Archive: 2009

“Congress has built a significant record of accomplishments for veterans and military families. But our work is far from over, and I intend to close the 111th session of Congress with an even more impressive list of accomplishments.”

“The fiscal year 2010 Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations bill includes strong increases for key health, education and worker training initiatives, including NIH research, Pell Grants, Head Start and clean energy jobs…”

This afternoon, the House passed the fiscal year 2010 Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations bill by a vote of 264 to 153. The bill makes critical investments in our country’s long term prosperity by funding health, education and worker training initiatives, including… Continue

Today the minimum wage increases by 70 cents, from $6.55 per hour to $7.25 per hour — the final of three increases to take effect under legislation enacted by the Democratic Congress in 2007. The wage increase will help an estimated 4.5… Continue

“Tomorrow, millions of hardworking Americans will be getting a raise. As the final step of the minimum wage increase goes into effect, studies have shown we are also stimulating the economy by giving hardworking Americans the income they need to buy groceries, fill up their gas tanks, and get their children ready to head back-to school…”

“We last visited in Iraq on Mother’s Day, May 10th, and it was a pretty exciting visit for us then because we could congratulate Mr. al-Maliki on the successful regional election that had taken place. At that time, we talked about corruption and how it is an impediment to investment in Iraq. We talked about the removal of our ground security forces from the city that would occur by the end of June — and it has. And we talked about how we can work together to increase security, decreased corruption, promote the rule of law, and attract investment to Iraq, so important to its future.”

Recent polls and studies continue to find significant support for health insurance reform — even as political attacks and misinformation heat up around America's Affordable Health Choices Act: A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released today shows support remains strong: “As has been… Continue

America's Affordable Health Choices Act takes a number of steps to ensure that when Americans face a health crisis, they don't also face a financial crisis. Yesterday, Speaker Pelosi and Reps. Xavier Becerra, Donna Edwards, Rosa DeLauro, and Mary Jo Kilroy held… Continue

‘Here we are today, one day closer than we have ever been in history — to enacting real health care reform. We’ve made great progress — two of our three Committees in the House, one of the two Committees in the Senate, as you know, have reported out legislation and the other two committees are hard at work in doing their jobs.”

“The disability community is a major stakeholder in health care reform, and I thank you for your advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities and chronic health conditions. We know that health care reform that works well with people with disabilities will work well for all Americans…”