Jim McDermott

We are grateful to Chairman McDermott, Representatives Davis and Platts for sponsoring this important legislation.

Education is the key out of poverty in my estimation.

However as currently drafted, the Early Support for Families Act of 2009 (H.R. 2667) does not specifically mention nor speak to the issue of substance abuse.

Thank you very much for your testimony.

All of us are interested in making sure every child gets a good start in life.

I look forward to working with all of my colleagues to advance a proposal that will achieve that goal.

Home visitation programs have a proven track record of increasing the chances that a child will have a safer, healthier, and more productive life.

One should decide what good public policy is and once you have decided what good public policy is, then you decide how you are going to pay for it.

Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support...

I would actually target first-time and young mothers. That is the group that is most at risk.

I urge every member of this committee to support an investment in evidence-based early childhood home visitation services and to move quickly and thoughtfully on legislation authorizing new federal funding.

A federal investment in evidence-based home visiting, as proposed by Chairman McDermott, Congressman Davis, and Congressman Platts, will ensure that more families in communities across the country are given the opportunity to participate…

The President's decision to invest in home visitation for newborns and the Congress' willingness to act on this decision demonstrates a commitment to an evidence-informed public policy.

The competitiveness of U.S. companies is not the same as the profitability of U.S. companies operating abroad.

I want a system of trade agreements that does not trump the common good, whether it is in Honduras or the United States.

Money does not necessarily, in my view, trump the common good.

But what I am interested in is that Members of Congress have the opportunity to establish good public policy, and then not have it taken away by some trade agreement or arbitrary group of tribunals some place.

And that same thing, then, could be happening with our bail-out money to banks.

The reason I asked the question is that I remember--we have been going around and around on this issue for some period of time.

To give an individual company the right to sue and to create a tax liability when it is successful is an enormous step, and one that I think should be rethought.

If the witnesses will take their seats, we will resume the hearing.

Thank you all for your testimony.

I would assure those of you who raised questions about things that were not changed, at least one I can remember we got changed out of the House.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

This argument, in my view, is both callous and wrong.