In The News
Social Security must be protected and expanded
Too many hardworking Americans are unable to save enough money to live comfortably when they retire. The costs of housing, health care and a college education have soared, personal savings have declined and many American workers lack access to a pension or an employer-sponsored retirement plan. The challenge is exacerbated given that the typical American family now earns less than it did 25 years ago. In the United States, a lifetime of hard work should be rewarded by a secure retirement. That is why I led a coalition of more than 100 of my fellow House Democrats in urging President Obama to...
Obama Budget to Delete Proposal to Limit Social Security
President Barack Obama will emphasize Democratic priorities in his next budget, dropping an offer to trim the growth of entitlement spending and proposing new tax limits for U.S.-based multi-national companies. In an election-year spending blueprint to be sent to Congress March 4, Obama is leaving out a proposal to reduce cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security and other benefit programs, while adding $56 billion for domestic and defense programs and seeking more revenue through taxes. The budget seeks new limits on companies’ ability to take advantage of gaps between countries’ tax...
Schwartz leads House letter to Obama against Social Security cuts
Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and 116 other House Democrats on Wednesday sent President Obama a letter urging him to drop cuts to Social Security and veterans benefits from his budget due out March 4. They told Obama he should abandon efforts to cut a fiscal deal with the GOP because the party is not willing to raise taxes. “Your Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 proposed a comprehensive $1.8 trillion deficit reduction package that sought to replace sequestration and reflected the compromise you offered to House Speaker John Boehner in December 2012 ... Since then, however, the Republican...
National food retail financing program passes
The U.S. House has approved $125 million for a national Healthy Food Financing Initiative modeled after the successful program in Pennsylvania. The bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz, D-Pa., in June, was part of the larger Farm Bill that passed Wednesday. The measure would provide start-up grants and affordable loan financing for food retailers, farmers’ markets, cooperatives and others who face obstacles to delivering and selling healthy foods. The measure will help combat obesity, which costs the U.S. healthcare system $190 billion annually, according to a release from...
Here's why we need to extend benefits for the long-term jobless: Allyson Schwartz
The American economy has created nearly 8 million new private sector jobs since 2010. But our economic recovery is still not complete. Far too many of the hardworking Pennsylvanians who lost their jobs due to the economic downturn have been unable to find work. Emergency unemployment compensation, which helps the long-term unemployed who have exhausted their regular state-funded unemployment benefits, is currently set to expire at the end of 2013. If Congress fails to act, 86,000 Pennsylvanians—who rely on these emergency benefits to make the mortgage payment, pay the heating bill and...
Fort Washington Fire Company gets grant for gear
FORT WASHINGTON — Members of the Fort Washington Fire Company No. 1 showed off their new gear Tuesday when U.S. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz, D-13, paid a visit to the firehouse on Fort Washington Avenue. The fire company received a federal grant in April providing $67,020, which was used to purchase 27 complete sets of protective turnout gear including helmets, coats, pants, gloves, hoods and goggles, according to a press release. “Next to fire apparatus, turnout gear is one of the most expensive items in any fire company’s budget,” FWFC Chief Eric Clauson said. “Due to an aging inventory...
College Affordability Act simplifies existing tax credits
Higher education has never been more important than in today’s fiercely competitive global economy, but the financial burden on middle-class families to afford it has never been greater. To ensure our nation’s economic strength and security, we must make higher education more accessible and affordable for more Americans. One way we can do this is to simplify and streamline existing higher education tax credits so they work more efficiently for students and families. That is why I recently introduced legislation to ensure middle-class families can use the savings from the popular American...
Obama Official Apologizes For Broken Health Care Website
“The fact is the Administration really failed these Americans,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Allyson Schwartz, a Democrat. She called the problematic rollout of Healthcare.gov “inexcuseable and unacceptable.” Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett, another Democrat, said, “The promise of affordable health care can…be destroyed by problems of management.” He said he wanted more information on an ACA program that trains and hires consumer assistance workers to help those signing up for coverage, demanding that Tavenner provide progress reports on this program ahead of schedule.
Health official apologizes for Obamacare website flaws
Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), the committee’s top Democrat, said Republicans are more interested in disrupting the law’s implementation than in fixing it. But he, too, asked Tavenner to explain her agency’s efforts to repair HealthCare.gov, while Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) offered Democrats’ sharpest criticism of the day. “Going forward, there can be no more excuses,” said Schwartz
Scientists describe cascading pain of budget cuts
A father came to visit ophthalmology researcher Jean Bennett last week to talk about his son, who is swiftly going blind. Her clinical trial of a one-time injection to cure the inherited disease is scheduled to begin in July. " 'If this was your son, wouldn't you just take him into your basement and inject him? Why do we have to wait this long?' " Bennett recalled his saying. She added: "I haven't even told him that it could be delayed." These are the kinds of stories that scientists tell about how events in Washington - stagnant appropriations...
