Progress Illinois

Yesterday, I spoke to Rep. Jan Schakowsky about her impressions on the Democratic National Convention.  I also asked her to address all those Illinois progressives who are torn between volunteering locally or heading to battleground states to help Barack Obama.

Watch it:

More coverage of Schakowsky at the DNC can be found here, here, and here.

I just caught Rep. Jan Schakowsky on the Campaign for America's Future health care panel in Denver. It was a timely discussion considering the release this week of new census bureau data on health insurance. On it's face, the numbers look good: 45.7 million people did not have health insurance in 2007, a decrease from the 2006 level of 47 million. But the devil is in the details. Paul Krugman says these 2007 numbers don't take into effect skyrocketing unemployment, a major reason Americans lose their insurance. And The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn says it's Uncle Sam who is propping up the figures:

But before anybody gets the idea that we no longer need health care reform, take a closer look at the numbers. Enrollment in private insurance continued to decline in percentage terms, mostly because the percentage of people with employer-sponsored coverage fell from 59.7 to 59.3. The reason the overall numbers look good is rising enrollment in public insurance programs, particularly Medicaid.

All of this is to say that health care is still a major crisis in America. As a stinging reminder, Schakowsky pointed out that at least one American would die of what she calls "uninsured-itis" while the hour-long panel was underway. To push for reform, Schakowsky became one of the first legislators to sign the "Which Side Are You On?" petition, an effort by Health Care for America Now to demand that members of Congress enact universal health care next year. Supporters can sign a companion petition here.

During the Illinois delegation breakfast meeting this morning, Rep. Jan Schakowsky kicked off the roster of speakers.  Holding up a copy of USA Today, she read out some numbers from their recent poll, highlighting their finding that more than half of Hillary Clinton supporters are not "solidly behind Obama."  Schakowsky then pointed out that if all the Democratic primary voters were to vote in the general election, Obama would win handily.  She urged Clinton supporters to help make this happen and said to the crowd, "If you have trouble making the argument, I offer you two words: Supreme Court." 

Watch it:

While rarely discussed outside of voting rights circles, the disenfranchisement of college students is a prevalent problem nationwide. There are a variety of obstacles that stand in the way of full student particapation, including unclear residency and identification requirements, lackluster allocation of voting resources, and the risk of provisional or absentee ballots not being counted.

Students are fighting back, however, both by contesting the legality of local election board decisions through litigation and advocating for lasting policy reforms. The Student Association for Voter Empowerment is one such organization doing the latter. With the help of two prominent Illinois Democrats, they've placed a bill in both chambers of Congress that would protect the voting rights of students. From SAVE's press release:

As the forefront organization for youth election protection, SAVE applauds the introduction of the Student Voter Opportunity to Encourage Registration (VOTER) Act of 2008—-a federal bill conceived of, developed by, and championed through our student members. Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Congressman Steven LaTourette (R-OH) have joined in a bipartisan effort to sponsor both house and senate versions of this legislation today. [...]

The Student VOTER Act applies the principles of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (or “Motor Voter Act”) to publicly funded colleges and universities, so that young Americans can gain the opportunity to use schools as voter registration agencies and acclimate more confidently and readily into our nation’s political process.

“The very introduction of this bill is a monumental victory for young voters,” said, Matthew Segal, the executive director of SAVE. “While many congressional members pay lip service to the idea of increasing civic engagement, it is refreshing to see Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Schakowsky and Mr. LaTourette act, and call on our education institutions to be more proactive in getting students signed up and aware of the laws in their various states and districts.”

After months of debate, congressional negotiators reached a deal yesterday to implement the most far-reaching set of product-safety reforms in decades, setting the stage for the bill's quick passage through the House and Senate. The Tribune outlines some of the specifics:

The deal would require manufacturers and importers to subject toys and other nursery products to strict safety tests before they hit store shelves. Some companies with sophisticated labs could conduct the tests themselves, a provision consumer groups opposed.

The legislation would phase in a near-ban on lead in products designed for children 12 and younger and create an easily searchable database of consumer complaints about a product's safety. The law would set an allowable lead standard of 600 parts per million within 180 days, 300 ppm after one year, and 100 ppm after three years. The precise amount of lead that can cause harm in a child remains a matter of debate. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission would review the limit and could lower it still further.

Sen. Dick Durbin and Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Bobby Rush all played crucial roles in crafting the legislation and all three of their names appear on the bill's final version. Schakowsky called it "a really strong, strong bill." That's saying a lot coming from a legislator whose made consumer rights her signature issue while in Washington. Before she entered the halls of Congress, Schakowsky led the 1969 fight to put freshness dates on products sold at supermarkets and she's since issued bills to protect Americans from identity theft and predatory lending.

This morning, the House passed The FISA Amendment Act of 2008 by a vote of 293-129. Authored by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, it was billed as a bipartisan compromise. The Media Consortium's Brian Beutler writes that while it certainly did garner support from both sides of the aisle, calling it a compromise "is a total farce." Salon's Glenn Greenwald agrees. Mark Agrast at the Center for American Progress has more:

Nevertheless, despite these welcome improvements, the bill fails at the most fundamental level to restore the independent judicial check on executive power that the Bush administration has done so much to undermine. Now, instead of determining whether probable cause exists for the issuance of a surveillance order, the FISA Court will be reduced to reviewing the adequacy of the surveillance procedures established by the Bush administration. Instead of evaluating the sufficiency of the assurances that were given to telecommunications companies to obtain their cooperation, the federal district courts in which the lawsuits against the companies have been filed will be authorized to do little more than determine whether such assurances were in fact provided.

Unfortunately, four members of Illinois' Democratic congressional delegation voted in favor of the measure -- Melissa Bean (8th), Rahm Emanuel (5th), Dan Lipinski (3rd), and Luis Gutierrez (4th).

But praise is in order for Democrats Phil Hare (17th), Jesse Jackson Jr. (2nd), Jan Schakowsky (9th), Danny Davis (7th), Jerry Costello (12th), and newcomer Bill Foster (14th), all of whom voted to ensure the civil liberties of Illinoisans.

Yesterday, Rep. Jan Schakowsky put forth an amendment to strip funding for the security contractor Blackwater Worldwide from the Iraq supplemental funding bill. From her House floor statement on the measure:

Everyone knows about the horrible incidents involving Blackwater opening fire on innocent civilians last September in Nisour Square, about a Blackwater employee killing the Iraqi Vice President’s guard, about Blackwater releasing poisonous gas on a crowded intersection in Baghdad. Nothing has been done in response to these incidents.

And these incidents have damaged our already-tattered image in the eyes of the Iraqi people. They have irreparably harmed our relationship with the Iraqi government. Prime Minister Maliki attempted to revoke Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq in 2007, and last month he said that Blackwater has “massacred”—that’s his word—Iraqi civilians.

Despite the extremely serious nature of each of the incidents Blackwater has been involved in, not one investigation has been completed. And despite the existence of so many ongoing investigations into Blackwater’s actions, both possible criminal actions and abuse of the tax code, the State Department renewed Blackwater’s contract last month. [...]

We cannot continue to allow Blackwater to run roughshod over the law and jeopardize the safety, security and well-being of the U.S. military and the Iraqi people.

For more on Schakowsky's thoughts about the Iraq war, check out part two of her interview with Faithfully Liberal's Aaron Krager.

Faithfully Liberal's Aaron Krager just posted a segment of his recent interview with Rep. Jan Schakowsky. You can watch it here. In this first video, Krager and Schakowsky discuss faith and religion in politics. Subsequent segments will feature a discussion of the Iraq war, poverty, and the 2008 election. So be sure to check his site for updates.

On the House floor yesterday, Rep. Jan Schakowsky lambasted the State Department's decision to renew Blackwater's contract to provide security services in Iraq. Here's her statement:

Last Friday, the State Department decided to renew Blackwater's $1.2 billion contract for another year.

It has been over six months since Blackwater contractors killed 17 innocent Iraqi civilians, 16 months since the Christmas Eve murder in the Green Zone, and 35 months since a Blackwater helicopter dropped CS gas on a traffic jam in Baghdad.

Yet, there have been no arrests, no charges, no trials, no convictions…Nothing

The Department of Justice, the FBI and the State Department have remained completely silent about those investigations.

Meanwhile, those contractors are still working side-by-side with our troops in Iraq.

But what is even more appalling is that our government has ignored those abuses and renewed Blackwater’s contract.

If you owned a company, would you rehire someone who has killed dozens of innocent people?

The State Department’s decision not only puts the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians at risk, but it threatens the safety of our troops and jeopardizes our mission in Iraq.

You can find video of her statement here.

Rep. Schakowsky is the sponsor of a bill -- HR 4102 -- that "would begin phasing out the use of private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan."

But House Democrats aren't the only ones unhappy about the renewal of Blackwater's contract -- high-ranking Iraq officials are also upset about the news.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky says she knows of "at least eight" superdelegates who plan on voting for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, but have not yet made their decisions public. Schakowsky, an Obama supporter, brought up these undeclared (but apparently already decided) members of Congress in a City Desk interview with NBC5's Carol Marin that taped on Friday and aired yesterday:

MARIN: Are there a lot of really intense conversations in the halls of Congress with you and superdelegates who haven’t made a commitment yet? I mean, are those pretty rigorous conversations with colleagues?

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, I mean, they're usually one-on-one conversations. And no, we know our friends and our colleagues so we try and look for the right buttons to push. But look, some people have reasons locally that they’re not endorsing for their own races, everybody's up in the House of Representatives. But I do know, I would say, at least eight of my colleagues who will vote for Barack Obama at the convention. It’s just a question of whether or not -- or when -- they come out and say it.

At current count Clinton has the support of 249 superdelegates, Obama has 223 (not including Schakowsky's "eight or so") and 257 are undeclared.

Elsewhere in the interview, Schakowsky spoke about infighting between Democrats in Springfield, the impact of the Iraq War on the presidential race, and her husband, author and activist (and Progress Illinois contributor) Bob Creamer.