Blog Post

This afternoon, Speaker Pelosi signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act sending it to President Obama for his signature into law:

On Tuesday, the House passed the Claims Resolution Act--legislation that provides long-delayed justice for tens of thousands of black farmers and hundreds of thousands of American Indians. Among its provisions, the bill contains funding to implement the settlements of the Pigford class action lawsuit involving past discrimination against black farmers by the Agriculture Department and the Cobell class action lawsuit involving funds for American Indians mismanaged by the Interior Department.

This afternoon, the House passed the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 (HR 6467) to extend middle-class tax cuts by a vote of 234-188. Speaker Pelosi in strong support of passage:

While several Republicans voted for the bill, both the Minority Leader and top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee voted against the middle class tax cuts despite previously voicing their support:

This afternoon, Senator Arlen Specter (D-Phillies) and Congressman Joe Barton (R-Rangers) made good on their World Series bets against Speaker Pelosi and the World Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants. Sen. Specter presented Speaker Pelosi with an enormous block of Hershey's chocolate and Rep. Barton provided the Speaker with deep-dish pecan pies from the historic Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas:

Today, the House is debating the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 to extend middle-class tax cuts. These tax cuts are expiring at the end of this year because when Republicans passed them 10 years ago, they sunsetted them to hide their true cost to the deficit. The bill today cuts taxes for 97% of American families and small businesses (saving about $1,000 per year for a typical middle-class family each year):

Today the House considered the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act which contains the most significant improvements to child nutrition programs in more than 30 years. The bill has two major goals: reducing childhood hunger and reducing childhood obesity. Both of these problems have gotten worse in recent years–the poverty rate for children is 20.7% (up from 15.6% 10 years ago) with more than 16 million children living in homes without access to enough nutritious food while one in three American children are currently either overweight or obese.

World AIDS Day is a time to honor the memories of those we've lost to HIV/AIDS, to remember the progress we've made in our fight against this disease, and to rededicate ourselves to ending this pandemic once and for all. The battle to ensure ‘universal access and human rights' for all living with HIV/AIDS represents one of the great moral challenges of our time. In the United States and around the world, we must continue acting with the urgency, passion, and commitment this fight demands.

In the last two years, Senate Republicans have repeatedly obstructed job creation legislation and legislation to extend critical unemployment insurance benefits to help Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own make ends meet as they look for their next job opportunity.