Today, I reintroduced the Corporate Charitable Disclosure Act to require public companies to disclose their charitable donations to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It has been only slightly more than 5 years since our nation witnessed the damage corporate misconduct can have on every American. With these memories still fresh, it seems obvious that corporations need to be more forthcoming about their expenditures, including charitable contributions.

Under current law, a corporation that makes significant contributions to charitable organizations is under no obligation to publicly disclose how shareholder monies are being spent. My legislation will ensure that if a corporation makes a contribution, the American public and the shareholders are aware of where the money is going.

Most gift-giving has a legitimate purpose, and some public companies already disclose their charitable contributions voluntarily. If charitable contributions are legitimate, corporations should have nothing to hide by disclosing those gifts.

Far too many American families are struggling day to day to afford the cost of health insurance.  Today, there are nearly forty-seven million Americans who don't have health insurance.  What is even more appalling is that approximately nine million of those who are uninsured are children.

This disturbing statistic would undoubtedly be worse if it were not for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Thanks to SCHIP, the percentage of low-income children in the United States without health insurance has fallen by one-fourth since it was created in 1997.  More than six million low-income children, most of whom would otherwise be uninsured, are enrolled in SCHIP.

While the program has largely been a success, it is now being threatened.  Last year, for the first time since 1998, the number of uninsured children in the country actually increased. The most immediate and glaring problem is the lack of funding for SCHIP. Simply stated, more money is needed in order to ensure the viability of this program and to cover more kids. Read more...

Credit card holders are being overridden with fees such as transfer fees, membership fees, finance fees, over-limit fees, cash advance fees, stop payment order fees, interchange fees and the list goes on and on. Now some credit card companies have resorted to socking consumers with fees for paying bills over the Internet or by phone, which is outrageous. As the number of fees that credit card customers are being charged increases to near astronomical levels, we must act to ensure that American consumers are not entrapped by their credit card companies.

Iran has over 20 intermediate range missiles, these 20 BM-25 missiles were purchased from North Korea in 2005, which are Soviet SS-N-6 submarine ballistic missiles and have a range beyond 3,000 kilometers.

The leadership of Iran declared their intent last week to build and launch orbital satellites. This type of ballistic technology would give Iran the capability to deliver payloads to anyplace on earth, as was first powerfully demonstrated 50 years ago by the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957.

A third site defensive missile site in Europe would need to be placed in Central Europe to offer protection to all of continental Europe against Iranian intermediate and long range ballistic missiles as well as future missile threats from the Middle East. Read more...

I've long called for the creation of a one stop shop for travelers to
resolve watch list misidentification problems. H.R. 1, the 9/11 bill passed in
January, addressed this issue.  I hope DHS Trip is the first of many steps
that the Department takes to protect our Constitutional rights and
liberties.

Last August I was part of a bipartisan delegation that toured the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, to get a first-hand look at the challenges facing efforts to secure the border. My Homeland Security Committee colleagues and I noted some pressing needs. Border security is paramount. We must establish operational control of our borders and enforce the laws that are expected of a sovereign nation.

While at Laredo I was particularly disturbed and surprised to learn that the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) does not have access to enough aviation assets to help them counter the influx of illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and other lawbreakers migrating across the Rio Grande. At a time when we also face a threat from terrorists who wish to infiltrate our country, this situation is totally unacceptable.

While our border security faces this lack of air support, the American homeland is already served by a skilled volunteer force of pilots, the Civil Air Patrol. CAP is the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force.

Founded at the outbreak of the Second World War, the Civil Air Patrol has provided an important service to the homeland. During the war they were a vital watchdog along the coastlines of America, protecting us from the threat of German U-boats that patrolled our shores. Read more...

Over the past decade the percentage of low-income American children who are uninsured has dropped by one-third, thanks in large part to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which Congress created in 1997.  And SCHIP, along with its sister program Medicaid, has accomplished this at reasonable cost:  these programs cost less per beneficiary than private insurance, on average.

In his new budget, President Bush proposes to reauthorize SCHIP, which is scheduled to expire this year.  But he fails to give states enough funds simply to maintain their current enrollment — let alone to expand coverage to the millions of low-income children who still lack it.

Under the President’s budget, states would have $7 billion less in federal SCHIP funding over the next five years than they need just to continue insuring as many beneficiaries as they do now.  By 2012, some 46 states would face a total shortfall of $2.9 billion.  That’s equivalent to the cost of covering 1.4 million children. Read more...

On Thursday we had a meeting at the Iranian Foreign Ministry headquarters, in some of the most beautiful and historic buildings I have ever visited. I wish I were able to send a picture to show you all the beautiful architecture and attention to detail in the craftsmanship of the building. Our meeting was with the Deputy Foreign Minister for Europe and the United States, a very senior level official in the Iranian government.

The meeting was held in a grand ballroom in the main building at the Foreign Ministry, and we were told that we were the first American delegation to have an official meeting in this building since the Islamic Revolution in 1978. The meeting did have a certain formality and historic feeling to it. The amazing thing was that the Deputy Foreign Minister spent over two hours with our delegation, both making statements and asking questions.

There were a couple important lessons that I took away from this meeting. First of all, the Deputy Foreign Minister is just a few months younger than me, so I felt an immediate connection with him. As he spoke of the history of relations between our nations, it was clear that the narrative and experiences he was speaking from were very different from my own. For him, the relationship between Iran and the United States begins in 1953, when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped to overthrow their elected leader (Mossadegh) and install the Shah. For Dr. Jalili and most of the Iranians we have spoken to here, there is a great deal of pain associated with the 25-year reign of the Shah that ended in 1978 in the Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. The Shah was a very oppressive dictator who ruled with an iron fist. Read more...