Pelosi Announces Run For House Democratic Leader

/PRNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following letter to her Democratic colleagues Friday afternoon announcing that she will run to become House Democratic Leader in the next Congress.

Excerpt from her letter to Democratic colleagues:

"Our work is far from finished. As a result of Tuesday's election, the role of Democrats in the 112th Congress will change, but our commitment to serving the American people will not. We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back. It is my hope that we can work in a bipartisan way to create jobs and strengthen the middle class.

"Many of our colleagues have called with their recommendations on how to continue our fight for the middle class, and have encouraged me to run for House Democratic Leader. Based on those discussions, and driven by the urgency of protecting health care reform, Wall Street reform, and Social Security and Medicare, I have decided to run."

* * *

Below is the full text of the letter:

November 5, 2010

Over the past several days, I have spoken with many Democratic colleagues about how to continue our fight for to make our country more secure and strengthen the middle class, create jobs, protect Social Security and Medicare, and promote the innovation, technology and education to make America Number One in the world. As always, I am inspired by the fighting spirit of our Democratic Members.

As you know, Democrats have produced historic legislation in the area of health care, veterans' benefits, women's rights, Wall Street reform, and cutting taxes for 95 percent of the American people and millions of small businesses. And we have restored fiscal discipline to the Congress by making the deficit-cutting Pay As You Go rules the law of the land.

These accomplishments have begun the difficult work of recovering from the worst economic collapse since the 1930s and, according to independent reviews, prevented our country from plunging into another Great Depression. As a result, numerous congressional experts call this the most productive Congress in a half century. This was only possible because our Members had the courage of their convictions and put the interests of the Country first.

Our work is far from finished. As a result of Tuesday's election, the role of Democrats in the 112th Congress will change, but our commitment to serving the American people will not. We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back. It is my hope that we can work in a bipartisan way to create jobs and strengthen the middle class.

Many of our colleagues have called with their recommendations on how to continue our fight for the middle class, and have encouraged me to run for House Democratic Leader. Based on those discussions, and driven by the urgency of protecting health care reform, Wall Street reform, and Social Security and Medicare, I have decided to run.

I am writing to respectfully request your support and I look forward to hearing your views. Please let me know what you are thinking.

Thank you for your leadership and friendship.

best wishes,

Nancy Pelosi

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Pelosi Statement on Chairman Charles Rangel

/PRNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement this morning on Chairman Charles B. Rangel:

"Chairman Charlie Rangel has informed me of his request for a leave of absence from his duties and responsibilities as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. I will honor his request.

"I commend Chairman Rangel for his decades of leadership on jobs, health care, and the most significant economic issues of the day."

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Pelosi, Boehner Statement on Security Breach Relating to Confidential House Materials

/PRNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Republican Leader John Boehner released the following statement today on a security breach relating to confidential House materials:

"In response to a recent data breach associated with the use of peer to peer applications on a non-House computer, we have directed the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer's (CAO) Information Security Department to perform an immediate and comprehensive assessment of the policies and procedures for handling sensitive data. CAO Information Security Policy prohibits the use of peer-to-peer applications on House Computers. We are working diligently to provide the highest level of data security for the House in order to ensure that the operations of House offices are secure from unauthorized access."

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Boehner: Our Petition to Force Speaker Pelosi to Allow Americans to Read the Bills is Off to a Fast Start

As of this writing, more than 170 Members of Congress have signed a petition authored by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) to force House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to allow a vote on a bipartisan resolution requiring a 72-hour public review period for major bills. That number includes five rank-and-file House Democrats who have opted to buck their leadership and sign onto the GOP measure. The bipartisan rebuke of Speaker Pelosi reflects rising public anger over Democratic leaders’ handling of the massive “stimulus” spending bill, the job-killing “cap & trade” national energy tax, and other giant pieces of legislation that were hidden from public view until just hours before they were brought to a final vote in the House.

As I said in my weekly press briefing this morning, the American people have never been more engaged in public policy than they are right now, and they understand what’s happening here in Washington.....http://republicanleader.house.gov/blog/?p=626

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Pelosi: Congress Will Continue to Work With President Obama to Build an Innovation Economy

/PRNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today following President Obama's speech in Troy, N.Y. on innovation and Energy Secretary Steven Chu's announcement in Washington on funding to modernize our electrical system and build a smart energy grid:

"Today, President Obama reiterated a fundamental truth in America's economic history: innovation is the foundation for long-term prosperity. The President eloquently laid out a national strategy that has been lacking for a critical and fast-paced decade. Resting at the center of our recovery efforts, innovation is key to maintaining our nation's global competitiveness, creating jobs, and ensuring economic growth long into the future.

"The challenges of the 21st century cannot be met with 20th century solutions, and the New Direction Congress will continue to work with President Obama to ensure that we invest in clean energy industries, promote new technologies, support basic research, and train our students for the jobs of tomorrow.

"The 111th Congress is working on several fronts to keep America number one in our global economy. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is supporting small businesses committed to innovation and protecting jobs in critical sectors. The measure invests more than $100 billion in basic scientific research, fuel-efficient vehicles and homes, high-speed rail, and reinforcements in our infrastructure.

"Earlier today, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced $144 million in Recovery Act funding to modernize our electrical system and build a smart grid that strengthens our national security, creates clean energy jobs, saves consumers money on their energy bills, and diversifies our power supply with renewable, clean American energy.

"Throughout our nation's history, the ingenuity, hard work, and unmatched potential of the American people have been the building blocks for progress for every family. Congress shares President Obama's vision, and we will continue to work together to build an innovation economy in the years to come."

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Pelosi: 'We Want Registration'; Holder: 2A Won't 'Stand In The Way'; SAF: 'Gloves Are Off'

/PRNewswire/ -- Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on April 7 acknowledged that gun registration is on her agenda, days after Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters in Mexico that the Second Amendment would not "stand in the way" of administration plans to crack down on alleged gun trafficking to Mexico.

"These are alarming remarks from Speaker Pelosi and Attorney General Holder," said Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb. "It appears that the Obama administration and Capitol Hill anti-gunners have dropped all pretences about their plans for gun owners' rights, and it looks like the gloves are coming off."

Pelosi's revelation came during an interview on ABC's Good Morning, America. While insisting that Congress "never denied" the gun rights of American Citizens, Pelosi told Roberts, "We want them registered. We don't want them crossing state lines..." Gottlieb noted that citizens' rights do not stop at state lines.

"But that doesn't really matter," he observed. "History has shown that around the world, registration has always led to confiscation."

In Mexico, according to the Wall Street Journal, Holder was asked if the administration might encounter constitutional issues as it tries to crack down on alleged gun trafficking. His response: "I don't think our Second Amendment will stand in the way of efforts we have begun and will expand upon."

"These comments belie administration promises and Democrat rhetoric that party leaders respect the rights of law-abiding Americans to own the firearm of their choice," Gottlieb said. "They imposed registration of semi-autos in Pelosi's California and it led to a ban, but it certainly didn't disarm criminals, like the convicted felon who killed four Oakland police officers last month. We know from Holder that the Obama administration wants to renew the nationwide ban on such firearms, but that won't prevent crime, either.

"The administration and Congressional anti-gunners have declared war on gun rights," Gottlieb said. "The press seems deliberately blind to the statements from Pelosi and Holder, who blame our gun rights for their incompetence in dealing with crime. More than 90 million gun owners haven't hurt anybody, and they are tired of being treated like criminals."

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.

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Pelosi Statement on House Passage of the GIVE Act

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement after the House overwhelmingly passed a bill this afternoon to dramatically expand national service opportunities and help Americans play a role in the economic recovery. The bill, the Generations Invigoration Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act, passed the house by a vote of 321 to 105.

"Less than one month ago, President Obama called for legislation 'to encourage a renewed spirit of national service for this and future generations.' Today, the Congress has responded by passing the GIVE Act, launching a new era of service.

"The GIVE Act will create 175,000 new service opportunities - more than tripling the number of volunteers nationwide. And it will reward those who volunteer with real investments in their education. It also expands the diversity of our nation's volunteer corps - encouraging Americans from middle school students to retirees to give to their communities.

"This legislation is a sound investment: for every dollar spent toward service initiatives, there are four dollars of direct measurable economic returns to our communities.

"We have the power to banish some of the greatest ills affecting our nation, and create a stronger nation for all Americans. And we began today by giving the GIVE Act the strong, bipartisan vote it deserved."

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Pelosi Statement on AIG Legislation on House Floor Tomorrow

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement tonight on legislation the House will vote on tomorrow to hold companies, including American International Group (AIG), accountable for the bonuses that were paid to their executives. The legislation will recover the bulk of these bonuses by taxing them at a rate of 90 percent. Below the Speaker's statement is a brief fact sheet on HR 1586.

"We must stabilize the financial system in order to strengthen our economy and create jobs. We must also protect the American taxpayer from executives who would use their companies' second chances as opportunities for private gain.

"Because they could not use sound judgment in the use of taxpayer funds, these AIG executives will pay the Treasury in the form of this tax. I urge all my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation and in favor of recovering taxpayer dollars and protecting Americans from the continued poor judgment of some of America's largest companies."

* * * * * *

As a result of extraordinary abuses of the public trust by companies rewarding employees with excessive compensation while receiving billions in taxpayer assistance, Congress introduced legislation to recover taxpayers' dollars.

The bill would apply a separate income tax rate of 90 percent to bonuses received by individuals from companies which have received at least $5 billion from TARP. It would also apply to bonuses paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

For this purpose, bonuses will be defined as any retention payment, incentive payment, or other bonus which is in addition to regular employee compensation payable on a periodic basis.

The special tax rate only would apply to individuals and families with overall income (including income other than bonuses) in excess of $250,000.

The bill applies to payments received after December 31, 2008.

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If Majority Leader Reid Supports E-Verify Why Does the Senate Block Its Long-Term Reauthorization?

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the second time in as many months, the United States Senate had an opportunity to reauthorize the highly effective E-Verify system and chose not to. By rejecting an amendment to the Omnibus Appropriations bill offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to extend E-Verify through 2014, the Senate leadership belied their contention that they support this program that protects U.S. workers from losing jobs to illegal aliens.

E-Verify is a federal program that allows employers to voluntarily determine whether workers are legally authorized to work in the U.S. by electronically verifying their Social Security numbers. According to the Department of Homeland Security, E-Verify has a 99.6 percent accuracy rate.

In a letter to his Nevada constituents, Majority Leader Harry Reid states, "I strongly support programs like E-Verify that are designed to ensure that employers only hire those who are legally authorized to work in the United States, and believe we need to strengthen enforcement against employers who knowingly hire individuals who are not authorized to work." In fact, in 2006 and 2007, Senator Reid supported not only reauthorizing E-Verify, but making it mandatory for all employers nationwide.

But now, Sen. Reid and the Democratic leadership are singing a different tune:

-- In February, Sen. Reid blocked inclusion of amendments to the economic
stimulus bill that would have reauthorized E-Verify for five years,
and required that employers who receive stimulus money use E-Verify to
ensure they hire only legal U.S. workers. These provisions were
included in the House bill.
-- During the House-Senate conference committee finalizing the economic
stimulus package, Sen. Reid, together with Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
stripped the E-Verify provisions from the bill sent to President
Obama.
-- Today, Sen. Reid and the Democratic majority voted down Sen. Sessions'
five year reauthorization of E-Verify.


Because of these actions, the vital protections that E-Verify offers to American workers at a time when unemployment is rising rapidly are on tenuous life support only until September 30. They also confirm that Senate leadership's primary interest in E-Verify is to use it as a bargaining chip in an effort to gain amnesty for illegal aliens.

"If the Senate leadership were truly interested in protecting American jobs from being filled by illegal aliens, E-Verify would have been reauthorized for five years and steps would have been taken to make its use mandatory by all employers," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

"The fact that E-Verify will only receive a six-month reauthorization, and the fact that employers receiving taxpayer stimulus money are not required to verify that workers are legal U.S. residents is not an oversight. It is a deliberate decision of the Senate leaders who place the interests of low wage employers and illegal aliens over the interests of millions of unemployed American workers who desperately need jobs.

"The defeat of the Sessions amendment demonstrates conclusively that the Senate leadership, contrary to what they say, is unwilling to protect the jobs of American workers," Stein concluded.

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Help us Stop 'America's INFLATION Stimulus Bill'

/Standard Newswire/ -- The so-called stimulus bill appears to be on the verge of passage following a "compromise" crafted by Republican Senators Specter and Collins and Democratic Senator Nelson. It demonstrates a stunning ignorance of how business works and how jobs are created. For example, in its over 1500 pages, there is not one single mention of increasing profits in American businesses, yet any business owner knows that sustained profits are the only way that businesses can expand and create new jobs. Without a clear focus on increasing profits, the long-term result of a huge increase in government spending can only be one thing: staggering inflation.

In addition to the economic issues, this massive inflation stimulus also raises three major moral
hazards:

1. Tens of millions of citizens who have retired on fixed
incomes will see their purchasing power erode
severely and their financial security collapse. Do we
want to bear moral responsibility for breaking trust
with our retirees who have worked so hard to achieve
financial security?

2. At the other end of the age spectrum, tens of
millions of young people will find their future dreams
thwarted by an oppressive tax system burdened by
repaying trillions of dollars of debt incurred just this
year. Economists say that this unprecedented public
borrowing could "crowd out" private capital that would
otherwise be used to expand existing businesses and
start new ones, thus shackling the next generation
with no-growth prospects.

3. President Obama's pledge of transparency in his
new Administration is rendered meaningless by
exempting this bill from the budget disciplines and
cost disclosure requirements of all other legislation.
By allowing Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to assemble
this bill the old-fashioned way, larding it up with
economically unsound projects cynically included to
buy votes, the new President risks breaking faith with
the American people on a matter of moral as well as
political integrity - within his Administration's very first
month. These are not merely economic
considerations; they also present grave moral
hazards.

The bill as it stands is entirely government-centric. It assumes that government is the best or only financial act or capable of addressing the politically-motivated overextension of credit crisis and a housing market breakdown. Absent are incentives for the private sector to inject new capital into the economy.

This so-called stimulus bill contains more pork than a pig farm. President Obama has badly bobbled his first real legislative leadership opportunity and abdicated to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Obama originally proposed a massive infrastructure investment program. He should have stuck to it.

Providing infrastructure is a core function of government. It enjoys support from conservatives and liberals alike. Conservatives base their support on time-tested economic principles initially set forth by Adam Smith, the founding father of free market economics. He argued that government's proper role was to provide a permanent military for national defense, a police and court system to control crime and administer justice and a public works system to facilitate the flow of commerce along roads, bridges, and canals. Contemporary conservative legislators who may be budget hawks on most government spending are typically supportive of spending on
infrastructure. Our roads, bridges and railways are in a deplorable state of disrepair and deterioration.

Entirely new types of infrastructure, such as high-speed fiber and wireless data networks, should be developed to aid twenty-first century commerce and economic development in the same way that paved roads did two centuries ago or air transport did in the last century.

If President Obama had stuck to his original promise of enacting a stimulus plan focusing on job-creating infrastructure projects that were "shovel-ready" and just waiting for funding, he likely would have found many willing Republican allies. The result could have been a precedent-setting example of genuine bipartisanship. Instead, by abdicating his leadership role in setting the national agenda to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he will probably sign a bill that would
be best described as "America's Inflation Stimulus," because it will be inflation, rather than job growth and infrastructure investment, that is most stimulated by it.

How many months will it be before we see inflation skyrocket from its current level of around 4% to 12% or more? The last time we saw an inflation rate that high was in 1980, and it was a major contributor to President Jimmy Carter's defeat by Ronald Reagan.

The proposed package of pork is the largest spending bill in American history. Expressed in current dollars, it is roughly double the size of the entire New Deal, much of which really was infrastructure spending. It is likely to garner no more than a handful of Republican votes, largely because no Republican input was sought in the House, and only two Republican deal-making Senators were involved in reaching the Senate compromise.

For the new President, this is a tragic waste of an historic leadership opportunity. For the rest of us, it will result in the greatest transfer of debt to a succeeding generation in the history of the world. This is not the kind of change that Obama promised.

We invite you to join us in sending a clear message to your Senators that you simply will not tolerate their voting in favor of this bill.

Please click this link to go to our special online petition, which we will send to both of your state's United States Senators before the final vote:

www.ipetitions.com/petition/stopthestimulus/ (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102450445960&e=001HQvYu_KfJMXvGT48daAAjUWomuGepWNZurYz0Hmbo3g72JJPmiJ8UYt7FNmH
vMPwDIzbelnMtyNJ4EmvSZVK6HNd5_Uj3EzMqnxkRytuEhgzyoP3_yM1g32_MkwUevFO
mMqcMXl4ZvOEeus9qT5BeQPo3LiS8xG)

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Americans wisely turning against stimulus plan

By Lynn Westmoreland

It seems like every other day an old friend or business partner calls to let me know that they’re declaring bankruptcy or going out of business.

We can all agree that the United States needs a federal stimulus plan to give our crippled economy a jolt. Our economy shrank 3.8 percent in the last quarter. Jobless claims have mushroomed to 626,000. Stock portfolios and retirement plans have lost 30 percent or more of their values.

But Americans have figured out that the $816 billion plan that passed the House with no Republican votes carries as much danger to the republic as it does hope. In fact, polls show support rapidly declining; today, just 37 percent of Americans favor the current stimulus legislation, down from 45 percent just two weeks ago. That’s startling, considering that Americans are increasingly nervous about huge job losses, business failures and home foreclosures.

Americans are turning against the bill because they know we can craft a much better bill that will simultaneously cost less and create more jobs.

But first, let’s discuss the price tag. The House-passed version totals $816 billion. Once you factor in the finance charges on borrowing that money, the total crests over $1 trillion.

It’s almost useless to discuss a trillion-dollar figure because it’s a number we can’t really comprehend. We’re more likely to get incensed by the government wasting $25,000 than $25,000,000,000 because one number we can understand and the other one is basically inconceivable. This is a problem.

One way to put this in perspective is comparisons. Liberals have complained for years over the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, Nancy Pelosi’s stimulus bill costs more than both those wars combined. Put another way, if you spent $1 million every day since the day that Jesus was born, you would have spent less than this one piece of legislation appropriates.

Even without this new spending, the federal deficit would top $1 trillion and our debt has soared to $11 trillion. This has real-world consequences. We risk further devaluing our currency and scaring off foreign investors who have seen Uncle Sam as a “safe” place to keep their money.

The Democrats’ stimulus plan focuses more on fulfilling liberals’ pent-up wish list over the eight years than it does with creating or saving jobs. In Georgia, we desperately need transportation infrastructure but spending on those job-creating projects is only 6 percent of the bill.

Instead, the bill spends hundreds of millions and often billions on items such as facelifts for national parks, buying new cars for the federal fleet and repairing federal buildings. Those may all be great but won’t stimulate the economy. Plus, we’re setting a dangerous precedent by spending billions to bail out states’ Medicare and Medicaid shortfalls; I fear this will become a permanent expectation.

Republicans are offering an alternative plan that reduces spending, allows families and businesses to keep more of their own money and actually creates MORE jobs than the Democratic plan. The Republican plan lowers tax rates for individuals, families and small businesses; it removes taxes from unemployment income and extends that insurance for a year.

The GOP plan would pan out better for Georgia, too. The House Ways and Means Committee estimates the Republican plan would create 186,000 jobs in our state while the Democrat plan would yield only 113,000.

In a survey sent to 3rd District constituents in my e-newsletter (sign up at www.house.gov/westmoreland), respondents preferred the taxpayer-friendly Republican version by a 9-1 margin. I know my district is more conservative than most, but the rest of the United States is moving toward our position of more timely, targeted and fiscally responsible stimulus.

Lynn Westmoreland (R-Grantville) represents Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District.