Blog Post
Blog Post
July 8, 2010
Last week, the House passed urgently-needed legislation to extend unemployment benefits for millions of American families--a proven boost to the economy and a much-need lifeline for Americans looking for work in a tough economy. Senate Republicans have repeatedly, and continue to, obstruct job creation and extended unemployment insurance benefits legislation.
Blog Post
July 7, 2010
Senate Republicans have repeatedly obstructed job creation legislation that extended 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. The Republican obstruction is unprecedented--since 1959, Congress has never let extended unemployment benefits expire when unemployment is over 7.2%.
Blog Post
July 7, 2010
The Administration launched a new website, RestoreTheGulf.gov, to be a central location for news and information on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the ongoing response and recovery efforts.
Blog Post
July 6, 2010
Last Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) established by the Affordable Care Act to provide a new health coverage option for Americans who have been uninsured for at least six months and have been unable to get health coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
Blog Post
July 6, 2010
Today marks the 75th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Tibetans inside and outside Tibet, along with Tibetan supporters all around the world, will be celebrating this occasion and honoring a man of peace and wisdom.
His Holiness often describes himself as a 'simple monk, no more, no less.' But His Holiness represents much more to many people around the world. For thousands, he is a source of spiritual refuge and a connection to inner peace and harmony. He has traveled the world, building bridges between the different faiths.
Blog Post
July 6, 2010
House Republican Leader John Boehner spelled out an agenda for America: cuts to your Social Security, a repeal of new patients' rights and protections from insurance industry abuses through health reform, and other than that ... "few concrete thoughts," according to Washington Post senior political reporter Dan Balz.
Blog Post
July 2, 2010
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS) reported we lost 125,000 jobs in June, due the decline in temporary Census workers, but American jobs have been created in five of the last six months--averaging nearly 150,000 jobs a month this year. BLS also reported that the unemployment rate dropped from 9.7% in May to 9.5% in June--the lowest level since last July. June marked the sixth straight month of private sector job growth with 83,000 private payroll jobs created last month.
Blog Post
July 1, 2010
On Tuesday, the House considered the Restoration of Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act. This legislation would extend unemployment insurance (UI) through November 30, 2010 and retroactively restore benefits to people who may have started losing their benefits as early as the end of May--some after just 26 weeks.
Blog Post
July 1, 2010
Today the House passed the SPILL Act (HR 5503) by voice vote to reform inadequate and outdated maritime liability laws to ensure that the families of those killed or injured in the BP Oil Spill and other such tragedies are justly compensated for their losses. Specifically, the SPILL Act updates Death on the High Seas Act (1920), Jones Act (1920), and Limitation on Liability Act (1851) in these ways:
Blog Post
July 1, 2010
At the heart of the Affordable Care Act was the goal to put Americans in charge of their health care, not the insurance companies.