The House today adopted a nonbinding resolution that says the United States has a moral responsibility to help the poor and sets a national goal of cutting poverty in half over 10 years by promoting good jobs at livable wages. The vote was 391-0.
“Our country is a land of opportunity,” said bill sponsor Barbara Lee, D-Calif. “But the sad reality is that income inequality continues to grow and more people are falling into poverty than getting ahead.” She said one in eight Americans now live in poverty.
Rep. Barbara Lee doesn’t think elderly and disabled people in public housing should face the threat of eviction because of the crimes of others in their homes.
To that end, the California Democrat proposed an amendment to a housing reauthorization bill. The language is designed to prevent such evictions if the elderly or disabled tenants did not know of the criminal behavior or were themselves victims of crime.
Here are more Democratic video excerpts from the debate over the housing bill (the speakers are Maxine Waters of California and Keith Ellison of Minnesota):
The House today narrowly passed a bill designed to improve mine safety despite a veto threat from the White House. The vote was 214-199.
Here are debate excerpts floor speeches by Democrats George Miller of California, Tim Bishop of New York, Rush Holt of New Jersey and John Yarmuth of Kentucky.
Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo represents a part of Silicon Valley in California and has been a leader on technology issues like banning Internet-related taxes, network neutrality and patent reform. Eshoo’s work in the arena prompted Google to invite her to its headquarters for the Internet firm’s first policy discussion of 2008.
“[S]he is almost the perfect example of a congressperson,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at the one-hour Friday session, which Google has posted on its YouTube service. “She understands technology. She understands what we need. She understands politics. She’s long-term committed to the success of the country.”
If all goes as planned, the first session of the 110th Congress will end next week, but Congress still hasn’t finalized emergency funding for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afganistan. That reality continues to irritate President Bush.
“Congress has had plenty of time to consider the emergency funds our troops need. Time is running out,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “And Pentagon officials say that continued delay in funding our troops will soon begin to have a damaging impact on the operations of our military. Congress’ responsibility is clear: They must deliver vital funds for our troops — and they must do it before they leave for Christmas.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California focused on a completely different subject in the Democratic address: energy legislation passed by her chamber. She touted provisions to improve fuel-efficiecy standards for vehicles and to foster the U.S. biofuels industry, among other things. The goal is to make the United States less dependent on foreign oil as an energy source.
“Our energy bill will strengthen our national security, protect consumers from spiraling energy prices, create jobs, and meet our moral obligation to preserve our planet for future generations,” Pelosi said. “It will tell the world that America is prepared to become a leader in addressing the global climate crisis.”
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