Our nation is facing a crisis in geographic knowledge.  Sixty-three percent of young adults cannot locate Iraq on a map of the Middle East. Seventy-five percent cannot find Iran.  Half cannot locate New York on a map of the United States.

These statistics are emblematic of a general lack on knowledge about the world that is troubling in a time when the United States must compete in a global marketplace.  We need Americans to know and understand the countries and cultures that are or could become our political and economic partners. It is unacceptable that seventy-one percent of young Americans do not know that the United States is the world's largest exporter of goods.  It is unacceptable that, despite the fact that it is the world's largest democracy, nearly half of young adults do not know where India is located.

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When Congress created the TSA, the goal was to create a new organization that would meet the unique needs of the War on Terrorism – a modern organization that would have the maximum flexibility to protect the national security of the United States.

This, of course, is the same charter as the FBI, CIA and Secret Service, and these agencies do not permit collective bargaining.   Should we hold the TSA to a different standard, despite the fact that securing our transportation systems is one of the most vital roles that our government can play?

We can all take pride in an agency and most importantly in its personnel, who have done such a remarkable job in keeping our nation safe. They deserve our respect, our thanks and fair compensation. But in doing so we must not undermine one of their greatest weapons in this war, their flexibility to change tactics and strategies at a moment’s notice.  Such as course of action could have calamitous effect on our nation.

The ever increasing international tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, coupled with the growing threat of international terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons, have again shown the world the importance of strengthening efforts for nuclear nonproliferation. In order to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, the world must learn from the experience of Kazakhstan, which has proven that the one path to true security and prosperity lies through nuclear disarmament and the promotion of peaceful relations with the world.

In the early 1990s, Kazakhstan inherited from the Soviet Union more than 1,000 nuclear warheads with yields equivalent to one megaton of TNT each. Kazakhstan then became the first country in the world to voluntarily renounce these deadly weapons, which at that time constituted the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal, larger than those of Great Britain, France and China combined.

Despite urgings from some of Kazakhstan’s “well-wishers, Read more...

To be frank, I didn’t expect to be asked to testify at the XM-Sirius hearing – Public Knowledge hasn’t been much involved in media consolidation issues (unless you consider net neutrality to be one). But my indignation over the National Association of Broadcaster’s hypocrisy in opposing the merger and our concern that the merger could be conditioned on some sort of audio flag or other tech mandate for digital radio probably helped to get us the nod.

My written testimony discussed these issues, but a briefing document I received just prior to the hearing calling efforts to require the industry to pay a performance right to artists and recording companies a “tax Read more...

This week – in a big policy reversal -- the Bush Administration announced that the United States would join talks with Iran and Syria on the future of Iraq. It’s a decision that is long overdue. For a long time now, we’ve needed to engage in direct talks with these countries – if Ronald Reagan was prepared to talk with the "Evil Empire" surely we can talk directly with Iran and Syria.

Yes this is a positive development, but just pulling up a chair at the table isn’t a plan. The Administration not only needs to fully commit to talking directly to Iran and Syria, but we also have to do the diplomacy necessary in advance of these meetings to make them as fruitful as possible. And to test the Syrians and Iranians directly, as the Baker-Hamilton Commission suggested, we need to have an American strategy to get Syria and Iran's leaders to make their own strategic decision to change direction.

This war in Iraq will not be solved militarily. We need a political and diplomatic solution to end the violence and chaos there. I’ve long advocated convening a summit of Iraq and its neighbors. Last year I introduced a bill calling for a summit which Congress passed in September.

Our troops in Iraq have done their job, now it’s time for this Administration to back up their words with real diplomacy.

When Teresa Joyce and her coworkers at an AT&T Wireless call center in Lebanon, Virginia, tried to form a union four years ago, they wound up on the receiving end of threats and intimidation from their employer. "Once word reached management that we were trying to organize, they did everything they could to stop us from exercising our right to form a union," recalls Joyce. "Our supervisors constantly threatened that AT&T Wireless would leave our town and that we would lose our jobs." Some of her coworkers were fired because of their support for a union.

Then, when Cingular Wireless bought the call center, everything changed. Cingular agreed to let the employees decide for themselves whether to form a union. In 2005, a majority of workers signed cards authorizing a union, and as Cingular had promised, they got one. "Today, supervisors treat us with respect," says Joyce. "We've been able to bargain for fair wage increases and affordable health care benefits."

The purpose of the Employee Free Choice Act is to ensure that all workers have that same opportunity - if they choose - to join together to bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. The bill says that when a majority of workers sign cards authorizing a union, they get a union. Under current law, employers can veto a union even when workers choose one; the legislation would put a stop to that. Read more...

In this video Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) describes his stance on H.R. 800, the Employee Free Choice Act. He calls the legislation the "American Worker Compulsion Act" and says it "strips workers of their democratic rights to a secret ballot."