It is also my belief that community health centers are the most effective instruments that we currently have to provide cost-effective quality healthcare to large numbers of low-income and poor people.

I commend President Obama for his forward-focused comprehensive approach to addressing inherited interconnected socioeconomic woes.

These issues are near and dear to my heart because they affect lower-income families that reside on 'side-streets' across America.

I think, first of all, that the best and most effective way to deal with the issues we've been discussing is to have a national health plan, one that everybody is in, and nobody is out.

Having said that, it makes no sense to me--and I'm just about to reintroduce legislation--let me give you an example.

Thank you Mr. President for having the audacity to propose a budget that invests in early childhood education.

I think if we could find a way somehow or another to prevent individuals from becoming drug addicted because about half the individuals who end up prison are there because of some drug related activity.

Many of them were put on the books as we decided that we needed to get tough on crime in the 1980s and the early 1990s.

And I think that is one of the reasons we ended up calling this activity 'Second Chance,' because in many instances, unless individuals get that employment opportunity, then they are totally frustrated.

I want to express real serious appreciation for the evolution of the interest and the concern that is being expressed relative to the whole question of prison reentry.

They are very good. They work extremely well. And I think they are worth their weight in gold.

I think that those programs that can result in an individual being able to find employment after everything else is said and done...

I urge Congress to please take hold of this and make it happen.

The effect of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, in my district, something like 95 percent of the people living in my district get an average tax cut from the 2001 and 2003 cycle of somewhere between $45 and $50 a month.

After-tax income for the middle segment of the population has been roughly stagnant for too long now.

I am very pleased that the President's budget invests in higher education, with increases in the Pell grant and making the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent.

the one thing that I would make a comment, I think some of those tax professionals have never actually run a factory

If coal based sources of energy were to deteriorate in major portions of this country, you would lose whole mining communities.

We are searching for--the phrase 'middle ground' is tried, it is over used.

I rise to be in agreement with all of those who have edified the examples of tremendous leadership provided by the NAACP. On a personal note, though, I want to commend my wife, Vera, who is the chairman of our local Westside Branch NAACP…

I rise to recognize this past January as Poverty in America Awareness Month and to thank the young intern in my office, Ms. Foster, for developing this very excellent statement. Mr. Speaker, Nelson Mandela once proclaimed, ``Overcoming…

I rise in strong support of both these bills, H.R. 11 and H.R. 12. I think it is an excellent way to start the new session of Congress, to start the new year. I want to commend Chairman Mill and Representative DeLauro for their strong…

I agree that we routinely ask the Government Accountability Office to make studies, to provide information, to give us the kind of information that we need, sometimes in much time, to make the most rational, logical and adequate decisions…

Well, if you would like, I can tell you here is what the response from the GAO is. "We received your letter dated June 2, 2008, requesting that the Government Accountability Office review the feasibility and desirability of providing an…

Mr. Speaker, while the manager's amendment being offered does not make any substantive legislative changes to the bill's underlying purpose, it does make in order several minor technical changes that are designed to streamline the bill's…