Today in the Senate we will vote on a resolution celebrating the life of the late President Gerald R. Ford.

Gerald Ford led our country through a very challenging period. He was a dedicated patriot, who did the right thing to unite a troubled nation.

One of the things I admired most about President Ford was his dedication to his wife, Betty. President Ford stuck by Betty through cancer and through a hard battle with alcohol abuse. Most importantly, he stuck by his dedicated wife as she spoke out for women's rights at a time when women were fighting for equality throughout the country. Betty could count on her husband, and so could America.

I’m ready to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make a difference for my constituents in Illinois and the nation as a whole.  There are two principles I urge my colleagues to adopt: Our national security and the future of our economy is dependent on achieving energy independence; and lower taxes have created record economic growth.

Tax cuts played a key role in the statistics released by the Administration today.  Job creation and wages are up, and unemployment is down.  I believe taxpayers’ money belongs to them, not to the government.  When you allow for people to keep more of their own money, you free up investment and hiring, and raise take-home pay for working families.

I urge the new majority to look at the past and continuing economic momentum as a lesson of the past to apply to its plans for the future, and keep the tax cuts in place. Read more...

If America ever wants to achieve true national security, we must wean ourselves off our dependence on foreign oil. It’s that simple.

At the moment, the U.S. imports more than 60 percent of its oil, with consumption continuing to rise. At the same time, over sixty percent of the world’s oil reserves are held in the Middle East, handcuffing our foreign policy.

As a nation, we need to accelerate the development and use of clean, domestic renewable energy. That is why I have continually worked over the years to increase the use of ethanol, reduce our oil consumption and give us an environmentally friendly, domestically produced source of fuel.

It is also why I introduced the Biofuels Security Act, together with Senator Dick Lugar and some other colleagues, the first day the new Congress opened. It was a signal that creating real energy security will be an important goal as we move forward this session. Read more...

Common Cause joined the rest of the reform community in applauding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for staying true to her word and winning passage of a strong set of new ethics rules dealing with gifts, meals, travel, use of corporate jets and earmarks. We also commend the House members  -- all but one -- who voted to support the tougher rules. Now the House needs to take the next step and establish an independent ethics commission to assure the new limits are enforced. Speaker Pelosi has started the ball rolling on that. She is establishing a bi-partisan task force to study the possibilities for creating such a commission, and it is due to report back to the House in mid-March.

We hope this is not a stall tactic, and that this task force will consider a range of ideas and seek advice from sources outside Congress, such as scholars, ethics experts and watchdog groups. The task force could get a lot of good ideas just by looking to the states, where more than two dozen states have outside ethics commissions with varying degrees of independence to enforce rules, monitor conduct and behavior of elected officials and provide oversight.

Ultimately, however, the solution to breaking the excessively dependent relationships between members of Congress and the lobbyists and special interests who fuel their campaigns and political careers is the public financing of congressional campaigns. Look for Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. John Tierney to introduce public financing legislation in each of their chambers this winter. Using public money – around $6 per household per year – levels the playing field and gives people from different backgrounds a fair shot at getting elected. And it frees up elected officials to focus on public policy, like health care that works for all Americans.

The House has started with a solid step in the right direction. We hope the Senate follows suit, and both chambers keep going toward true reform.

If we are serious about balancing our budget, we have to recognize that Washington does not have a revenue problem - it has a spending problem. Tax receipts have grown by double-digit percentages over the past two years, thanks to the strong economic and job growth that was sparked by tax relief.

Unfortunately, the new PAYGO provisions in the House rules simply pave the way for higher taxes, and they lack teeth when it comes to reducing spending or the deficit. With this rules package, we are making good progress on earmark reforms, but moving in the wrong direction toward tax-and-spend budgeting when it comes to PAYGO.

Perhaps it is because I am 63 years old that I feel as I do, but certainly I am not alone. I think that my faith in my government was first shattered not on Friday November 22, 1963 when JFK was assassinated, but two days later when Oswald was gunned down in plain sight of the nation.

The litany of reactions to that event, particularly the assertions of the Warren Commission Report, never sat well with me and, if polls are to be believed, with the majority of American citizens.

Had things stopped there, I would not be writing this, but they did not stop there.  What followed was the discredited Gulf of Tonkin resolution and the horrible, divisive war in Vietnam.  And then Watergate.  And then the pardoning of President Nixon.  And then Iran-Contra and the pardoning of Oliver North.  And then the election of 2000.  And then the invasion of Iraq and the lies about weapons of mass destruction and all of the lost oversight of Congress.

What has accumulated from this history - the majority of my lifetime - has been a devastating loss of faith in the American government by its people.  It is not just that many citizens do not believe what the government says; it is that those who have lied to us and/or broken the law or thrown the law in our face have never been held accountable. Read more...

We were encouraged by the passage yesterday of the new House ethics package. With strong earmark reform, a ban on gifts and meals from lobbyists, mandatory pre-approval of any trips in connection with official duties, coupled with almost immediate disclosure of such trips, and a prohibition on the use of corporate jets at below market rates, this package is a good first step.

The new Democratic leadership deserves credit for creating legislation that tackles the ethics issues that plagued the last Congress. But implementing these rule changes is only the beginning.  Enforcement is the key to real ethics reform. Congress must now create an independent ethics oversight body, such as an Office of Public Integrity, to restore public confidence in Congress.  We are optimistic that the bi-partisan taskforce appointed to study the issue will come to the same conclusion.

On a final note, to ensure that all members are held accountable for their actions, the rules must be changed to permit outsiders to file ethics complaints. Hopefully, with new ethics rules in place as well as increased oversight and enforcement, Congress can finally move Beyond DeLay.

Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters pose a threat to every corner of America.  That is why I introduced H.R. 91, the Homeowners' Insurance Protection Act of 2007, a comprehensive catastrophic insurance bill that helps reduce homeowners' insurance costs to American families and ensures liquidity in the insurance market.  Florida may be hit by hurricanes and California by earthquakes, but homeowners across the nation will face ever growing insurance premiums because of these huge disasters.  This bill creates a federal catastrophic reinsurance fund, which state cat funds would contribute to, so that the federal taxpayers would no longer be forced to foot the bill for natural disasters.

Residents across Florida have made it abundantly clear to their elected members that homeowner's insurance is in a full-blown crisis.  With the Florida legislature meeting January 16th in special session to address this crisis, I felt it was imperative for our state Representatives and Senators to know their Members of Congress were willing to roll up their sleeves and help find solutions.  Because it is so important to my constituents, I introduced the Homeowners' Insurance Protection Act on the first day of the 110th Congress.  I applaud Congressman Vern Buchanan for joining me in introducing legislation that helps our constituents with the rising costs of their homeowners' insurance.

Yesterday, Congress made history.  For the first time the House of Representatives elected a woman Speaker of The House.  I proudly cast my vote for Nancy Pelosi in honor of my grandchildren.  They will grow up in a world of endless possibilities for women.

I am excited to begin working with Speaker Pelosi.  With her help, we will pass meaningful legislation that will improve the everyday lives of Americans.  Under her leadership, the House will increase the minimum wage for the first time in ten years.  We will cut student loan interest rates and negotiate for lower drug prices for our seniors.

This is an exciting and historical time and I am proud to have Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House.