June 04, 2009

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Members and human rights activists participated in an event on the West Front of the Capitol this afternoon to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Below are the Speaker's remarks: "Good afternoon. Thank you very much Yang Jianli and the Initiatives for China for bringing us together this morning and this afternoon. "Words fail me to adequately tell you what an honor it is to be on the same stage and in the presence of so many of the heroes of June 4 - to have a message at the same time from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in solidarity for more openness in China and Tibet. "We stand here in front of the Capitol of the United States, a beacon of freedom to the world, with a great history of free speech and open discussion. Full release.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder released the following statement relating to President Obama's historic speech today in Cairo, Egypt: "The President's pledge for a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim community takes root here in the Justice Department where we are committed to using criminal and civil rights laws to protect Muslim Americans. A top priority of this Justice Department is a return to robust civil rights enforcement and outreach in defending religious freedoms and other fundamental rights of all of our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the housing market, in our schools and in the voting booth. Full release.

The American Islamic Congress (AIC) today attended President Barack Obama's Cairo address and praised his call for respect, reform, and individual freedom. AIC's Egypt office director Dalia Ziada attended the speech at the Administration's invitation and met privately after the speech with the President's Senior Advisor, Valerie Jarrett. Zainab Al-Suwaij, the organization's Executive Director, issued the following statement: "President Obama's Cairo speech outlined an agenda Muslim-Americans can adopt and share with pride. As the director of a Muslim-American civil rights group, I was delighted that the President's speech reflected our organization's core values and validated our responsible leadership philosophy. Full release.

90 years after the passage of the 19th amendment by Congress, a new report for the National Council of Negro Women researched by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) shows that African-American and Latino women continue to receive disparate treatment in the mortgage lending process. The report, Assessing the Double Burden: Examining Racial and Gender Disparities in Mortgage Lending, demonstrates that minorities continue to be much more likely to receive high-cost home mortgage loans than their white counterparts. In many instances, disparities by race widened as income levels increased, one of many indicators that discrimination remains a reality in home mortgage lending, as reports by the Federal Reserve and others have documented. Full release.

Religious, civil rights and consumer groups today briefed congressional lawmakers and staff on why all families should be covered by the 36 percent rate cap on consumer loans that already protects military families. Over 70 percent of Americans support a cap of 36 percent or less. "The issue of payday loans is an economic justice issue, and it is a moral issue," said Bishop Minerva Carcano of the Desert Southwest Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church in Arizona. Arizona and Ohio voters last fall sent a strong message to the payday industry when they used the ballot box to boot abusive payday lending practices from their states. Full release.

The National Policy Forum, sponsored by the Labor and Employment Relations Association on June 11-12, 2009, features the top UAW and Ford negotiators and other leading experts on the auto crisis, top national experts on health care financing, a new framework for executive compensation, informed assessment of infrastructure investments and green jobs, balanced perspectives on union organizing, and more. Keynote presenters include Secretary of Labor Solis, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, Major League Baseball President and COO Robert DuPuy, and leading labor economist Lisa Lynch."At a time of fundamental change in labor and employment relations," said LERA President Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, dean of the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois, "this event is the single most important gathering of scholars, union leaders, managers, government officials and neutrals on the policy challenges facing our nation - framing debates, advancing knowledge, and enabling progress." Full release.

Trust for America's Health (TFAH), the Center for Biosecurity, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) issued a new analysis today, Pandemic Flu: Lessons From the Frontlines, which found that the initial response to the H1N1 outbreak showed strong coordination and communication and an ability to adapt to changing circumstances from U.S. officials, but it also showed how quickly the nation's core public health capacity would be overwhelmed if an outbreak were more severe or widespread. "H1N1 is a real-world test of our initial emergency response capabilities -- all of the planning and preparations have paid off. The country is significantly ahead of where we were a few years ago," said Jeff Levi, Ph.D., Executive Director of TFAH. "However, the outbreak also revealed serious gaps in our nation's preparedness for pandemic flu and other public health emergencies." Full release.

Jim Rutledge declares his candidacy in the race for the US Senate in 2010. Rutledge has published his principles, ideas, and policies at his website www.rutledgeforussenate.com. Rutledge will vie for the Republican party's nomination to challenge the long-standing incumbent Senator Barbara Mikulski. When asked why he's running for the US Senate, Rutledge explains: "Maryland needs a Senator with a clear vision to create opportunity, security and prosperity for the hard working citizens of our great state. My education and training, my life's experience and work, have given me a passion, insight, and abiding respect for the creativity and ingenuity of the human spirit. I will be guided by my belief that our greatest hope is not found in an expanding and unaffordable bureaucracy, but is found in the hearts and minds of a free people." Full release.

Today during a Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease policy briefing on Capitol Hill, health care experts emphasized that making improvements to the health care delivery system is critical to address the number one driver of cost, disability and death within the health care system: preventable and poorly managed chronic illnesses. The panelists discussed ways to drive down health care costs by establishing a delivery system that provides better care coordination for chronically ill patients, while building in incentives to reward patients and providers for prevention, early detection and dedicated disease management. Full release.

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