Politics

Americans enjoy the most abundant, safe and affordable food supply in the world. In fact, Americans spend less than 10 percent of their incomes on food -- the lowest in the world. Citizens in many other countries spend over 50 percent of their incomes on food.
 
Why is this? Certainly it's the hard work of American farmers and ranchers, new technology and wise stewardship of our natural resources. But a national farm policy that supports agriculture and provides a safety net for our farmers also plays a role. Agriculture policy has evolved over the years but its primary focus has endured: food security for our nation.

Although Senate Democrats just iced a Republican effort to overturn the provision in the 2010 health care law – forcing Catholic employers, schools, and non-profits to provide their employees with insurance plans that cover birth control, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs (all things that the Catholic Church opposes) – the fight is still going strong in my home state of Nebraska.
 
Led by Nebraska’s attorney general, Nebraska and six other states (Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas) have filed a suit in Nebraska’s U.S. District Court, challenging this glaringly unconstitutional mandate. Their case stresses just that – this mandate is unconstitutional.

For all the talk about how broken Washington seems to be these days – and there is a lot to fix – considerable progress has been made over the last few months around the issue of improving the environment for entrepreneurs to start new businesses, grow existing companies, and create jobs.  There is broad bipartisan agreement that entrepreneurs have played a critical role in creating the leading economy in the world, and that we need to double down on our nation’s commitment to our entrepreneurs. Now’s the time to push pro-entrepreneurship legislation over the goal line, so we can ensure the United States remains the world’s most entrepreneurial nation. 

On Tuesday, Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), unveiled the JOBS Act – a legislative package that will make it easier for fast-growing, job-creating companies to go public by putting in place an IPO on ramp, increase access to capital for entrepreneurs by permitting crowdfunding, and make a series of other common-sense changes that will help businesses grow, hire, and compete in a global economy. Many of these bills have strong bipartisan support and have already passed the House with more than 400 votes. Also on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), announced plans to push forward a series of jobs bill designed to help entrepreneurs.

Rep. Gutierrez made the following remarks on the House floor this morning.

As my colleagues know, Latinos are America’s fastest growing population.
 
So if you are a Presidential candidate, and you want to make sure that every single Latino in America knows you strongly oppose sensible and fair immigration reform, you have to work pretty hard.

On Sunday, millions of Americans tuned in for the 84th Academy Awards. The movie industry undoubtedly enjoys the public’s speculating which films deserve the highest honors. However, the largest studios do not like Wall Street speculation about how successful movies will be before they are actually released.

In true Washington fashion, movie industry titans lobbied Congress to ban movie futures – financial contracts that pay out based on box office earnings. The Motion Picture Association of America got a special, and barely noticeable, ban inserted into the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill to prohibit trading based on expected box office earnings. The new ban hurts independent filmmakers looking for financial partners to bring their films to life and ultimately fans of their films, like “The Artist” and “The Descendants.” 

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Being both black and gay can be, well, interesting. But rarely has this dual identity manifested itself as dramatically as during the current controversy between the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and Black TV and radio commentator Roland Martin.

A week ago, to commemorate Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, I appeared on a segment of the Tom Joyner morning show about AIDS that included the rates of HIV among young Black gay men, which was produced and hosted by Martin. That same day I also partnered with GLAAD to publish an HIV/AIDS editorial.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, during the Super Bowl Martin sent out a number of tweets that GLAAD and others believe advocated violence against gay men. Martin denies this was his intent.

A few years ago, when I was still serving in the Senate, I was asked to support legislation that would ban the practice of slaughtering horses for human consumption. My initial reaction was cool to the notion that the federal government should be mandating or telling owners of these horses what they can or cannot do with their animals. However, my initial instincts on such a policy were outweighed by the personal and practical experience that horse owners brought to my attention, including my son, Chet.

An avid horseman, Chet is active in the horse industry and had rescued several horses from a “killer buyer” — one who buys horses from sometimes unsuspecting owners and then sells them to slaughterhouses. My son retrained and sold those horses to become champion polo ponies. His experience showed me that live, active horses support an important infrastructure of jobs and economies in the United States. A live horse needs to be fed, groomed and trained, as well as receive vet care, among other things. This in turn creates and maintains a viable and enduring way of life in rural America. The sale of horses to killer-buyers in fact generates very little profit for the seller while simultaneously choking off the demand for the goods and services that other buyers would create.

As Congress debates whether to legalize Internet gaming, it’s important to guarantee that Native American tribes are dealt a fair and honest hand. They deserve nothing less.

Not inviting majority stakeholders to weigh in when drafting game changing legislation is as shortsighted as doubling down at a poker table before you see your cards.

Yet that’s exactly what some lawmakers are doing when they draft Internet gaming legislation and deny tribal leaders and tribal gaming regulators a seat at the policy table. We believe that’s wrong, and we’re determined to make certain the voices of Native Americans are heard. Today, there are 565 federally-recognized tribes and nearly 3 million Native Americans spread across the United States. They have a huge stake in this outcome, but you wouldn’t know it by reading the legislation which has been introduced so far.

With great fanfare, the Obama administration and the state attorneys general recently announced the completion of what’s being touted as the largest consumer financial protection settlement in U.S. history. The country’s top mortgage servicers agreed to provide as much as $25 billion to help some past and current homeowners because banks regularly submitted foreclosure documents that were not properly reviewed or notarized (aka robo-signing).
 
At first blush, the settlement would appear to present an ideal opportunity for the market — paralyzed in part by the uncertainty over potential legal liabilities — to move ahead towards a much-needed housing recovery. In that regard, its completion was way overdue. In fact, by some accounts the statute of limitations on some of the abuses either had already or was about to run out.
 
While some will surely argue that the banks should be squeezed for more, the deal does provide some meaningful assistance for distressed and underwater homeowners. Mortgage servicers also agreed to a new set of standards to govern how they must work with homeowners moving forward who are at risk of foreclosure. It’s hard to take issue with a well-intentioned, bipartisan agreement between the legal authorities and the banks over admittedly shoddy mortgage paperwork.

Our country faces a crisis of confirmation.



200 unconfirmed presidential nominees.

Over 900 straight days with more than 80 vacancies on the federal bench.

Over a dozen unfilled ambassador posts.

More than 30 “judicial emergencies” declared by the federal judiciary due to an enormous backlog of cases.

 The confirmation process for presidential appointments is broken. Delaying tactics and political maneuvers, sometimes by a single member of Congress, have for years now impeded our government’s ability to function, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.



Over and over again, Senate gridlock has stymied the confirmation of well-qualified and often critical candidates, leaving key positions unfilled and our judiciary overworked and understaffed.

 No Labels – a group of Republicans, Democrats and Independents dedicated to making American government work again – has put forth a solution, one of 12 ideas to fix Congress in its Make Congress Work! action plan.