With Democrats in control of both Houses of Congress for the first time since 1994, a top priority will be to eliminate the right of employees to vote for or against unionization in secret ballot elections and to dictate contract terms to employers.

What EFCA Would Do

There are three main components of EFCA. The central feature of the bill would outlaw secret ballot elections by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) among employees to decide whether to be represented by a union. Instead, the EFCA would permit unions to inveigle employees to sign authorization cards agreeing to labor representation in front of union agents. Second, the bill would give unions the power to invoke outside arbitration to gain a first contract, abandoning the Aerican tradition of letting the parties settle their differences through good faith collective-bargaining. In other words, Business owners would suddenly have no one to negotiate on first contracts they could be removed from the Bargaining process and forced to accept due to EFCA an outside arbitration process without their input and the one sided and unfair employment contracts with the unions that this would imply. Third, the bill would increase penalties against employers for certain labor law violations, requiring reimbursement three times the amount of wages lost by an employee and imposing civil fines of as much as $20,000 per incident, yet would not levy harsher sanctions for union misconduct. Read more...

I am now and have always been against amnesty in any form, by any name. Amnesty only encourages more illegal entry into the country. We need a firm no amnesty policy.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich vocalized his disapproval of Congress recently passing a supplemental funding bill for the Iraq War.

"In the last two weeks, Congress passed legislation that would provide almost $300 billion to keep the war going past the end of President Bush's term and into the term of the next president," Kucinich said. "Now why would congress do that when the American people voted in 2006 for a new Congress and for a new direction in Iraq?"

Meteorologists predict that the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will be much more active than the average 1950-2000 seasons. It is estimated that 2007 will have about 9 hurricanes, 5 being intense (Category 3-4-5) hurricanes. This comes as no surprise to insurers as the number of natural and man-made catastrophes has been increasing on a global scale for 20 years.

In fact, tropical cyclone activity in the mid-1990s entered an active phase that could last well into the 2030s. There are already as many major storms in 2000-2005 as in all of the 1990s. Seven of the 10 most expensive hurricanes in U.S. history occurred in the 14 months from August 2004-October 2005. In 2005, hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma and Dennis produced a record $61.2 billion in insured losses and 3.3 million in claims. While 2005 was by far the worst year ever for insured catastrophe losses in the U.S., future storms could prove even costlier, reaching upwards of $110 billion.

Disaster losses along the coast are likely to escalate in the coming years because of huge increases in development and soaring property values. One catastrophe modeling company predicts that losses will double every decade or so due to growing residential and commercial density and more expensive buildings. Total value of insured coastal exposure is more than $7 trillion. Florida and New York lead the way for insured coastal property at more than $1.9 trillion each. After Florida, many Northeast states (such as NY, MA, and CT) have among the highest coastal exposure as a share of all insured exposure in the state.

Congress has an obligation to our troops in the field to move this emergency security funding measure to the President as quickly as possible. I join with my colleagues in urging Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) to call the House back into session so that we may finish our work and ensure our troops receive the funding they need to win in Iraq.

A lot of us have worked on immigration reform for quite a while now and I think we've got the best shot we've had in years to actually get something done. The president’s visit to Arizona was very important to highlight the progress that has been made here in the past year.

Many people are concerned about moving forward on the other elements of comprehensive reform if the border isn't being secured, and today’s visit I think will help people understand that progress is being made to secure the border.

Of course we need the other element, the comprehensive reform as well, including a temporary worker program, employer verification and enforcement, and a mechanism to deal with those who are here illegally now and to give them some form of legal status, and that's what the bill I've introduced with Representative Gutierrez (D-Ill.) does.

The President’s rhetoric and grasp of the elements of comprehensive reform are right on target, but he needs to match sustained action leading towards legislative progress with his words.  The plan recently leaked from the White House landed with a thud.

The White House is trying to bring more Republican support to the table.  And in that regard, the Administration is doing what they have been asked to do by leaders in both parties.  But the time for back room discussions is over.  The time for partisan huddles is over.  The time for positioning is over.  It’s time for serious legislating to begin.  It’s time to craft a bill that can pass the Congress and work once implemented.  It’s time for the kind of bipartisan cooperation that led to a 62-36 vote in favor of an unprecedented if flawed comprehensive reform bill in last year’s Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the Senate will debate immigration beginning in mid-May.  We all know the math: 40 to 45 Democrats, 20 to 25 Republicans.  A tough and balanced approach that is workable; an approach that couples tough border security and a crackdown on bad actor employers with a widened legal channel for needed workers and close families as well as a meaningful path to earned citizenship for those here and those coming who make the U.S. their home.

An international team of scientists last week issued a stark warning: the early effects of global warming are upon us, and letting greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated could take us past a tipping point where catastrophic changes become irreversible.

Some may take that grim forecast as an invitation to inaction. But the same scientists who say we are nearing a dangerous threshold also say we can avoid the most dangerous consequences of climate change if we act quickly to cut carbon pollution.

How much? About two percent a year. If we start now, we can put the U.S. on a path to reducing our emissions by 80 percent from current levels by 2050 – enough to help avoid the worst impacts predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. If we wait, the cuts will have to be deeper, the costs will be higher, and our chances of success smaller. Read more...

I applaud President Bush for traveling to Arizona to discuss the urgent need to fix our broken immigration system.  Last year, we passed a tough but fair reform plan in the Senate with the support of the President, Republicans and Democrats, labor and business, religious leaders and governors such as Governor Napolitano (D-Ariz.) who best understand what it will take to solve this crisis.  The American people are demanding a solution, and Democrats are determined to get the job done this year.

I differ with the President on many matters, but we agree that strong and fair immigration reform is a top priority for the country and a defining issue for our nation.  Democrats stand with the American people in demanding comprehensive reform, but it is possible only with strong Republican support.  Only a bipartisan bill will actually become law.  Only a bill that strikes a fair balance between enforcement, security and a path to earned citizenship will strengthen our borders by bringing people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America.  Americans have waited long enough for immigration reform; the time is right and the time is now.