Kennedy on the Do-Nothing Congress

KENNEDY STATEMENT ON THE DO-NOTHING CONGRESS

Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy released the following statement on the outgoing, Republican, do-nothing Congress, and below are his priorities for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee next year.

“Sadly, as American families welcome the holiday season, there are few gifts they can be grateful for from this Republican Do-Nothing Congress. The legislative year ends today with too many broken promises and too much work left undone as Congress leaves town having worked even fewer days than the infamous 1948 “Do-Nothing Congress.” From unfinished appropriation bills to an agenda that hurts American families to a devastating lack of oversight on Katrina and Iraq, this Congress not only failed to deliver but in many ways put our nation on a perilous course.

Fortunately, the new year will bring a new Congress and a new direction in this country — thanks to the American people who voted their hopes and dreams. They deserve a Congress that works for them and gets the job done. Democrats are ready work with our Republican colleagues to fight for good jobs and decent wages, affordable health care for all Americans, a fair immigration plan that secures our borders, affordable college tuition, and schools that serve all our children well. And clearly, we’re ready to fight to change our course on Iraq. As Democrats we are determined to not let the American people down and fight for solutions that will improve their everyday lives.”

OVERVIEW OF HELP COMMITTEE ISSUES FOR THE 110th CONGRESS

HEALTH

1) Expanding access to affordable healthcare. Medicare provides quality health care for more than 40 million Americans. Administrative costs are low and satisfaction is high. The most straightforward way to see that every American has affordable, quality health care is to extend Medicare to all citizens. Senator Kennedy and Representative Dingell introduced the Medicare for All legislation to do just that. This proposal should be the starting point for discussions on achieving universal coverage. In Massachusetts, all parts of the political spectrum came together to reach a solution that everyone could support, and that bipartisan spirit of compromise is a model for success in Washington too.

2) Stem Cell Research. We are in the era of the life sciences, and no area of medical research has more promise than stem cell research to speed the search for new cures for diabetes, Parkinson’s Disease, cancer, and many other serious illnesses. A broad bipartisan majority in both chambers of Congress approved legislation to tear down the barriers that have kept NIH scientists from realizing the full potential of this research. The President vetoed that bill last year, but Congress will keep working to overcome the President’s opposition.

3) Health IT. The Wired for Health Quality Act, sponsored by Frist, Enzi, Kennedy, and Clinton, improves the quality and efficiency of health care through better use of health information technology, which will reduce administrative costs and diminish medical errors.

4) Medicare Part D. Senators Kennedy and Stabenow have introduced legislation to lower the cost of drugs by requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate discounted prices directly with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of beneficiaries. Negotiating discounted prices will result in lower expenses for seniors and savings for Medicare that can be applied to improving the drug benefit by filling the gap in coverage known as the doughnut hole.

5) CHIP reauthorization. CHIP has been one of the health care success stories of recent years. It provides quality care for 4 million children who would otherwise go without. It is essential to build on the promise of CHIP by not only extending the program, but strengthening it as well. We should finish the job that the original CHIP legislation started by covering all children.

6) FDA Regulation of tobacco products. Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in America. Empowering the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products is long overdue. Effective FDA regulation will help to deter young people from starting to smoke and to assist current smokers in quitting. Senator Kennedy authored FDA legislation to give the FDA this authority. It passed the Senate twice but was blocked by the House Republican leadership. Enacting this important public health legislation should be a top priority for the new Congress.

EDUCATION

1) Enacting a higher education reauthorization that makes college affordable. Senator Kennedy’s proposals to help students and families include the STAR Act, Debt Relief Act and the Contract for Educational Opportunity Grants in the Right TRACK Act. Senator Kennedy’s top priorities for reauthorization are increasing student aid, making student loan debt more manageable and making sure our student loan programs work for students, not banks. He also will be looking to expand support for and improve teacher preparation programs.

2.) Funding and reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act. Democrats will make education funding a priority so NCLB can fulfill its promise. As Chairman, Senator Kennedy will advance an NCLB reauthorization agenda that seeks to strengthen key reforms, ensure the law’s effectiveness, and promote solutions and strategies for schools to improve. Senator Kennedy’s priorities for reauthorization include ensuring that tests are used to improve instruction, not just labeling schools, and ensuring that students struggling to meet high standards have the best teachers and expanded learning opportunities. He also has a proposal to ensure that parents are given the information that they need to navigate the education system and help their children succeed.

3.) Ensuring that our students are competitive in the 21st-Century global economy. Many of Senator Kennedy’s proposals on this theme are in the Right Track Act. They include increasing college student aid, greater support for math and science education, and creating incentives for high quality teachers—especially in high demand subjects such as math and science—to teach in high poverty schools, as well as assistance to states to raise standards and ensure that schools are internationally competitive.

4.) Reauthorizing the Head Start federal preschool program and enacting Senator Kennedy’s Early Care and Education Act (ECEA), so that all children can have access to high quality early childhood programs. ECEA would provide support to states to create a more cohesive system of early childhood education programs and improve standards for programs and educators in the early childhood arena.

5.) Reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act and provide additional funding for job training programs so workers can obtain the skills they need to succeed in today’s global economy.

6.) Fully funding IDEA.

LABOR AND PENSIONS

1) Raising the Minimum Wage. Senator Kennedy’s bill will raise the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour in three steps over a two year period. This increase will give nearly 15 million Americans a well-earned raise, including the parents of more than seven million children. This increase will give a family with one minimum wage earner another $4,400 a year to spend on education, child care, paying the rent, or putting decent food on the table.

2) Promoting paid sick days for workers. Over half of American workers do not have paid sick days. Senator Kennedy’s Healthy Families Act will guarantee working Americans seven paid sick days to care for their own and their families’ medical needs. Providing paid sick days will build strong families, protect our children, and safeguard our public health.

3) Protecting Workers’ Right to Organize. In today’s insecure economy, when too many working families are struggling just to make ends meet, it is more important than ever that workers have a voice at work. Senator Kennedy’s Employee Free Choice Act helps workers get their fair share of our nation’s economic growth by supporting the basic right of workers to choose their own representative. It puts real teeth in the law by strengthening the penalties for discrimination against workers who favor a union. And it will allow employees to choose a union when a majority of them sign an authorization designating a union as their bargaining representative.

4) Strengthening Retirement Security. Workers deserve to retire in dignity, not in poverty. Senator Kennedy’s priorities include expanding retirement security for all American workers and finding ways to prevent corporations from using the bankruptcy courts to dump workers’ pensions while awarding big bonuses to executives. He will also continue the fight to protect Social Security.

5) Strengthening Worker Safety. Too many American workers still face hazardous conditions at work. Senator Kennedy wants to make all workplaces safer by passing the Protecting America’s Workers Act to cover more workers, give families a role in safety investigations, strengthen protections for whistleblowers, and increase penalties for repeated safety violators. He will build on the MINER Act to make additional advances in mine safety legislation. Kennedy also plans to exercise close oversight over MSHA and OSHA to ensure that they vigorously enforce our safety laws and issue needed safety standards.

–Tom Lopach