Press Release

Today, 17 years after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was signed into law, the Department of Defense has released a comprehensive report reviewing the issues associated with implementing repeal and making recommendations for a smooth transition to open service. After receiving the views of more than 115,000 service members, consulting with tens of thousands of military spouses, listening to troops at 51 bases and installations around the world, and consulting with many other stakeholders, the report’s conclusion is unambiguous: "The risk of repeal to overall military effectiveness is low."

I am pleased that today the House passed a one-month extension of the current Medicare physician payment rates and will now send the bill to the President’s desk for his signature.

Millions of Americans are out of work, and many are tightening their belts; Federal employees must be no different. While I appreciate that the President reduced the length of his proposed pay freeze from three to two years, it would have produced significantly more savings had that sacrifice been shared between Federal civilian and military personnel--with a strong exception for the members of our military and civilian employees risking their lives on our behalf in Afghanistan, Iraq, and anywhere else they are serving in harm's way. It would have also added an element of fairness: there has been parity between civilian and military pay raises for 22 of the past 28 years in which raises were authorized, and hundreds of thousands of Federal civilian employees work alongside military employees in the Department of Defense and other agencies. In fact, the first American casualty in Afghanistan was a CIA agent--a federal civilian employee.

I am pleased that the Senate passed legislation today that would provide funding for settlement of both the Pigford and Cobell class action lawsuits – an important step toward finally correcting these blights on our Nation’s history...

Tonight, the Senate passed a one month extension of the current Medicare physician payment rates. It is my intention to schedule this bill for consideration when the House reconvenes on November 29th, so we can send it to the President's desk prior to the November 30th expiration date of current SGR relief.

The House will vote on an extension of middle class tax cuts before they expire. Democrats are firmly committed to continuing tax cuts for middle class families on income up to $250,000. We cannot afford to add $700 billion to the deficit to benefit the wealthiest Americans with almost no economic benefit as Republicans want to do.
 

Today, Republicans blocked an extension of unemployment insurance for thousands of families who have lost jobs through no fault of their own. As a result, they can expect their insurance to begin to run out just after Thanksgiving weekend. Republicans’ opposition to this bill was bad for families across their own districts, and worse for our economy as a whole.