Senator Maria Cantwell's Weekly Update for Washington State

Senator Maria Cantwell's Weekly Update for Washington State

Delivering Health Insurance to More Americans

This week is National Cover the Uninsured Week, and an important time to recognize that more Americans are uninsured than ever before. Forty-six million Americans, including 8 million children and more than 850,000 Washingtonians, lack health insurance. Making real progress to transform a broken system won't be easy, but there are a few things Congress must do right now to get costs under control and increase access to affordable health care coverage. The vast majority of the working uninsured are employed by small businesses, and we need to do a better job helping small businesses provide health coverage to their employees. I'm working to pass a bill that would create a large insurance pool among small business owners to help them leverage market power to lower their rates, premiums, and co-pays. In addition, implementing system-wide, cutting-edge information technology to improve communication between doctors, technicians, nurses, and specialists would not only reduce errors but would bring down costs as well. Controlling costs will make more healthcare dollars available to provide patient care to those who need it most. Congress must also help ensure that there are enough health care professionals to meet our country's needs. Our rural and underserved areas—the very places most in need of improved care—present serious challenges in recruiting health care professionals. Making targeted investments in our nursing and medical education systems would ensure that there are enough medical professionals to go around. All Americans deserve access to quality, affordable health care, and we need to work together to get more Americans covered.
Ending the Violence in Darfur

The U.S. must lead urgent international efforts to stop the killing in the Darfur region of Sudan, which has already claimed 300,000 lives in just three years. Violence this year alone has caused the displacement of 200,000 individuals. The consistent, widespread, and terrible pattern of atrocities in Darfur has gone on for far too long. We must act immediately, working with the United Nations, NATO, and the African Union to stop the ongoing violence, and must remain focused in our fight to bring an end to genocide. Earlier this year, I supported a measure calling on the president to take immediate steps to protect civilians in Darfur, but we need to do more. To help end this growing humanitarian crisis, I am co-sponsoring legislation to create a Special Envoy for Sudan and to give the president access to the financial resources needed to back potential NATO action in support of the United Nations and African Union Mission in Darfur. We must heighten the diplomatic pressure on the Sudanese, do more to back the African Union's efforts, and support potential NATO action to bring peace to the region and an end to the killing.
Increasing Transparency to Prevent Energy Market Manipulation

The days of Enron taught us a painful lesson: market manipulation does happen and we can't protect consumers and business from price-gouging without transparency. The current lack of transparency in energy markets makes it difficult to identify potential market manipulation schemes like those Enron pioneered using its own trading platform, EnronOnline. Due to a loophole in federal law, EnronOnline was exempt from scrutiny by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission. We now know that Enron used this platform to drive profits by manipulating physical supplies and financial energy commodities. While Enron collapsed in 2001, other companies—some even headed by former Enron officials—continue to make millions of dollars through secret deals in unregulated trading markets, including oil and gasoline. Right now, up to 80 percent of energy trades take place beyond the reach of federal regulators due to the "Enron loophole" in U.S. commodity trading laws. To improve transparency and prevent future Enron-style market manipulation, I joined Senator Dianne Feinstein last week to introduce bipartisan legislation closing this loophole and empowering federal regulators to exercise their existing anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority more effectively. I also joined Senator Feinstein to push for the public release of additional evidence acquired during the government's ongoing Enron investigation. It is my hope that releasing this information will expose trading strategies and help us prevent market manipulation in the future.
Investing in Energy Independence

With gas still hovering at $3 per gallon and consumers becoming increasingly concerned about high prices at the gas pump, it's well past time for a new national energy strategy. With just three percent of the world's oil reserves, the United States cannot drill its way out of our over-dependence on foreign oil. If we want to take control of our energy future, we need to become aggressive about new fuel technologies. We can be world leaders in biodiesel and other alternative fuels, and the sooner we do, the stronger, more secure our economy will become. Brazil is a great example. The country moved quickly from reliance on foreign sources for 70 percent of its fuel needs to almost complete energy independence. In the short-term, we need to improve transparency and get a national gas price-gouging ban on the books. That's why I've called on Congress to pass my anti gas price-gouging legislation by Memorial Day. In the long-term, we need an aggressive, comprehensive national strategy to combat our oil addiction, invest in alternative fuels, and take control of our own energy future.

http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/weekly_update_last.cfm