Hyperlinked Summary of Barack Obama's Legislative Record
*****ILLINOIS STATE SENATE*****
Barack Obama served in the Illinois Senate for eight years (1997 to 2004), sponsoring 823 bills, according to a graphic created by the New York Times (http://tinyurl.com/37kxxo). Bills sponsored by Obama which were enacted into law include: the 1998 Illinois Gift Ban (http://tinyurl.com/56ldrm), which has been described as the state's "most sweeping good-government legislation in decades"; the 2003 Hospital Report Card Act (http://tinyurl.com/6gnv4e), which requires hospitals to disclose infection rates, nurse staffing levels, and the average number of hours worked per nurse in quarterly reports; the 2004 Health Care Justice Act (http://tinyurl.com/6ryyn4), which established a bipartisan commission tasked with creating a universal health care access plan for IL residents; a 2003 law which expanded state health care coverage to 154,000 IL residents by raising the eligibility requirement from 185% to 200% of the federal poverty line (http://tinyurl.com/5ezlkg); a 2003 law which made Illinois the first state to require videotaped interrogations of suspects in capital cases (http://tinyurl.com/6afdoq); and a 2003 law which addressed racial profiling during traffic stops by requiring police departments to report the race/age/gender of those stopped (http://tinyurl.com/5rmcuy).
One thing that stands out about Obama’s record in the State Senate is his belief that providing greater transparency is a key to government reform. The common thread between the Gift Ban, the Hospital Report Card Act, the videotaped interrogations law, and the racial profiling law is that they all reflect the view that sunlight is the greatest disinfectant. In the case of his videotaped interrogations law, Obama eventually was able to convince skeptical law enforcement officials and Republican legislators that transparency would improve the criminal justice system for everyone, because, in his words, "the videotaping of interrogations and confessions is both a tool for protecting the innocent as well as a tool for convicting the guilty." (http://tinyurl.com/35lcyh). The Obama Campaign's legislative highlights page has more detailed information on his career in the Illinois Senate (http://tinyurl.com/35lcyh).
*****U.S. SENATE*****
In his three-and-a-half years as a U.S. Senator, Barack Obama has built a record that supports his campaign’s emphasis on reform. During that time, the Illinois Democrat has also demonstrated a strong willingness to reach across the aisle, co-sponsoring legislation with Republican Senators like Dick Lugar (R-IN), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and even his current opponent, John McCain (R-AZ). In a hearing on the Coburn-Obama bill, McCain, who was also one of the bill's co-sponsors, said: "I want to again thank the bipartisanship that is associated with this bill, including Senator Carper and Senator Obama." (http://tinyurl.com/63wenj).
According to the Library of Congress, Barack Obama has sponsored 136 bills during his term as a U.S. Senator, 66 during the 109th Congress (http://tinyurl.com/5b9jvj) and another 70 during the 110th Congress (http://tinyurl.com/66oplc). He has also co-sponsored 659 bills, 255 during the 109th Congress (http://tinyurl.com/68kppa) and 404 during the 110th Congress (http://tinyurl.com/6n2lrf). Senator Obama currently serves on four Senate committees: Foreign Relations, Veterans' Affairs, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (http://tinyurl.com/59tchp).
THE ETHICS REFORM LAW
Barack Obama's emergence as a national leader on the issue of ethics reform has probably been the most impressive aspect of his career in the U.S. Senate, and it would have been impossible without his strong track record of reform in the Illinois State Senate. The Democratic Party successfully ran on a platform of changing Washington’s "culture of corruption" in the 2006 congressional elections, and party leaders made ethics reform their first order of business. Obama and Russ Feingold (D-WI) were tapped to lead the party's high-profile push for new ethics standards, and together they drafted a "gold standard bill" (http://tinyurl.com/3e4x86), which included bans on gifts, meals and travel funded by lobbyists, a new requirement that legislators to pay charter rates on corporate jets, and greater disclosure of donation "bundling" by lobbyists (http://tinyurl.com/5tzczf).
Feingold and Obama introduced their bill on January 8th, and several days later, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) authored an amendment which would strengthen the legislation’s prohibitions on anonymous earmarks, requiring public disclosure of which legislator is responsible for adding an earmark to a piece of legislation (http://tinyurl.com/57nxka). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) opposed the DeMint amendment and pressured the Democrats to vote to table the amendment - but the motion to table it failed, because nine Democrats, along with Joe Lieberman (I-CT), voted with the Republicans to keep the DeMint amendment. Among the Democrats who broke ranks with their party’s leadership were the two drafters of the ethics bill, Feingold and Obama, former Presidential candidate John Kerry (D-MA), and newly-elected Senators John Tester (D-MT) and Jim Webb (D-VA) (http://tinyurl.com/2zwlbp). The next day, Senate Majority Leader Reid changed his tune and supported the earmark reform provision (http://tinyurl.com/5o5u9o).
Next, Feingold and Obama introduced an amendment to address the issue of Washington’s "revolving door" - legislators leaving the public sector to work as lobbyists. The amendment increased the amount of time legislators must wait before participating in lobbying activities from one year to two years (http://tinyurl.com/5rg3zs). On January 19th, the Senate passed the ethics reform legislation, including the Feingold-Obama amendment on lobbying, by a 96-2 vote (http://tinyurl.com/5uzz2o). American University political science professor James Thurber predicted that the law would have a substantial impact: "It will change lawmakers' behavior and lobbyists' behavior as well, and it will bring more transparency to lobbying." (http://tinyurl.com/5uzz2o).
THE LUGAR-OBAMA PROLIFERATION AND THREAT REDUCTION INITIATIVE
One of Senator Obama's first major achievements in the U.S. Senate was working with Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) as a co-sponsor of the Lugar-Obama proliferation and threat reduction initiative (http://tinyurl.com/5gdolf), which updates the programs established by the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. The Nunn-Lugar law, passed in 1992, focused on the interdiction of unsecured WMD's in the recently-dissolved Soviet Union, especially nuclear weapons; the Lugar-Obama law expands the scope of those programs to include conventional (non-WMD) weapons like shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, and also bolsters the State Department's ability to interdict materials used to make WMD's.
According to Lugar's press release hailing the passage of the legislation, the bill had its roots in the senators' work together on the Nunn-Lugar programs: "Lugar and Obama traveled together to Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan in August 2005 to oversee a number of Nunn-Lugar projects. In Ukraine they saw a conventional weapons facility that is typical of the focus of the new legislation." (http://tinyurl.com/689mos). The picture of Obama and Lugar in the top-right corner of this page was taken during their tour of that facility in the Ukraine (http://tinyurl.com/6egvp5). In a 2006 article, the Washington Monthly described Lugar as Obama's mentor in the Senate, calling the bipartisan pairing "the most dynamic duo in Washington today," and attributing their collaborative relationship to a shared realist approach to foreign policy (http://tinyurl.com/2su5f5).
THE OBAMA-HAGEL COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR THREAT REDUCTION PROVISION
In addition to the Lugar-Obama threat reduction law, the Illinois Democrat co-authored the Comprehensive Nuclear Threat Reduction provision with Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), which was attached to the omnibus appropriations bill signed into law in December 2007. According to a press release issued by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who sponsored the bill in the House, the Obama-Hagel provision "requires the President to submit to Congress a comprehensive plan for ensuring that all nuclear weapons and weapons-usable material at vulnerable sites around the world are secure by 2012 from the threats that terrorists have shown they can pose." (http://tinyurl.com/58xh3w).
THE COBURN-OBAMA "GOOGLE THE GOVERNMENT" LAW
Obama was the lead co-sponsor of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (http://tinyurl.com/659tuf) - often called the "Google the Government" law, or the Coburn-Obama law - which created a searchable database that allows citizens to track federal spending (http://www.USAspending.gov). Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the bill's sponsor, referred to it as the "Coburn-Obama Bill" in his press release hailing the bill's passage (http://tinyurl.com/movxq). Obama's role in the passage of the "Google the Government" law not only demonstrates his commitment to using technology as a tool for transparency and government reform, but also provides a particularly striking example of his willingness to work across the aisle, as Coburn is one of the most conservative members of Senate.
In an op-ed piece they co-authored after the bill was signed into law, Coburn and Obama highlighted the bi-partisan nature of the legislation: "In the Internet age, making this information available online should be automatic, which is why a vast array of interest groups, bloggers and commentators from both ends of the political spectrum joined forces to put public pressure on Congress when the bill was stalled. If nothing else, this activism and this bill are a testament to a hunger that exists in America today. It's a non-partisan hunger for a government that's honest and open — one that spends our hard-earned tax dollars wisely, efficiently and transparently." (http://tinyurl.com/6rmfqu).
Ironically, Senator McCain, who claimed in his convention speech that Obama has not "worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed," was actually one of the Coburn-Obama bill's co-sponsors. In fact, during a July 18, 2006 hearing on the bill, McCain said "I want to again thank the bipartisanship that is associated with this bill, including Senator Carper and Senator Obama." (http://tinyurl.com/63wenj).
Barack Obama served in the Illinois Senate for eight years (1997 to 2004), sponsoring 823 bills, according to a graphic created by the New York Times (http://tinyurl.com/37kxxo). Bills sponsored by Obama which were enacted into law include: the 1998 Illinois Gift Ban (http://tinyurl.com/56ldrm), which has been described as the state's "most sweeping good-government legislation in decades"; the 2003 Hospital Report Card Act (http://tinyurl.com/6gnv4e), which requires hospitals to disclose infection rates, nurse staffing levels, and the average number of hours worked per nurse in quarterly reports; the 2004 Health Care Justice Act (http://tinyurl.com/6ryyn4), which established a bipartisan commission tasked with creating a universal health care access plan for IL residents; a 2003 law which expanded state health care coverage to 154,000 IL residents by raising the eligibility requirement from 185% to 200% of the federal poverty line (http://tinyurl.com/5ezlkg); a 2003 law which made Illinois the first state to require videotaped interrogations of suspects in capital cases (http://tinyurl.com/6afdoq); and a 2003 law which addressed racial profiling during traffic stops by requiring police departments to report the race/age/gender of those stopped (http://tinyurl.com/5rmcuy).
One thing that stands out about Obama’s record in the State Senate is his belief that providing greater transparency is a key to government reform. The common thread between the Gift Ban, the Hospital Report Card Act, the videotaped interrogations law, and the racial profiling law is that they all reflect the view that sunlight is the greatest disinfectant. In the case of his videotaped interrogations law, Obama eventually was able to convince skeptical law enforcement officials and Republican legislators that transparency would improve the criminal justice system for everyone, because, in his words, "the videotaping of interrogations and confessions is both a tool for protecting the innocent as well as a tool for convicting the guilty." (http://tinyurl.com/35lcyh). The Obama Campaign's legislative highlights page has more detailed information on his career in the Illinois Senate (http://tinyurl.com/35lcyh).
*****U.S. SENATE*****
In his three-and-a-half years as a U.S. Senator, Barack Obama has built a record that supports his campaign’s emphasis on reform. During that time, the Illinois Democrat has also demonstrated a strong willingness to reach across the aisle, co-sponsoring legislation with Republican Senators like Dick Lugar (R-IN), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and even his current opponent, John McCain (R-AZ). In a hearing on the Coburn-Obama bill, McCain, who was also one of the bill's co-sponsors, said: "I want to again thank the bipartisanship that is associated with this bill, including Senator Carper and Senator Obama." (http://tinyurl.com/63wenj).
According to the Library of Congress, Barack Obama has sponsored 136 bills during his term as a U.S. Senator, 66 during the 109th Congress (http://tinyurl.com/5b9jvj) and another 70 during the 110th Congress (http://tinyurl.com/66oplc). He has also co-sponsored 659 bills, 255 during the 109th Congress (http://tinyurl.com/68kppa) and 404 during the 110th Congress (http://tinyurl.com/6n2lrf). Senator Obama currently serves on four Senate committees: Foreign Relations, Veterans' Affairs, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (http://tinyurl.com/59tchp).
THE ETHICS REFORM LAW
Barack Obama's emergence as a national leader on the issue of ethics reform has probably been the most impressive aspect of his career in the U.S. Senate, and it would have been impossible without his strong track record of reform in the Illinois State Senate. The Democratic Party successfully ran on a platform of changing Washington’s "culture of corruption" in the 2006 congressional elections, and party leaders made ethics reform their first order of business. Obama and Russ Feingold (D-WI) were tapped to lead the party's high-profile push for new ethics standards, and together they drafted a "gold standard bill" (http://tinyurl.com/3e4x86), which included bans on gifts, meals and travel funded by lobbyists, a new requirement that legislators to pay charter rates on corporate jets, and greater disclosure of donation "bundling" by lobbyists (http://tinyurl.com/5tzczf).
Feingold and Obama introduced their bill on January 8th, and several days later, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) authored an amendment which would strengthen the legislation’s prohibitions on anonymous earmarks, requiring public disclosure of which legislator is responsible for adding an earmark to a piece of legislation (http://tinyurl.com/57nxka). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) opposed the DeMint amendment and pressured the Democrats to vote to table the amendment - but the motion to table it failed, because nine Democrats, along with Joe Lieberman (I-CT), voted with the Republicans to keep the DeMint amendment. Among the Democrats who broke ranks with their party’s leadership were the two drafters of the ethics bill, Feingold and Obama, former Presidential candidate John Kerry (D-MA), and newly-elected Senators John Tester (D-MT) and Jim Webb (D-VA) (http://tinyurl.com/2zwlbp). The next day, Senate Majority Leader Reid changed his tune and supported the earmark reform provision (http://tinyurl.com/5o5u9o).
Next, Feingold and Obama introduced an amendment to address the issue of Washington’s "revolving door" - legislators leaving the public sector to work as lobbyists. The amendment increased the amount of time legislators must wait before participating in lobbying activities from one year to two years (http://tinyurl.com/5rg3zs). On January 19th, the Senate passed the ethics reform legislation, including the Feingold-Obama amendment on lobbying, by a 96-2 vote (http://tinyurl.com/5uzz2o). American University political science professor James Thurber predicted that the law would have a substantial impact: "It will change lawmakers' behavior and lobbyists' behavior as well, and it will bring more transparency to lobbying." (http://tinyurl.com/5uzz2o).
THE LUGAR-OBAMA PROLIFERATION AND THREAT REDUCTION INITIATIVE
One of Senator Obama's first major achievements in the U.S. Senate was working with Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) as a co-sponsor of the Lugar-Obama proliferation and threat reduction initiative (http://tinyurl.com/5gdolf), which updates the programs established by the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. The Nunn-Lugar law, passed in 1992, focused on the interdiction of unsecured WMD's in the recently-dissolved Soviet Union, especially nuclear weapons; the Lugar-Obama law expands the scope of those programs to include conventional (non-WMD) weapons like shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, and also bolsters the State Department's ability to interdict materials used to make WMD's.
According to Lugar's press release hailing the passage of the legislation, the bill had its roots in the senators' work together on the Nunn-Lugar programs: "Lugar and Obama traveled together to Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan in August 2005 to oversee a number of Nunn-Lugar projects. In Ukraine they saw a conventional weapons facility that is typical of the focus of the new legislation." (http://tinyurl.com/689mos). The picture of Obama and Lugar in the top-right corner of this page was taken during their tour of that facility in the Ukraine (http://tinyurl.com/6egvp5). In a 2006 article, the Washington Monthly described Lugar as Obama's mentor in the Senate, calling the bipartisan pairing "the most dynamic duo in Washington today," and attributing their collaborative relationship to a shared realist approach to foreign policy (http://tinyurl.com/2su5f5).
THE OBAMA-HAGEL COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR THREAT REDUCTION PROVISION
In addition to the Lugar-Obama threat reduction law, the Illinois Democrat co-authored the Comprehensive Nuclear Threat Reduction provision with Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), which was attached to the omnibus appropriations bill signed into law in December 2007. According to a press release issued by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who sponsored the bill in the House, the Obama-Hagel provision "requires the President to submit to Congress a comprehensive plan for ensuring that all nuclear weapons and weapons-usable material at vulnerable sites around the world are secure by 2012 from the threats that terrorists have shown they can pose." (http://tinyurl.com/58xh3w).
THE COBURN-OBAMA "GOOGLE THE GOVERNMENT" LAW
Obama was the lead co-sponsor of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (http://tinyurl.com/659tuf) - often called the "Google the Government" law, or the Coburn-Obama law - which created a searchable database that allows citizens to track federal spending (http://www.USAspending.gov). Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the bill's sponsor, referred to it as the "Coburn-Obama Bill" in his press release hailing the bill's passage (http://tinyurl.com/movxq). Obama's role in the passage of the "Google the Government" law not only demonstrates his commitment to using technology as a tool for transparency and government reform, but also provides a particularly striking example of his willingness to work across the aisle, as Coburn is one of the most conservative members of Senate.
In an op-ed piece they co-authored after the bill was signed into law, Coburn and Obama highlighted the bi-partisan nature of the legislation: "In the Internet age, making this information available online should be automatic, which is why a vast array of interest groups, bloggers and commentators from both ends of the political spectrum joined forces to put public pressure on Congress when the bill was stalled. If nothing else, this activism and this bill are a testament to a hunger that exists in America today. It's a non-partisan hunger for a government that's honest and open — one that spends our hard-earned tax dollars wisely, efficiently and transparently." (http://tinyurl.com/6rmfqu).
Ironically, Senator McCain, who claimed in his convention speech that Obama has not "worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed," was actually one of the Coburn-Obama bill's co-sponsors. In fact, during a July 18, 2006 hearing on the bill, McCain said "I want to again thank the bipartisanship that is associated with this bill, including Senator Carper and Senator Obama." (http://tinyurl.com/63wenj).
posted at 11:57:00 PM | permalink
<< Home