Congresswoman Brown Welcomes Democratic Agenda for the First 100 Hours

Congresswoman Brown Welcomes Democratic Agenda for the First 100 Hours

Congresswoman Corrine Brown made the following statement:

"I wholeheartedly support the Democratic Party's first 100 legislative hour agenda. Along with my Democratic colleagues, I am working hard to pass legislation to keep our nation safe, make the Congress more honest and open, make the economy fairer, and build a better future for our nation's children.

On the opening day of the Congress, we will adopt an ethics reform package. This package, once enacted, will make the link between lobbyists and legislation more open. Additionally, it will bring civility to the legislative debate - committing to a fair and open process for amendments, guaranteeing time to read legislation, and ensuring that the minority party can participate in Conference Committees.

During this initial period, we also plan to change the House rules to restore pay-as-you-budgeting - which will begin to reverse the record budget deficits that are passing on trillions of dollars in debt to our children and grandchildren.

The remainder of the first 100 legislative hours will consist of the passage of other elements of the "Six for ‘06" agenda to meet the everyday needs of Americans. We will make America safer by implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 commission; make the economy fairer by raising the minimum wage; make college more affordable by cutting the interest rates on student loans; improve health care by requiring Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices and promoting stem cell research; and take the first step toward achieving energy independence by repealing subsidies to Big Oil and investing the savings in renewable energy.

Lastly, nowhere was the call for a New Direction clearer than in the war in Iraq. The bipartisan Iraq Study Group report concluded, as I have said from the outset, that President Bush's Iraq policy ‘is grave,' and that it is in desperate need of change. I have been stridently opposed to the Iraq war from the outset and voted against the War Resolution, House Joint Resolution 114, which ‘authorized the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq,' when it came before the House of Representatives on October 8th, 2002. I have argued from the beginning of this conflict that the President intentionally misled the American public by supplying them with spurious grounds for going to war. That said, I certainly do not support the President's calls for an increase in troops in Iraq."

http://www.house.gov/list/press/fl03_brown/pr_070104.html