Heinrich; Bingaman Introduce Legislation to Name Dept. of Interior Building After Late Stewart Udall

On Earth Day, Heinrich Introduces Bill To Name Dept. of Interior Building After Former Secretary Stewart Udall

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today on Earth Day, U.S. Representative Martin Heinrich (NM-1), member of the House Natural Resources Committee, introduced a bill to name the U.S. Department of the Interior building after the late Stewart L. Udall. Rep. Heinrich released the following statement honoring the former Interior Secretary’s legacy:

“It was with great sadness that just over a month ago, I learned of former U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall’s passing. And today, on the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day, it is fitting that we honor his legacy by beginning the process to name the U.S. Department of the Interior building after him.

“There is no question that Secretary Udall’s immeasurable impact on our nation will continue to be felt by Americans through the magnificent National Parks and public lands that he dedicated his life to preserving.

“His legacy includes the Wilderness Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the creation of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the expansion of our National Park system. Thanks to his work, those treasured public lands now belong to every American and will contribute to the spirit of our nation for generations to come.

“Stewart Udall’s dedication to public service and his leadership were a true inspiration to me personally and I was honored to know him.

“Our nation is deeply indebted to him and today, on Earth Day, it is appropriate that we name this federal building the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building.”

Martin Heinrich and the late Stewart L. Udall

Seven colleagues from the New Mexico and Arizona House delegations cosponsored the bill including: Rep. Ben Ray Luján (NM-3), Rep. Harry Teague (NM-2), Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-8), Rep. Raúl Grijalva (AZ-7), Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-1), Rep. Harry Mitchell (AZ-5), and Rep. Ed Pastor (AZ-4). Companion legislation was introduced in the Senate today by U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM).

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The Best YouTube Video You'll Watch at Work!

Here is a video from Senator Tom Udall and Representative Ben Ray Lujan in support of Farmington's bid to get Google High-speed Broadband:

Democrats Urged to Work Together

County Democrats urged to work together

By Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican
Posted: 2/20/2010, 8:00 PM Mountain time

Santa Fe County Democrats who gathered for a combined ward and county convention on Saturday warned each other that Republicans will be coming after them this year.

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján said in an interview, following his address to the convention, that Democrats need to work together "to shed truth on some of the misconceptions and untruths that are being spread. ...

"Opponents of some of the health care reform, they try to scare the American people into believing that there were such things as death panels in the legislation," he said. "They're trying to say that the investments that were in the Recovery Act are not helping New Mexicans."

Luján, who is finishing his first term and expects GOP opposition in November, said that in his travels around Northern New Mexico, he's learned that most people support the Democrats' plans for reforming health care.

"Everyone has told us, 'Please do not give up on taking on the health-insurance companies. Make sure that we're getting rid of this notion that they can exclude care because of pre-existing conditions,' " he said.

Luján said he wants to make sure that coverage is spelled out in plain language so the average consumer can understand what is covered and at what cost. Currently, he said, when coverage is denied, the consumer is not told why.

"That's part of the reform we're working on, so that if you do get that denial, you know exactly why, so it empowers the consumer to refute it or to take them on," he said.

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who is unopposed in this year's primary for governor, said she has been impressed with the turnouts at county and ward conventions around the state.

State Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, one of five candidates seeking to replace Denish as lieutenant governor, credited Denish with revitalizing the office.

"It's a tribute ... what she did with what used to be a nothing job," he said. "It didn't lead anywhere. It didn't do anything. She's made it something really valuable in the state. ... She's made this job into a real advocacy for people. She's made it a bully pulpit."

Santa Fe County Democratic Party Chairman Richard Ellenberg said Saturday's convention ran smoothly, and that 186 delegates were elected to attend the state preprimary convention at Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino on March 13.

Now, All Eyes Will Turn to the Senate

In case you missed it (but we're not sure how you could have) here is a short clip of the House of Representatives passing HR 3962 or the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

The historic vote was taken Saturday night and fulfills the Democratic Party's promise of quality, affordable health care to the American people.

The Act provides stability and security for Americans who have insurance; quality affordable options for those who don't; brings down the cost of health care for families, businesses and government -- while strengthening the financial health of Medicare.

The legislation is fully paid for and will bring down the long-term federal deficit.

One step closer towards comprehensive health care in America, the United States Senate now must follow suit.

Already, the Senate has aligned many parts of their bill to match the House version -- including providing unprecedented security and stability for Americans with insurance and is also fully paid for, reducing our long-term deficit.

Here in New Mexico, Senator Bingaman and Senator Udall have both indicated their support for health care reform which includes a public option.

GOP Reeks of Desperation over Health Care Reform

The fight for meaningful Health Care Reform has been set in motion for what could be its final weekend.

House Speaker Pelosi has stated that the Democratic-controlled House is "very close" to reaching the 218 votes needed to pass Health Care Reform which includes a public option and protections for patients with pre-existing conditions.

Pelosi's work became a little easier as newly-elected NY-23 Congressman Bill Owens has indicated support for the House bill.

The GOP offered an alternative bill, which among other things, does not stop insurers from dropping clients due to pre-existing conditions; only cuts the deficit by 68 billion dollars, 36 billion dollars less than the Democratic plan; would actually cause the number of un-insured Americans to rise to 52 million by 2019; and does not prevent insurers from denying you coverage due to pre-existing conditions. It has been widely panned as ineffective.

On the heels of endorsements from the AARP and the American Medical Association, President Obama is expected to give a "full-throated endorsement" to the bill sometime today.

Meanwhile . . .

As Democrats were working constructively to garner support for their House bill, Republicans were making a "Hail Mary" play.

In an act of seeming desperation, a now-familiar "Tea Bagger" rally was organized by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann on the steps of the US Capitol. (The rally, reportedly, was not sanctioned by the GOP House leadership.) Participants spent their time chanting "Kill the Bill" and listening to GOP politicians who sought to get their face on television, if only to babel on about how much "freedom" the Democratic House bill would deprive American citizens. (Many of these same Congress-people who initially criticized Bachmann's efforts made the time to show up, anyhow.)

Take a look:

As Republicans were falling over themselves to bash the Democrats' plan, they resorted to the only thing they know how to do when faced with certain ideological defeat -- fear-mongering from behind the protection of the American flag.

The American public supports the public option; the American Medical Association supports the public option and the AARP supports the public option -- so why do Republicans still defiantly oppose the public option?

Because it wasn't their idea and they can't take credit for it.

Desperately searching for a new brand image for the GOP, Congressional Republicans have clung to their "patriotism" in an effort to prove that they are more American than the Democratic Party. But in their fervor to prove their American ideals and love of all things related to freedom, they certainly made a few gaffes:

By embracing such fanatic activities as likening the Democratic plan for Health Care Reform to Nazism and appearing at a rally where pictures of victims of the Holocaust are shown, Republican members of Congress are doing two distinct things: one, they are giving credence to such wild claims and, more saddening, they are divorcing themselves from the real human emotion which is inherent in events like the Holocaust.

As human beings we should be compassionate to those in need -- for example, by ensuring that all Americans have access to quality health care, not working to actively derail the process. Democrats are working towards this currently, the Republicans are not.

Like many other Hail Mary plays, the Republicans' final play on preventing health care reform is one which has been made in desperation with little chance of success.

A Three-Part Speech from Rep. Ben Ray Lujan

***The following speech is in three parts and is from CD-3 Rep. Ben Ray Lujan. He was guest speaker to the Executive Committee of the Democratic Party of New Mexico at their strategy meeting last weekend in Las Vegas.

The Representative spoke on topics from health care reform, energy and the future of New Mexico in the 2010 elections.

In the first video, the Representative is introduced by Chairwoman Paula Garcia of Mora County as well as State Party Chairman Javier Gonzales.

Pelosi to Push the Public Option

In previous statements, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stated that the fate of the public option would depend on the eventual negotiations that would occur between House and Senate leadership.

But with a favorable score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the House version of the health care reform bill, House Speaker Pelosi has announced that a "robust" public option would be aggressively pushed through the House of Representatives. Coming in far under 900 billion dollars, the House version of health care reform comes under President Obama's goal and is also deficit neutral.

MoveOn.org has also released this new commercial focusing on the some 70% percent of the American public who support the public option:

To pass this bill, House Democrats need to muster 218 votes -- a number within sight. Rep. Raul Grijalva, one of the co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus has stated that House Democrats are within 8 votes of achieving the 218 votes needed for passage.

He does note however, that some of the 256 Democrats in Congress will vote no and that House leadership is not wasting time with confirmed "no" votes from Democrats. (NM Congressman Ben Ray Lujan is a member of the Caucus and is a champion of the public option.)

The House bill would cover 96% of all Americans.

The Democratic Party of New Mexico -- and all of the members of our Congressional delegation -- support the inclusion of a public option in any health care reform bill passed.

We encourage you to call your representative today and stress the importance of a public option!

Contact information for your elected leaders can be found here.

Iowa: Not Just for Corn Anymore

In an interview on a conservative radio show, Representative Steve King (R-IA) suggested that same-sex marriage was a "purely socialist concept."

His reasoning was that if same-sex marriage was achieved throughout the country, it would somehow create a communal living scenario in which all people would have access to the same government resources. We're not entirely sure how these links would actually occur, so here is the audio from his speech:

If you chose not to listen to Rep. King for those five minutes, let us do a recap for you. In the speech Rep. King somehow links same-sex marriage to both socialism and incest, claiming that if it were to be legalized, there would be no stopping point in regards to other types of marriages.

Interestingly, Rep. King also elected to use the term "opposite marriage" -- which is curious at best. (To be honest, we are not totally sure what opposite marriage means, but we're sure you remember Carrie Prejean's now infamous Miss USA response.)

But what struck us most was that Rep. King seems to be out of step with the rest of Iowans. A recent poll conducted by the Des Moines Register finds that 92% of Iowans felt that same-sex marriage has had no effect on their life.

Yes, the poll finds that Iowans are nearly evenly divided on support for a constitutional amendment on gay marriage, but what its findings showed was that the fears of state governments intruding on churches, doctors and educators were unfounded.

Additionally, the poll showed that 63% of respondents to the survey also stated that gay marriage was not the most pressing issue which would determine their vote in 2010 elections.

Using gay marriage as the principle strategy in upcoming elections may back-fire as approval for same-sex marriage gains nationwide.

More and more, Republican fear-mongering on the issue of gay marriage is out-of-step with cultural attitudes, and the fear-filled messages get more and more outlandish:

Rep. King has stated that repealing the Defense of Marriage Act would be tantamount to opening the floodgates towards all sorts of social perversion, but luckily here in New Mexico, our Party has taken up the cause of same-sex marriage.

In 2008, the Democratic Party of New Mexico adopted in its platform a strong support for same-sex civil marriages as well as a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. Javier Gonzales, newly elected Party Chair has also indicated support for equal marriage rights for all and CD-1 Rep. Martin Heinrich is a sponsor for the Defense of Marriage Act's repeal. Both Heinrich and CD-3 Rep. Ben Ray Lujan support the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell policies as well.

As the pre-eminent party in New Mexico, we're proud to be the most inclusive party as well. Thank you Reps. Heinrich and Lujan for carrying the GLBT community's message to Washington.

Lujan's Town Hall is an Example to Follow

Last night, Representative Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM-03) attended a Town Hall Health Care meeting hosted in Santa Fe by the Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that nearly 200 people attended the meeting, eagerly waiting to hear what Lujan had to say.

This crowd was pleased that Lujan remained steadfast in his support for a public option to health care -- although this plan has run into problems in the US Senate. Most reports of the meeting have stated that despite the overflow crowd and the contentious nature of the issue, the public was respectful and orderly -- and the Representative was attentive and engaged. So much so that all three panel members in the Town Hall meeting (including Lujan) agreed to hold a second meeting to accommodate those who could not get into the crowded room for the first meeting.

The Representative characterized the event as one which was "a point of pride . . . that focused on the substance of health insurance reform."

So why should this meeting be held as the standard for other town hall meetings nationwide? Simply because it was just that -- a meeting between a Representative and his constituents. Nothing more, nothing less.

For their part, the participants, even those who were opposed to reform efforts, were civil, orderly and left behind their signs, their misinformation and most importantly their guns. For his part, Rep. Lujan was engaged with his constituents and went on to ensure that all who came were offered a forum to voice their concerns.

As other town halls occur across New Mexico, the DPNM hopes that they are as successful as Rep. Lujan's -- no doubt showing other states and members of Congress that New Mexicans are more concerned with maintaining a healthy participatory democracy than getting on the news for pulling stunts.