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AgriculturE and rural development
Ethanol:
- Helped lead the successful fights over more than 20 years that helped build a viable renewable fuels industry in America to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, by securing an extension of the federal tax incentives for ethanol use, expanding ethanol's role in clean air programs, and establishing a nationwide standard for minimum ethanol use.
- Funded the design and construction of the National Corn-To-Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville to help reduce the cost of ethanol through research to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of ethanol production.
BUDGET, JOBS and the ECONOMY
Responsible Budgets:
Worked for responsible budgets that fund priority programs such as education, health care, and veterans programs, while providing transparency and accountability:
- Voted for the Clinton budgets in the late 1990s that led to a balanced federal budget for the first time in a generation.
- Opposed the Bush budgets that have made deficit spending again a fact of life in Washington.
- Offered the amendment adopted by the Senate to provide transparency and accountability in federal spending by requiring that targeted spending provisions and limited tax benefits be disclosed to the public along with the Senator requesting the provision and the intended beneficiaries.
Jobs and Economic Development in Illinois:
Worked to strengthen Illinois' transportation infrastructure as a critical factor supporting economic development in Illinois:
- Secured federal funds for major highway, infrastructure, and transit improvements throughout the state, including a rebuilt Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago, new Mississippi River bridges being planned near St. Louis and the Quad Cities, and an expansion of Metra and CTA transit lines in the Chicago area.
- Promoted access to air travel throughout Illinois, including the modernization and expansion of O'Hare Airport, increases in airport improvement grants at many airports around the state, and introduction of new flights to O'Hare and other national hub airports for several downstate airports, including Springfield and Rockford.
- Fought to preserve and expand Amtrak's role in the state, including the largest Midwestern expansion of Amtrak service in almost 20 years.
Also worked for other measures to promote and preserve good jobs:
- Helped lead the fight to enact the first minimum wage increase in 10 years, resulting in an increase in the minimum wage to $5.85 on July 24, 2007, rising to $7.25 by July 24, 2009.
- Helped lead two successful efforts to extend the temporary federal unemployment benefit program to aid long-term unemployed workers during the 2002-2003 recession, extending the program through 2003.
- Introduced coal mine safety legislation to strengthen enforcement of mine safety laws and increase the minimum penalty for safety violations, and cosponsored legislation to require the use of more advanced safety equipment; the measures laid the groundwork for passage of comprehensive mine safety legislation later in 2006, the first such legislation passed by Congress in 30 years.
- Worked with his colleagues in the Senate to provide support for the efforts of those airlines that have made the commitment to keep their defined benefit pension plans for their workers.
Celebrating Abraham Lincoln and Attracting Lincoln Visitors to Central Illinois:
Spearheaded efforts to celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln and promote tourism and scholarship in Springfield and central Illinois, including:
- The successful initiative to establish and fund the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum;
- Legislation authored with Congressman Ray LaHood to establish the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (which they currently co-chair) to plan the 200th anniversary celebration of Lincoln's birth in 2009; and
- Funding for the Looking for Lincoln economic development and tourism initiative involving more than a dozen communities in central Illinois.
Also secured passage of measures to:
- Redesign the reverse side of the penny in 2009 to celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln in Illinois and other locations; and
- Direct the U.S. Treasury to mint an Abraham Lincoln commemorative dollar coin in 2009 to help honor President Lincoln's life and legacy.
CONSUMER SAFETY AND PROTECTION
Food Safety:
- Led the fight for greater food safety, including legislation enacted to increase cafeteria inspections and improve school cafeteria food safety planning; a successful effort to protect school lunches from contaminated meat by dissuading the Bush Administration from ending Salmonella testing of meat in school lunches; legislation that established stronger egg safety requirements to reduce the risk of Salmonella contamination of eggs; and a law requiring that imported meat and poultry meet the same standards as U.S. products.
Privacy of Telephone Records:
- Introduced legislation to protect telephone customers from having their phone records sold without their consent and worked to include the provisions in a compromise House-Senate bill that makes it illegal to sell, purchase, transfer, or receive confidential records of telephone calls without the consent of the customer, with tough criminal penalties for those found guilty of violating phone users' privacy. The measure was signed into law.
CRIME, JUSTICE AND THE JUDICIARY
Safety of Federal Judges:
- Secured the appropriation of $12 million to the U.S. Marshals Service for enhanced security measures to help protect federal judges and their families.
ECONOMIC STABILITY AND POVERTY
Issues Facing Low-Income and Working Families:
- Helped lead the fight to enact the first minimum wage increase in 10 years, resulting in an increase in the minimum wage to $5.85 on July 24, 2007, rising to $7.25 by July 24, 2009. Worked to make a minimum wage increase a national priority for enactment in 2007 by successfully passing legislation forbidding a COLA for members of Congress before a minimum wage bill is enacted.
- Helped lead two successful efforts to extend the temporary federal unemployment benefit program to aid long-term unemployed workers during the 2002-2003 recession, extending the program through 2003.
- Joined in seeking additional appropriations for federal housing programs on numerous occasions over the past decade, including programs serving low-income families and seniors, persons with disabilities, and persons with AIDS. Efforts in 2006-2007 led to a $300 million increase for Section 8 and other affordable-housing programs in the omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, an increase that was secured despite the President's request for a funding cut.
- Worked year after year for increased federal funding for education programs which give low-income children a chance to rise to their full potential.
- Consistently supported every effort to increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), to help low-income families afford their energy bills and reduce the energy consumption of their homes, including repeated efforts that were successful in pressing the President to release appropriated funds to meet critical needs when winter temperatures plummeted, summer temperatures soared, and energy prices spiked.
- Helped lead the fight for federal nutrition programs. Led the successful effort to expand funding for the WIC feeding program to cover all eligible pregnant women, infants, and children, and supported increases in funding for other nutrition programs. Helped lead the successful fight against conversion of federal nutrition programs to a single block grant in 1995-96, which would have left the programs with inadequate funding. Led the successful battle to expand access to food stamps in 2002 and to reject proposed food stamp funding cuts in 2005. Working to increase federal funding for community-based anti-hunger organizations to help them plan and implement local strategies to end hunger in their communities.
- Led successful efforts to expand access to health insurance coverage, including legislation that secured full tax deductibility of health insurance for the self employed and preserved and temporarily expanded funding for state health insurance high risk pools to cover more people who need health insurance; obtained Medicaid funding changes that saved Illinois health care providers $600 million over 5 years so they could continue to provide quality health care to low-income Illinoisans; led the successful fight in 1997 to prevent the age for Medicare eligibility from being raised, which would have cut off many seniors' only access to health insurance; and helped lead the fight to increase funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program to avoid shortfalls that would force low- or middle-income children and their families out of the program.
- Worked to provide support for the efforts of those airlines that have made the commitment to keep their defined benefit pension plans for their workers.
EDUCATION
- Pressed for the initial authorization of a new program to promote math and science education in elementary and high schools and successfully increased funding for the new program over several years to a level of $182 million in 2006. The program funds grants through the Department of Education to create math and science partnerships to help train teachers in the most effective ways to foster the math and science competency of our nation's children.
- Worked for tax deductions for the costs of college education and introduced legislation that became a centerpiece of the 2007 Democratic Congressional agenda to reduce college student loan interest rates.
ENERGY
Ethanol:
- Helped lead the successful fights over more than 20 years that helped build a viable renewable fuels industry in America to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, by securing an extension of the federal tax incentives for ethanol use, expanding ethanol's role in clean air programs, and establishing a nationwide standard for minimum ethanol use.
- Funded the design and construction of the National Corn-To-Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville to help reduce the cost of ethanol through research to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of ethanol production.
ENVIRONMENT
- Leading the fight to pressure British Petroleum not to dump additional ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan, as part of a long-term effort to champion the preservation and restoration of the Great Lakes.
- Worked in a successful multi-state effort to prevent oil drilling in the Great Lakes.
- Helped lead the fight for funding to protect Lake Michigan from the invasive species known as the Asian carp, including the construction of a barrier on the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal.
- Introduced legislation with Senator Kit Bond and worked to ensure that it was included in the reauthorization of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) to provide substantial, long-term fund for the restoration of the Mississippi River ecosystem as part of the upgrading of locks and dams along the Mississippi River and the Illinois Waterway.
- Led the successful fight to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from environmentally harmful oil drilling, and championed the preservation of other public lands throughout the country, including the Red Rock Wilderness and other wilderness lands in Utah.
- Led Senate efforts to increase automobile fuel economy (CAFE) standards over several years, laying the groundwork for legislation moving in Congress this year that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
- Took a leadership role in a variety of successful efforts to promote use of ethanol and bio-diesel as domestically produced, cleaner alternatives to crude oil, and to increase funding for renewable energy programs.
- Led a successful legislative effort to preserve the continued implementation of a Presidential Executive Order regarding environmental justice that requires federal agencies to identify and address instances in which programs have a disproportionately high, adverse effect on low-income or minority populations with regard to human health or the environment.
- Formed and co-chairs the Senate Bike Caucus, a bipartisan group that educates Senators about the benefits of policies that promote biking as an alternative form of transportation and as a healthy and fun form of exercise.
ETHICS AND CAMPAIGN REFORM
- Helped lead the fight for landmark ethics and lobbying reform legislation that will increase transparency in the legislative process by requiring disclosure of legislative provisions that are targeted to benefit a single company or limited number entities, prohibit gifts from lobbyists to Senators and their staffs, end subsidized travel on corporate jets, and slow the revolving door between Congress and the lobbying world. The legislation will also prohibit Senators from pressuring private organizations to hire individuals solely based on their political party, require disclosure when lobbyists bundle campaign contributions, and prevent new provisions from being added in the dark of night to conference reports without challenge.
- Joined as an original cosponsor of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill in the Senate in every Congress until it passed in 2002. The legislation banned "soft money" contributions and spending by national parties and federal candidates and sought to require greater accountability and disclosure by sponsors of "issue ads" that mention candidates within 60 days of an election. The final legislation included Durbin amendments to make it easier for viewers to identify sponsors of campaign ads and to level the playing field for candidates running against self-financed opponents who often pour millions of dollars in personal funds into their campaigns.
- Introduced far-reaching campaign financing legislation, known as the Fair Elections Now Act, which would remove special interest money and influence from congressional elections and help restore public confidence in our democracy by offering funds to candidates who agree to stop raising campaign money from private interests. The act would create a voluntary system giving candidates who can demonstrate public support in their state the option of receiving Fair Elections funding in lieu of the traditional sources of funding. The Fair Elections Fund would come from a spectrum-usage fee assessed on the revenues of broadcasters who use the public spectrum.
FOREIGN POLICY
Global AIDS:
- Spearheaded bipartisan efforts over several years to dramatically increase funding for the global fight against AIDS, focusing in particular on increased funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria which leverages matching funds from other nations. These efforts resulted in Congressional adoption of a series of amendments increasing U.S. funding for the global AIDS effort by approximately $1.7 billion beyond the amounts proposed by President Bush.
Darfur, Sudan:
- Introduced with Senator Sam Brownback and secured passage of a Senate resolution urging the Government of Sudan and the international community to implement the agreement for a peacekeeping force under United Nations command and control in Darfur, and joined in other efforts to increase pressure to end the genocide in Darfur and to introduce a stronger international peacekeeping force in that trouble land.
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Tobacco:
- Authored the original language that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives to ban smoking on short-distance airline flights and worked with Senator Frank Lautenberg to enact the ban and extend it to all flights. Successfully extended the ban to international flights.
- Secured increased funding for tobacco prevention programs through the federal Office on Smoking and Health and enacted legislation that banned smoking in schools and child care centers nationwide.
- Stood up to the tobacco industry to hold it accountable for its decades of deception about the dangers of smoking and the tactics it used to lure children to begin smoking.
Dietary Supplements:
- Promoted a ban on ephedra: Brought intense public scrutiny to deaths and injuries suffered by consumers taking dietary supplements that contained ephedra and the unscrupulous behavior of ephedra manufacturers who hid reports of ephedra's risks, which led the FDA to ban products containing ephedra.
- Required adverse event reporting: Introduced legislation to protect consumers by requiring manufacturers of all dietary supplements to report to the FDA all serious adverse events associated with their products, and negotiated a strong bipartisan compromise that gained the support of dietary supplement defenders as well as consumer groups, resulting in legislation enacted into law requiring reporting of all serious adverse events associated with the use of dietary supplements and nonprescription drugs.
- Worked successfully to ban new forms of anabolic steroids.
Public Health:
- Led a variety of efforts to improve public health, including successful initiatives to secure increased funding for comprehensive programs to treat and prevent asthma in children, expand funding for childhood immunization programs, fund innovative efforts to encourage organ donation, and eliminate the time limits on Medicare coverage of immunosuppressive drugs for transplant patients.
Health Insurance:
- Secured full tax deductibility of health insurance for the self employed;
- Preserved and temporarily expanded funding for state health insurance high-risk pools (including Illinois's pool) to cover more people who need health insurance; and
- Obtained Medicaid funding changes that saved Illinois health care providers $600 million over 5 years so they could continue to provide quality health care to low-income Illinoisans. Also secured passage of language blocking for one year a proposed Medicaid rule that would have reduced payments to government safety-net providers, which would have eliminated up to $623 million in federal funding for the Medicaid program in Illinois, including as much as $235 million in Cook County.
- Crafted and offered an innovative proposal that could expand access to affordable health insurance for small business owners and their employees by giving them access to health plans like those available to members of Congress.
HOMELAND SECURITY
- Secured passage of legislation to authorize the use of Homeland Security grant funding specifically for programs to develop mass evacuation plans and conduct mass evacuation exercises, including identifying evacuation routes, modes of transportation that could be used, and potential shelter locations.
- Supported a variety of efforts that have expanded funding for first responders, airport security, port security, border security, and other components of homeland security, while pressing for additional steps where current efforts have lagged.
- Passed legislation to create a process to help clear the names of innocent passengers who have mistakenly been placed on terrorist watch lists due to name similarities or bureaucratic mix-ups.
HUMAN RIGHTS
- Secured passage of the original language to protect U.S. troops and stand up for America's values by prohibiting the use of Iraq war funds to subject any person in U.S. custody to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. This temporary measure was subsequently codified in the McCain amendment banning the use of torture.
Darfur, Sudan:
- Introduced with Senator Sam Brownback and secured passage of a Senate resolution urging the Government of Sudan and the international community to implement the agreement for a peacekeeping force under United Nations command and control in Darfur, and joined in other efforts to increase pressure to end the genocide in Darfur and to introduce a stronger international peacekeeping force in that trouble land.
IMMIGRATION REFORM
- Supports a comprehensive approach to immigration reform that is tough, realistic, and consistent with our moral values, including provisions to increase border security, strengthen enforcement against employers who hire illegal immigrants, and offer to undocumented immigrants who work hard and demonstrate a long-term commitment to be law-abiding, contributing members of our society a chance to pay fines and earn their way to permanent legal status over the course of many years.
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Introduced legislation known as the DREAM Act to enable young people who were brought to the United States as children and have grown up here to apply for legal status and apply for college on the same terms as other students if they demonstrate good moral character, graduate from high school, and go on to college or service in the Armed Forces.
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Voted for legislation to provide emergency funding for increased border security and worksite immigration enforcement.
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Voted against a proposed guest worker program and offered a successful Hire Americans First amendment to require employers to seek American workers for their open positions before they try to bring in guest workers.
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Voted against a proposal to increase the number of H-1B visas and offered legislation to require employers to make a good faith effort to recruit American workers before offering jobs to H-1 and L-1 visa holders and to pay foreign employees the prevailing wage so that these programs are not used to undercut American workers.
IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN AND COMBATING TERRORISM
Iraq Policy:
- Voted against authorizing the President to invade Iraq.
- Led the fight to pass the first requirement that the Administration provide Congress with meaningful assessments of the progress in training Iraqi security forces.
- Subsequently helped shape the language of the amendment that first put Congress on record in support of a transition that would allow the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq.
- Opposed the President's 2007 plan to escalate the number of troops in Iraq and pressed for a new policy that would start bringing our troops home.
- Guided the Senate to adoption of a spending bill containing a timetable for redeploying our troops from Iraq, which the President, tragically, vetoed.
- Continues to work to create a bipartisan coalition with the votes needed to compel the President to change course and implement a plan to bring our troops home.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Scientific Integrity:
- Passed an amendment to help ensure that the FDA's scientific advisory committees are unbiased, independent, and professional. The amendment required the FDA to disclose any conflicts of interest of committee members prior to meetings and report on its efforts to find panel members who do not have such conflicts of interest.
SENIORS
Social Security:
- Helped lead the fight that derailed the President's plan to privatize Social Security, in the hope that, with that risky plan off the table, the President will help lead the nation to address this vital program's long-term funding challenges in a more thoughtful fashion.
Medicare:
- Worked to protect seniors from losing Medicare Part D coverage of their drugs by ensuring that prescription drug plans cannot drop drugs from their formulary at will while seniors are locked into one plan for a year.
- Continue to fight for changes in Medicare Part D to require Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of seniors and disabled Americans, and to offer an optional plan through Medicare as an alternative to the bewildering myriad of privately-operated plans from which they must currently choose.
Valuing Seniors:
- Worked to block a Bush Administration effort that would have counted a senior's life as less valuable than the life of a younger person by securing passage of a bipartisan amendment offered with Senator Snowe that prevented the EPA from using federal funds in fiscal year 2004 to discount the value of a senior's life when doing cost-benefit analyses.
TRANSPORTATION
Economic Development in Illinois:
- Secured federal funds for major highway, infrastructure, and transit improvements throughout the state, including a rebuilt Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago, new Mississippi River bridges being planned near St. Louis and the Quad Cities, and an expansion of Metra and CTA transit lines in the Chicago area.
- Promoted access to air travel throughout Illinois, including the modernization and expansion of O'Hare Airport, increases in airport improvement grants at many airports around the state, and introduction of new flights to O'Hare and other national hub airports for several downstate airports, including Springfield and Rockford.
- Fought to preserve and expand Amtrak's role in the state, including the largest Midwestern expansion of Amtrak service in almost 20 years.
TROOP SUPPORT
- Proposed and led the successful fight for an increase in combat pay and the family separation allowance for the deployed men and women serving in our Armed Forces.
- Secured funding to help fill the pay gap for those members of the Guard and Reserve who suffer an income loss for an extended period of time due to their mobilization away from jobs that paid more than their military compensation.
Secured Senate approval of increased funding for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center to identify and provide better treatments for the growing number of service members who have suffered traumatic brain injuries in combat.
- Pressed successfully for swifter deployment of advanced aircraft anti-surveillance equipment, up-armoring of armor-plated Humvees, more rapid distribution of tourniquets to troops in the field, and other measures to better protect our troops in Iraq.
- Enacted a new federal law to prohibit disruptions of the funerals of veterans and members of the Armed Forces, to ensure that our soldiers, veterans, and those fallen heroes who sacrificed their lives for the good of our country can be laid to rest with dignity.
VETERANS
- Increased funding for veterans programs and benefits nationwide, including regular increases over the inadequate budget requests of the Administration.
- Expanded staffing in Illinois VA offices to help ensure Illinois veterans receive all the benefits to which they are entitled.
- Notified Illinois veterans of compensation disparities and their right to appeal for reconsideration of benefit determinations.
- Strengthened VA and DOD services for veterans suffering Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), including $180 million in the fiscal year 2007 supplemental funding bill for TBI and PTSD treatment, staffing, screening, and research.
- Blocked an unfair review of cases where veterans have already been awarded 100% disability due to PTSD.
- Ensured that Reserve and Guard members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have access to veterans preference in federal hiring without having to leave the Guard or Reserve.
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