(Well, education is as good of a place to start digging ourselves out the Bush whole as anywhere. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Yesterday's historic election of Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden as our next President and Vice President was a true victory for every child, student, worker and family in America. I congratulate Senators Obama and Biden, and I look forward to working closely with them to change the direction of our country and get our economy moving forward again.
During the past two years, the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee has focused on strengthening our nation's middle class – a priority that Senators Obama and Biden clearly share, as demonstrated by their careers and the focus of their historic campaign.
With our country facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and our global leadership at risk, this mission is more important than ever.
In the next Congress, this committee will be dedicated to working with the new Obama-Biden administration and members of both parties of Congress to rescue our economy by rebuilding and strengthening America's middle class. We must get started right away by passing a Main Street recovery plan that will get Americans back to work and provide immediate relief to families and workers struggling with long-term unemployment and depleted state budgets.
We will dedicate ourselves to improving our nation's schools and continue our efforts to make college more affordable and accessible, so that every student has the opportunity to succeed. We are committed to rebuilding our country's roads, bridges and schools, and to green retrofitting and other modern energy programs that will create millions of good-paying jobs and reestablish America's technological leadership.
We will fight to restore workers' rights, so that every American can benefit from economic opportunity. And we will make the preservation and strengthening of retirement savings a priority, so that all Americans can enjoy a secure retirement after a lifetime of hard work.
Today marks a new beginning. Together, we can rescue our economy, restore the promise of the American Dream, and ensure that, in a nation as great as ours, the interests of students, workers, families and retirees are at the heart of our nation's priorities.
More information on recent hearings on the economy and the committee's work over the past two years.
(Cross-posted at the EdLabor Journal.)