Articles

"What we learned in Haiti is that the nation can start anew with an innovative approach to promote economic growth and alleviate poverty in an environmentally sustainable manner. President Preval has the vision for a better future for Haiti but he needs help from the international community to implement it."

"At the halfway mark in this Congress, our priorities are clear: strengthening the security of the American people and building a new economy that offers our families lasting prosperity. These priorities are the new direction the American people demanded in 2008 -- with the historic election of President Barack Obama and the 111th Congress. In the days since, this Congress has responded with an agenda focused on rebuilding, reforming and restoring the promise of progress and prosperity to America's families and businesses."

'Nancy Pelosi and her army of whips had counted the votes and counted them again. But as they conferred in Pelosi's warren of offices just off the Capitol Rotunda in June, it seemed there was no way to get them to add up to 218. That's a majority in the House, the number it would take to pass the climate-change legislation the Speaker calls 'my flagship issue.' But in the middle of a recession, the measure that Republicans were calling a job killer seemed too much to ask of her stressed-out caucus, especially after Democrats had already put their necks on the line to bail out Wall Street and the auto industry and to pass a $787 billion economic-stimulus package, and when they were looking ahead to a massive overhaul of the health care system. Further, it would probably be futile. The Senate might not follow, and even the White House was sending mixed signals as to whether it wanted to do this on top of everything else it had going on in Barack Obama's first year in office....'

"More than a year after the financial crisis devastated the economy and triggered massive taxpayer bailouts, the House narrowly approved the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression in hopes of preventing a similar catastrophe."

"Pelosi's management of the health care reform effort nonetheless revealed that she has much in common with Rayburn's vaunted leadership style. She showed steely determination in scoring an achievement unlike that of any lawmaker before her, moving sweeping health insurance reforms closer to enactment than at any time in the nation's history. And in the process, she centralized perhaps unprecedented control in the speaker's office."

"Pelosi, D-San Francisco, played a major role in converting the Presidio from an Army post to a national park. In Congress she also helped pass a number of bills to help veterans."

"Doctors, community clinic directors and others with a stake in health care reform interrupted Pelosi with applause Tuesday. She described Saturday's vote as the biggest step in the direction of health care for all Americans since Teddy Roosevelt first mentioned it as a goal about a century ago."

"Hours after President Obama exhorted Democratic lawmakers to 'answer the call of history,' the House hit an unprecedented milestone on the path to health-care reform, approving a trillion-dollar package late Saturday that seeks to overhaul private insurance practices and guarantee comprehensive and affordable coverage to almost every American."