Please take a few moments to read my statement expressing our profound shock and sorrow over the tragic events in Tucson last weekend. We hope that moving forward our nation will come together to foster and strengthen the very essence of our representative democracy: "government of the people, by the people, for the people."
The League has engaged Congressional leaders for years on the rules that govern the Senate and the House of Representatives. 2011 is shaping up to be no different. Yesterday I sent a letter to Senators urging them to reform the rules of the Senate. The League also joined coalition partners to urge the same.
Thank you for all your dedicated support this past year - our 90th anniversary year. Without your commitment, the League of Women Voters could not continue our mission to make democracy work.
We are proud of the League's work in 2010. Take a look at the photobook we put together to highlight all that Leagues and members accomplished this past year!
Nearly one year ago, on Christmas Eve, health care reform overcame Senate roadblocks and headed toward final enactment by the Congress, with the President’s signature coming in March.
Tomorrow will be the last day that Gracia Hillman sits as a commissioner on the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Gracia, who, in full disclosure, served as the League’s executive director from 1990-1994, has been at the EAC since its inception seven year ago. The League family will miss her voice and dedication and so will America’s voters and election officials!
With the lame-duck session of Congress winding down, one of the key decisions that will be made before they adjourn for the holidays is whether to extend the “Bush tax cuts” -- the huge cuts enacted when our nation was running a surplus early in the George W. Bush Administration.
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- This debate is proving to be a fascinating discussion coming on the heels of voters ongoing concerns about the economy, big money in politics and ethics in Washington.
Today, we joined with an interesting and diverse array of groups (Judicial Watch, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Common Cause, Democracy21, U.S. PIRG, CREW, Campaign Legal Center and Public Citizen) for a press conference calling on Speaker-elect John Boehner to retain the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) in the upcoming 112th Congress. The League is deeply concerned that many in Congress, apparently wishing to return to a time when there was no meaningful ethics enforcement in the House of Representatives, have called for steps that would substantially weaken the OCE.