In the Face of
Relentless Republican Obstructionism, Senate Democrats Remain Committed to
Working for Change
In 2006, Democrats were elected to take the country in a new
direction by advancing the key priorities of the American people. Under
Democratic leadership, the 110th Congress has made significant down
payments on those expectations. After nearly a decade of Republican control, Democrats have
worked to stimulate the slowing economy, restore fiscal responsibility in
Washington, fund and pass important legislation on housing, consumer product
safety, economic security, combating terrorism, homeland security, troop
readiness, veterans' care, crime, energy independence, competitiveness, ethics
reform, labor and wages, small businesses, health care, nutrition, education,
stem cell research, water infrastructure, government accountability, and Gulf
Coast revitalization.
Though proud
of these accomplishments, Senate Democrats are far from satisfied. President
Bush and Congressional Republicans have stood in the way of progress time and
time again and have often refused to work with Democrats in good faith to
address the needs of the nation. The American people are fed-up; they are
tired of partisan politics, and Democrats share their frustration. As we move
forward in the 110th Congress and look toward a brighter future,
Senate Democrats will not rest until we have addressed the key domestic and
international priorities of our nation. We invite Republicans to join us. Together, with the American people at our
side, Democrats will take the country in a new direction.
Under
Democratic leadership, the Senate has passed the following measures:
· Economic stimulus: a law to boost the economy by offering
timely, targeted, and temporary measures to provide rebate checks to eligible single, married, and elderly
Americans, provide tax relief for American businesses, and help families avoid
foreclosure by expanding financing opportunities;
·
Economic rescue
package: legislation to reinvest in the financial markets by providing the
Treasury Department graduated authorization to purchase troubled mortgages,
mortgage-backed securities, and pensions; reimburse
the American taxpayer, beginning with a share in the profits earned by
participating companies; reform financial institutions by strengthening
oversight, increasing transparency, and limiting executive compensation;
increase FDIC deposit insurance limits from $100,000 per account to $250,000
through 2009; and extend renewable energy and other tax credits;
· Ethics and lobbying reform: a law to slow the "revolving door" for
former Senators and staff, strengthen limits on gifts and travel, expand
lobbying disclosure requirements, establish a study commission on ethics and
lobbying, prohibit pensions for Members of Congress convicted of certain
crimes, and implement reform procedures relating to earmarks and conference
reports;
· A fiscally-responsible budget: a Fiscal Year 2008 budget resolution and
a Senate-passed Fiscal Year 2009 budget resolution that restores fiscal
discipline and will lead to a surplus, while cutting middle-class taxes
and restoring funding for domestic and international priorities, including
education, children's health care, veterans, and our troops all without
raising a penny in taxes;
· Continuing Resolution: Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations to provide funding for homeland security,
defense, troops and veterans, emergency disaster recovery (including
devastation from the floods in the Midwest and Hurricanes Ike and Gustav), auto efficiency loans, and home heating and cooling;
· Omnibus appropriations: consolidated funding to support the
operations of the federal government in Fiscal Year 2008;
· Strengthening FISA: a law to amend the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to strengthen national security,
provide better civil liberty protections for Americans, and increase oversight
and accountability of government actions;
· 9/11 Commission recommendations: a law to make America more secure by
giving our first responders the tools they need to keep us safe; making it more
difficult for potential terrorists to travel into our country; advancing
efforts to secure our rail, air, and mass transit systems; and improving
intelligence and information sharing between state, local, and federal law
enforcement agencies;
· Intelligence authorization: a bill to strengthen and authorize the
nation's intelligence and intelligence-related activities and require that all
federal agencies abide by the Army Field Manual's prohibition on torture;
· Homeland security funding: Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations that invest
$42.24 billion in hiring, technology, and fencing for border security, in
funding for first responders, and in enhancements for airport, port, and mass
transit security;
· Defense authorization: Fiscal Year 2009 authorization for defense-related
spending and advancement of national security priorities, including investing
in cutting-edge technology, equipment and training for operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan, strengthening nonproliferation and cooperative threat reduction
programs, improving the management and efficiency of Defense Department
programs; strengthening oversight and accountability of war-time contractors,
encouraging cost-sharing agreements with the Iraqi government; supporting the
continued implementation of wounded warrior initiatives to improve the care,
management and transition of wounded service members, ensuring fair
compensation for service members, and providing quality health care for troops
and their families;
· Defense funding: Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations to provide $487.7 billion for defense-related
spending, as well as a $70 billion request for "bridge funding" of operations
in Iraq and Afghanistan, including $28.5 billion in quality health care for
servicemembers, a 3.9 percent pay raise for all uniformed service personnel
(with an additional $500/month for involuntarily or arbitrarily extended
service); and funding for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
activities;
·
A 21st Century GI
Bill: a bill to provide today's
veterans with educational benefits similar to those offered to World War II
veterans;
·
Ensuring military "sole
survivors" protection: legislation
to ensure that service members who voluntarily separate under sole survivorship
receive the same benefits and services provided to honorably discharged service
men and women;
· Benefits for veterans: two bills to improve veterans' care by
bolstering compensation, housing, labor and education, and insurance benefits, improving
the disability claims process, and expanding home loan opportunities including
refinancing and mortgage options;
· Tracking nuclear material: legislation to enhance the capacity of
the Department of Homeland Security to track down illicit nuclear weapons in
order to prevent such material from acquisition by terrorists and mitigate the
gravest threat to the security of our nation;
· Additional resources to firefighters: a bill to reauthorize the U.S. Fire
Administration in order to continue advances in federal preparedness and
emergency response policies for fire departments across the country as well as
FEMA and DHS; and to increase funding and expand training for America's firefighters;
· Eliminating waste and strengthening accountability
in FEMA housing:
legislation to end the waste of $3 billion in taxpayer money spent annually by
FEMA to store unused temporary housing units purchased in the wake of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita;
· Military construction and Veterans
Affairs funding: Fiscal
Year 2009 appropriations to provide $72.8 billion in discretionary funding for
military construction and improvements to veterans medical care and research;
· Enhancing veterans health care and family
services: legislation to
significantly bolster health care, treatment; and research efforts for
veterans, improve assistance for PTSD, substance abuse, and chronic pain, enhance mental health care services for
veterans and their families, expand access to health care for rural, low-income.
and homeless veterans, and authorize major medical facility construction
projects;
· Care for blind veterans: the law expands benefits for veterans with service-related vision impairment;
· Tax relief for military families: a law to provide tax relief for members of the
military who are receiving combat pay, saving for retirement, or purchasing
their own homes;
· Cost-of-living increase for veterans: a law that provides a 2.3 percent
increase in salary for veterans;
· Citizenship for military service members: legislation to streamline the
citizenship process for the men and women of the armed forces, their spouses, and
survivors;
· Benchmarks for Iraq: legislation that conditions U.S. economic support for the Iraqi government on its progress toward achieving key
political benchmarks;
· National Guard and Reserve readiness: a law that provides $980 million in
additional funding for National Guard and Reserve equipment above the
President's budget request to remedy equipment shortfalls that are compromising
the quality of force training and limiting the Guard's ability to quickly
respond to natural disasters and defend against terrorist threats at home;
· Terrorism Risk Insurance: a law that provides a federal backstop against catastrophic losses
associated with massive terrorism damages in the property and casualty
insurance marketplace;
· Diplomatic and foreign aid programs
funding: a consolidated appropriations
law for Fiscal Year 2008 providing $32.8 billion in funding for State
Department operations and foreign aid programs, including increased funding for
international peacekeeping, combating infectious diseases, and development
initiatives, and U.S. contributions to the United Nations, World Bank, and
other international organizations;
· Sudan divestment: a law that allows American investors, taxpayers, and
pensioners to divest from businesses directly contributing to the violence and
misery of hundreds of thousands of innocent Darfuris;
· Minimum wage: a law that increases the federal minimum
wage to $7.25/hour;
· Extending trade adjustment
assistance: a law to ensure that eligible
U.S. workers, farmers, fisherman, and manufacturing firms facing job losses as
a consequence of free trade agreements do not fall through the cracks while
Congress completes its work on a broad expansion and reauthorization of the
current programs;
· Experienced airline pilots: a law that raises the mandatory
retirement age for pilots from 60 to 65;
· Housing and economic recovery: a law to reform and stabilize the
government-sponsored enterprises system (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), modernize
the Federal Housing Administration, create the HOPE for Homeowners program,
establish national standards for residential mortgage brokers and lenders,
enhance mortgage disclosure requirements, increase foreclosure counseling, and
provide tax benefits that will likely help stabilize the housing market for
homeowners and homebuilders, all while maintaining fiscal responsibility;
·
Mortgage
tax relief: a law that offers tax relief
to Americans facing foreclosure by providing a three-year exception for debt
forgiveness on home loans and extends a provision that allows homeowners to
deduct mortgage insurance payments from their taxable income;
· American competitiveness: a law that increases the nation's
investment in basic and innovative research; strengthens educational
opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics from
elementary through graduate school; and develops the infrastructure needed to
enhance innovation and competitiveness in the United States;
· Middle-class tax cuts: provisions of the budget resolution that allow
for permanent extensions of the Marriage Penalty tax relief, the $1,000
refundable Child Tax Credit, the 10 percent income tax bracket; the adoption
tax credit; the dependent care tax credit, and U.S. soldiers' combat pay
for the earned income tax credit; and reform of the estate tax to protect small
businesses and family farms;
· AMT tax relief: a law that protects 21 million American
families from being hit by the alternative minimum tax (AMT), which will save certain
middle-class American families from a potential tax increase of nearly $2,000;
· Financial services and general government
programs: a consolidated
appropriations law for Fiscal Year 2008 that invests $20.6 billion in agencies
and programs that safeguard toys and other consumer products, support small
businesses and community economic growth in urban and rural low-income
communities, improve taxpayer services, and ensure the implementation of key governmental
programs, such as the Help America Vote Act;
· Consumer product safety: a bill to strengthen the Consumer Product
Safety Commission, improve children's product safety, stop dangerous imported
products, increase penalties for violations, and enhance recall effectiveness;
· Protecting children from gasoline
injuries: a law to
child-proof gasoline containers;
· Energy bill: a law to increase our energy
independence, enhance energy efficiency, increase production of clean domestic
biofuels, raise fuel economy standards for the first time in 25 years, reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, improve our energy security, and reduce our dependence
on oil;
· Gas prices: a law to increase the amount of fairly-priced
petroleum on the market, which may reduce gas prices;
· Diesel emissions: a law to ensure that millions of diesel
engines are cleaned, which could save 100,000 lives between now and 2030;
· Energy and water programs funding: a consolidated appropriations law for
Fiscal Year 2008 that provides $30.9 billion to help reduce America's
dependence on oil, protect the environment, and support the development of our
nation's water resources by funding the Department of Energy, U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, and the Bureau of Reclamation;
· Higher education: a law providing $20 billion in
additional college aid to students - the largest increase since the G.I. bill -
including an increase in the maximum Pell Grant; simplifying the financial aid
process; forgiving student loan debt for those who commit to public service; reducing
excessive lender subsidies; and redirecting the funds to benefit those students
most in need of federal aid with no cost to taxpayers;
·
College costs and expanded
access to education: a law to give
colleges incentives to rein-in tuition increases, simplify the student loan
process, and further expand college access for low-income students;
·
Protection for student
borrowers: a law to ensure access to
education loans during this time of credit market turmoil by increasing the
amount of federally-subsidized loans available to students and stabilizing the
private student loan program;
· Head Start: a law to expand eligibility for the Head
Start program;
· Elementary and secondary education: provisions of the budget resolution that
provide for the largest increase in funding for elementary and secondary
programs since 2002;
· Labor, health, and education funding: a consolidated appropriations law for
Fiscal Year 2008 that provides $144.8 billion to make
responsible investments to research cancer, heart disease, and diabetes; expand
educational opportunities; provide access to health care for rural America;
strengthen the skills of America's workers and worker safety; and heat the
homes of low-income elderly Americans, including $307 million in emergency funds
for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program;
· Ensuring health coverage for college
students: a bill to ensure
that college students who receive coverage as dependents under a parent's plan
may take up to 12 months of necessary medical leave from college and remain
covered;
· Children's health coverage: a bill to reauthorize the popular
and effective Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), investing an
additional $35 billion over five years to strengthen the program's financing;
increase outreach and enrollment for low-income children of the working poor;
enhance premium assistance options for low-income families; and improve the
quality of health care that children receive from public programs like Medicaid
and CHIP;
· Preventing childhood cancer: a law to expand research programs aimed
at tracking and preventing childhood cancer;
· Finding a cure for Lou Gehrig's Disease: legislation to create a centralized
registry to promote a better understanding of the disease, help determine its
causes, and significantly enhance the nation's efforts to find a treatment and
cure;
· Combating Muscular Dystrophy: a bill to reauthorize, expand and
intensify research to cure muscular dystrophy;
· Fighting tuberculosis: legislation to create a national program to
eradicate tuberculosis through the use of new drugs and expanded public health
programs;
· Combating global AIDS: a bill to authorize $48 billion over
Fiscal Years 2009 through 2013 for United States bilateral and multilateral
programs to combat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), tuberculosis (TB), and malaria;
· Child soldiers: a bill to impose a fine and/or 20-year
prison term for recruiting, enlisting, or conscripting a child under 15 into an
armed force or group or into active combat hostilities;
· Indian health: a law to modernize and improve health care services for
Native Americans;
· Improve Medicare: a law to
improve the Medicare program for the 44.1 million seniors who are enrolled;
provide additional help for low-income seniors; enhance rural and other
hospital care; ensure proper pay for Medicare providers; improve outpatient
services; enact modest reforms to some private Medicare plans; and improve the
Medicare Drug Benefit program;
· Extending Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP: a law that blocks cuts to Medicare and
ensures access to health care for rural seniors; funds the Transitional
Medicaid Assistance and special diabetes programs; extends CHIP; and ensures active-duty military personnel and military
retirees access to doctors they know and trust under TRICARE;
· Health care safety net: a bill to reauthorize and strengthen the Community Health Centers program, the
National Health Service Corps, and Rural Health Care Programs;
· Genetic non-discrimination: a law to establish strong protections against discrimination on the basis of
genetic information by health insurance companies and employers (private and
public);
· Stem cell research: legislation to expand the number of human
embryonic stem cells eligible for federally-funded research;
· Mental health parity: legislation prohibiting a group health
plan that offers mental health coverage from imposing financial requirements or
treatment limitations on mental health benefits that are more restrictive than
the financial requirements or treatment limitations that apply to the plan's
medical and surgical benefits;
· Suicide prevention: a law to strengthen suicide prevention
programs for veterans;
· Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) programs: a law to reauthorize state grants for
community-based services and support for adults and children with TBI;
· Reducing infant deaths: legislation to improve access to quality
health care for at-risk mothers and infants;
· Newborn screenings: a law to improve health screenings for
newborn babies;
· Pre- and post-natal diagnosis: legislation to ensure that pregnant women
who carry or deliver an infant with a serious health condition will receive
current scientific information about the child's diagnosis;
· Women's health care: a law to reauthorize of the National
Breast Cancer and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program;
· Fighting breast cancer: legislation to authorize a $40 million
study to research possible connections between breast cancer and the
environment;
· Car safety for children: a law to reduce the numbers of children's
deaths and injuries resulting from being backed over, strangled by power
windows, or killed when they inadvertently shift a car into gear causing an
accident;
· Foster care and adoption reform: legislation to help children in foster
care find permanent families; allow more children to be cared for by their own
relative and in their own communities; create opportunities for children who are
transitioning out of the foster care system; and extend financial support to age
21;
· ADA Reform: legislation that clarifies the definition of "disabled" so that
protections apply to all those intended by Congress;
· Accessibility for disabled Americans: a bill to ensure disabled Americans have
adequate access to "over-the-road" buses;
· Safety for seniors: a law to direct the Secretary of Health
and Human Services to expand research programs on elder slip and falls;
· Preventing poison exposure: a bill to reauthorize the poison center
national toll-free hotline, media campaign and state grant program with federal
assistance to nationwide poison control centers;
· Asbestos ban: a bill to prohibit the importation,
manufacture, processing, and distribution of asbestos containing products,
invest in research and treatment, and launch a public education campaign on the
dangers of asbestos;
· Farm bill: a law to invest in rural communities,
ensure participation in the food stamp program, expand programs to feed
low-income children, improve conservation, reform producer income protection
programs, and expand the development and use of farm-based renewable energy;
· Food banks: a law to reduce food waste and assist
food banks and pantries stock their shelves;
· Water resources development: a law that invests in environmental
restoration and storm protection along the Gulf Coast, supports the restoration
of wetlands and their accompanying ecosystems across the country, improves
transit and increase environmental protection along America's waterways, and
enhances the safety of levees nationwide;
· FDA reauthorization: a law to greatly improve the Food and
Drug Administration's oversight of food and drug safety;
· Agriculture, food and drug safety, and
rural development funding:
a consolidated appropriations law for Fiscal Year 2008 that invests $18.1 billion
-- more than the President's request -- to safeguard the nation's food supply,
meet the nutritional need of low-income pregnant and postpartum women and
infants, and address housing shortages in rural America by funding the
Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the United
States Commodity Future Trading Commission;
· Environmental protection and interior
funding: a consolidated
appropriations law for Fiscal Year 2008 that invests $26.6 billion -- $900
more than the President - in programs that promote clean air, improve the
quality of our drinking water, support firefighting activities, and improve and
safeguard the nation's national parks;
· Protecting natural resources: a law to protect certain public lands by
designating them wilderness areas;
· Native American Housing: legislation to increase and improve
quality housing options in Indian Country;
· NASA funding: a bill to authorize $20.2 billion to fund
NASA's activities, including missions to the moon and Mars exploration as well
as international cooperation and commercial involvement in space exploration;
· Transportation, housing and urban
development funding: a
consolidated for Fiscal Year 2008 law to provide $103.4 billion for key
investments in the nation's highway systems, securing our pipelines and
railways, and providing housing and community development services for those in
need, the elderly, and veterans;
· Highway improvement: a clarification bill that will enable
highway and transit improvement projects;
· Replenishing the Highway Trust Fund: a law to avert job losses and reduced highway
investment as a result of less driving and more public transportation usage in
order to keep infrastructure projects on track;
· Amtrak Reauthorization: a bill to help ease congestion on the road and in the air,
improve the environment, enhance Amtrak operations, and
reduce its operating subsidy by 40 percent;
· Gulf Coast revitalization: a law that provides a total of $6.4
billion for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, including $1.3 billion to
complete levee and drainage repairs, $50 million to reduce violent crime in
Gulf Coast states, and $110 million to repair the seafood and fisheries
industries, which is vital to the region's economic recovery;
· Emergency disaster fraud: a law that enhances criminal penalties
for fraud associated with major disaster or emergency relief benefits;
· Flood insurance: a bill to reform and strengthen the
National Flood Insurance Program to better protect homeowners, businesses, and
taxpayers from the devastation of flood damage;
· Disaster assistance for small businesses:
a bill to provide
recovery assistance for small businesses impacted by the 2005 hurricanes in an
effort to revitalize the Gulf Coast economy;
· Tax relief for small businesses: a law that provides a range of
deficit-neutral tax incentives designed to help small businesses grow;
· Extending trade preferences: a law to extend trade preferences for
four Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia in an effort to reduce poverty and
spur economic development in Latin America;
· Veterans-owned businesses: a law to reauthorize Small Business
Administration programs for veterans and reservists for two years and provide
millions for Veterans Business Outreach Centers;
· Gang abatement and prevention: legislation authorizing more than $1
billion for gang prevention, intervention, and suppression programs, as well as
creating tough federal penalties to deter and punish members of illegal street
gangs;
· Stopping methamphetamine production: a bill to strengthen the regulation of sellers and persons dealing in certain
listed chemicals used to produce methamphetamines; enable pharmacies to use
logbook systems to monitor sales of methamphetamines precursor chemicals; and
identify individuals illegally stockpiling them;
· Combating the environmental impact of methamphetamine
abuse: a law that establishes
guidelines for the decontamination and remediation of former meth labs;
· Online pharmacies: a bill enhance law enforcement's ability
to eliminate illegal online pharmacies;
· Criminal background checks for gun
purchases: a law that
improves the National Instant Criminal Background Check System by ensuring that
records are more easily updated by state and federal agencies to reflect a disqualifying
mental illness and by establishing a better process by which citizens who have
overcome a disqualifying mental illness can have their rights restored;
· Law enforcement: a reauthorization of the Edward Byrne
Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, which provides critical assistance
to state and local governments to prevent and control crime and improve the
criminal justice system;
· Commerce, Justice and Science funding: a consolidated appropriations law for
Fiscal Year 2008 providing more than $51.8 billion to strengthen the economy
and promote American competitiveness; protect our nation from terrorism and
violent crime, including $263 million in emergency appropriations for border
and cyber security; and promote scientific advancements;
· Strengthening Intellectual Property (IP)
rights: legislation to enhance civil and criminal intellectual property
laws and better enable the federal law enforcement to combating IP crimes;
· U.S. Attorney appointments: a law ending the indefinite appointment of interim U.S.
Attorneys and restoring the role of the Senate in the selection of U.S.
Attorneys;
· Judicial and court security: a law to improve the security of our
courts, judges, and their families;
· Safeguarding the attorney-client privilege: a bill to reduce the likelihood of
inadvertent disclosure of attorney-client privilege;
· Protection against child predators: legislation to strengthen the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children; require sex offenders to register
their e-mail and instant messaging address; establish a Special Counsel for Child
Exploitation Prevention; and create an Internet Crimes Against Children Task
Force;
· Punishing Child Pornographers: a bill to close the jurisdictional
loophole allowing offenders to escape punishment by expanding the definitions
used in crimes of child sexual exploitation and child pornography;
· Solving rape crimes: a bill to extend and improve programs
designed to eliminate the nationwide rape kit backlog, standardize evidence
collection, and bolster DNA testing;
· Help for at-risk children: a bill to help federal and state
agencies transition drug endangered children to safe residential environments;
· Caring for runaway and homeless youth: legislation to ensure the continuation
and improvement of programs that provide short- and long-term housing and
crisis services for runaway and homeless kids;
· Combating identity theft and cyber crime:
legislation to assist
the victims and aid in the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators of
identity theft and cyber crimes;
· Curbing illicit drug trafficking: legislation to enable the Coast Guard
and other federal authorities to arrest operators of vessels that lack
nationality;
· Reducing recidivism: a law to rehabilitate prisoners and
ex-offenders in an effort to reduce recidivism and rebuild families and
communities;
· Addressing mental illness: a bill to adequately address the needs of mentally-ill prisoners;
· Solving civil rights era homicides: legislation allowing the investigation
and prosecution of hundreds of pre-1970 unsolved murders involving violations
of criminal civil rights statutes;
· Improving the Do-Not-Call Registry: a law to ensure that phone numbers can
remain on the list beyond five years and that removed numbers can be
re-included; and a law to authorize the Federal Trade Commission to collect
do-not-call registry fees from telecommunications companies for the operation
and enforcement of the registry;
· Expanding 911 capabilities: a law to provide 911 service for Voice
over the Internet Protocol subscribers;
· Internet tax moratorium: a law to extend the moratorium on taxes
on Internet usage and electronic commerce;
· Expanding Internet Access: a law to expand high-speed Internet
service in rural and low-income communities;
· Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
reform: a law that
addresses the policy and administrative hurdles that have created an extensive
FOIA request backlog;
· Inspector General reform: a bill to increase government accountability and cut down on government waste,
fraud and abuse by enhancing the independence and effectiveness of our
country's system of federal inspectors general; and
·
Government contracting reform: a bill to strengthen competition in federal
contracting, add transparency to the process, and help curtail waste, fraud, and
abuse of taxpayers' money.
