Washington, DC –  Working Mother magazine and Corporate Voices for Working Families today presented U.S. Senator Herb Kohl with their "Best of Congress" for working families award.  The award is based on a bipartisan steering committee review of Kohl's voting record, legislative record, advocacy for children and families, and office policies.  Kohl is featured in the August/September issue of Working Mother magazine.  This is Kohl's second "Best of Congress" award; he also earned the 2008 inaugural "Best of Congress" award, which will be presented biannually to lawmakers who work to advance economically sound policies that support and create opportunities for working families.   

"Creating jobs, keeping our food supply safe, preventing crime in our communities and ensuring a quality education for all students are goals we share," Kohl said.  "It's my job to be sure those priorities aren't swept aside in the din of partisan debate, and I'm honored to be recognized for that effort."  

Kohl is being honored for his work to reduce the costs of health care, support education, protect food safety, reduce energy costs, strengthen child support enforcement, defend retirement security, protect the elderly and help rural families. This includes his work to fund a range of education initiatives, from early childhood education to after-school programs to job training to college.  

Kohl is central to the Senate's support of the national Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program which helps small- and medium-sized manufacturers enhance productivity, cut production costs, and retain and create jobs. Through his work on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kohl has played a key role in defending the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which has put thousands of additional police officers on the beat to fight crime in communities across the country.  

As Chairman of both the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights and the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Kohl has sought to lower prescription drug costs in a number of ways, by increasing access to generic drugs, supporting the dissemination of comparative effectiveness research to physicians, and disclosing drug and device industry efforts to lobby doctors.  In addition, he has championed efforts to protect children from household drug waste and protect families from tainted dietary supplements.  Also through his role as Aging Chairman, he has assisted members of the "sandwich" generation care for their aging parents, through better public ratings of nursing homes, more information about continuing care retirement communities, expanded training opportunities for home health aides, and improved support for family caregivers.  

As Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Panel, Kohl has worked to increase the FDA's budget to strengthen their efforts to keep the food supply safe, including increasing the number of food safety inspectors domestically and abroad and developing new, regional rapid response teams across the country to identify and isolate contaminated produce at its source.  He has championed funding for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, which provides grants to states for supplemental food and nutrition services to pregnant women, babies and children under five.  Kohl also worked to make the federal school breakfast program available in more schools across the country.       

Recipients of the Best of Congress award are featured in the August/September 2010 issue of Working Mother magazine and at www.workingmother.com.       

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