Now that senators have returned from their recess, they must act swiftly to pass Senator Reid’s omnibus gun violence prevention bill (S.649), which requires that all gun buyers pass background checks — whether they purchase their firearms from licensed dealers or else in so-called “private” sales, such as online and at gun shows. And the bill must take the same record-keeping requirement that already applies to dealers and extend it to such private sellers. Failure to do so will deny police the critical tools we need to solve crimes. As law enforcement officers, we have spent decades watching our insufficient laws give criminals easy access to guns, with tragic results.

The dire human and economic consequences of maintaining a massive immigration detention system are clear. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has recently come under fire both for holding immigrants in solitary confinement, and for releasing hundreds of immigrants from detention in advance of sequestration. The system is out of control, and it’s time for the government to engage with communities to figure out a better way.
 
Through the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants, we provide pastoral care to people in custody and rapid-response support upon their release. We’ve seen the reality that immigrants face in both situations. ICE detained more than 420,000 people last year in more than 150 prisons and jails, at a cost of more than $2 billion. About 85 percent of those men and women faced deportation proceedings without legal counsel. Untold numbers were cut off from medical and mental health care and family support networks.

Margaret Thatcher took control of the Tory Party at a time when Britain was in a chaotic state. I recall finding a safe place to hide during a general strike demonstration which blocked most of the streets in Central London. The miners especially were angry and my contacts with the top labor leaders who spoke at my conferences were concerned that the strikes could turn into violence requiring military action. She was known as the ‘Iron Lady’ because she literally stood up physically to tough union leaders and told them how things were going to be with her in charge. And they did back down.

The skyline in Washington, D.C. might be slightly lower than America’s other cities, but its glass ceilings remain well below average. While women have made notable progress in attaining positions of leadership and power in the private sector; their counterparts in Washington and state capitols across the country lag far behind. The U.S. isn’t dead last in female participation politics, but it’s pretty close (at 77th, we're a notch above Madagascar). In politics, women still struggle to reach the highest seats of power.
 
Susan Rice, whose nomination for Secretary of State was preemptively and undemocratically trampled to death, is one such woman. In many ways Rice challenged the gender biases still present in American politics and, temporarily at least, lost. Both the boardroom and Capitol Hill remain highly patriarchal, and gender parity a distant ideal.

We are at a critical point in making our healthcare markets work. The Affordable Care Act takes effect next year, creating new marketplaces for health insurance which hopefully will create an environment of transparency and choice that will spur competition. There are some new tools for federal and state enforcers to police these markets. Never has antitrust and consumer protection enforcement been as necessary, but there is an unfortunate obstacle – a 68 year old antitrust exemption for health insurance – the McCarran-Ferguson Act.

For consumers to receive the full benefits of health care reform, Congress needs to repeal the Act.

Much of the focus in the media and on Capitol Hill recently has been on deficits and budget cuts to domestic and Pentagon spending. Yet, the partisan debates ignore the fact that the best way to get our debt under control is to make the investments that create jobs and get our economy back on its feet. We also clearly need to make changes to our tax system, which has not only ballooned our debt but also played a significant role in the income and wealth disparities that now plague our nation. As Christians and patriotic Americans, we believe the Biblical principle that “from those to whom much is given, much is expected” is a good guideline for setting our priorities on taxes.

The Obama administration’s push for expanded home loan availability to borrowers with weaker credit has rekindled the debate over Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lending practices.
 
This discussion is missing a key element: a candid assessment of FHA’s current financial position. Currently, the agency’s portfolio is riddled with hidden and underpriced risks that, until properly estimated, present a false foundation for debate.

This week House Republicans will introduce the misleadingly titled “Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013.” Touted by Republicans as a new comp time initiative that will give hourly-paid workers the flexibility to meet family responsibilities, it is neither new nor about giving these workers much needed time off to care for their families. The bill rehashes legislation Republicans passed in the House in 1997, some 16 years ago, and that they introduced again in most subsequent Congresses. Its major effect would be to hamstring workers – likely increasing overtime hours for those who don’t want them and cutting pay for those who do.

Leading up to the 2012 election, President Obama spoke convincingly and unequivocally about his commitment to U.S. energy security and job creation. Now that the president is into his second term, no other move would follow through on that pledge more than approving the Keystone XL pipeline. 
The pipeline, which will carry oil from the Bakken reserve in North Dakota and Canada’s oil sands to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, transcends the geographic and political borders and boundaries of both our countries.