A New Direction for America

A New Direction for America

After the historic election of 2006, Americans called for greater integrity in Washington, and Democrats pledged to make Congress more ethical. Americans called for common-sense proposals to improve the everyday lives of all Americans and Democrats put forward a "Six for ‘06" agenda that addressed critical economic, health care, and educational concerns of ordinary families.

Now, in the first 100 legislative hours of the new 110th Congress that convened in January, Democrats have succeeded in living up to the commitments we made to the American people.

In those first 100 hours, you have seen a people's Congress, a Congress that has passed legislation to make the American people safer, make our Congress more honest and open, make our economy fairer, and build a better future for all of America's children.

On each item, the leadership worked with members of both parties to win passage of the legislation. These bills are not just the Democratic agenda; they all enjoy bipartisan support.

I am very pleased that we passed all of the "100 hours" bills with bipartisan majorities - in some cases, with very large bipartisan majorities. The American people want their leaders to focus on American priorities and work together to get things done - reaching across the aisle to pass measures that will make a real difference in people's lives. And that is what we've done in the first 100 hours.

On the opening day of the Congress, January 4th, we adopted the most sweeping ethics package since the post-Watergate era. It begins to sever the link between lobbyists and legislation, by banning gifts and travel from lobbyists, and ending the abuses connected to privately-funded congressional travel.

During that first week, we also restored tough pay-as-you-go budget rules - which will begin to reverse the record budget deficits that are passing on trillions in debt to our children and grandchildren. In addition, we also voted to end the abuse of special-interest earmarks.

In the remainder of the first 100 hours, we then turned to passing the elements of our "Six for ‘06" agenda to meet the everyday needs of all Americans.

We made America safer by passing a bill that implements the unfulfilled recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, which were submitted to Congress in 2004.

We made our economy fairer by passing a bill that increases the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years.

We improved health care by passing a bill that expands federal funding for life-saving embryonic stem cell research.

We helped to make health care more affordable by passing a bill that repeals the part of the current law that prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries and instead directs the Secretary to conduct such cost-saving negotiations.

We made college more affordable by passing a bill that cuts the interest rate on subsidized student loans for undergraduates in half over the next five years.

And we set America on the path to energy independence by passing a bill that repeals $14 billion in subsidies to the five largest oil companies and invests those funds instead in clean, renewable energy resources and alternative fuels. Iowa has long been a leader in renewable energy—whether leading the country in ethanol production or increasing the number of wind turbines across the landscape. We now have the opportunity for the American farmer not only to feed the country, but to fuel it as well.

This new Congress will continue to focus on addressing the everyday concerns of American families - from keeping them safe, to making health care more affordable, to expanding access to an affordable college education, to making the economy fairer. These "100 hours" bills are just the beginning - the new Congress will continue to provide a New Direction for America.

http://boswell.house.gov/article.asp?id=632