. As Congress gets back in session tomorrow after a five week recess, I wanted to let you all know that I have been following the story on ABC's plan to air a so called "Docudrama" on 9/11 written by a right wing activist.
Today we sent out a release to all our contacts in the traditional media, calling on the ABC to make clear to viewers that its upcoming television mini-series The Path to 9/11 is not a documentary account of the events and political decisions that preceeded the attacks.
ABC has a responsibility to make clear that this film is not a documentary, and does not present an official account of the facts surrounding the September 11th attacks.
