Not one single vote from the minority, not one.

The beneficiaries of the estate tax are the richest 1 percent of the people in this Nation.

The numbers reflect people's lives. No job, no wages, no health care.

The argument that we cannot afford to institute paid sick days right now does not hold water.

We all urge you to quickly pass the Healthy Families Act, the bill now before Congress that offers the best solution to this problem.

I believe that paid sick days are a basic question of right and wrong, as Senator Kennedy did.

I can recall very similar kinds of conversations when we were going through the Family and Medical Leave, that we were going to, really--that American business was going to go to hell in a hand basket, quite frankly.

I hope that we, in the Congress, can honor Senator Kennedy's legacy by finding the strength and the will to get this legislation passed for America's workers and families.

Now is the time to protect our communities and put family values to work by adopting policies that guarantee a basic workplace standard of paid sick days.

It was groundbreaking and visionary public policy to meet the needs that people were facing in their lives.

Every year the seasonal flu and other illnesses strike millions of us, and every year the failure to let workers earn paid sick days puts the economic security of millions of families at risk.

For all of these reasons and more, Senator Kennedy and I first introduced the Healthy Families Act, 5 years ago.

Passing the Healthy Families Act or emergency legislation that reflects its core principles would finally give American workers and their families the freedom to care for themselves or a sick relative when they need to.

Working people need paid time off to recover from H1N1, to care for sick family members, to prevent spread of the virus.

Establishing paid sick days is also about economic competitiveness, income security for families, and, as H1N1 has proved to us this past year, primarily the public health.

What I think has crystallized the issue for all of us is the H1N1 crisis.

Our failure to provide a minimum standard of paid sick days also is putting our public health at risk.

We need to walk in the shoes of the millions of Americans who work hard every day to support their families.

The Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA and Related Agencies, Representative Rosa DeLauro, also has introduced legislation, H.R. 875, the 'Food Safety Modernization Act of…

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, obviously, was working hard from the appropriations side to make sure that that formula was better in tune with the challenges that, again, face different regions in the country.

I would just say again in the description, yours, the President's, et cetera, when we are talking about children is to focus in on the benefits of insuring all children, not some, and what that benefit will be in terms of the future.

we ought to be reassuring to people, and again my colleague says about the politics and advising on politics for the White House, but I think there has to be a more fulsome description not of specific details, but that no one is talking…

The FIRST Act, however, is an essential step to achieving our ultimate goal.

Expanded access to paid sick days could help the state meet its cost-containment goals.

I believe workers in America ought to have paid sick days. It is a basic matter of right and wrong.