Press Releases

“This decision adds more urgency to Democrats winning back the House to continue on our path of ending discrimination as we did by repealing ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and making a fully-inclusive hate crimes bill the law of the land. With a Democratic Congress, we will make more strides toward equality by passing a fully-inclusive ENDA and repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.”

“Today, Speaker Boehner confirmed to his Conference what was already obvious: Republicans are not interested in working with Democrats to find a responsible path that would prevent the doubling of interest rates on America's students. As the clock ticks closer to the deadline for millions with student loans, Republicans have continued to make it clear that they were never interested in helping students in the first place."

“Today's ruling is a significant step forward in our march toward equality for LGBT Americans. Now, for the first time in American history, a federal appeals court has recognized that a law denying federal benefits to same-sex married couples is unconstitutional, we move closer to the day when marriage equality is a reality for all."

"Tonight, House Democrats stood strong against Republican efforts to undermine the economic security of American workers. Project Labor Agreements are an enormously successful way of strengthening our economy and middle-class families while investing in building America."

"We have to deal with our economic issues and we have to do it now. There are only 44 - in case you're making your plans, there are only 44 legislative days left in this Congress, six legislative days until the next recess. Today, tomorrow, a few days next week, and then we're off again. What we have seen here is that Republicans have no job plans. The votes that you've seen on the floor aren't about jobs. Their only plan is more tax breaks for the wealthy, tax breaks for Big Oil and corporations that ship jobs overseas."

“Welcome back to the Capitol. I hope that you had an, enjoyable is not the word, but a productive Memorial Day weekend as we honor those who keep us the home of the brave and the land of the free. Our men and women in uniform and their families sacrifice so much for us. Every day is Veteran's Day for us here. And the days that we pay tribute to those who are in service now, and those who have given their lives, on Memorial Day, and then other days of the year, we take time to honor them."

"Thank you very much, Congressman Becerra, for your kind introduction, for your invitation to be here today, for your tremendous leadership in the Congress of the United States. This district is very well served and well led by your leadership in the Congress. Congressman Becerra is the Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, he's a powerful Member of the Ways and Means Committee, and because he has the confidence of his colleagues in the Congress, has served on every budget discussion that we've had - whether it was Simpson-Bowles, whether it was the Biden group, whether it was the Supercommittee that met toward the end of last year. In every coming together, we wanted our very best on the committee, most knowledgeable, values-based person who, again, had the confidence of our colleagues to make the difficult decisions. And these decisions are difficult."

"But the fact is that, unless we embrace science, all the things, it's a national security issue how we defend our country, how we preserve God's precious gift to us, this planet, how we preserve that, how we advance health wise, how we compete [for] jobs [and] the rest. We really have to - we really have to win this fight as to what the role science is and it is certainly not contradictory to being God-given."