Details legislation he will work for in new Congress

Washington, D.C.-- Congressman Eliot Engel was sworn in Tuesday (1/6) to his 11th term in Congress promising to push for legislation to make health care available to all, to push for education reform, and to support President-elect Obama’s plans for an economic stimulus to rescue the country’s failing economy.

Rep. Engel said, “Taking the oath of office as a member of Congress reaffirms for me my determination to work for the people of my District and for the country. The problems facing America today require the highest level of commitment, and I pledge to work as hard as I can to work in Congress towards solving these problems.”

Rep. Engel, a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the most powerful in Congress, said that his priorities, apart from working to salvage the economy, include health care, energy, and education.

He said he will work towards passage of the Open Fuel Standards Act, legislation to require that half of new cars sold in the United States by 2012, and 80% by 2015, are flex fuel vehicles able to run on any combination of ethanol, methanol, or gasoline. He will promote an Oil Savings Plan directing the federal government to develop and implement a plan to reduce U.S. oil dependence by mandating an oil savings of 2.5 millions of barrels of oil per day within ten years, and increasing significantly by 2025. He will also promote legislation to ease the importation of ethanol by lowering the tariff from 54 cents per gallon to 45 cents per gallon.

With nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance, he said that the country must find a way to provide health care for all. “Health care,” he said, “should be a right for all Americans, not a privilege.”

He said he also wanted to devote himself to education, initially by fixing the No Child Left Behind Act, which promised to reform education in America, but which the Republicans refuse to properly fund. “Without a proper education, we deny our children, and our country, a future. Funding education can only return more than we invest by making America more productive.”

Rep. Engel said this Congress is facing the most difficult problems that America has faced in more than a generation. “But,” he said, “it is also an opportunity to create an America that will be a new land of promise for all of us.”