100 Hours

The new Congress has started, and it is on a roll.
    As they came into office, the new leadership in the House of Representatives made a promise to address basic issues that the American people care about. They promised that within the first 100 hours spent in the House on legislative business, we would pass fundamental changes to our laws that make our nation safer, our economy fairer, and health care more affordable. The agenda also included the goals of broadening college opportunity, breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation to make Washington accountable again, and committing to fiscal responsibility.
Congress, under our new leadership, has met all of those initial goals with time to spare. The accomplishments of the past two weeks show that we are moving in a new direction, and that the American people are getting the change that we all so clearly want.
Here is what has been accomplished so far — and I am proud to say that I was a cosponsor of each of these initiatives.
On January 4th, the first order of business on the opening day of the new Congress was to adopt the rules that govern ethics and the daily operations of the House of Representatives. The ethics reform that was passed will help end abuse by lobbyists and Washington insiders by banning gifts and travel paid for by lobbyists. That means no more golf trips to Scotland paid for by people like disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
On January 5th, the House passed a strong mechanism to enforce fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets. We restored something that my colleagues and I in the Blue Dog Coalition have been pushing for years: pay-as-you-go budgeting rules, or PAYGO. PAYGO means that when Congress spends money, they have to balance it out with cuts elsewhere, so overall spending remains the same. That helps to get a grip on out-of-control spending. We also passed rules to end the abuse of special-interest earmarks, by requiring full public disclosure of any earmarked spending in advance. No more sweetheart deals or bridges-to-nowhere snuck into bills in the dead of night.
On January 9th, the House acted to finally implement the full recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission – because their recommendations were only partially adopted by the previous congress. This will make us safer and more secure at home.
On January 10th, Congress helped make our economy fairer by passing a long overdue minimum wage increase. Today, the average CEO earns more before lunchtime on the very first day of work than a minimum wage worker earns all year. It was high time that hard working Americans supporting their families could finally get a raise.
On January 11th, the House passed a bill that will promote stem cell research by expanding the number of available stem cell lines available to scientists beyond the limits imposed by the President.
On January 12th, we passed a bill that directs the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of those who are enrolled in Medicare prescription drug plans. Americans should not have to pay the highest prices in the world for medicine, and negotiation is a fair war to deliver fairer prices.
On January 17th, the House voted to cut interest rates for student loans in half. Under this law, students in Maine beginning college in fall of 2007 would save $2170 on their subsidized loans, making college more affordable for Mainers.
And finally, on January 18th, the House passed a bill to end multi-billion dollar subsidies that the old Congressional Leadership had passed for Big Oil, and invest that money in renewable energy technologies instead.
What I enjoyed most about passing these bills was seeing them receive strong bipartisan support. They got that kind of support not because they were Democratic or Republican or Independent bills, but because they were simply the right thing to do.
Congress is back to doing good work for the American people – not special interest deals or partisan politics.
There is clearly a lot that this Congress still needs to address in the coming months, including the war in Iraq, our trade policies, and the state of our economy. But I’m pleased with the new spirit that this new Congress has displayed so far. Hopefully this is just the beginning.