Campaigning for Vermont's U.S. House seat I have heard a great deal about how the high cost of health care is hurting Vermonters.

Congress must do more to increase access to affordable, quality health insurance and we must work to control the costs in our health care system. I have proposed several common sense interim steps - including expanding and encouraging health savings accounts, allowing individuals and businesses to buy insurance across state lines and over the internet and expanding tax credits to help small businesses provide coverage for their employees.

Congress must also act to reform the nation's medical malpractice system. While my opponent does not support meaningful malpractice reform, I have heard from Vermont doctors how frivolous claims and unjustified settlements are driving physicians out of the state and forcing others to limit the procedures they're willing to perform. Malpractice insurance routinely eats up between 10 and 25 percent of a physician's income. Furthermore, defensive medicine - doctors performing tests and prescribing medications just out of fear of a malpractice claim - has been estimated at 10 percent of the cost of health care today. This must change.

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Yesterday I joined over ten thousand people at the American Cancer Society's Celebration on the Hill, which honors cancer survivors and those who are no longer with us. From across the country survivors and their loved ones, including several of my constituents from the Central and South Coast, came to Washington, D.C. to advocate for additional resources to continue this difficult struggle. With everyone wearing the same color t-shirt, the National Mall was transformed into a sea of purple. What a glorious sight!

The folks visiting our nation's capital today came from many diverse backgrounds, but they were united in their message of hope and dedicated to the goal of eradicating cancer. As I met with these Celebration Ambassadors I was both humbled and inspired.

I took their message of hope with me during yesterday's meeting of the Energy and Commerce Committee which was dedicated to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget. The research conducted by the NIH is a matter of life and death.

The research funded by the NIH provides hope for millions of cancer survivors, their loved ones, and the doctors, nurses, researchers and other health professionals that help fight this battle against cancer. I have been relentless in my fight to see funding for NIH increased. It is my hope that yesterday's Celebration on the Hill will convince more of my colleagues to join me in supporting this life saving research.

Hurricane Katrina made it painfully clear that we need a strong and functional National Flood Insurance Program to be there for our constituents in times of crisis.  One way to do that is through increasing participation in the program.  That is why I have introduced bipartisan legislation to create a grant program to educate property owners about their flood risk and about the importance of flood insurance - the Flood Insurance Community Outreach Grant Program Act of 2006.

This grant program has already proven to be successful. It is based on an educational outreach initiative by our local flood control agency - the Sacrament Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA).   Last year, SAFCA conducted a flood insurance outreach effort with a $162,000 FEMA grant, which had impressive results.  SAFCA targeted 45,000 policyholders in the American River Floodplain (they had been released from federal flood insurance requirements in February of 2005).  For FEMA to recoup its initial grant to SAFCA, 550 Preferred Risk Policies had to be sold to property owners. SAFCA did this more than twenty times over.  One year after the outreach 74% had maintained their flood insurance and of this group 43% now carry preferred risk flood insurances.

Through this local effort we learned two things.  The first is that people whose houses, apartments and businesses are vulnerable to flooding will purchase and retain their flood insurance when they are informed of the risk they face and the options available to them.  And that our floodplain managers are our best partners to reach these individuals.

The bottom line is that this grant program will, in addition to ensuring people who live in flood plain have the financial protection they need in case of a flood, strengthen the national flood insurance program itself by increasing the number of people who carry and retain their flood insurance.

And that moves the National Flood Insurance Program towards the stability it needs.

Access to health care for seniors in America is in jeopardy. Unless Congress acts now, on January 1 the federal government will begin nine years of Medicare cuts to the physicians who care for Medicare patients – our nation’s seniors. Medicare will automatically cut physician payments by about 40 percent over the next nine years, while practice costs increase about 20 percent.

The American Medical Association is concerned about the impact these cuts will have on seniors’ ability to see a doctor. Physicians want to see Medicare patients, but these cuts will force many doctors to make a tough decision. In an AMA survey, nearly half of physicians said they would be forced to either decrease or stop taking new Medicare patients if the first cut goes into effect.

Those physicians who try to continue to take new Medicare patients will be forced to make other difficult practice decisions, such as deferring the purchase of new medical equipment and information technology. When these types of decisions are made to keep the doors open and the lights on, America’s overall ability to improve health care in the digital age suffers.

Physicians’ concerns are shared by the federal advisory committee on Medicare (MedPAC), many in Congress, and the vast majority of Americans. A report by MedPAC shows that one in four Medicare patients seeking a new primary care physician is already having trouble getting an appointment. Eighty Senators and 265 House members have signed letters calling on their leadership to stop these cuts before Congress adjourns in just a few days. When told about the cuts, 86 percent of Americans surveyed said they were concerned that these cuts will hurt seniors’ access to care. Many Americans have shared their concern with their legislators. The AMA’s 1.2-million member “Patients’ Action Network

With the primary now behind me, I look forward to beginning the next phase in my campaign to continue to represent the views of the independent minded citizens of the 2nd District, focusing on issues such as protecting our environment, supporting increased educational funding and working towards reducing our reliance on foreign fuels through the use of renewable energy sources. Over the last 12 years, I have actively listened to the needs and opinions of my constituents and have consistently responded with results. I look forward to the opportunity to contrast my established record of independent leadership with my opponent's. It is now time to turn attention to the race ahead which will certainly be a challenge and will require our continued hard work.

With the Senate taking up the border security bill we passed in the House last week to construct 700 miles of physical fence and a virtual fence along the entire border, now is the time it must be serious and follow through. It is clear to me that what we need to secure the border is the proper combination of boots, barriers and technology. I call on the Senate to join the House and take action to pass this meaningful legislation.

Last month, I took a trip to the Southern border, to see for myself just what was needed to secure that border. I saw, that if left unchecked, illegal immigration will continue to threaten our national security, have compounding affects on our public systems and corroborate a culture of lawlessness. In order to stop the harmful components of illegal immigration, we have to attack the problem at its root, our borders. If we don't secure our borders first, any other comprehensive reform will be undermined by those who wish to harm our country by finding safe haven on a
porous border.

The border agents I talked with while on the Southern border are ready and willing to do the job if given the proper tools. This bill is will provide some of those tools and we must provide them now to stop this growing problem.

Border security is long overdue and it has to be addressed before Congress can implement any sensible, comprehensive immigration proposals. As we continue to work toward a solution to stop illegal immigration, I will persist in supporting only limited, legal immigration to keep our economy stable and our families safe.

Unfortunately, Hugo Chavez has become a clown.  What's even more unfortunate is his deliberate efforts to intervene and interefere with the internal politics of his neighbors, jeopardizing democracy and destabilizing many Latin American nations who are struggling to secure a better future for their citizens.

The inflammatory rhetoric of President Chavez at the United Nations should come as no surprise given his association with pariah's such as Iran's terror-sponsoring leader and Cuba's brutal dictator.  The U.S. must be concerned about these extremist, undemocratic leaders who seek to gain domestic popularity by attacking the US and its President, inciting hatred against our nation and the freedom and liberties that we stand for and seek for all human beings to enjoy. Our country is the beacon of hope for millions across the globe and our founding principles of democracy are the tenets of free societies. Let us remember that those who so viciously attack us are the very ones who are seeking to deny their people the inalienable rights which we are all born with.

In response to the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil, five years ago the United States led an international coalition to liberate the Afghan people from brutal Taliban rule.  Those who had aided and sheltered the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks were swept from power.

Five years later, the Bush Administration has badly bungled Afghanistan policy, and we are once again on the brink of losing Afghanistan to armed terrorists.  The Administration failed – and failed in a potentially catastrophic way – to stabilize Afghanistan so that it can never again be used as a terrorist base.  The horrifying truth is that, as a result, we in this country are in many ways less secure today than we were five years ago.

This morning the House International Relations Committee held a hearing examining these issues.  We had an impressive lineup of expert witnesses, but not one from the Bush Administration.  The Administration refused to send an authoritative witness.  As Afghanistan goes down the tubes before our eyes, the Administration couldn’t be bothered to spare for even one hour the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald Newman – who was scheduled to be in Washington today – to appear before our committee to explain the Administration’s policy in Afghanistan.

By thumbing its nose at us, the Administration shows the world what it thinks about Congressional oversight.  I have urged Committee Chairman Henry Hyde to demand that the Administration send a high-level witness to appear before us next week.

Yesterday, I led the committee’s Democrats in sending a letter to President Bush calling for immediate action to reverse the descent of Afghanistan into lawlessness.  The enormous sacrifices made by American and other troops to liberate Afghanistan and its people must not be in vain. Read more...