{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "is_view": false, "human_description_en": "where chamber = \"House\", state = \"WI\" and year = 2013 sorted by date descending", "rows": [["https://kind.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-ron-kind-calls-congress-extend-unemployment-benefits", "Rep. Ron Kind Calls on Congress to Extend Unemployment Benefits", "2013-12-30", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Ron Kind", "K000188", "kind.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, DC  U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) is calling on Congress to immediately return to Washington to vote on an extension of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, which expired for 1.3 million job-seeking Americans on December 28th.\nCongress needs to reconvene immediately and extend the benefits that so many job-seeking Americans and their families rely on, said Rep. Kind. Allowing UI benefits to lapse doesn't just hurt long-term unemployed workers; it directly harms entire communities, too. When families can't afford to buy groceries and other necessities at our Main Street businesses, our local economies feel the impact.\nIn Wisconsin, approximately 23,700 people lost their benefits when the federal UI program expired last weekend. It's estimated that almost 100,000 people across the state will be affected by the loss of benefits over the course of the next year.\nThe average job hunter in America needs 8 months to find employment, and nationwide there are three unemployed workers available for each job opening.\nEven though we are seeing positive changes in the economy, the job market has not recovered sufficiently to absorb all the job seekers who are trying to join the workforce, concluded Rep. Kind. And we know that if UI benefits aren't extended, almost 250,000 jobs could be lost due to reduced spending in our local economies. Job seekers are getting hit from all sides, and it's time for Congress to step up and fix this.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://gwenmoore.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=49&itemid=966", "Gwen Moore Pushes for Unemployment Insurance Extension", "2013-12-28", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Jamil Smith, @JamilSmith\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tEven after facing backlash for effectively killing an act historically seen as a bi-partisan non-issue, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is short on answers explaining precisely why he and a number of his fellow Republicans opposed the Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cMajority Leader Cantor has worked hard seeking to move the bill forward so we can protect all victims and prosecute offenders,\u201d Cantor\u2019s office told Melissa Harris-Perry Thursday in a written statement. \u201cThe majority leader has been working with our members and directly with Vice President Biden to seek common ground across party lines and put an end to violence against women.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tBut the House version Cantor supports, by definition, does not protect \u201call victims.\u201d That description would apply more accurately to the more inclusive version, which added provisions granting legal protections to American Indians, undocumented immigrants, and lesbian and trans women, and passed with a supermajority in the Senate. But per a new report today from Talking Points Memo\u2018s Sahil Kapur, what happened when it got to the House was vintage GOP obstructionism:\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tRepublican leaders deployed their female members to make the case for it, notably Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA), a leadership member, and Rep. Sandy Adams (FL), herself a victim of domestic violence. Over the objections of advocates for abused victims, but with the support of a so-called men\u2019s rights group, House GOP leaders passed their version on a partisan vote, despite a White House veto threat.\r\n\r\n\tAnd that\u2019s when the legislation stalled, never to recover.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tA Republican source who complained of House Democratic tactics to TPM pointed to a Dec. 7 letter from the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women applauding Cantor\u2019s \u201cgood faith\u201d negotiations with Democrats like Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont concerning the new VAWA provisions. Dec. 7 was a while ago; what are they saying now?\r\n\r\n\tIn a statement posted on their site Thursday expressing their \u201canger\u201d over the failure to pass a new VAWA, it appears the national task force has run out of patience.\r\n\r\n\t\u201cThe U.S. House of Representatives continued to voice strong opposition to offering basic protections to certain vulnerable populations\u2026\u201d the task force wrote. \u201cThere is no time to waste in addressing the needs of victims. \u00a0We call on the 113th Congress to act immediately on VAWA this month and pass a bill that safely and effectively meets the needs of all victims.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tOne member of that new Congress, Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, has been one of the more vocal advocates for passage of the Senate version of VAWA. She was the author of a December letter signed by ten House Republicans urging that passage, and delivered to Cantor\u2013among others. On Thursday, her office released this statement to Melissa Harris-Perry, seeking to show that the VAWA isn\u2019t \u201cdead,\u201d in the purest sense:\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tHowever, reports that VAWA is \u201cdead\u201d are untrue; VAWA\u2019s authorization expired over a year ago, but its programs and services continue to operate under language last updated in 2005. Still, VAWA\u2019s current form is in serious need of the updates and enhancements suggested by the domestic violence and sexual assault community.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tWe must continue to fight for funds for VAWA through the appropriations process, and we absolutely must make sure that the sequester doesn\u2019t hit at the end of February. The sequester\u2019s cuts to VAWA programs would be incredibly harmful, particularly at the state and local level.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tOur goal for the next few weeks and months is to speak out on behalf of VAWA and ensure it doesn\u2019t get lost in the shuffle of the debt ceiling and ongoing budget-related discussions.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tWe must reauthorize VAWA, and we must do it now.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi echoed Moore in her statement, but is passage of a new VAWA likely in this new Congress? Moore, a survivor of sexual assault, is one of a record 80 women now\u2013as of today\u2019s swearings-in\u2013serving in the House of Representatives. A record 20 now serve in the Senate. But as both Tara Culp-Ressler in The Atlantic and The Cycle co-host Krystal Ball noted today, the problem may lie in the fact that those numbers aren\u2019t nearly high enough. After listing the new Senate protections referenced above, Ball wrote, \u201cI don\u2019t know how you could object to any of those things. The only explanation is a lack of personal connection to the problem.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tTo view this article online, please click here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://gwenmoore.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2138", "Gwen Moore Pushes for Unemployment Insurance Extension", "2013-12-28", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "After the New Year, I urge my colleagues to act in the best interests of our constituents and make this extension a priority. \r\n          share:\r\n          f \r\n          t \r\n        \r\n      \r\n        Contact: Staci Cox  (202) 225- 4572   Milwaukee, WI  Today, approximately 1.3 million Americans will lose their unemployment insurance. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-04) released this statement:  This holiday season, Congressional Republicans have given Americans a gift' of uncertainty they did not ask for and did not deserve. Today approximately 23,700 Wisconsinites will lose their unemployment insurance benefits. In the first six months of 2014, these benefits will expire for approximately 41,800 more Wisconsinites.  \"Each day, struggling families across our nation wonder how they will feed their families and warm their homes. Unemployment insurance helps to reduce this anxiety and increase the well-being of many. In our slowly recovering economy, the decision to extend these benefits to assist our families, friends and neighbors should not be difficult.  \"After the New Year, I urge my colleagues to act in the best interests of our constituents and make this extension a priority. As lawmakers, we should give a hand to struggling American families, not remove their resources.\" To watch Rep. Moore support unemployment insurance on MSNBC, please click here.  ###  For Moore News Updates", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/press-release/hunger-homelessness-summit-focuses-on-awareness", "Hunger & Homelessness Summit Focuses on Awareness", "2013-12-23", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Wausau, WI \u2013 More than 100 registered participants joined\u00a0U.S. Congressman Sean Duffy (WI-07)\u00a0for his first Hunger & Homelessness Summit held in Wausau this past Wednesday. The daylong summit brought together volunteers and representatives from dozens of organizations from across the 7th\u00a0Congressional District. The event included several panel discussions, a keynote address from Steve Berg from the National Alliance to End Homelessness and concluded with a \u201cbright spots\u201d session that challenged participants to implement\u00a0a takeaway from the event. In his opening remarks to the attendees,\u00a0Rep. Duffy\u00a0offered: \u201cMy team and I wanted to do what we could to try to make a difference with those who have fallen on hard times and make sure we can collaborate together on community resources. Also collaborate on the Federal and state side to make sure resources don\u2019t just flow to the urban parts of the country but can actually come to the parts of the country that have real problems but don\u2019t have huge staffs to cut through the red-tape.\u201d Offering his thoughts on the summit, Rep. Duffy said, \u201cWe found that by reaching out to each other and building a coalition within our community we can be more effective in our efforts to serve the neediest in our area.\u201d Rep. Duffy\u2019s office plans to post the entire summit on YouTube. Click\u00a0here\u00a0to watch and check back for updates from the daylong event. ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140106172912/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov:80/view/a-holiday-message-from-senator-tammy-baldwin", "A holiday message from Senator Tammy Baldwin", "2013-12-23", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "It's been an exciting year and I look forward to continue working with you next year and in the years to come to build a stronger future for Wisconsin and America. Have a wonderful holiday season everyone and a happy new year!", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221060306/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/wishes-for-a-wonderful-holiday-season-and-a-happy-new-year", "Wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!", "2013-12-23", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Monday, December 23, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year! \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\nHello everyone! As your United States\u2019 Senator, I want to thank you for your support over the course of my first year working for you in the United States Senate. Every day it is my honor and privilege to work for Wisconsin and give a voice to our shared values.\nI want to take the time to let you know how much I appreciate all you do to move our state and country forward. As I have traveled across our great state I have seen firsthand our strong \u201cMade in Wisconsin\u201d work ethic and innovative, entrepreneurial spirit in action. Hard working families and businesses getting up every day and through shear grit and determination are moving our economy forward.\nBut I also know, as you do, that many of our neighbors are working as hard as ever, and they deserve to get ahead, but many are barely getting by and that is just not right.\nThat is why it so important that Washington hears your voice.\u00a0 Wisconsin needs Washington working for you and that is why I remain committed to working across party lines and putting progress for our state ahead of partisan politics.\nSince taking office, I have made it my priority to close the gap between the economic security Wisconsinites work so hard to achieve, and the economic uncertainty that they are asked to settle for.\nBecause if we can\u2019t close that gap, we might someday talk about the middle class as something we used to have, not something each generation can aspire to.\nThe holiday season gives us a time to reflect on the things that are important, to celebrate the many joys and blessings of the season, and to renew our commitment to something bigger than ourselves.\nFor me, it\u2019s working in the Senate for you and the great State of Wisconsin.\nIt\u2019s been an exciting year and I look forward to continue working with you next year and in the years to come to build a stronger future for Wisconsin and America.\nHave a wonderful holiday season everyone and a happy new year!", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/media-center/enewsletters/comfort-joy", "Comfort & Joy", "2013-12-22", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Dear friends, During this season of joy, I find myself more aware than maybe ever before of the people in our community who are in need of great comfort this Christmas. Whether it is a mother who is struggling to pay her utility bill, or a father who is dealing with the loss of his family\u2019s health insurance plan, this week I have been fortunate to work with many people from our community on ways we can help the neediest among us and hopefully make life a little more comfortable for them. Building Effective Awareness:\u00a0A year ago I sat down with many of the pastors in Wausau and asked them, \u201cWhat are the needs in our community?\u201d\u00a0 I was taken back when all of them commented on the issues of hunger and homelessness in our community. I think I\u2019m like a lot of people in our community who don\u2019t know the issues that a lot of people who are having a tough time are facing. I wanted to do what I could with my team to make sure we can make a difference with those who have fallen on hard times and make sure we can collaborate together on community resources. Also collaborate on the Federal and state side to make sure resources don\u2019t just flow to the urban parts of the country but can actually come to the parts of the country that have real problems but don\u2019t have huge staffs to cut through the red-tape. This week, more than 100 people came together for our first Hunger & Homelessness Summit. It was an honest conversation and ultimately a productive one as well.\u00a0 We found that by reaching out to each other and building a coalition within our community we can be more effective in our efforts to serve the neediest in our area. We are in the process of uploading the entire summit on YouTube. Click on the image below to watch it and keep checking back for more from the day long event. They need an Obamcare exemption too:\u00a0I\u00a0joined with a bipartisan group of Wisconsin Congressmen to ask U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to extend the federal Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP) through March 31, 2014. Gov. Walker signed legislation on Friday to extend current coverage for Wisconsin citizens under several medical assistance programs, including HIRSP, through March 31, 2014 citing the failed rollout of Obamacare. The Secretary should offer all Americans with pre-existing and, in some cases, life threatening conditions the same courtesy.\u00a0 Not offering this extension nationwide could leave some of our poorest and most medically vulnerable Americans without coverage. These individuals should not lose their healthcare coverage due to technical difficulties. This Administration is delaying multiple pieces of its signature legislation on an almost daily basis because it is politically convenient for them. It is our hope that the Secretary will also offer an\u00a0extension to the numerous Americans who have had their lives inconvenienced by this ill-conceived law. To read the full letter to Sec. Sebelius, click\u00a0here. Waiting in joyful hope:\u00a0Our family is anxiously awaiting the birth of our Lord this week and if you saw Rachel and my appearance on \u201cMorning Joe\u201d you may have heard that our family is also very much looking forward to the arrival of the newest addition to our Duffy clan. Click on the image to watch the full announcement and the other topics we discussed. \u00a0 This is a very exciting time of year in our house. As we celebrate Jesus\u2019 birth this week, we will also cherish this time together as a family. Rachel, the kids, and I are always grateful for the kindness so many of you have shown us. We hope that you are able to spend this time surrounded by those you love as well. We wish you and yours a safe, merry and very blessed Christmas season. \u00a0 Merry Christmas, \u00a0Sean", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=365156", "Why We Must Reform Military Compensation", "2013-12-22", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The Bipartisan Budget Act that Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and I drafted will soon become law. We think it's a small step toward fiscal discipline in Washington. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will reduce the deficit over the next ten years by over $20 billion. And unlike current law, it will provide much-needed relief to our already strained defense budget.\r\nOne part of the bill has become particularly controversial: the reduction in cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for working-age military retirees. The federal government has no greater obligation than to keep the American people safe and we must take care of the men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line. For that reason, Congress is understandably hesitant to make changes to military compensation.\r\nBut even hesitance has a cost. The need for reform is undeniable. Since 2001, excluding the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the cost per service member in the active-duty force has risen by 41% in inflation-adjusted dollars.\r\nDefense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a combat vet himself, has said \"that we can no longer put off military compensation reform. DOD's leadership, Chairman Dempsey, the service chiefs, the service secretaries, and myself, we all know that we need to slow cost growth in military compensation. Otherwise, we'll have to make disproportionate cuts to military readiness and modernization.\"\r\nHere's what the new law will do. We make no changes for those currently at or above age 62. This reform affects only younger military retirees. Right now, any person who has served 20 years can retire \u2014regardless of age. That means a serviceman who enlists at 18 becomes eligible for retirement at 38. The late 30s and early 40s are prime working years, and most of these younger retirees go on to second careers.\r\nAll this reform does\u00a0is make a small adjustment for those younger retirees. If they retire before age 62, the annual increase in their retired pay will be 1% less than the inflation rate. In other words, their benefits will grow every year \u2014 just at a slower rate. And when the retiree hits 62, DOD will recalculate the retired pay so that it will be where it would have been if he or she had received the full inflation adjustment every year since he or she retired.\r\nHere's an example: If a serviceman enlisted at 18 and retired at 38, under this policy his lifetime benefit would be about $1.7 million instead of $1.8 million. For a service member who retired at the average military retirement age of 44, the difference would be smaller, about $30,000 over his or her lifetime. This is a far more modest reform than other bipartisan proposals, some of which would have fully eliminated the adjustments for inflation for working-age retirees.\r\nAnd to be clear, the money we save from this reform will go right back to the military. Veterans aren't Washington's piggy bank. They deserve fair compensation. And we owe them a benefit structure they can count on.\r\nThat said, when Congress was considering the bill, many raised concerns that these reforms would affect the retired pay of service members who are medically retired and those receiving survivor's benefits. So Senator Murray and I have agreed to amend the law to exclude them well before the reform takes effect in December 2015.\r\nBut I stand behind the need for reform. In 2012, Congress established the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission to examine the entire military-compensation system from top to bottom. The commission's recommendations are due in May, and the leaders of the armed-services committees in Congress have agreed to consider their recommendations and look for other ways to reform the system. That's why this reform does not take effect until the end of 2015 \u2014 it gives Congress ample time to consider alternatives.\r\nFor me, there's simply no choice between responsible reforms of military compensation and making what our military leadership has called \"disproportionate cuts to military readiness and modernization.\" Every time we kick the can down the road, we put our troops' combat readiness at risk. This agreement put forward one reform option, and I invite others to do the same.\r\nOur troops have been willing to sacrifice everything for this country. We owe it to them to give them the best equipment on the battlefield and a secure retirement when they come home.\r\nPaul Ryan, R-Wis., was the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2012 and is chairman of the House Budget Committee.\r\nhttp://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/12/22/veterans-retirement-paul-ryan-budget-deal-column/4164713/", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/press-release/duffy-5-wisconsin-congressmen-to-sebelius-extend-hirsp-federal-plan", "Duffy & 5 Wisconsin Congressmen to Sebelius, \"Extend HIRSP Federal Plan\"", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "\"Not offering this extension nationwide could leave some of our poorest and most medically vulnerable Americans without\u00a0coverage.\u201d Washington D.C. -\u00a0U.S. Congressman Sean Duffy,\u00a0with a bipartisan group of Wisconsin Congressmen,\u00a0asked United States Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to extend the federal Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP) through March 31, 2014. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker\u00a0signed legislation on\u00a0Friday to extend current coverage for Wisconsin citizens under several medical assistance programs, including HIRSP, through March 31, 2014 citing the failed rollout of Obamacare. The group of Federal lawmakers pleaded with the Secretary to offer all Americans with pre-existing and, in some cases, life threatening conditions to be afforded the same courtesy.\u00a0Rep. Duffy\u00a0offered the following comments: \"Not offering this extension nationwide could leave some of our poorest and most medically vulnerable Americans without coverage. These individuals should not lose their healthcare coverage due to technical difficulties. This Administration is delaying multiple pieces of its signature legislation on an almost daily basis because it is politically convenient for them. It is our hope that the Secretary will also offer an\u00a0extension to the numerous Americans who have had their lives inconvenienced by this ill-conceived law.\"\u00a0 Rep. Duffy was joined on the letter by Representatives\u00a0Paul Ryan (WI-01),\u00a0Ron Kind (WI-03), \u00a0Jim Sensenbrenner (WI-05),\u00a0Tom Petri (WI-06) and Reid Ribble (WI-08) Full text of letter to Sec. Kathleen Sebelius:", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://gwenmoore.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=49&itemid=965", "Gwen Moore Opposes So-Called \"School Mascot\" Bill", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Erika Eichelberger | January 2, 2013\r\n\r\n\t\u2002\r\n\r\n\tInterstate 5 runs down the middle of California\u2019s San Joaquin Valley for hundreds of miles. On either side are dusty rows of almond, peach and orange trees. In the summer, the ground is tan and dry. Telephone poles measure out the time for passing cars, their sagging power lines scalloping out to a vanishing point on the horizon. Somewhere almost halfway from San Francisco to Los Angeles is a town called Huron.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tThis is where Carla (not her real name) used to work, shaking almonds from the trees at harvest time for $8 an hour. This is also where she was raped by her foreman. But as a Mexican immigrant with no papers, she was afraid to tell anyone.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tIt\u2019s a common tale. Some 630,000 of the 3 million migrant farm laborers in the United States are women, and at least 60 percent are undocumented. Most are subject to sexual abuse but fear deportation if they speak up. The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which expired almost a year and a half ago, would have helped change that. But after being held hostage by House Republicans who wanted fewer protections for women, it died in the 112th Congress. The next class of legislators will have to start from scratch on a new bill. Meanwhile, women are waiting.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tA 2010 survey by Irma Morales Waugh of the University of California, Santa Cruz, reported that 80 percent of female farmworkers interviewed had been subject to sexual assault or harassment. A recent Human Rights Watch report found that sexual abuse of female farmworkers is so common that many see it as \u201can unavoidable condition of agricultural work.\u201d And a mid-1990s study by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission concluded that among California crop workers, \u201chundreds, if not thousands, of women had to have sex with supervisors to get or keep jobs and/or put up with a constant barrage of grabbing and touching and propositions for sex.\u201d The female laborers, or campesinas, called one company\u2019s crops the \u201cfield of panties,\u201d since so many women had been raped there by their overseers.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tThe women are stuck, because even though the same labor laws that forbid workplace harassment for legal residents also technically cover undocumented workers, enforcement is spotty and laborers seldom know their rights. Female crop workers make an average of $11,250 a year. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to lose their job,\u201d said Amparo Yebra, a senior caseworker at Westside Family Preservation Services Network, a community group in Huron that provides social services to migrant laborers.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tThe Senate passed a version of VAWA in April that would have expanded escape routes for these women. The bill would have increased the number of special U-visas, which give temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants who are victims of sexual assault or domestic violence, and who are willing to cooperate with an investigation.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t* * *\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tWhen the foreman drove Carla home for the first time, it was raining. She piled into his truck with other workers. He stopped at a gas station to drop everyone else off, but told Carla he\u2019d give her a lift all the way back to her place. Instead, he took her out into a field and raped her.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tThere\u2019s so much space out there in the flat fields, sounds don\u2019t travel much. Sometimes there\u2019s a background noise: an unseen bird chirping, or power lines buzzing, or a giant eighteen-wheeler groaning by, mud flaps beating.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tOver the next couple of months, he raped her five or six more times, and she became pregnant. She was 22. When she started to show, the women working alongside her asked who the father was, and told her to go to the Westside community group. Carla went because they gave out free food. At Westside, her caseworker Yebra, who knew all about U-visas, called the police and helped Carla through the ensuing investigation, which concluded with the arrest and deportation of her assailant back to Mexico. About eight months later, in 2010, Carla got a temporary work permit.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t* * *\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tIn 2012, the number of U-visas issued by the Department of Homeland Security hit its annual 10,000 limit a month before the end of the fiscal year\u2014for the third year in a row. The Senate version of VAWA would have made up to 5,000 rollover visas from previous years available annually to undocumented women. The bill included additional safeguards for immigrants, and new provisions for Native American women and LGBT victims of sexual abuse as well.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tBut in the version of the bill that passed the House in May, Republicans stripped out the new protections for these three vulnerable groups, slamming them as politically driven. They also scaled back the law\u2019s existing protections for women\u2014for example, removing the chance for immigrants with U-visas to become eligible for permanent residency after their temporary visas expire. The House bill would also have required a stricter standard of proof for asylum, and would have broken with current confidentiality laws to allow the government to interview the abuser about the applicant.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tOver the nearly two decades of its existence, VAWA has been renewed perfunctorily every five years, each time adding new protections to keep it up-to-date with changes in the population and the recommendations of law enforcement and advocates. \u201c[The reauthorization] was supposed to be a yawner,\u201d said Wisconsin Democratic Representative Gwen Moore, a fierce proponent of the Senate version of the bill. Meghan Rhoad, a women\u2019s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, says the dispute over the bill this year between the two chambers \u201ccreates a really disturbing precedent, interjecting uncertainty for programs that provide really essential services for victims of sexual violence.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tAt the eleventh hour, at the very end of the lame-duck Congress, the House and Senate were still squabbling over how to draw up a compromise bill. House Republicans had relented on the immigrant and LGBT sections, but majority leader Eric Cantor dug in his heels over the Native American provision, which would have expanded tribal courts\u2019 jurisdiction over domestic violence offenses committed on reservations against Native women by non-Native men. \u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tAction on the reauthorization awaits the new Congress. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame to start all over again,\u201d Moore said.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tSenator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Democratic co-sponsor of the Senate bill, said Congress\u2019s failure to act simply means more people suffering. \u201cI still have nightmares from the domestic violence crime scenes I saw as a prosecutor in Vermont,\u201d he said in a statement in December. \u201cThe thought that our inaction could lead to more such scenes is tragic.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t* * *\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tCarla has a baby now. She says she wants to go to school and learn English. And \u201cshe knows her rights,\u201d Yebra says. \u201cWomen who are sexually abused are told they are good for nothing\u2026. But they are an important person. The women are very important.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tGreg Kaufman recently (Sept. 12) presented a video [1] explaining why Native American women, in particular, need the Violence Against Women Act.\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tTo view this article online, please click here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://gwenmoore.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2112", "Gwen Moore Opposes So-Called \"School Mascot\" Bill", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "What kind of message are we sending to our Native American neighbors, our students and school districts across the nation? I am extremely disappointed that Governor Walker has, once again, chosen to stand on the wrong side of history. \r\n          share:\r\n          f \r\n          t \r\n        \r\n      \r\n        Contact: Staci Cox  (202) 225- 4572   Milwaukee, WI  Today, Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-04) spoke out after learning that Governor Walker has signed a bill making it easier for public schools to keep Native American nicknames, logos, mascots and team names.  Our governor continues to make headlines for his decisions negatively impacting Wisconsinites, said Rep. Moore. This time, he is not singling out students, seniors, people with disabilities, the middle class or the poor. Rather he is turning his back on our Native American communities. This law is offensive at its core.  In 2010, Wisconsin enacted a law that allowed the Department of Public Instruction to conduct a hearing on the offensive nature of a Native American public school nickname, logo, mascot or team name if one complaint was received. The so-called School Mascot bill not only essentially repeals this law, it provides more control to the Walker administration by giving hearing supervision to the Department of Administration. In addition, the new law has onerous requirements that will cause complainants to gather signatures from 10 percent of the school district population in order to file a complaint.  What kind of message are we sending to our Native American neighbors, our students and school districts across the nation? I am extremely disappointed that Governor Walker has, once again, chosen to stand on the wrong side of history.  According to news reports, all 11 tribal nations in Wisconsin oppose the law.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://kind.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-kind-and-sensenbrenner-lead-successful-effort-include-cushing", "Reps. Kind and Sensenbrenner Lead Successful Effort to Include Cushing Amendment in NDAA", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Ron Kind", "K000188", "kind.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, DC  U.S. Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) today celebrated the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which included a provision to posthumously award Lt. Alonzo Cushing with the Medal of Honor. Lieutenant Cushing, a Wisconsin-born Civil War hero, played a key role in securing a victory for the Union at Gettysburg.\nIt's never too late to do the right thing, especially when it comes to honoring our war heroes, said Rep. Kind. I am heartened to be joined by my colleagues in Congress in sending this bill to the President so we as a nation can finally honor Lt. Cushing with his well-deserved Medal of Honor.\nLieutenant Cushing was a courageous leader who gave his life to protect our country and deserves to be recognized for his bravery, Rep. Sensenbrenner said. I am extremely pleased that the Cushing amendment was passed by the House and Senate and hopeful President Obama awards Lieutenant Cushing with the Medal of Honor for his heroic service during the Civil War.\"\nA native of Delafield, WI, Lt. Cushing is best remembered for his actions on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg when he helped turn the tide during Pickett's Charge. On July 3, 1863, the third day of battle, Cushing and the 110 men under his command received the full force of Confederate artillery and Pickett's Charge of 13,000 infantry. Over the course of just a few hours, all of his officers had been killed and Cushing himself was wounded. But he continued to fight, and sustained two more wounds before dying on the field of battle.\nRecommendations for the Medal of Honor must be formally made within two years of the heroic action and awarded within three years. The legislation passed by Congress makes it possible to waive this requirement. The medal can be awarded after the bill is signed by the President and the waiver is approved by the Department of Defense. Reps. Kind and Sensenbrenner are sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel requesting his prompt attention to Lt. Cushing's record and look forward to his recommendation that Lt. Cushing be recognized with the Medal of Honor.\nReps. Kind and Sensenbrenner also thanked Wisconsin Senators Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin for leading the effort in the Senate to award Lt. Cushing.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221034451/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/enroll-by-december-23rd-for-health-care-coverage-starting-as-soon-as-january-1-2014", "Enroll by December 23rd for health care coverage starting as soon as January 1, 2014", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Friday, December 20, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Enroll by December 23rd for health care coverage starting as soon as January 1, 2014 \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe Affordable Care Act gives millions of uninsured Americans access to health insurance, while also helping Americans who already have insurance feel more secure in their coverage, ensuring it'll be there when they need it.\u00a0 Every day more Americans are signing up for plans through HealthCare.gov, and more people with insurance are benefiting from the law.  \u00a0  If you're currently one of those who is uninsured, you can get health coverage that starts on January 1, 2014 by signing up by Monday - December 23, 2013. Open enrollment to sign up for health care coverage will continue through March 31st.\nGet Covered Quick Links:\nDon't delay \u2013 get covered today! Since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law and health care reforms have already made an empowering impact on the lives of many Wisconsinites.\nToday, insurance companies can no longer discriminate against children based on pre-existing medical conditions. Young adults can now stay on their parents' insurance plans up to age 26. And seniors on Medicare have received relief in their prescription drug costs and free preventive care.\nVisit baldwin.senate.gov/health-care-information for more information.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221060331/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/tammys-support-for-the-national-defense-authorization-act", "Tammy’s support for the National Defense Authorization Act", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Friday, December 20, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Tammy\u2019s support for the National Defense Authorization Act \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tYesterday, the Senate voted to move the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) forward. This bill governs the U.S. Department of Defense for the upcoming year. The NDAA includes a provision that maintains support for the \u2018Made in Wisconsin\u2019 Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program important to our state\u2019s economy and nation\u2019s defense.  \u00a0  Earlier this week, the newest ship of this \u2018Made in Wisconsin\u2019 fleet launched into the Menominee River, the USS Milwaukee. The LCS program, which includes the USS Milwaukee, has brought over $137 million to the Wisconsin economy already, while supporting well over 2,000 jobs at more than 240 separate businesses in the state.\n\nSenator Baldwin fought for provisions included in this year\u2019s bill. Her provisions include:\n \nStrengthening health, education and employment benefits for veterans; combating sexual assault in the military;\nAuthorizing the Medal of Honor for Wisconsinite First Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing for acts of valor during the Civil War\u2019s Battle of Gettysburg;\nAuthorizing the award of the Purple Heart to victims of the Fort Hood terrorist attack, six of whom were from Wisconsin;\nEnsuring that the Wisconsin National Guard can retain its important role in supporting American military operations worldwide;and\nMaintaining the possibility for 55,000 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) serving as replacements for the Marine Corps\u2019 and Army\u2019s Humvees will be built in Oshkosh.\n \nThe NDAA is a critical bill that gives our troops the resources and training they need and provides security for our country.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20131224084330/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov:80/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364892", "House Judiciary Committee Members Call for DOJ Investigation of National Intelligence Director Clapper for Lying to Congress", "2013-12-19", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Today, Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (WI-5), Darrell Issa (CA-49), Trent Franks (AZ-08), Blake Farenthold (TX-27), Trey Gowdy (SC-04), Raul Labrador (ID-01) and Ted Poe (TX-02) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. urging an investigation of the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, for lying to Congress while testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in March of 2013. \u00a0\u201cDirector Clapper\u2019s willful lie under oath fuels the unhealthy cynicism and distrust that citizens feel toward their government and undermines Congress\u2019s ability to perform its Constitutional function,\u201d the Members write in their letter to Holder. \u201cThere are differences of opinion about the propriety of the NSA\u2019s data collection programs.\u00a0 There can be no disagreement, however, on the basic premise that congressional witnesses must answer truthfully.\u201d  \u201cCongressional oversight depends on truthful testimony\u2014witnesses cannot be allowed to lie to Congress.\u00a0 Accordingly, we request you investigate Director of National Intelligence James Clapper\u2019s \u2018erroneous\u2019 statements to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence earlier this year.\u201d  At a March 12, 2013 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Director Clapper was asked if, \u201cthe NSA collected any type of data at all on millions of hundreds of millions of Americans\u201d to which he responded with, \u201cNo, Sir.\u201d\u00a0 Four months later, in June 2013, after the Snowden leaks publicly exposed Clapper\u2019s testimony as false, Clapper finally retracted his remarks and wrote, \u201cMy response was clearly erroneous, for which I apologize.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221032628/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-baldwin-supports-bipartisan-unemployment-extension-legislation", "Senator Baldwin Supports Bipartisan Unemployment Extension Legislation", "2013-12-19", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Senator Baldwin Supports Bipartisan Unemployment Extension Legislation\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t99,000 Wisconsinites projected to be affected in 2014 if Emergency Unemployment Compensation not extended  \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThursday, December 19, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin announced today that she is supporting bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Dean Heller (R-NV) that would prevent the expiration of unemployment insurance for 1.3 million Americans, including 99,000 Wisconsinites who are out of work and looking for a job.  \u00a0  \u201cOur nation\u2019s economy is moving forward but Wisconsin\u2019s economy continues to lag behind other states and far too many hard working people are still looking for a job. Wisconsin\u2019s economy can\u2019t afford the expiration of unemployment insurance because it will cost our economy jobs and slow growth,\u201d Baldwin said, \u201cThat is why it is critical that Congress takes action to continue federal support for unemployment insurance and provide a lifeline for Wisconsin families as they search for work in our recovering economy.\u201d  \u00a0  The Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act would reinstate and continue federal support for unemployment insurance (UI), effective January 1, 2014, for an additional three months, preventing the expiration of benefits for 1.3 million Americans. The legislation would effectively extend current UI policy through March 31, 2014 including the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program, Extended Benefits Provisions, and Funding for Reemployment Services and Reemployment and Eligibility Assessments. The bill would allow all states to continue federal unemployment insurance without a lapse from January 1, 2014. The bill would also allow any state whose agreement was previously terminated in 2013 to enter into a new agreement with the Department of Labor for Emergency Unemployment Compensation.  \u00a0  In 2014, if Emergency Unemployment Compensation is not extended, 99,000 Wisconsinites are projected to be affected. According to the Wisconsin Budget Project, since Congress has failed to take action before the end of the year, nearly 24,000 jobless workers in Wisconsin will abruptly lose all of their unemployment income at the end of December. Some 41,800 additional workers will exhaust their state-funded 26 weeks of unemployment benefits in the first half of 2014 and will be denied access to federal unemployment benefits.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221042429/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-baldwin-advocates-for-wisconsin-cranberry-growers", "Senator Baldwin Advocates for Wisconsin Cranberry Growers", "2013-12-19", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Senator Baldwin Advocates for Wisconsin Cranberry Growers\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tCo-Chair of Congressional Cranberry Caucus Calls on USDA to Support Wisconsin Industry  \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThursday, December 19, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, a strong supporter of Wisconsin\u2019s agriculture economy and co-chair of the Congressional Cranberry Caucus, today led a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, advocating for Wisconsin cranberry growers, who in 2013 produced over half of the nation\u2019s crop and were the top cranberry producers in the country for the 19th consecutive year.  \u00a0  \u201cWisconsin produces more cranberries than any other state. In a state that depends on agriculture to support hundreds of thousands of jobs and communities small and large, it\u2019s essential that we provide our growers with the tools and resources they need to continue to succeed,\u201d said Baldwin.\u00a0 \u201cAnd that means supporting them when the markets are tough. I will continue to advocate for efforts that strengthen Wisconsin\u2019s agriculture industry and grow our rural economies.\u201d   \u00a0  The letter asks USDA to consider a purchase of cranberries to mitigate the impact on growers at no cost to the taxpayer. The program is funded through customs receipts and the products purchased are provided to food pantries, which distribute the products to families in need. In addition, the cranberry industry has also worked with agency staff at the Food and Nutrition Service to expand the availability of cranberry products in school food programs through the addition of sweetened, dried cranberries to the Foods Available List.   \u00a0  \u201cThe cranberry industry is facing an oversupply of berries, which has severely impacted the commodity price. Wisconsin growers produce the majority of the world\u2019s cranberry crop, so this is a top concern in our state,\u201d said Tom Lochner, executive director of Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association. \u201cWe are grateful to Senator Baldwin and the rest of the cranberry caucus for their efforts to support the cranberry industry in Wisconsin and nationwide.\u201d  \u00a0  The WSCGA today applauded Senator Baldwin for her leadership to serve as co-chair of the Congressional Cranberry Caucus. The Congressional Cranberry Caucus was created in 2012 as a platform to educate members of Congress, their staffs and federal agencies about cranberry production across the U.S. The caucus aims to address conservation, environmental and nutritional benefits and concerns, along with issues surrounding the international trade of cranberries. Currently, the caucus is focused on securing USDA purchases of cranberry products to help offset an oversupply of the fruit. The caucus has also supported industry efforts to include more cranberry products in school lunch programs.  \u00a0  According to a University of Wisconsin report, Wisconsin\u2019s cranberry industry has an annual economic impact on the state of $300 million and supports 3,400 jobs from its 21,000 acres of cranberries grown in 20 counties in central and northern Wisconsin.  \u00a0  The letter can be found here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221193111/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364834", "Sensenbrenner and Kind Lead Successful Effort to Include Cushing Amendment in NDAA", "2013-12-19", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Ron Kind (D-Wis.) today celebrated the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which included a provision to posthumously award Lt. Alonzo Cushing with the Medal of Honor. Lieutenant Cushing, a Wisconsin-born Civil War hero, played a key role in securing a victory for the Union at Gettysburg.\u201cLieutenant Cushing was a courageous leader who gave his life to protect\nour country and deserves to be recognized for his bravery,\u201d Rep.\nSensenbrenner said. \u201cI am extremely pleased that the Cushing amendment\nwas passed by the House and Senate and hopeful President Obama awards\nLieutenant Cushing with the Medal of Honor for his heroic service during\nthe Civil War.\" \u201cIt\u2019s never too late to do the right thing, especially when it comes to honoring our war heroes,\u201d said Rep. Kind. \u201cI am heartened to be joined by my colleagues in Congress in sending this bill to the President so we as a nation can finally honor Lt. Cushing with his well-deserved Medal of Honor.\u201d A native of Delafield, WI, Lt. Cushing is best remembered for his actions on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg when he helped turn the tide during Pickett\u2019s Charge. On July 3, 1863, the third day of battle, Cushing and the 110 men under his command received the full force of Confederate artillery and Pickett\u2019s Charge of 13,000 infantry. Over the course of just a few hours, all of his officers had been killed and Cushing himself was wounded. But he continued to fight, and sustained two more wounds before dying on the field of battle. Recommendations for the Medal of Honor must be formally made within two years of the heroic action and awarded within three years. The legislation passed by Congress makes it possible to waive this requirement.\u00a0 The medal can be awarded after the bill is signed by the President and the waiver is approved by the Department of Defense. Reps. Kind and Sensenbrenner are sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel requesting his prompt attention to Lt. Cushing\u2019s record and look forward to his recommendation that Lt. Cushing be recognized with the Medal of Honor.  Reps. Kind and Sensenbrenner also thanked Wisconsin Senators Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin for leading the effort in the Senate to award Lt. Cushing.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221193128/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=365056", "Congressional NSA critics: review panel report gives 'momentum' for reform", "2013-12-19", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "The chief congressional critics of the US National Security Agency said Thursday that a White House review panel report gave them momentum to end bulk domestic surveillance, but expressed reservations about one of the panel\u2019s central proposals.\nIn an indication of the changing political landscape for the NSA, Representative James Sensenbrenner, the chief House sponsor of a bill preventing the agency from collecting US domestic phone data, said Thursday that \u201cPresident Obama\u2019s hand-picked panel\u201d highlighted \u201cthe need to enact the USA Freedom Act.\nBut Sensenbrenner, in an interview with the Guardian, was wary of its recommendation that phone companies or other private parties should store communications data for the NSA to search.\n\"The administration has not yet made the case that increased data retention is necessary, but I welcome any proposals that serve our national security interests without undermining constitutional rights\u201d Sensenbrenner said.\nThe report by the review group, released Wednesday afternoon, has been greeted warmly by skeptics of mass surveillance, particularly for its recommendations to add privacy advocates at the secret Fisa Court and for endorsing greater use of data encryption.\nBut as the review group\u2019s recommendations help reshape the debate over bulk surveillance, all sides are girding for a fight over the extent to which any entity ought to hold Americans\u2019 data \u2013 a fight likely to determine whether bulk domestic surveillance ends, or continues in a new form.\nIn line with the USA Freedom Act, the review group rejected a need for the government to hold citizens\u2019 data in bulk, and held out as a solution the ability of the government \u201cto obtain specific information relating to specific individuals or specific terrorist threats\u201d when it can demonstrate to the secret surveillance court \u201cthat it has reasonable grounds to access such information.\u201d\nBut the review group had less to say about a crucial detail: how long the telecoms ought to hold the NSA\u2019s desired call data. It urged the government and the companies to \u201cagree on a voluntary system\u201d and relegated to a footnote a suggestion that two years would be the maximum appropriate period of time to hold the data.\nCivil liberties groups who back the USA Freedom Act\u2019s flat prohibition on bulk domestic phone data collection flatly rejected having the phone companies or other \u201cprivate parties\u201d hold the data for NSA to query.\nAlexander Abdo of the ACLU said it would \u201csimply repackage the bulk collection under private control.\u201d Kurt Opsahl of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said it was \u201cstill heinous, even if private company servers are holding the data instead of government data centers.\u201d Kevin Bankston of the Open Technology Institute said it would amount to \u201cbulk collection by proxy.\u201d\nFor its part, the NSA has been publicly hinting for months that as long as the surveillance agency maintains access to a comprehensive database of domestic phone call information going back three to five years, it can live with that database existing outside of the NSA\u2019s Fort Meade campus.\n\"I would love to give this hornet\u2019s nest to someone else, to say \u2018You get stung by this,\u2019\u201d General Keith Alexander, the outgoing director of the NSA, said in October. \u201cBut don\u2019t drop it, because that\u2019s our country, and if you do drop it, the chance that a terrorist attack gets through increases.\u201d\u00a0\nOn Capitol Hill, where fallout from the review group is unsettled as aides slogged through a lengthy report, pro-reform officials noted that the review group did not endorse the NSA\u2019s call for years.\nNow that both a federal judge, Richard Leon, and the review group have both doubted the necessity of bulk collection for stopping terrorist attacks, they argued that the NSA will have difficulty arguing that the companies ought to be required to store the data for as long as the agency wants, especially since the phone companies have not shown enthusiasm for the proposal.\nReform advocates, who have embraced the review group as a political success, were cautious about embracing the telecom-based proposal as a solution for bulk surveillance.\nSenator Patrick Leahy, Sensenbrenner\u2019s chief partner in the upper legislative chamber, said that he would hold a hearing in January with the review group to further assess its recommendations.\nSenator Ron Wyden, a member of the intelligence committee who said the report in general provided \u201csubstantial, meaningful reforms,\u201d indicated on Wednesday that he had concerns about having the companies hold the phone data for the NSA.\n\u201cObviously, there\u2019s going to be a lot of technical issues associated with telecoms having the information,\u201d Wyden told the Guardian in an interview. \u201cThat\u2019s going to take some time to work through.\u201d\nWhat the telecoms, NSA and privacy advocates agree on is that requiring the phone companies to hold the data is a complicated process, technologically and otherwise.\nCurrently, the phone companies typically store customer data for 18 months. The NSA wants the information kept for at least three years and ideally five, ostensibly to detect domestic communications pattern to known terrorist groups. Legislation would be necessary to compel the companies to store the data longer \u2013 which is both expensive and raises concerns about keeping the data secure.\nThe telecoms \u201cwould fight tooth and nail\u201d against such a requirement, said a congressional aide, \u201cunless there\u2019s compensations.\u201d\nCompanies as well keep their data in different file formats, complicating the ability for comprehensive and rapid searches. So far, the telecos have not embraced the proposal.\n\u201cA practical concern is that when you start saying you have to keep all this data, you open it up for access to divorce cases and down the line, everyone\u2019s going to want a bite at the apple,\u201d said Ross Schulman, a lobbyist with the Computer and Communications Industry Association.\nAt the same time, a powerful opponent of the USA Freedom Act, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, worried on Thursday that the review group might weaken US intelligence efforts.\n\u201cThough I am still studying the details, I have serious concerns with some of the report\u2019s 46 recommendations,\u201d said Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, former FBI agent and staunch advocate of the NSA\u2019s bulk collection.\n\"Any intelligence collection reforms must be careful to preserve important national security capabilities. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Congress to enact meaningful reforms in the near future.\u201d\nSenator Dianne Feinstein, Rogers\u2019 counterpart in the Senate, has yet to respond to the review group\u2019s proposals. Feinstein, a California Democrat, is backing an alternative to the USA Freedom Act that would bolster the NSA\u2019s powers to store communications data. Its prospects are less clear in the Senate now that the White House\u2019s surveillance review panel rejected its major rationale.\nThe USA Freedom Act claims 132 co-sponsors in the House and Senate combined, a quarter of the Congress. Obama has yet to commit to either supporting or opposing it.\n\u201cThe report sent over by the White House reaffirms what many of my colleagues and I have been saying since June \u2013 the NSA has gone too far,\u201d Sensenbrenner said.\n\u201cAll three branches of government have now said it is time to stop indiscriminately vacuuming up the data of innocent Americans. The report also agrees that the NSA\u2019s bulk collection has come at a high cost to privacy without improving national security.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364818", "Senate Passes the Bipartisan Budget Act", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Today, the Senate passed the Bipartisan Budget Act, which the House approved in an overwhelming vote last week. The bill would reduce the deficit\u2014without raising taxes\u2014and cut spending in a smarter way. \r\nUpon passage of the legislation, Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin issued the following statement:\r\n \r\n\u201cI want to thank Chairman Murray and her colleagues in the Senate for passing the Bipartisan Budget Act. She was a tough and honest negotiator in our talks. And this week, she worked very hard to secure final passage. I\u2019m grateful for her leadership in forging this budget agreement.\r\n\u201cThis vote shows both parties\u2014in both chambers\u2014can find common ground. We can work together. This bill is only a small step. We need to do a lot more. But it\u2019s a small step in the right direction.\u201d\r\n \r\nClick here to learn more about the Bipartisan Budget Act.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364882", "Paul Ryan: 'We owe so much to these men and women who fight for us.'", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "CNBC\u2019s Kudlow Report\r\nIn an exclusive interview with Larry Kudlow, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Budget Committee chairman, discusses the budget deal, the Fed's decision to taper, and veterans' pensions.\r\n    \r\nLarry Kudlow: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul\u00a0Ryan\u00a0is a big winner tonight. The Senate late this afternoon passing the\u00a0Ryan-Murray compromise budget framework, sending it to the White House. But despite passage, there are still concerns about how the bill will affect veterans, especially disabled veterans, and that has some calling for a fix. This afternoon I had a chance to speak with Chairman\u00a0Ryan and I asked him if he agreed with these comments from his Senate counterpart Patty Murray.\r\nPatty Murray: In a provision included in this deal that mistakenly included disabled retirees and survivors for changes in the pension growth will be addressed in short order following passage of this bill.\r\nPaul Ryan: Yes, I do. That will be solved with the technical correction that will pass when Congress comes back into session. We wanted to make sure that we kept military pension retirement better than their civilian counterparts. Civilians who retired before 62 get no cost of living update at all. These military retirees will still get a cost of living update then they get the benefits recalculated when they turn 62, to make sure that they got back what they had lost. In effect, build back the base of their pension. Look Larry, we owe so much to these men and women who fight for us. We wanted to make sure that they always have a better pension system than anybody else in government. We maintain that, and we have very modest reforms to help the Pentagon with their very big budget problems. The Pentagon has some budget problems. We stopped the bleeding, we stopped the cuts, we gave them some mild reforms and we have two years before this actual provision kicks in place to give Congress enough time to adjust it in another way if they want to.\r\nLarry Kudlow: Let me just be clear on this. So in other words, you agree that disabled military vets will not be take the 1% call for reduction. You agree with that, and that was an oversight? \r\nPaul Ryan: That's correct.\r\nLarry Kudlow: And another big event today, I\u2019m sure you're aware of this. The Federal Reserve released its minutes and they\u2019re having a small taper. They are taking $10 billion off an $85 billion-a-month bond purchase and I wanted to get your sense of that. The stock market is rallying big time. What do you think?\r\nPaul Ryan: Well, I thought they should have started tapering a lot time ago. You and I have similar views on sound money. I was not a fan of these later rounds of quantitative easing. I thought it was necessary in the beginning of the crisis. Subsequent rounds of QE, I think did more harm than good. In the long run, we'll know the answer to that for sure. High time they started. This is basically symbolic, because it's really not that big in the scheme of things.\r\nLarry Kudlow: Periodically as Budget Chair you've held hearings on the Fed. Let me ask you now, with the changing of the guard, does Janet Yellen have your confidence?\r\nPaul Ryan: I think we went to a more dovish Fed Chair with Janet Yellen. Ben ended up becoming a dove from my perspective \u2013 less of a sound money guy, more of a deflation fighter instead of an inflation hawk. More dovish. She\u2019s clearly in the dove category. She\u2019s a Keynesian. So, I don't expect much difference from her from where we are right now.\r\nLarry Kudlow: Let\u2019s go directly to the spending. You've raised the spending caps from sequestration in 2014-2015, I think the number sums to $65 billion. What do you say to people, particularly conservatives, and you\u2019ve heard this. Conservatives who are saying budget caps, spending caps, sequestration, which was a signature Republican achievement, is dead? Is that true? Are the caps dead? Is the spending discipline dead?\r\nPaul Ryan: No, not at all, actually. The Democrats came into these negotiations wanting to get rid of the caps all together \u2013 100% of the caps. Well, we just got them to agree, in the next year and a half, to 70% of the caps. 70% of the sequester is still in place for the next year and a half. The 30% sequester relief we gave, $63 billion of spending, is paid for with $85 billion of permanent entitlement changes, permanent savings that results in deficit reduction, so that exceeds the Budget Control Act requirement of a one for one replacement, so we actually go farther than the law requires. More to the point, Larry, 92% of the sequester is left intact over the lifetime of the sequester with this agreement. So, what we like from a fiscal conservative standpoint, is we do give relief to the sequester now, particularly because the defense hawks in our conference would not support where this was going to go. We did not have the votes to stick to that $967 number, so we got excess savings to make us have more deficit reduction, and we prevent two government shutdowns from happening in the next year, which we think is a good thing for lots of reasons - for the country, for certainty, for economic growth. We want to focus on Obamacare and Obamacare oversight. We want to focus on tax reform. We want to focus on a pro-growth agenda. We don\u2019t want to have two government shutdown scenarios, and we think this is that step in the right direction.\r\nLarry Kudlow: Another one, the feud with the tea party, Speaker Boehner took a few whacks at the Tea Party. I\u2019ve had many of them on The Kudlow Report. They wanted the full sequester, it's not an unreasonable request. How is your relationship to the Tea Party? What do you have to say to the Tea Party, which is kind of up in arms now because it seems like a lot of Republicans are attacking them?\r\nPaul Ryan: Well, look, I have nothing but good things to say about the Tea Party. We wouldn't be here if it weren\u2019t for the Tea Party. Look, when I started my budgets back in 2008, I had eight other members of Congress who were willing to co-sponsor and put their name on it. Eight. And because of the Tea Party, because of those grassroots conservatives out in America, I was able to pass it in 2011 with I think 233 votes. I was able to pass three budgets now because of these grassroots conservatives, these fiscal conservatives, which balances the budget and pays off the debt. There\u2019s no way I could have passed these kinds of budgets if it weren't for them that\u2019s why I credit them with this great success. Now, you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. In divided government, you have to look at the situation as it is, and not as you wish it would be, and keep moving the ball in the right direction even if it\u2019s incrementally. I would prefer that these so-called feuds are in the family and not out in the public.\r\nLarry Kudlow: You report to the Wall Street Journal that you want to be the Ways and Means Committee Chairman in 2015. Why? What\u2019s your agenda?\r\nPaul Ryan: Look, you know me, Larry. There\u2019s nothing new here than what I\u2019ve always said. This has been my career trajectory in the House. People ask me if I want to be Speaker. I don't. And this is the next logical step, but what I\u2019m really focused on right now to be honest with you Larry, is helping Dave Camp with the Ways and Means Committee. He\u2019s our quarterback, he\u2019s our chairman. My dream for 2014 is that the Camp-Baucus Tax Reform Act of 2014, which reduces tax rates across the board in a pro-growth way to grow the economy, becomes law. I want to help Dave do that. Then after this election, after 2015, this is really no secret, this is not a newsworthy item, that is the natural progression of how I saw things. That\u2019s the way I\u2019ve always planned it. And there's nothing really new here.\r\nLarry Kudlow: Are you leaving the Presidential door open for 2016? You just had a big poll in Iowa. You had the best numbers of all the Republican candidates. A lot of people are saying, \u2018you know, look how he negotiated this budget. He can cut across party lines and get things done.\u2019 You stopped the shutdown. Some people are saying you saved the Republican Party from itself because you stopped the shutdown. So is the door open for a 2016 Presidential run, I ask you,\u00a0Paul\u00a0Ryan?\r\nPaul Ryan: Well, I'll answer you, Larry Kudlow, that I\u2019m going to make my mind up on that issue later on. I\u2019m just trying to do my job right now. The people here in Wisconsin elected me to represent them. My colleagues asked me to chair the Budget committee, so I\u2019m doing that job the best I can. I\u2019m not going to let future ambition or career moves cloud my judgment today, and what I decided, my wife and I decided, is let's get through this session and then I\u2019ll make my mind up down the road. I haven't foreclosed any opportunity, I haven't made a decision one way or the other. Right now, I\u2019m just sincerely focused on doing my job.\r\nLarry Kudlow: All right. We've known each other a long time and if I may so, happy holy Merry Christmas and New Year's and thanks for coming on.\r\nPaul Ryan: Awesome. Merry Christmas, Larry. Good to see you.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221042456/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/us-senator-tammy-baldwins-statement-on-the-bipartisan-budget-agreement", "U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin's statement on the bipartisan budget agreement", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin's statement on the bipartisan budget agreement\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, December 18, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\"The bipartisan budget agreement isn\u2019t perfect, but it is progress that will help break this destructive pattern of drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. If we hadn\u2019t reached this bipartisan compromise, we would have been left with a potential shutdown in January and continued uncertainty for our economy. This agreement rolls back the arbitrary cuts of sequestration that have slowed economic growth and cost our economy jobs and also builds on the $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction done since 2011. It is important that both parties worked together to put progress ahead of politics and produce a bipartisan agreement that is grounded in compromise, not crisis. It protects investments in education, research, and innovation and is a good first step towards providing economic security for the middle class and certainty for our economy. Now that we have put in place a new path forward, it is my hope that we can continue to work across party lines to create economic growth and take a balanced approach to reducing the deficit without shortchanging our future. There is a lot more work to be done to create jobs and grow the middle class but this compromise is a strong step forward and can be the foundation for continued bipartisan work.\" --- U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221042519/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-baldwin-works-to-strengthen-continued-investments-in-wisconsin-shipbuilders-and-state-economy", "Senator Baldwin Works to Strengthen Continued Investments in Wisconsin Shipbuilders and State Economy", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Senator Baldwin Works to Strengthen Continued Investments in Wisconsin Shipbuilders and State Economy\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tSupport for Littoral Combat Ship Program Included in National Defense Authorization Act\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, December 18, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington D.C. \u2013 The United States Senate will vote today to move forward on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the bill that governs United States Department of Defense for the upcoming year. The NDAA includes a provision that maintains support for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, which employs thousands of Wisconsin workers and contributes millions of dollars to our state economy. Senator Baldwin has been a strong advocate for the LCS program for years and helped ensure inclusion of the LCS language in the NDAA.  \u00a0  \u201cWisconsin is home to one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the nation, including a strong shipbuilding industry with a history of success providing ships for our nation\u2019s defense,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cI have fought for this program because it employs thousands of hardworking Wisconsinites and positively impacts not only the local community but has a ripple effect across the state, boosting our made in Wisconsin economy.\u201d   \u00a0  The U.S. Navy has contracted with Lockheed Martin who contracted with Marinette Marine to build a total of 12 Littoral Combat Ships in Wisconsin by 2019. Marinette Marine has just completed production of their third ship, the USS Milwaukee, which is being launched today in Marinette. Five additional ships are currently in some stage of production. Previously in danger of being cut under sequestration, the NDAA helps secure the funding for four ships to be built at Marinette, two in 2014, and two in 2015.  \u00a0  \u201cOn behalf of MMC and our great mid-western employees who contribute so much to our nation's security by building the Freedom class Littoral Combat Ship, I want to express deep gratitude to Senator Tammy Baldwin for her exemplary leadership,\u201d said Chuck Goddard, CEO of Marinette Marine Corporation. \u201cIn particular, the role she played in preserving the current 20 ship Block Buy from attacks was key in avoiding delay and harm to this critical program so needed by our warfighters. Senator Baldwin's hard work in the Senate enabled a compromise amendment that leaves the current Block Buy in place and allows MMC to continue constructing the LCS, and expanding our workforce to help us build the U.S. Navy's ship of the future.\"  \u00a0  According to Marinette, the LCS program has brought over $137 million to the Wisconsin economy already, while supporting well over 2,000 jobs at more than 240 separate businesses in the state.  \u00a0  The bipartisan NDAA, which Congress has passed every year for 52 years, gives guidance to the Pentagon for all of its actions, conduct and spending for the year. This year\u2019s bill contained other provisions Senator Baldwin has fought for as well. These included: maintaining the possibility that the 55,000 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) serving as replacements for the Marine Corps\u2019 and Army\u2019s Humvees will be built in Oshkosh, Wis.;\u00a0 strengthening health, education and employment benefits for veterans; combating sexual assault in the military; authorizing the Medal of Honor for Wisconsinite First Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing for acts of valor during the Civil War\u2019s Battle of Gettysburg; authorizing the award of the Purple Heart to victims of the Fort Hood terrorist attack, six of whom were from Wisconsin; and ensuring that the Wisconsin National Guard can retain its important role in supporting American military operations worldwide.  \u00a0  ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221061531/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/a-proud-day-for-wisconsin-the-future-uss-milwaukee-launches-today", "A proud day for Wisconsin: The future USS Milwaukee Launches today", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Wednesday, December 18, 2013\n\t\t\t\t A proud day for Wisconsin: The future USS Milwaukee Launches today \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tToday, the future USS Milwaukee will launch at Marinette Marine Corporation in Marinette. Senator Baldwin has made it her priority to build and strengthen our \"Made in Wisconsin\" economy, including strengthening investments in Wisconsin shipbuilders. \u00a0  \u00a0\n\nWisconsin is home to one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the nation, including a strong shipbuilding industry with a history of success providing ships for our nation\u2019s defense. I have fought for this program because it employs thousands of hardworking Wisconsinites and positively impacts not only the local community but has a ripple effect across the state, boosting our made in Wisconsin economy.\u201d --- Senator Tammy Baldwin\nFun facts about the USS Milwaukee & the Littoral Combat Ships program:\n###\nToday, the U.S. Senate will vote to move forward on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) - a bill that governs the United State Deprtment of Defense for the upcoming year. The NDAA includes a provision that maintains support for the LCS program. Click here, to read more on Tammy's work to support the program.\nPhoto credit to Lockheed Martin.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://kind.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-ron-kind-welcomes-usda-investment-electric-system-improvement", "Rep. Ron Kind Welcomes USDA Investment in Electric System Improvement Projects in Wisconsin", "2013-12-17", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Ron Kind", "K000188", "kind.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, DC  U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) applauded the news that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utilities Service Program is making major investments in electric utility infrastructure projects in Wisconsin.\nElectric cooperatives do a great job of powering our rural economies and ensuring that our homes and businesses have a reliable and affordable source of electricity, said Rep. Kind. These investments from the USDA will help modernize and improve our electric system so that our rural communities have the power they need to create jobs and keep our local economies competitive.\nThe USDA investments in Wisconsin include a $121,562,000 loan to Wisconsin's Dairyland Power Cooperative to build and improve 87 miles of transmission line and five new substations, along with other system improvements. Additionally, the Chippewa Valley Electric Cooperative is getting a $3,000,000 loan for building 40 miles of distribution line and other projects. Funding for smart grid projects is included in both loans: $800,000 for Dairyland Power and $147,188 for Chippewa Valley.\nA total of $1.8 billion in infrastructure funding will be invested across 25 states and one territory.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221061558/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/through-the-aca-wisconsin-seniors-are-saving-money-on-prescription-drugs-and-preventive-services", "Through the ACA, Wisconsin seniors are saving money on prescription drugs & preventive services", "2013-12-17", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Tuesday, December 17, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Through the ACA, Wisconsin seniors are saving money on prescription drugs & preventive services \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSince America\u2019s new health care law was enacted, nearly 7 million seniors and people with disabilities have saved a total of $9 billion on prescription drugs. In Wisconsin alone, approximately 58,900 Wisconsinites have saved $848 on average on their prescription drugs because of the Affordable Care Act.\nSo what do these savings mean? Before the Affordable Care Act, if people with Medicare hit a certain threshold of spending on prescription drugs, they would suddenly have to pay out of pocket for the entire cost of the prescription drugs until they reached catastrophic coverage. Now, the Affordable Care Act is helping close this gap in coverage, also known as the \u201cdonut hole,\u201d reducing out of pocket costs for Wisconsin seniors.\nIn addition to these important cost-savings for Wisconsin seniors, more and more Wisconsinites are gaining access to preventive services. New data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that in the first 11 months of 2013 alone, an estimated 25.4 million people with traditional Medicare received at least one free preventive service, like a wellness visit or mammogram, at no out-of-pocket cost. In Wisconsin, approximately 461,000 people with Medicare have already received at least one free preventive service this year.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221061626/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/wisconsin-scores-high-on-giving-back-through-volunteering", "Wisconsin Scores High on Giving Back through Volunteering", "2013-12-17", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Tuesday, December 17, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Wisconsin Scores High on Giving Back through Volunteering \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tVolunteering is an important commitment we make to our communities. It gives people an opportunity to advance the common good and helps improve the lives our neighbors. \u00a0\nA new report says Wisconsin ranks among the top 10 states in volunteer rates.The Corporation for National & Community Service, a federal agency that promotes public service, reviewed states' volunteer rates between 2010 and 2012. It found 35.6 percent of Wisconsin residents did volunteer work over that span, ranking them eighth among all 50 states and the District of Columbia.Milwaukee ranked third in the country with 33.6 percent of residents participating in some volunteer work.\n\nCheck out these state statistics ---\n \nAn annual volunteer rate of 35.6%\n1.62 million volunteers\n165.3 million hours of service\n \nWant to get involved? Visit Serve.Gov to find out how you can get involved in your local community.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221034459/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/support-is-growing-for-tammys-bipartisan-legislation-to-increase-efficiency-in-healthcare-delivery-and-reduce-costs", "Support is growing for Tammy's bipartisan legislation to increase efficiency in healthcare delivery and reduce costs", "2013-12-16", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Monday, December 16, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Support is growing for Tammy's bipartisan legislation to increase efficiency in healthcare delivery and reduce costs \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tLast month, Senator Baldwin introduced the Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act \u2013 a bipartisan piece of legislation she worked on with Senator John Thune of South Dakota. The legislation increases the transparency of healthcare costs in medicare \u2013 helping doctors, health systems, private insurers and research institutions provide more efficient, higher quality health care and better patient outcomes.  \u00a0  This month support has continued to grow for Tammy's bipartisan legislation. Late last week, provisions of the legislation moved unanimously through the Senate Finance Committee as part of a bill to reform Medicare physician payments. In addition to the progress made in Congress, health care organizations have also stepped up and shared their support for the Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act:  \u00a0  \u201cWhile more remains to be done, particularly in the area of quality and safety transparency, the Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act is an important first step toward creating a more accountable, consumer-centered health care marketplace.\u201d  \u00a0  The groups offering their support for the Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act include the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, National Coalition on Health Care, Compass Healthcare Advisors, Corporate Health Care Coalition, HR Policy Association, Midwest Business Group on Health, National Retail Federation, ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality, Wisconsin Medical Society, and the Wisconsin Health Information Organization.  \u00a0  Click here to read more on the Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act and how Tammy is making the Affordable Care Act work for Wisconsin.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221034646/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/support-grows-for-baldwins-bipartisan-legislation-to-increase-efficiency-in-healthcare-delivery-reduce-costs", "Support Grows for Baldwin’s Bipartisan Legislation to Increase Efficiency in Healthcare Delivery, Reduce Costs", "2013-12-16", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Support Grows for Baldwin\ufffd\ufffd\ufffds Bipartisan Legislation to Increase Efficiency in Healthcare Delivery, Reduce Costs\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tQuality Data, Quality Healthcare Act Passes Unanimously through Senate Finance Committee\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tMonday, December 16, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington D.C. \u2013 Major national health care organizations from across the political spectrum have added their support to the bipartisan Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act, S.1758. The bipartisan bill, introduced recently by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and John Thune (R-S.D.), increases the transparency of healthcare costs in Medicare - helping doctors, health systems, private insurers, and research institutions provide more efficient, higher quality healthcare and better patient outcomes.  \u00a0  In a letter of support the health care organization wrote, \u201cWhile more remains to be done, particularly in the area of quality and safety transparency, the Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act is an important first step toward creating a more accountable, consumer-centered health care marketplace.\u201d  \u00a0  The groups offering their support for the Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act include the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, National Coalition on Health Care, Compass Healthcare Advisors, Corporate Health Care Coalition, HR Policy Association, Midwest Business Group on Health, National Retail Federation, ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality, Wisconsin Medical Society, and the Wisconsin Health Information Organization.  \u00a0  In addition, late last week, provisions of the legislation moved unanimously through the Senate Finance Committee as part of a bill to reform Medicare physician payments.  \u00a0  \u201cMedicare is the single largest payer of healthcare services in the country, spending $600 billion each year. But we have very little access to what we are paying for,\u201d said Baldwin. \u201cThe Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act provides access to that data and puts it into the hands of those who can use it, increasing efficiency in the delivery of healthcare and helping us get better bang for our healthcare buck.\u201d  \u00a0  \u201cProviding access to data that can be used to evaluate healthcare services is a critical component of increasing transparency and reducing healthcare costs,\u201d said Thune. \u201cOur bill would ultimately provide data to evaluate the areas of healthcare that are working and those that are not, thereby lowering costs and increasing efficiency. I hope our colleagues will join us in supporting this common-sense measure to improve the quality of healthcare while reducing costs.\u201d  \u00a0  As the largest payer of healthcare in the United States, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sits on a wealth of information that can help inform healthcare providers in making better decisions that will improve patient care and reduce costs. Economists have argued that expanding access to Medicare cost and utilization data will increase efficiency in healthcare delivery, reduce costs, and improve the quality of care.  \u00a0  Congress and the administration have taken initial steps to make Medicare data more widely available. One of the more promising efforts is the Qualified Entity (QE) program, which permits organizations to access and analyze Medicare data for select purposes. The QE program has the potential to empower our nation\u2019s healthcare decision-makers to make better choices. However, current law is far too restrictive on which organizations can participate in the QE program; what QEs can do with the Medicare data once they have received it; and the degree to which QEs can support their own data maintenance infrastructures.  \u00a0  The Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act would provide for greater access to Medicare claims data by modernizing and reforming the QE program. The legislation would:  \u00a0\n \nAllow organizations receiving Medicare data to analyze and redistribute it to authorized subscribers (insurers, health systems, and physicians) so that subscribers can make more informed decisions; and\nPermit those entities to charge a fee to their subscribers so that the organizations can conduct robust analyses to improve healthcare quality and reduce costs.\n \n\u00a0  In addition to the organizations sending the recent letter, other groups from across the political spectrum have expressed support for Baldwin and Thune\u2019s \u201cmuch-needed\u201d efforts to reform the QE program, including: AARP, Blue Shield of California, The Boeing Company, Castlight Health, Caterpillar Inc., Communicating for America, Community Catalyst, Compass Healthcare Advisors, Corporate Health Care Coalition, The Dow Chemical Company, National Association of Health Underwriters, National Association of Manufacturers, Pacific Business Group on Health, U.S. PIRG, UPS, and Xerox Corporation.\nThe letter of support can be found here.\nLink to more the Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act release.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221061638/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/upcoming-staff-office-hours-for-the-remainder-of-2013", "Upcoming staff office hours for the remainder of 2013", "2013-12-16", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Monday, December 16, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Upcoming staff office hours for the remainder of 2013 \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSenator Baldwin's office has announced that members of her staff will hold office hours throughout the remainder of this week in River Falls, Waukesha, and Balsam Lake. Constituents will have the opportunity to meet with staff and request assistance with a federal agency or discuss other federal issues. No appointment is necessary. Staff have also held office hours in Grantsburg, Racine and Kenosha this month.\nHere are the details for office hours this week:\nRiver Falls\u00a0Tuesday, December 17th - 1:00-2:00pm   River Falls Public Library  140 Union Street  River Falls, WI\nWaukesha\nTuesday, December 17th - 10:00 \u2013 11:00am  Waukesha City Hall  Room 107  201 Delafield Street  Waukesha, WI\nBalsam Lake, WI\nThursday, December 19th - 5:00-6:00pm  Balsam Lake Justice Center  1005 W. Main St.  Balsam Lake, WI", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221182856/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364619", "Federal Judge: NSA\u2019s Metadata Collection Program Likely Unconstitutional", "2013-12-16", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon today issued a decision, ruling that the NSA\u2019s metadata collection program is likely unconstitutional.\u00a0 \u00a0Questioning the constitutionality of the collection program, Judge Leon wrote: \u201cThe Government, in its understandable zeal to protect our homeland, has crafted a counterterrorism program with respect to telephony metadata that strikes the balance based in large part on a thirty-four year old Supreme Court precedent, the relevance of which has been eclipsed by technology advances and a cell phone-centric lifestyle heretofore inconceivable.\u201d  He also stated: \u201cThe Government does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA\u2019s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack, or otherwise aided the Government in achieving any objective that was time-sensitive in nature.\u201d  Leon granted \u201can injunction and enter[ed] an order that (1) bars the government from collection, as part of the NSA\u2019s Bulk Telephony Metadata Program, any telephony metadata associated with their personal Verizon accounts and (2) requires the Government to destroy any such metadata in its possession that was collected through the bulk collection program.\u201d Leon will stay his order pending an appeal. \u201cIn doing so, I hereby give the Government fair notice that should my ruling be upheld, this order will go into effect forthwith.\u201d  Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner: \u201cJudge Leon\u2019s decision further highlights the need to pass the USA FREEDOM Act. The slow trickle of revelations that began in June about NSA spying have exposed the most intrusive and secretive programs in American history. From the onset, I have been extremely critical of the government\u2019s dragnet collection of Americans\u2019 data.\u00a0 I am encouraged by the district court\u2019s ruling. It will add to the growing momentum behind the USA FREEDOM Act, which has garnered support from a large, diverse bloc of my colleagues and the business community. The Executive Branch should join Congress to institute meaningful reform.\u201d  Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced the USA FREEDOM Act on October 29. This legislation would restore Americans\u2019 privacy rights by reining in the dragnet collection of data by the NSA and other government agencies, increase transparency of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), provide businesses the ability to release information regarding FISA requests and create an independent constitutional advocate to argue cases before the FISC. The USA FREEDOM Act currently has 115 cosponsors in the House of Representatives and 18 in the Senate. It also has the support of tech giants AOL, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Mozilla and others.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/media-center/enewsletters/want-to-make-sure-youre-aware-of-this", "want to make sure you're aware of this", "2013-12-15", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "During this season of family gatherings and gift giving, it is sometimes easy to forget about the people in our own community who do not have a home to gather in, or the means to prepare a holiday meal. Often when we think of hunger and homelessness we imagine urban, high population centers like Madison or Milwaukee, but it is a very\u00a0prevalent problem in rural communities across America and the 7th Congressional District is no exception.\u00a0 \u00a0 According to the Wisconsin Food Security Project, 13.5% of all households in the 7th\u00a0CD experienced food hardships, meaning they did not have enough money to buy the food they needed at times during the past year. Additionally, over 2,000 individuals received\u00a0documented\u00a0care from shelters. Most concerning, these numbers have been trending upward in Wisconsin in recent years despite a decline nationally. The increase in families suffering from hunger and homelessness requires us to no longer simply manage the problem, but to solve the problem. This shift to what has been termed the \u201cNew Approach\u201d has produced results elsewhere and is catching on nation-wide. We see it here in our own backyard through the tireless work and dedication from organizations like the Marathon County Housing & Homelessness Coalition and the Marathon County Hunger Coalition. In addition to bringing more partners to the table through coalition building, this \u201cNew Approach\u201d also advances a more systemic strategy with individuals and organizations \u2013 both public and private \u2013 working in a coordinated manner. Not only is this \u201cNew Approach\u201d more efficient and a big step forward from the previous practice of serving people somewhat haphazardly through a collection of disconnected programs, the numbers also show it is working. Recent data show that the number of chronically homeless declined by 30% between 2005 and 2007 and has declined an additional 13% since. Overall, homelessness declined nation-wide by 9.2% between 2007 and 2013. This \u201cNew Approach,\u201d also termed \u201chousing-first,\u201d efficiently reduces homelessness and improves the lives of no-longer-homeless individuals and families and the quality of our communities. Furthermore, it often brings net savings to taxpayers since preventing homelessness is less expensive than the cycle of emergency services that can be the daily existence of homeless individuals and families. Before communities can fully engage in this \u201cNew Approach,\u201d however, its members need to fully understand the extent of the suffering, its root causes, and develop empathy for the individuals and families suffering from hunger and homelessness. This Wednesday, December 18, leaders from communities across the 7th\u00a0CD are gathering in Wausau to learn about hunger and homelessness and its impacts on our communities, what different communities and coalitions are doing to address these problems, and to brainstorm and share ideas on how we can continue to work to solve these problems. We look forward to the summit, the various presentations, and the discussions on Wednesday. Rep. Sean Duffy co-wrote this piece with Steve Berg, Vice-President for Programs and Policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. It appeared in the Sunday, December 15, 2013 edition of\u00a0The Wausau Daily Herald.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364581", "Ryan Defends Reduction to Cost-of-Living Adjustments for Early Military Retirees", "2013-12-15", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By John McCormack, The Weekly Standard\r\nThe two-year budget deal crafted by Republican congressman Paul Ryan and Democratic senator Patty Murray sailed through the House of Representatives on a 332-94 vote last Thursday, just two days after it was introduced. \r\nIf cutting a bipartisan deal is so easy,\u00a0why couldn't Republicans and Democrats have reached an agreement before October 1 and skipped the government shutdown\u00a0altogether?\r\n\"I think the pressure of divided government has come full force, and I think the specter of one or two more government shutdowns\u00a0concentrated our minds to make this divided government work,\" Paul Ryan said on Saturday afternoon, speaking with THE WEEKLY STANDARD by phone from his hometown of Janesville. \"It's very clear that without this deal two things would happen: The military would have borne the full force of these cuts starting in January. And we would have at least one more government shutdown\u00a0drama.\u201d \r\n\u201cWe think that's bad,\u201d Ryan said during a break between games at his son's basketball tournament. \u201cWe think that's not in our interest. We want 2014 to be a year where we don't keep cutting the military, and we focus on Obamacare, we focus on the conservative reforms we want to roll out, and we win the next election so we can start saving this country.\"\r\nBut the Ryan-Murray deal is not without its critics. In the Senate, a growing number of Republicans have objected to bill's provision to reduce the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) by one percentage point for military retirees under the age of 62. Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma have\u00a0all cited\u00a0the issue as a dealbreaker for them.\r\nRyan defended the\u00a0provision on Saturday as a modest reform that's part of a broader plan to save the\u00a0military from devastating cuts.\r\n\"We give them a slightly smaller adjustment for inflation because they're still in their working years and in most cases earning another paycheck,\u201d Ryan said. \"Our goal here is to make sure that no other country comes close to matching the U.S. military, and the stress on the budget in the future brings that whole entire notion into question. We still have a Pentagon budget that is not where it needs to be.\"\r\nUnder the 2011 Budget Control Act, about $1 trillion was cut from the defense budget over 10 years--roughly $500 billion by the law's spending caps and another $500 billion through automatic sequestration cuts, which exempted personnel. The Ryan-Murray deal relieves $31.5 billion in sequestration cuts to defense over the next two years. \"From my conversation with just Chuck Hagel and General Dempsey recently, the biggest relief this gets is military readiness,\" Ryan said. \"The\u00a0statistics\u00a0are very, very concerning about our readiness.\"\r\nThe COLA reduction for military retirees, which doesn't take effect until January of 2016, would save an additional $6 billion over 10 years in the defense budget. \"The defense community asked us to look at compensation and their entitlement spending within the Pentagon. We knew we couldn't put back into the Pentagon's budget as much as we'd like to, and these reforms help them with their budget,\" said Ryan. \"The savings stays with the Department of Defense and that comes on top of the money we're giving back through the sequester.\"\r\nThe savings \"can go to anything,\" said Ryan. \"It can go to readiness, it can go to troops, it can go to brigades, buying equipment.\"\r\nBut why not grandfather benefits for current servicemembers, like Ryan does\u00a0for Americans over the age of 55\u00a0in his plan to reform Medicare?\u00a0\r\nRyan replied that grandfathering wouldn't achieve the savings the military needs, and he emphasized the pension reform only affects servicemembers who have served the 20 years necessary to qualify for a pension (just 20 percent of all veterans) and retired before the age of 62.\u00a0\r\nThe bill has a \"catchup provision\" so that at age 62 the retiree's pension goes up to where it would have been without the COLA reduction. \"I don't think people know there's a catchup provision,\" said Ryan. \"Once they hit the age of 62, this provision recalculates their benefits so they get the full adjustment for inflation and their pension pay goes up as if nothing had happened. And from then on they have full inflation protection.\"\u00a0\r\nAccording to House Budget Committee staff, a man who enlisted at age 18 and retired at 38 as a Sergeant First Class in the Army would see approximately a 6 percent overall reduction in lifetime retirement pay because of the COLA reduction--that is, he would receive about $1.626 million in lifetime retirement pay instead of $1.734 million.\r\nEarning $108,000 less in retirement pay over a lifetime certainly isn't chump change, but Ryan points out that the budget deal achieves the same amount of savings over ten years from federal civilian employees' pensions ($6 billion) by requiring new employees to make higher contributions. \"This is still far more generous than civilian retirees who receive absolutely no COLA before the age of 62,\" Ryan said. \"We still kept the military retiree in a far better position than the civilian because we think that's the way it ought to be.\"\r\nRyan also noted that the deal gives Congress time to come up with a better way to achieve the same savings. \"We delayed this provision so that it doesn't take effect until the year 2016, which gives Congress and the military community time to address the broader compensation issue, including this provision, if people believe there's a better way to solve this problem,\" he said.\u00a0\r\nThe problem is that there's no way to painlessly cut $1 trillion (or close to it) from the military's budget.\u00a0Defense secretary Chuck Hagel said in a November\u00a0speech\u00a0that because of budget cuts only 2 of the Army's 43 brigade active-duty combat teams are ready for combat, and Marine Corps units that are not going to Afghanistan are getting 30 percent less funding. At one point this summer,\u00a0only 8 warplanes were ready\u00a0to respond to an emergency away from front-lines operations.\r\nSimply structuring cuts more intelligently doesn't make it much better. Republican senator Tom Coburn\u00a0of Oklahoma introduced a proposal in 2009 to cut $1 trillion from defense as part of a plan to cut $9 trillion from the federal budget. Among other defense cuts,\u00a0Coburn's plan called for closing down elementary schools on military bases, making veterans pay more for their health care, canceling the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, eliminating 1 of the nation's 11 aircraft carriers, and shrinking the Army by 65,000 soldiers.\u00a0Anyone who thinks it's possible to save $1 trillion from defense by simply cutting \"waste, fraud, and abuse\" is mistaken.\r\nhttp://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/ryan-defends-reduction-cost-living-adjustments-early-military-retirees_770921.html", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=7aed87ac-5909-4183-b818-d494f9b18458", "Senator Ron Johnson Will Support The Ryan/Murray Budget Deal", "2013-12-15", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Ron Johnson", "J000293", "www.ronjohnson.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 On Sunday, Senator Ron Johnson released the following statement on the Ryan/Murray budget deal.\r\n\u201cFunding the federal government through successive continuing resolutions is a bad idea that only results in greater inefficiencies, waste and economic uncertainty. It is a practice that should end. The budget deal struck by Paul Ryan and Patty Murray is no \u201cgrand bargain,\u201d\u00a0but I credit Paul with understanding that a grand bargain is not possible at this point in time.\u00a0\r\n\u201cThis is a limited agreement that prevents government shutdowns through fiscal year\u00a02015 that would hurt economic growth and new job creation. It also provides executive agencies and congressional committees the opportunity to prioritize spending and eliminate duplicative programs \u2013 which is long overdue.\u00a0\r\n\u201cAlthough I disagree with a number of provisions in the bill, on balance the good outweighs the bad. As long as the Senate does nothing to worsen the bill, I intend to support it.\u201d\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pocan-announces-service-academy-nominations-for-16-south-central", "Pocan Announces Service Academy Nominations for 16 South Central Wisconsin Students", "2013-12-13", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Mark Pocan", "P000607", "pocan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02) is proud to announce the following exceptional students from Wisconsin\u2019s Second Congressional District who received his nomination to one of the nation\u2019s service academies.\n\u201cI am proud to nominate such outstanding Wisconsin students to our nation\u2019s service academies,\u201d Pocan said. \u201cThese institutions provide a one-of-a-kind experience for young men and women committed to serving our country, and all of my nominees have demonstrated they have the determination and talent to meet this challenge. I wish them all good luck through the rest of the appointment process.\u201d\nThe Second Congressional District\u2019s Academy Nomination Board, appointed by Rep. Pocan, included active and retired service members and community leaders from across south central Wisconsin. The Nomination Board then recommended the below 16 students from the district, all of which were nominated by Rep. Pocan.\nThe 2014 Service Academy Classes Nominees are as follows:\nUnited States Air Force Academy\nChristian Brandon- Verona Area High School\nJace Carlson- Stoughton High School\nCory Kramschuster- Sun Prairie High School\nMorgan Musielewicz- Waunakee High School\nXavier Santana- Madison East High School\nJack Temple- Madison Lafollette High School  \n\t\u00a0\nUnited States Naval Academy\nRyan Hanna- Marshall High School/ Virginia Polytechnic and State University\nEllen Hoffman- Madison Edgewood High School\nErik-Lars Lofgren- Quantico High School\nJack Lunaas- Milton High School/ Northwestern Preparatory School\nNicholas Mathwig- Waunakee High School\nMiriam Valley- Sun Prairie High School  \n\t\u00a0\nUnited States Military Academy at West Point\nPeter Flock- Wisconsin Dells High School\nJacob Marchillo- Clinton High School\nNicholas Miller- Oregon High School\nDavid Pontius- Sun Prairie High School/ Marion Military Institute  \n\t\u00a0\nThis nomination does not guarantee automatic admission--the academies make the final decision on who receives an appointment of admission.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://gwenmoore.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=49&itemid=951", "Gwen Moore Votes for Bipartisan Budget Deal", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 This week Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-4) voted in opposition to the Republican tax plan which would extend tax cuts to the very wealthiest Americans while raising taxes an average $1,000 on 25 million working families by reducing eligibility for Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit and ending the American Opportunity Tax Credit. Alternatively, Rep. Moore voted for the Democratic Substitute which would extend the middle class tax cuts and prevent tax increases on working families.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cIt is shameful that my Republican colleagues would seek to give huge tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans on the back of the middle class and poor of this country. And though Republicans are constantly saying that we should not increase our debt, their plan would add an addition $50 billion to the deficit in 2013 alone.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cIn contrast, under the Democratic alternative 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses will see no tax increase. It will extend for one year expiring marginal tax rates for income as well as rates on capital gains and dividends for taxable income of $200,000 or less for single filers and $250,000 or less for joint filers. It also extends various other tax provisions, including marriage penalty relief, expanded child and earned income tax credits, education tax incentives, and small business expensing all for one year, through 2013, and a patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax for 2012.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cWe here in Congress are charged to work on behalf of all Americans \u2013 particularly the least of these. The priorities of the Republican tax plan only include the wealthiest Americans while the Democratic Substitute would give middle class families certainty that their taxes will not go up next year. It\u2019s time we make those most in need a priority in order to build a strong, robust economy.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tTo view this article online, please click here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364321", "House Passes the Bipartisan Budget Act", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Today, the House of Representatives passed the Bipartisan Budget Act. Written by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray, the bill will provide $63 billion in temporary sequester relief and $85 billion in mandatory savings. It will eliminate waste, cut corporate welfare, and make needed reforms to autopilot spending. On net, the bill will reduce the deficit by $23 billion over the next ten years. The Senate will take it up next week. \r\nUpon passage of the legislation, Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin made the following statement:\r\n\u201cI want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for supporting this bill. It reduces the deficit\u2014without raising taxes. And it does so by cutting spending in a smarter way. It doesn\u2019t go as far as I\u2019d like, but it\u2019s a firm step in the right direction.\r\n\u201cThis agreement will stop Washington\u2019s lurch from crisis to crisis. It will bring stability to the budget process and show both parties can work together.\r\n\u201cI want to thank Senator Murray for her hard work on this agreement. And I\u2019m confident her colleagues in the Senate will pass this bill.\u201d\r\nClick here to learn more about the Bipartisan Budget Act.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364400", "Ryan responds to questions and concerns about the Bipartisan Budget Act", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Ryan responds to questions and concerns about the Bipartisan Budget Act \r\n   \r\n    \r\n       \r\n      \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e\r\n      \r\n      \r\n    \r\n    \r\n      \r\n        \r\n        December 12, 2013\r\n      \r\n       \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364401", "Ryan: \u201cThis is a modest step in the right direction.\u201d", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Ryan: \u201cThis is a modest step in the right direction.\u201d \r\n   \r\n    \r\n       \r\n      \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e\r\n      \r\n      \r\n    \r\n    \r\n      \r\n        \r\n        December 12, 2013\r\n      \r\n       \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      \r\n      \r\n      MSNBC\u2019s Morning Joe\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\u00a0\r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364418", "Paul Ryan: \u201cYou can\u2019t shoot for the moon every time.\u201d", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Paul Ryan: \u201cYou can\u2019t shoot for the moon every time.\u201d \r\n   \r\n    \r\n       \r\n      \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e\r\n      \r\n      \r\n    \r\n    \r\n      \r\n        \r\n        December 12, 2013\r\n      \r\n       \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      \r\n      \r\n      CNBC\u2019s Squawk Box\n \n \nClick to play video \n \n\"We decided to focus on where is the common ground when negotiating the budget deal,\" said House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, (R-WI), discussing how he and Sen. Patty Murrary, (D-Wa), were able to reach a deal on the budget. \"This is a small but modest step in the right direction.\" \nhttp://www.cnbc.com/id/101267406\n\u00a0\r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364509", "Rep. Paul Ryan's budget deal: modest but smart", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board\r\n   \r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            Reuters\r\n            \r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) shake hands after a news conference to introduce The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 on Tuesday.\r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\nThe two-year federal budget deal that passed the House Thursday is notable because it got done. It is not notable because of what got done.\r\nIt has been years since a divided Congress forged a budget agreement, and this one was negotiated amiably. Style points to U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, and Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat.\r\nBut are we really supposed to cheer when the best the political leadership can do is promise that the government probably won't shut down again? (Not to worry, fans of brinkmanship; there's always the debt ceiling confrontation likely coming in March).\r\nThis deal leaves untouched most of the important issues. Entitlements. Nothing done. The nation's byzantine tax code. Still byzantine.\r\nWe know why. There just isn't much common ground in Washington, D.C., and Ryan and Murray are crowded onto a tiny patch of land.\r\nConservative groups heckled the agreement and tried to scuttle it. Even before it was announced, Heritage Action, the political arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, and the Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity opposed it. The libertarian Cato Institute called it a \"huge Republican cave-in.\"\r\nSome liberals complained, too, arguing that an extension of unemployment benefits should have been part of the deal. But it's the conservatives who were most belligerent. Republican pollster Glen Bolger nailed it when he said that Republicans are at a watershed moment:\r\n\"We are either a party that is serious about governing when control of Washington is split, or we are an unserious party that doesn't care about realistic incremental gains, only caring about unrealistically getting the whole ball of wax, which will never happen as long as there is a Democratic president and a Democratic majority leader,\" Bolger told The Washington Post.\r\nThe GOP has too many members who would rather preach than govern. Ryan wants to govern. He deserves credit for standing up to the reactionaries in his party (so does House Speaker John Boehner).\r\n\"Look, as a conservative, I deal with the situation as it exists. I passed three budgets in a row that reflect my priorities and my principles,\" and none of the budgets passed the Senate, Ryan said. \"We're in divided government...So I'm not going to go a mile in the direction I want to go to, but I will take a few steps in the right direction.\"\r\nThe $85 billion agreement is the first time in years that the two parties have negotiated anything other than a stopgap measure. The proposal cuts the mindless \"sequester\" in half and cuts spending and deficits by $20 billion over the next 10 years. That's not a lot, but it's something. Yes, the additional revenue comes from fees (including on airline tickets) and gimmicks, but we'll take it for now.\r\nThe nation needs more from its elected officials. It needs a real discussion about Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and the long-term deficit, which over time, must be brought under control. Austerity, no. Sanity, yes. But as Ryan said, for now it's about taking a few steps in the right direction.\r\nhttp://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/rep-paul-ryans-budget-deal-modest-but-smart-b99162103z1-235605091.html", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pocan-fasts-in-solidarity-with-comprehensive-immigration-reform", "Pocan Fasts in Solidarity with Comprehensive Immigration Reform Activists", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Mark Pocan", "P000607", "pocan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02) today is fasting for 24 hours in solidarity with activists across the country to build momentum for comprehensive immigration reform. In addition, Pocan attended a press conference with fasters today on Capitol Hill to reiterate his support for their efforts and to emphasize that Congress has #MoreWork2Do on comprehensive immigration reform before the end of the year.\n\u201cI was moved by the tremendous resolve and passion for comprehensive immigration reform I witnessed today, and I extend my unwavering support to fasters across the country,\u201d Pocan said. \u201cLike these courageous fasters, I believe that congressional inaction on immigration reform is no longer acceptable. I stand with the families who have been hurt by our broken immigration system, and I urge Congress to take up comprehensive immigration reform legislation before the end of the year.\u201d\nThe fast, organized by Fast for Families, seeks to raise awareness of the vital need for immigration reform and spur law makers to action. Beginning in November, four activists fasted for 22 days and inspired solidarity fasts throughout the nation. Now, more than 20 House Democrats and activists have taken up the fast in support of passing comprehensive immigration reform.\nPocan is a proud co-sponsor of The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, H.R. 15, which is modeled after the bipartisan immigration reform bill that passed the U.S. Senate earlier this year. The legislation currently has more than 190 bipartisan supporters in the House. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, enactment of the bipartisan Senate-passed bill would reduce the deficit by $850 billion.\u00a0\nThe Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act would:\n Unite families and offer hardworking immigrants an earned pathway to citizenship after passing background checks, paying penalties and taxes, learning English and going to the back of the legal immigration line.\n\tReform our visa programs and our interior enforcement.\n\tStrengthen the E-verify program, protect workers and reward businesses who play by the rules.\n Despite the fact that Congress is set to pass fewer laws this year than at almost any point in history, the House of Representatives is currently scheduled to finish its \u201cwork\u201d in Washington by the end of this week. As part of his #MoreWork2Do week, Rep. Pocan is highlighting many important items Congress should finish before it leaves on vacation, including the need to pass a new Farm Bill, vote on comprehensive immigration reform, and focus on legislation to promote job creation and economic growth.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pocan-statement-on-budget-proposal", "Pocan Statement on Budget Proposal", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Mark Pocan", "P000607", "pocan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02), a member of the House Budget Committee, today issued the following statement after voting against the budget proposal that sets spending levels for fiscal years 2014 and 2015.\n\u201cI am disappointed that I cannot vote in favor of the budget proposal on the House floor today. While I commend the budget conference committee on its work to reach a deal, just because Congress has a deal does not mean Congress has done its job.\n\u201cI am thankful this proposal provides some minor relief over the next two years from the devastating, across-the-board sequester cuts that were set to once again hit critical programs in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, sequestration will continue to do needless harm to our families, our students and our economy in the coming year and for years to come. We must continue to work on a solution to replace these harmful cuts once and for all.\u00a0\u00a0\n\u201cAt the end of the day, the bill abandons 1.3 million Americans who desperately need unemployment insurance, and does nothing to promote economic growth or job creation. Furthermore, the legislation is paid for on the backs of the middle class and military families, while not touching the wealthiest amongst us and allowing corporations to continue to benefit from tax loopholes.\u201d\n\u201cCongress shouldn\u2019t be patting ourselves on the back just because we didn\u2019t shoot ourselves in the foot. After a year marked by petty partisanship and Tea Party obstructionism, we have to do better. The challenges of growing our economy and strengthening the middle class are too important to keep kicking down the road. There is more work to do, and I urge the House to stay in Washington until we do it.\u201d\nPocan was also disappointed that the deal only blocks a scheduled cut in payments for doctors under Medicare (also called the SGR formula) for three months. He supports a permanent repeal of the SGR formula.\nPocan believes voting in favor of the budget proposal would be an unjust acknowledgment that Congress has done its job. Unless Congress passes appropriations bills by the January deadline, this vote alone will not prevent a government shutdown.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://gwenmoore.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2137", "Gwen Moore Votes for Bipartisan Budget Deal", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Although this deal is not perfect, it allows Congress to continue our dialogue about how we can better serve our constituents.\r\n          share:\r\n          f \r\n          t \r\n        \r\n      \r\n        Contact: Staci Cox  (202) 225- 4572   Washington, DC  Today, Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-04) released this statement after voting for the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. This Act passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 332-94.  Congress has existed one manufactured crisis to the next. Today marked a small but positive step towards breaking this pattern. The budget agreement reached by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Paul Ryan (WI-01) represents true compromise. I congratulate both Sen. Murray and my Wisconsin colleague Rep. Ryan on negotiating in good faith.  Neither party received all of what was asked. Republicans were not able to reduce funding for those who rely on our critical entitlement programs. In addition, this deal only partially replaces the sequester and does nothing to assuage the concerns of approximately 1.3 million Americans, including thousands in Wisconsin, who will lose unemployment insurance on December 28 should Congress not act.  Although this deal is not perfect, it allows Congress to continue our dialogue about how we can better serve our constituents. It also affords us the opportunity to discuss items not directly related to the budget, such as passing comprehensive immigration reform.  In light of this bipartisan agreement, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together and continue the work we were sent here to do. To view Rep. Moore on MSNBC speaking on the budget deal and unemployment insurance, please click here. ###  For Moore News Updates", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://kind.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-ron-kind-statement-bipartisan-budget-deal", "Rep. Ron Kind Statement on Bipartisan Budget Deal", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Ron Kind", "K000188", "kind.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, DC  U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) released the following statement after voting in support of the bipartisan budget deal passed by the House today:\nI voted for the budget deal because it represents a small but hopeful step away from the dysfunction that has gripped Congress for the past several years. Given the current atmosphere here in Washington, it's clear that we need to walk before we can run. This deal will bring a measure of stability to our economy so that employers can safely make long-term business decisions, and help ease the pain of arbitrary across-the-board sequestration' cuts to critical areas like education, job training, and military readiness.\nI am deeply disappointed, however, that an extension of unemployment benefits was not included in the package. And my ongoing concern is that Congress is still doing things backwards. The programs that we should be investing in, the ones that will strengthen our economy and lower the deficit in the long term are the very programs that are always on the chopping block. We need to focus on the biggest driver of our national deficit - rising health care costs - as well as other commonsense reforms like cutting wasteful subsidies out of our farm policy. These types of reforms, combined with smart investments in areas like education and infrastructure, are critical to ensuring prosperity.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140107190125/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov:80/press-releases/senator-baldwin-calls-on-doj-inspector-general-to-investigate-atf-operations-in-milwaukee", "Senator Baldwin Calls on DOJ Inspector General to Investigate ATF Operations in Milwaukee", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Senator Baldwin Calls on DOJ Inspector General to Investigate ATF Operations in Milwaukee\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThursday, December 12, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tToday, Senator Baldwin sent a letter to U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) expressing her continued concerns about news reports regarding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) tactics, methods and operations in Milwaukee.  \u00a0  She called on the Inspector General to investigate tactics used by ATF agents thoroughly and to include a review of the most recent allegations in an OIG report so that appropriate reforms can be implemented at ATF.  \u00a0  Read the full letter Senator Baldwin sent to U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General here.  \u00a0  In February, Senator Baldwin sent a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) outlining her concerns about news reports regarding ATF\u2019s drug-and-gun operations in Milwaukee.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221025138/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/supporting-the-next-generation-in-wisconsins-forest-products-industry", "Supporting the next generation in Wisconsin’s Forest Products Industry", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Thursday, December 12, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Supporting the next generation in Wisconsin\u2019s Forest Products Industry \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWisconsin\u2019s forest products industry has a long and proud tradition of delivering high quality timber and pulp to the state\u2019s lumber yards and paper mills. Today, our northern communities and timber industry are facing tough challenges. Our mills struggle to find enough timber to keep their businesses running at full capacity, and our loggers often find that the trees they harvest from our National Forests are past their prime and have lost their value.\u00a0 Second, third, and fourth generation loggers are concerned that after decades of work in the woods, their children may not be able to continue in the tradition of Wisconsin\u2019s timber industry.  \u00a0  Senator Baldwin has made supporting the timber products industry one of her top priorities. That means supporting the sustainable harvest of timber on our national forest lands, and ensuring that our forests are managed to preserve ecosystems and forest health so these natural assets continue to provide for our communities into the future.   \u00a0  Federal forest policy is important to Wisconsin\u2019s forest industry because of the significant amount of Wisconsin forestland managed by the federal government. Through recent opportunities provided in the current Farm Bill conference negotiations and through her role on the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Senator Baldwin is working hard to be an advocate for Wisconsin\u2019s timber industry and forest communities.\n\"I am proud to carry on Wisconsin\u2019s long tradition of protecting our natural resources, promoting conservation of our public lands, and supporting our timber and paper industries. Utilizing our natural resources through careful practices that sustain both our local economies and the resources themselves is important to both Wisconsin\u2019s economy and our quality of life.\u201d --- U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin\nHere are some of Senator Baldwin\u2019s most recent actions on Wisconsin forest issues:\n \nA recent Letter to the Obama Administration, urging them to address forest budget issues when they propose their budget in February by dealing with wildfire borrowing, which diverts critical services away from Wisconsin.\n \n \nA letter to the Farm bill conferees, urging them to provide regulatory certainty to the forest products industry, to renew stewardship contracting authority, and support programs that assist private forest owners in maintaining forest health.\n \nOur national forests play a critical role in the productivity of the economy in Northern Wisconsin, and our communities deserve more stability in the way the forests are managed.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221034507/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/this-is-the-affordable-care-act-no-longer-be-denied-due-to-pre-existing-conditions", "This is the Affordable Care Act: No longer be denied due to pre-existing conditions", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Thursday, December 12, 2013\n\t\t\t\t This is the Affordable Care Act: No longer be denied due to pre-existing conditions \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tBefore the Affordable Care Act, more than a third of people who shopped for health insurance in the individual market were turned down or charged more because of a pre-existing condition. Today, almost 2.5 million non-elderly Wisconsinites have some type of pre-existing health condition, including over 300,000 children.\u00a0 And now because of the ACA, they have protections that they didn\u2019t have before and can\u2019t be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.\nHere's the story of one Wisconsin family:\nSteven J., from Grand Chute contacted my office recently to tell me that his young, 27- year old daughter with a pre-existing condition has finally been able to purchase private insurance thanks to the ACA.\nWhen she was 14 she contracted food poisoning and had severe complications that eventually developed into gall bladder disease and other conditions. Due to these pre-existing conditions, she has been unable to purchase a health insurance plan on the market, and all of her life decisions have been driven by her need to be a full-time student to stay on her father\u2019s healthcare plan. \nShe finished school a year ago and is a successful freelance musician. Without the ACA, she would have to take a position outside of her field in order to have a healthcare plan under an employer. But now because of the Affordable Care Act she is able to continue with her career and pursue her dreams. \nShe recently enrolled in her own plan on Healthcare.gov with a national provider network. Her parents have been worrying about their daughter getting her own insurance for 13 years, but can now rest easy and are thankful for the ACA.\nThere are hard working families across our country that now have the peace of mind knowing they will have the quality health care coverage they want and need. In the United States of America, health care should be a right guaranteed to all, not a privilege reserved for the few. That vision has guided us for decades and now that vision is written into law.\nClick here, to find out more about how you can #GetCovered.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221042343/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/baldwin-merkley-introduce-legislation-to-level-the-playing-field-for-american-manufacturing", "Baldwin, Merkley Introduce Legislation to Level the Playing Field for American Manufacturing", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Baldwin, Merkley Introduce Legislation to Level the Playing Field for American Manufacturing\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tLegislation Would Help American Manufacturers Compete on Global Playing Field against Countries with Low Environmental and Wage Standards\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThursday, December 12, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, DC \u2013 U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have introduced new legislation that would crack down on unfair trade practices, level the playing field for American manufacturing companies, and help create middle class jobs.\nThe Level the Playing Field in Global Trade Act would ensure that sub-standard wages, workplace safety practices, and environmental protections are properly accounted for as unfair subsidies by foreign countries when calculating American duties intended to offset cheating. It also rewards companies that meet high standards on a global basis in wages, workplace safety and environmental compliance with streamlined trade and protection from enforcement actions.\n\u201cEven as the national economy is rebounding, businesses and middle-class families in my state remain stuck in neutral.\u00a0 The manufacturing sector that sustained our prosperity for generations has taken a lot of hits so I\u2019ve made it my mission to create a \u201cMade in Wisconsin\u201d economy that revitalizes our manufacturing sector and rebuilds our prosperity,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cIn Wisconsin, we believe in hard work and have a commitment to make sure that it is respected and rewarded. For decades, we\u2019ve worked to make things: paper, engines, tools, and ships. Give our workers a fair shot, and we\u2019ll compete against anyone.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019m taking on unfair trade practices and policies and betting on American workers by creating an even playing field and giving them a fair shot to compete and win.\u201d  \u00a0  \u201cFor far too long, Oregon\u2019s manufacturers and workers have paid the price while companies overseas cut costs by cutting corners. These foreign companies should not be allow to gain an advantage over American businesses by treating their workers poorly and polluting their environment,\u201d said Merkley.\u00a0 \u201cIf we don\u2019t make things in America, we won\u2019t have a middle class in America. Oregon\u2019s manufacturers can compete with anyone in a fair fight, and it\u2019s time that they had a level playing field to help them grow and create good jobs in Oregon.\u201d  \u00a0  In the past decade, countries like China have reaped the benefits of trade deals without upholding their end of the bargain. This lack of accountability has contributed to the shuttering of tens of thousands of American factories and the loss of millions of American manufacturing jobs.  Currently, U.S. companies and workers are at a trade disadvantage against companies and countries that do not pay adequate wages or maintain safety standards and environmental controls.\u00a0 This results in countries and companies engaging in a \u201crace to the bottom,\u201d which puts U.S. manufacturing jobs at risk and is fundamentally unfair to American working families.\u00a0 As the recent scandal in Bangladesh made clear, it\u2019s also terribly destructive to workers around the world.\nCurrent American law and trade agreements prohibit \u201cdumping\u201d of products, where companies export products at prices below the cost of production or cheaper than they sell for in the home country, and allow the U.S. to impose duties to make the sale price in America reflect what the true cost would be without cheating.\u00a0 The Level the Playing Field in Global Trade Act would, for the first time, recognize that egregious environmental and labor practices are a form of illegal subsidy that can be remedied by U.S. duties. It would also reward companies that adhere to high global standards by creating new trade and enforcement incentives.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221042558/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/this-is-the-affordable-care-act-up-to-310000-wisconsin-children-with-pre-existing-conditions-can-no-longer-be-denied-health-coverage", "This is The Affordable Care Act: Up to 310,000 Wisconsin Children with Pre-Existing Conditions Can No Longer Be Denied Health Coverage", "2013-12-12", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "This is The Affordable Care Act: Up to 310,000 Wisconsin Children with Pre-Existing Conditions Can No Longer Be Denied Health Coverage\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThursday, December 12, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin released figures highlighting the number of children in Wisconsin with pre-existing conditions who, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, will be protected from discrimination based on their health. Baldwin joined her Senate colleagues Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Angus King (I-ME), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) at a press conference on Capitol Hill today to highlight the issue.  \u00a0  As many as 2,489,279 non-elderly Wisconsinites have some type of pre-existing health condition, including 309,519 children.\u00a0 Because of America\u2019s health care law, since 2010 insurance companies have been prohibited from denying health coverage for children in Wisconsin with pre-existing conditions such as cancer, asthma, or diabetes. Starting in 2014, insurance companies will also no longer be able to deny coverage for adults or charge anyone higher premiums based on health status or history.  \u00a0  \u201cToday, because of the Affordable Care Act, children with pre-existing conditions have protections that they didn\u2019t have before and can\u2019t be denied coverage. Because of America\u2019s new health care law, for the first time insurance companies will be prohibited from denying health coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions,\u201d said Senator Baldwin. \u201cIn the United States of America, health care should be a right guaranteed to all, not a privilege reserved for the few. That vision has guided us for decades.\u00a0 But now we have begun to write it into our laws.\u00a0 That is what we have fought for and will continue to fight for as we move the Affordable Care Act forward.\u201d  \u00a0  Steven Jordheim from Grand Chute, Wis. recently contacted Senator Baldwin\u2019s office to share that his young, 27- year old daughter with a pre-existing condition has finally been able to purchase private insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act. When she was 14, she contracted food poisoning and had severe complications that eventually developed into gall bladder disease and other conditions. Due to these pre-existing conditions, she has been unable to purchase a health insurance plan on the market, and all of her life decisions have been driven by her need to be a full-time student to stay on her father\u2019s healthcare plan.\u00a0 She finished school a year ago and is a successful freelance musician. Without the ACA, she would have to take a position outside of her field in order to have a healthcare plan under an employer. But now because of the Affordable Care Act she is able to continue with her career and pursue her dreams.\u00a0 She recently enrolled in her own plan on Healthcare.gov with a national provider network. Her parents have been worrying about their daughter getting her own insurance for 13 years, but can now rest easy and are thankful for the Affordable Care Act.  \u00a0  Helping middle class families take advantage of the benefits of the health care law like the security of affordable health care coverage and protection from discrimination based on pre-existing conditions should be a top priority for lawmakers in Washington.\u00a0 Yet instead of working to fix the law, a minority in Congress has voted to repeal the health care law more than 40 times, even shutting down the government to prevent new benefits like ending discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, taking away peace of mind for millions of children and their parents \u2013 including up to 310,000 kids in Wisconsin.   \u00a0  ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/press-release/duffy-applauds-budget-agreement-thanks-chairmen", "Duffy Applauds Budget Agreement, Thanks Chairmen", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "\"Now that we've shown the American people that we can have these conversations in Washington, we need to have more of them, and I believe we will.\" Washington D.C. -\u00a0U.S. Congressman, and Budget Committee Member, Sean Duffy (WI-07)\u00a0offered praise and thanks to the Chairmen of the House and Senate Budget Committees for their efforts to \u00a0break through Washington gridlock and bring forth a Budget agreement that will give much needed certainty to Wisconsin job creators, businesses and families:", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364157", "A Firm Step Forward", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By Paul Ryan\r\nYesterday, Senator Patty Murray and I introduced the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. It\u2019s the first budget agreement of its kind since 1986, and I\u2019m proud to support it. This bill will reduce the deficit by $23 billion. It won\u2019t raise taxes. And it will cut spending in a smarter way. It doesn\u2019t go as far as I\u2019d like. But it\u2019s a firm step in the right direction.\r\nFirst, let\u2019s remember how we got here: In 2011, President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act. The law tasked a twelve-member \u201csupercommittee\u201d with cutting at least $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit. And to spur them to action, the law essentially made a threat: If the committee couldn\u2019t come to an agreement, the law would order arbitrary, across-the-board cuts \u2014 known as the sequester \u2014 to get those savings. It would make half of the cuts in defense programs and the other half in domestic programs. In other words, the alternative to an agreement would be so painful that the supercommittee would just have to reach one.\r\nUnfortunately, the committee couldn\u2019t come to an agreement. And this year, the sequester took effect. Now, House Republicans wanted to keep these savings. In fact, we wanted to save more. But we didn\u2019t think our troops should bear the brunt of these cuts. The Defense Department warned it would have to shrink our armed forces and make serious cuts to training, readiness, and modernization. Members of both parties quickly realized there was a better way to cut spending.\r\nWhen Senator Murray and I started these negotiations, we agreed on some ground rules. We knew if we tried to force each other to violate one of our core principles, we\u2019d never get anywhere. I wasn\u2019t going to raise taxes. She wasn\u2019t going to change major entitlements.\r\nInstead, we looked for common ground. There was some overlap between the budget she proposed in the Senate and the budget I proposed in the House. We knew we wouldn\u2019t resolve all our differences. So we found some commonsense ideas both parties could support.\r\nHere\u2019s what we came up with: The Bipartisan Budget Act will provide $63 billion in sequester relief \u2014 split evenly between defense programs and other domestic priorities \u2014 in exchange for $85 billion in savings elsewhere in the budget. In other words, this bill will reduce the deficit by an additional $23 billion, without raising taxes. And most important, it will cut spending in a smarter way.\r\nHow do we cut spending? First, we eliminate waste. We stop paying Medicaid bills that dead-beat dads should cover. That alone is a $1.4 billion cut. We stop sending unemployment checks to criminals. And we stop sending government checks to dead people. There\u2019s no reason to tolerate fraud.\r\nSecond, we cut corporate welfare. For instance, we repeal a government research program for private energy companies. A profitable industry shouldn\u2019t rely on taxpayers to pay for its research.\r\nThird, we make real reforms to the real problem: autopilot spending. The federal government makes trillions of dollars in empty promises to retirees. And these empty promises don\u2019t only drive the national debt; they threaten these retirees\u2019 security. We don\u2019t solve all these problems, but we make a good start: We make sensible reforms to federal-employee and military-retirement programs.\r\nWe ask new federal employees to contribute a little bit more to their retirement, so taxpayers don\u2019t have to pick up the full tab. And for younger military retirees, we trim their cost-of-living adjustments just a bit. It\u2019s a modest reform for working-age military retirees, many of whom have second careers after leaving the armed forces.\r\nFinally, we don\u2019t think taxpayers should have to bail out private companies\u2019 pension benefits. So we ask these companies to cover more of the cost of guaranteeing their benefits. That will protect taxpayers and save $7.9 billion.\r\nThese are real cuts that will become law immediately. If we pass this bill, we\u2019ll eliminate waste \u2014 right now. We\u2019ll cut corporate welfare \u2014 right now. And new government employees will start paying a fairer share. These savings will build up over time. But they will be even greater than what we\u2019d save by doing nothing. That\u2019s why this is a good deal.\r\nWe haven\u2019t squandered the gains from the Budget Control Act. We build on them. Our agreement preserves 92 percent of the sequester cuts \u2014 even though Democrats wanted none of them. We don\u2019t get rid of this fiscal discipline \u2014 we get more and do so in a smarter way.\r\nNow, I\u2019ll be the first to admit that this bill doesn\u2019t solve the problem. I\u2019ve passed three budgets in the House, all three of which would have fully paid off our debt without raising taxes. This bill doesn\u2019t go nearly far enough. But in divided government, you don\u2019t get everything you want. You have to work with the other side. And when you get the chance to take a step forward \u2014 however small \u2014 you take it.\r\nHere\u2019s what we\u2019ve accomplished: We\u2019ve cut spending in a smarter way. And we\u2019ve made it clear: Tax hikes aren\u2019t an option. We\u2019ve said budget talks should be about how Washington can live within its means, not how families should pay more. For conservatives, this agreement shows we can make Washington work \u2014 and on our own terms. It\u2019s not perfect. But it\u2019s a start. And I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it.\r\n\u2014 Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) is chairman of the House Budget Committee.\r\nhttp://www.nationalreview.com/article/366050/firm-step-forward-paul-ryan", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364444", "Some Thoughts on the Budget Deal", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By Yuval Levin, National Review\r\nThe actual text\u00a0of the Ryan-Murray budget deal came out late last night, so it\u2019s only now possible to really consider the particulars and see how it looks. It seems to me that the details look a fair bit better than the general outline that had been reported in the press over the past week or so, particularly on the question of whether the entitlement cuts that would replace some discretionary sequester cuts could be expected to actually materialize.\u00a0\r\nAs it stands, this strikes me as more or less a very small-scale version of the sort of thing that Republicans hoped might be made possible by the sequester but Democrats insisted could not be: a trade of discretionary savings for mandatory savings without real tax increases. The latter point depends on your view of user fees\u2014I generally think funding government services through user fees is much better than doing so through general revenue, so I take a move toward (slightly) greater reliance on such funding in a few programs to be a reduction in the burden on taxpayers in general without an increase in the size of government. That\u2019s a good thing, but it\u2019s certainly not unreasonable to describe such user fees as targeted taxes either. What the Democrats didn\u2019t get is what they want and have insisted they would not do without: income tax increases.\u00a0\r\nThis deal would amount to the Democrats accepting the implications of their misjudgment in abiding the Budget Control Act in 2011: accepting discretionary spending levels below BCA levels (and below even the original Ryan budget levels) and cementing the precedent of trading discretionary for entitlement cuts and of making budget deals without higher tax rates. And by avoiding another government shutdown fight, it robs the Democrats of one of the few escape routes they might have from the political nightmare that Obamacare\u2019s rollout has been and will continue to be for them. It\u2019s not exactly a deal to be celebrated, because it\u2019s a very tiny step and does nothing to address the horrendous fiscal problems of our entitlement system. But the Democrats have made it abundantly clear that those won\u2019t get addressed while they control the Senate and the White House, and under the circumstances this strikes me as a good deal worth voting for.\u00a0\r\nWhat follow are a few reflections on the contours of the deal, on its benefits, and on its risks and costs.\u00a0\r\nMost simply stated, the agreement would raise the discretionary spending levels set by the sequester by about $45 billion in 2014 and by about $20 billion in 2015, in each case divided evenly between defense and non-defense discretionary increases. That basically amounts to half of the sequester cuts that were supposed to take spending below the BCA spending caps in 2014 and a quarter of those that were supposed to do so in 2015. This sequester relief (i.e. increased spending) would then be entirely offset, and about $22 billion in additional deficit reduction would be achieved over 10 years, by (very) modest entitlement reforms that take effect over a longer period, by increasing user fees on a few government services paid for directly by people who use them, and by essentially extending the mandatory-spending portion of the sequester an additional two years.\u00a0\r\nThe entitlement savings would come almost entirely from non-health entitlements\u2014there are some modest Medicaid savings in the deal but no major reform, and nothing on Medicare or Obamacare. There is also nothing on Social Security. Instead, the cuts come from things like increasing the contributions federal employees have to make to their pension fund, changing rules to reduce fraud in the unemployment insurance system, repealing some relatively small corporate giveaways, and raising the premiums paid by companies with federally guaranteed pensions. Such small potatoes can add up to a deal here because the change to the sequester is also quite small.\u00a0\r\nThese sorts of modest \u201cother entitlement\u201d reforms have been around as part of assorted Republican and Democratic sequester-replacement proposals for several years. They have generally been included in those proposals along with other, much larger ideas\u2014structural reforms of the major entitlements for Republicans and tax increases for Democrats. What Murray and Ryan have done here is take all the little ideas that have long been basically agreed on by both parties and put them together without the bigger ones that divide the parties. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\r\nIndeed, what stands out most as a general matter about this proposed agreement is how very small it is\u2014for good and bad. It involves about $65 billion over the next two years (a bit less than nine-tenths of one percent of projected federal spending over that period). It doesn\u2019t much change the terms reached in the original Budget Control Act and sequester deal, and essentially cements the Democrats\u2019 loss and miscalculation in that deal. The Democrats\u2019 hope, given that they control both the White House and the Senate, was to replace the sequester with some combination of tax increases and more palatable spending cuts. The Ryan-Murray deal would say instead that about 30 percent of the sequester over the next two years will be replaced with modest (and much more sensible) longer-term entitlement savings and other small reforms, and that\u2019s it. 70 percent of the sequester remains in place in those two years, and after those two years the entire sequester remains in place. A comparison of discretionary spending in the absence of the sequester, with the sequester, and under the proposed Ryan-Murray deal, would look like this:\r\n\r\nThat the Democrats would accept a deal like this is a pretty striking indication of how the Republican House has changed the conversation on the spending front since 2010. Think of it this way: In their first budget after re-taking the majority\u2014the FY 2012 Ryan budget, passed in 2011\u2014the House Republicans wanted discretionary spending to be $1.039 trillion in 2014 and $1.047 trillion in 2015. These budgets were of course described by the Democrats and the political press (but I repeat myself) as some reversion to humanity\u2019s barbaric past. Yet this proposed deal with the Democrats would put discretionary spending at $1.012 trillion in 2014 and $1.014 trillion in 2015\u2014in both cases below that first House Republican budget.\u00a0\r\nThe risk and worry for conservatives in a deal like this is that it replaces some near-term discretionary cuts with entitlement cuts that mostly happen in the out-years. That\u2019s the argument some of the critics of this proposal have made as its general outlines have been reported in the last few days. But the details of the deal should at least in large part put those concerns to rest. The basic difference between discretionary and mandatory spending, after all, is that while discretionary spending has to be legislated anew each year, mandatory spending essentially functions by rule and remains in place until that rule is changed. This is part of the problem with our larger entitlements, of course: They run on autopilot, and building the political will to change course has proven extremely difficult. But in this case, that works in favor of the possibility that these cuts will survive. Because they touch on relatively low-salience mandatory programs, these changes would have to be actively undone to be reversed, and it\u2019s not easy to see the circumstances under which, say, the amount paid by federal workers into their pensions would become a high enough priority for the Democrats that they would fight to lower it in a future budget deal. Mandatory spending out-year cuts have a much better record of actually materializing and remaining in place than discretionary spending out-year cuts.\r\nThat\u2019s no guarantee that these cuts would remain in place, of course, and there could never be any such guarantee. But if you look at them individually, it certainly looks pretty likely that they will, and therefore that the downward effect on overall federal spending will have a good chance of persisting through and beyond the budget window and so that over the coming decade, though not in this next year, this deal looks reasonably likely to result in slightly lower rather than higher overall federal spending than we were on a course to achieve without it.\u00a0\r\nAnd to be sure, that course was not likely to be sustained in any case. The Republicans\u2019 dirty little secret in this process has always been that their own appropriators hate the sequester almost as much as the Democrats do. In the absence of a deal like this, it\u2019s not all that likely that the sequester could have held for another year or two, and from the point of view of conservatives one of the key benefits of this kind of deal, if it does get enacted, would be to sustain the lower spending levels over the budget window despite the lack of majority support for the sequester in Congress.\r\nOf course, that lack of support for lower spending levels among some Republicans is a source of great (and justified) irritation and anger for conservatives, in and out of Congress. The Republican appropriator class is a problem to be solved, without a doubt. But the idea that forcing that problem into the open at this point by forcing another budget showdown would help the conservative cause just doesn\u2019t make much sense to me\u2014not only from the point of view of electoral politics but also from the point of view of conservative goals. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nThe goal of conservatives in national politics can\u2019t just be to have less of the same: the liberal welfare state at a slightly lower cost. That is basically what a sequester approach to the budget amounts to, after all\u2014no reform of anything, just a small bit of across the board spending pressure. The goal, rather, should be to transform American government along conservative lines, into a government that works to sustain and expand the space between the individual and the state, to strengthen the market economy and make its benefits accessible to more Americans, to help the poor not with an empty promise of material equality but with a fervent commitment to upward mobility, to strengthen the middle class by lifting needless burdens off the shoulders of parents and workers, and to put an end to the cronyism and corporatism that have come increasingly to characterize the relationship between the private and public sectors. Such a government would certainly cost less, would have little room for the way of thinking embodied by Republican appropriators (and all the more so by congressional Democrats of course), and could help avert the fiscal catastrophe we face if our major entitlement programs are not reformed, but it would do far more than that. \u00a0\r\nRepublicans have used their House majority (very much including the budgets they have passed) to set out some elements of such an agenda, but they know they cannot make much progress while Democrats control the Senate and the White House. Their goals while that remains the case should be to make what modest gains they can, to develop that agenda further (and much work remains to be done on that front), and to improve their chances of winning future elections.\u00a0\r\nA government shutdown fight, which would easily play into the Democrats\u2019 hands and allow them to distract the public from the ongoing failures of Obamacare (among their other troubles), would surely be a setback for this cause. And we have after all seen very recently that congressional Republicans are not in good shape to make meaningful gains in such a fight at this point. By now even the people who argued most fervently for insisting on defunding or repealing Obamacare in the last budget battle have acknowledged they didn\u2019t really believe that could happen in such a fight. Simply doing it over won\u2019t change the players or the circumstances, however much we might wish we could change both, and won\u2019t advance the conservative cause.\r\nA deal that keeps in place 92 percent of the sequester, replaces the rest (and adds more savings) with fairly durable mandatory savings and other small reforms, and avoids the tax increases the Democrats want would, I think, advance that cause a little.\u00a0\r\nThere\u2019s not much to celebrate here, and there won\u2019t be until the Democrats no longer control the Senate and the White House, but there\u2019s not much to bemoan either, and this deal would make it more likely that the Democrats will lose that control.\u00a0\r\nhttp://www.nationalreview.com/corner/366034/some-thoughts-budget-deal-yuval-Levin", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364517", "Paul Ryan\u2019s ride", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By A.B. Stoddard, The Hill\r\nLeaders aren\u2019t necessarily those we find in the highest office, or those who campaign for it, or those we see on television the most. True leaders make unpopular choices. They have the guts to take the heat for tough decisions but also to call out those who take easy cheap shots from the sidelines.\r\nRep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, 2012 vice presidential nominee, author of \u201cThe Roadmap\u201d for fiscal solvency, chief doer among talkers, got slapped around this week for doing something. The bipartisan budget he helped draft, which would fund the government for two years, remove the threat of shutdowns and reduce the deficit without any new taxes, made him the latest punching bag Wednesday among Tea Party conservatives who deemed the deal a sellout.\r\nRyan didn\u2019t touch entitlement reforms or roll back the debt he has sworn in the past would soon create a permanent crisis, and the budget deal doesn\u2019t resemble his \u201cRoadmap\u201d or previous budgets he\u2019s drafted and the House has passed that would balance the budget in 10 years. But Ryan led, governed, compromised, kept the government running and took away the threat of shutdown, so the business community could have certainty, and the U.S. government could take a step back from becoming a laughing stock as well as a liability to the global economy.\u00a0\r\nClearly he did something wrong.\r\nHeritage Action, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth all oppose the deal, along with Republicans in the running for president. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was the first out blasting the deal. Ryan responded Tuesday night on Greta Van Susteren\u2019s show \u201cOn The Record\u201d on Fox News Channel by calling Rubio a friend. \u201cI don\u2019t know that he\u2019s seen the contents of it. I do expect some people may vote against it for their various political reasons,\u201d he said.\r\nIt wasn\u2019t as if Ryan was surprised. When he voted a year ago for the \u201cfiscal-cliff\u201d deal to extend most of the Bush tax cuts, conservatives in the House opposed it in droves and criticized both Ryan and Speaker John Boehner for supporting it. When asked about criticism of Ryan\u2019s new deal on Wednesday, Boehner (R-Ohio) accused critics from outside groups of \u201cusing our members and the American people for their own goals.\u201d Boehner\u2019s unprecedented outburst shows, after a shutdown the party never wanted, how much further GOP leaders are willing to push back against insurgent conservatives than they ever have been before.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a way to make divided government work,\u201d said Ryan Wednesday, throwing a lit match at the smoldering Republican divide. With that, he might have constrained his political future \u2014 not only as a presidential prospect but even as a potential Speaker of the House, a position numerous Republican members hope he would aspire to in years to come. \u201cIn divided government, you don\u2019t always get what you want,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cThat said, we can still make progress to our goals.\u201d\r\nAs the chorus of complaints grows louder, Ryan believes he is making quiet progress toward conservative goals and that the deal he cut doesn\u2019t require either side to \u201cviolate a core principle.\u201d In 16 years in the House, the young Ryan has never stopped working toward fiscal solvency, even during years in the minority. In early 2010, when it became clear the GOP could take back the House that fall, Ryan told me: \u201cI figure, try and be a Paul Revere on the fiscal situation. I might get knocked off my horse, but at least I\u2019ll sleep well.\u201d\r\nUnlike a lot of would-be leaders in the GOP, Ryan should be getting some good sleep.\u00a0\r\nStoddard is an associate editor of The Hill.\r\nhttp://thehill.com/opinion/ab-stoddard/192857-paul-ryans-ride", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221034521/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/the-affordable-care-act-strengthens-mental-health-and-substance-use-disorder-coverage", "The Affordable Care Act Strengthens Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Coverage", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Wednesday, December 11, 2013\n\t\t\t\t The Affordable Care Act Strengthens Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Coverage \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe Affordable Care Act is helping ordinary Americans and businesses take advantage of the benefits of the health care law \u2013 including one of the largest expansions of mental health and substance use disorder coverage in a generation.  \u00a0  Today approximately 60 million Americans \u2013 including approximately 1,018,000 Wisconsinites \u2013 have gained access to these expanded benefits and protections.  \u00a0  Because of the health care law, insurance companies, for the first time, in the individual and small group market are required to cover mental health and substance use disorder services as one of ten categories of essential health benefits. It is estimated that one in five adults experience a mental illness in any given year. While most mental illnesses are treatable, those with mental illness too often cannot access needed treatment if they do not have health insurance that covers mental health services. Starting in 2014, insurers will not be able to deny coverage or charge individuals more due to pre-existing conditions, including mental illnesses.  \u00a0  Helping our families and businesses take advantage of the benefits of the health care law, like expanded mental health and substance use disorder benefits, is priority for Tammy in making the Affordable Care Act work for Wisconsin.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221034523/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/community-health-centers-increasing-access-to-care", "Community Health Centers: Increasing Access to Care", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Wednesday, December 11, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Community Health Centers: Increasing Access to Care \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe Affordable Care Act is supporting, expanding, and increasing funding available to Community Health Centers nationwide. Over time, health centers have helped to deliver high-quality and comprehensive preventive & primary health care to their patients, becoming essential care facilities in their communities. The Affordable Care Act allows and provides support for health center facilities to purse long-term projects to expand, improve existing facilities, and serve more patients, recognizing the need to build additional primary care capacity in advance of health insurance reforms.  \u00a0  Across the country, Community Health Centers provide primary care to more than 21 million Americans.\u00a0 Here in Wisconsin, 17 health centers operate 98 sites, providing preventive and primary health care services to the 281,591 people.  \u00a0  This support is making a difference right here in Wisconsin, at clinics such as the Bridge Street Clinic in Wausau that Tammy visited this past August.\u00a0 The Bridge Clinic is using the funding and support they received through the Affordable Care Act for an expansion of their dental services program that they expect to be completed in early 2014.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221042631/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/us-senator-tammy-baldwin-statement-on-bipartisan-budget-act", "U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Statement on Bipartisan Budget Act", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Statement on Bipartisan Budget Act\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, December 11, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, DC \u2013 U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin today made the following statement regarding the Bipartisan Budget Act.  \u00a0  \u201cThe bipartisan budget agreement isn\u2019t perfect, but it is progress that will help break this destructive pattern of drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. This agreement is a fair bargain that invests in middle class families, reduces the deficit, and rolls back the arbitrary cuts of sequestration that have slowed economic growth and cost our economy jobs. It is important that both parties worked together to put progress ahead of politics and produce a bipartisan agreement that is a good first step towards providing economic security for the middle class and certainty for our economy. Now that we have put in place a new path forward, it is my hope that we can continue to work across party lines to create economic growth and take a balanced approach to reducing the deficit without shortchanging our future.\u201d  \u00a0  ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364090", "Inside the proposed bipartisan budget deal: Rep. Paul Ryan - It 'moves the ball in the right direction'", "2013-12-10", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "This is a rush transcript from Fox News' \"On the Record,\" December 10, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.\r\nGRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: This is a FOX News alert. A bipartisan budget deal on Capitol Hill. House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Committee Chair Senator Patty Murray hammering out the agreement. Congressman Paul Ryan joins us. Nice to see you, sir.\r\nREP. PAUL RYAN, HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE CHAIR: Hey. Good to be back with you, Greta.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: You must be happy tonight. You hammered out this deal with Senator Murray?\r\nRYAN: I am. I am. It's a deal that moves the ball in the right direction. It cuts the deficit without raising taxes by cutting spending in smarter ways than the across-the-board approach. All of our members were worried about all the defense cuts. We are stopping the military from getting cutting further and we are cutting spending in smarter ways on auto pilot programs that have been untouched for years by Congress. And we're doing it in a way to make sure that there is no tax increases and that we actually lower the deficit versus doing nothing. So if you take a look at --\r\n(CROSSTALK)\r\nRYAN: Do you want me to walk it through it a little bit I'm happy to do that. If you take a look at this chart, this shows you what we call discretionary spending, spending on government agency budgets. The blue line on the top here shows you the agreement we had a year ago under the Budget Control Act. The sequester is the red line. That ended up cutting spending. What this green area does is it reflects what we are doing, which is by preventing the military from getting cut any further, we're putting a little bit of money back in the sequester here and we're paying for it by cutting spending in other areas of government.\r\nFor instance, we're asking public employees to pay a little bit more for their pensions. Our argument is that hard-working taxpayers pay for their pensions in the first place and their benefits are on average better than the taxpayers who pay for them in the first place. We have got a number of reforms that are permanent, that actually save more money and pay for some relief of \"The Sequester.\"\r\nWe also see that this puts us in the right direction because, the numbers down here, a year ago when I was passing a budget in the House, we were hoping for a trillion, $19 billion in total discretionary spending. We won't hit that spending level until the year 2017 with this agreement.\r\nSo we are well ahead of schedule and we are getting more deficit reduction in spending cuts in areas that we have never been able to get before. That's why I think this is a good agreement and it makes divided government work and prevents government shutdowns, which we think is a good idea as well.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: I love any deal bipartisan in this city is a really good sign. I like the fact that it's two years so there is some level of certainty for the business community. Because that's what's been so painful the continuing resolutions no one know what was going to happen so they couldn't make business decisions. Other than asking the federal workers to pay more for pensions, where else?\r\nRYAN: We are opening up a little bit of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling, 172 million barrels of oil, 302 billion cubic feet of natural gas in an area that had been closed off now is going to be open up. We are saying that deadbeat dads who don't pay for their kids' Medicaid payments need to pay for them. Making sure we don't send prisoners checks from the IRS in prison that they shouldn't be getting.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Hallelujah.\r\nRYAN: We are making sure that people can't rip off dead people's identities so they don't keep getting checks to go to somebody else. There is a lot of fraud, waste. We also go after corporate welfare. Research and development program for energy companies that are subsidizing with public taxpayer dollars -- I mean, public spending for private taxpayer dollars. The point I'm trying to say is shouldn't be development costs. That's a program we get rid of. A lot of things like that.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: If Senator Pattie Murray was sitting right here what would see say she was happiest about?\r\nPAUL: Stop government shutdowns and have the Congress actually appropriate money and don't do continuing resolutions anymore. Some relief from the sequester.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: You like that too though.\r\nPAUL: She wanted relief from the sequester.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: You wanted relief from the sequester.\r\nRYAN: So long as we paid for it and we paid for it with more deficit reduction. I didn't want to net out to zero. I wanted -- whatever we did, I wanted to make sure it was a step in the right direction towards fiscal conservatism towards deficit reduction. She wanted relief from the sequester. That's where we were able to find common ground. The way we decided to do these negotiations was I had core principles that I was not going to compromise. I'm not going to raise taxes and I'm going to lower the deficit. She had some core principles she wasn't going to compromise.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Like?\r\nRYAN: She wanted relief from the sequester. She wanted 50 percent go to domestic spending and 50 percent to go back to defense spending.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Did she get that?\r\nRYAN: She did get that and so what we did is found where is common ground. We looked at our budget passed in the house. Her budget she passed for the first time in three years in the Senate and the president's budgets. We looked at those areas of common ground, common understanding. We negotiated that and that's what this result is.\r\nThe way I look at this is you don't have to require another person to violate a core principle to get things done. You have common ground. This isn't the greatest agreement of all time. We have a long ways to go to get this deficit under control. This is a step in the right direction.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: This has obviously nothing to do with tax reform, right?\r\nRYAN: It doesn't deal with taxes.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: It only deals with the whole budget. All right, one of the things that the Democrats want was to extend unemployment benefits.\r\nRYAN: We didn't do that so there are a number of things that they asked for we wouldn't agree to. That's one of them.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Did you ask for anything that they didn't agree to?\r\nRYAN: Yes, I wanted to means test Medicare benefits. I wanted to have higher income seniors to pay more of their premiums for Medicare. They would not agree to that.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Have you spoken to Speaker Boehner? Has he been part of this?\r\nRYAN: He has been part of this. Our leadership team, I have spoken to dozens of colleagues in the House, talking them, getting their ideas, getting input, speaking with a lot of members in the Senate. Pattie Murray has done the same thing as well. I'm trying to get input from our colleagues. We haven't had a bipartisan budget agreement where both parties since 1986.\r\nSo putting something like this together is not easy to do. It allows for give and take. As far as I'm concerned, I think this is a step in the right direction. It advances our principles of fiscal conservatism. More importantly it stops the government from shutting down in January and stops the government from possibly shutting down in October.\r\nAnd we think government shutdowns are not in our interest. I think some people would like to seat political distraction of a government shutdown. We would like to focus on doing oversight of the executive branch, oversight on Obamacare and oversight on the IRS and not focus on government shutdowns.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Does this have any impact at all, directly or indirectly, on the fact that we going to likely hit the debt ceiling in the spring.\r\nRYAN: This does not deal with that issue. Just like it doesn't touch taxes or tax reform. By limiting it in scope to spending in deficits, we're able to -- it's kind of an agreement.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: All right, in terms of getting it passed in the House, you are going -- I suspect you are going to need some Democrats.\r\nRYAN: It's a bipartisan agreement. So we anticipate that as well.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: You are going to lose Republicans in the House.\r\nRYAN: I anticipate that some people will not vote for it for various reasons. But, as far as a conservative Republican principle is concerned, we are lowering the deficit without raising taxes by cutting spending in smarter ways we have permanent spending cuts to pay for some temporary sequester relief. We are not turning the sequester off.\r\nWe are giving short-term relief for the sequester and keeping it. I think as far as conservatism is concerned we are advancing the ball. The problem is we didn't get everything we want I didn't pass my budget. My balances the budget in 10 years and pays off the debt. I know with this divided government I can't get that so I want to get this.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: All right, so you're going to lose some Republicans in the House, you get to pick up some Democrats. That's why I asked about the issue about extending the unemployment because that would have been a way to pick them up.\r\nRYAN: It is but it's something that we weren't prepared to do. Democrats weren't interested in paying for it. That cost $20 billion to $25 billion. We also think that there is a big economic case to make with the fact that long-term unemployment is propped up. People are more induced to staying long term unemployed. That's what a lot of studies are showing by extending emergency unemployment insurance from 2008.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Your press conference ended, I think, about 6:20, or 6:25. At 6:33, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican in the Senate had already issued his press release to everybody in the media saying he was opposed?\r\nRYAN: Well, I haven't talked to Marco about it. I don't know that he has seen the contents of it. I do expect some people may vote against it for various political reasons. He has his reasons. In the minority you don't have to pass things. That's a luxury or not. That people have in the Senate. Marco is a very good friend of mine. I'm a big fan of his. I wish he would support it.\r\nBut, if he doesn't, that's fine. For me, I'm cutting the deficit without raising taxes and I'm getting permanent spending cuts from an area of spending that we haven't been able to touch for years. I think that's a good step in the right direction.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: What's Senator Murray's biggest problem?\r\nRYAN: They don't like federal employees, the idea that we were going to ask federal employees to pay more for their pensions.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Is Congressman Van Hollen -- he has a lot of federal employees. He is a big mover and shaker in the House. He has had a lot of federal employees.\r\nRYAN: He had a hand in how we did this. I was willing to negotiate on how we treated federal employees. Not if we made them pay more for their pensions. He had a very substantial involvement in how this policy works. What we basically want to do is make sure that federal employees had their benefits more in line with the hard-working taxpayers that pay for them. This is something we dealt with in Wisconsin.\r\nStates are dealing with this all over the country. We really think it's time we deal with this at the federal level. I didn't get every policy I wanted on this. We got a substantial down payment on this. Senator -- and Congressman Van Hollen was a part of that.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: I actually think that the certainty is such an important element of this. No one gets what he or she wants. The uncertainty is so important for economy, any time we get give it a shot. You know, that that helps.\r\nRYAN: I think the idea of a government shutdown in January and then the idea of another government shutdown in October, and getting rid of that is good.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: To jump all over.\r\nRYAN: I think there are a lot of people who would like the distraction of a government shutdown for one reason or the other. The administration is not really high on the Obamacare focus that is occurring in this country.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Did they like the shutdown?\r\nRYAN: Completely unraveling.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Do you think they like the shutdown?\r\nRYAN: I don't know. I wouldn't say that they like shutdowns, but I think they like to get off ObamaCare and by not turning the government down, we are not get off ObamaCare. Keep speaking truth to power. We are going to keep doing shining the light on the problems of the law. And that to us, gives us a good position. The last point I would make is this retains the power of the purse in Congress, the legislative branch.\r\nWe are supposed to set spending. We are supposed to prioritize funding. We were supposed to exercise the power of the purse. For the last three years we have been doing these things continuing resolutions where we delegate that power to the executive branch. I want Congress to reclaim that power from the administration doing something like this, guarantees that we do that.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: Vote likely on Thursday?\r\nRYAN: Yes.\r\nVAN SUSTEREN: All right, Congressman, thank you. And congratulations to both you and Senator Murray. Good luck.\r\nRYAN: Appreciate it.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364100", "Murray and Ryan Introduce Bipartisan Budget-Conference Agreement", "2013-12-10", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Two-year budget agreement would avoid government shutdown in January, provide certainty to businesses and families, and return budget process to regular orderBipartisan agreement would provide sequester relief for defense and domestic priorities\u2014fully offset by concrete savings and reforms\u2014and further reduce the deficitShort-term agreement breaks through partisan gridlock and can serve as foundation for continued bipartisan work\r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Today, Senate Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced that they have reached a two-year budget agreement in advance of the budget conference\u2019s December 13th deadline.\r\n\u201cI\u2019m proud of this agreement,\u201d said Chairman Ryan. \u201cIt reduces the deficit\u2014without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It\u2019s a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it.\u201d\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u201cThis agreement breaks through the recent dysfunction to prevent another government shutdown and roll back sequestration\u2019s cuts to defense and domestic investments in a balanced way,\u201d said Chairman Murray. \u201cIt\u2019s a good step in the right direction that can hopefully rebuild some trust and serve as a foundation for continued bipartisan work.\u201d\r\nThe Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 would set overall discretionary spending for the current fiscal year at $1.012 trillion\u2014about halfway between the Senate budget level of $1.058 trillion and the House budget level of $967 billion. The agreement would provide $63 billion in sequester relief over two years, split evenly between defense and non-defense programs. In fiscal year 2014, defense discretionary spending would be set at $520.5 billion, and non-defense discretionary spending would be set at $491.8 billion.\r\nThe sequester relief is fully offset by savings elsewhere in the budget. The agreement includes dozens of specific deficit-reduction provisions, with mandatory savings and non-tax revenue totaling approximately $85 billion. The agreement would reduce the deficit by between $20 and $23 billion.\r\nThe House of Representatives is expected to take up the Bipartisan Budget Act first, followed by the Senate. If this bill is signed into law, the appropriations committees will then be able to work on spending bills at an agreed-upon level in advance of the January 15th deadline.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://paulryan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364455", "Good Deal", "2013-12-10", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Paul Ryan", "R000570", "paulryan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By William Kristol, The Weekly Standard\r\nThe budget deal announced today is a good deal for conservatives and Republicans.\r\nFrom the point of view of policy, the deal is a modest achievement\u2014which is all that can be expected, given the unfortunate fact that Barack Obama is president and Democrats control the Senate. The trade-off in the deal of minor mandatory cuts for relatively small domestic discretionary increases is basically a wash. That leaves the defense increase, which, while insufficient, is an important step in the right direction. That alone would make the deal worthwhile. But the restoration of the normal appropriations process will also have a good effect, allowing Republicans to argue for reforms and articulate priorities in several domestic policy areas, rather than being the party of a mindless sequester that does little to cut spending, nothing to advance conservative ideas, and discourages efforts at reform.\r\nFrom the point of view of politics, the budget deal is a significant achievement. It averts a meltdown scenario next month, in which it would have become clear that House Republicans don't in fact have the votes in their own conference to insist on the budget caps and sequester. So the real alternative to the deal isn't a more fiscally conservative outcome achieved by Republican unity; it's GOP political disarray and policy defeat. The deal saves Republicans from this fate, while allowing for a focus throughout the next year and in the 2014 election season on Obamacare and other Obama administration failures, rather than on intra-GOP wars and possible government shutdowns.\r\nSo the deal will be a small but significant step toward strengthening our national defense, and should help produce a Republican and conservative electoral victory in November. Critics can say that such a result is Mickey Mouse. I could retort that the critics are Goofy. But I won't. Instead, I'll just say that if this deal is Mickey Mouse, it's time to join the Mickey Mouse Fan Club. After all, it's made for you and me.\r\nhttp://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/good-deal_770730.html", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pocan-releases-new-report-65000-wisconsinites-to-lose-jobless-aid", "Pocan Releases New Report: 65,000 Wisconsinites to Lose Jobless Aid Without Congressional Action", "2013-12-10", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Mark Pocan", "P000607", "pocan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02) today continued highlighting that Congress has #MoreWork2Do before the end of the year by releasing a new report finding that 65,000 Wisconsinites would soon lose vital unemployment insurance without Congressional action. If Congress fails to extend the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program within the next two weeks, in Wisconsin alone:\n 23,700 unemployed workers will lose unemployment insurance just days after the holiday season on December 28, 2013.\n\tAn additional 41,800 unemployed workers would lose their insurance in the first six months of 2014.\n Today Pocan signed on as a sponsor of The Emergency Unemployment Insurance Benefits Act, which would extend the emergency unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed for an additional year.\n\u201cWithout Congressional action, the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Wisconsin families will be threatened just days after Christmas,\u201d Pocan said. \u201cAs our economy continues to recover, we must maintain this vital unemployment insurance for Wisconsin job seekers who would like nothing more than to re-enter the workforce. Congress needs to come together to extend these benefits, focus on job creation, and strengthen middle class families across America.\u201d\nFederal unemployment insurance has been reauthorized several times as Americans continue to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Despite the real progress the economy has made since its near collapse in 2008, there are still 1.3 million fewer jobs than there were before the recession began. Long-term unemployment is near historic highs at 37 percent, with the unemployment rate in Wisconsin at 6.7 percent in October and more than 195,000 Wisconsinites still struggling to find work.\u00a0\nFailure to extend federal unemployment insurance would also hurt job growth throughout the nation, costing the economy 310,000 jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute, while decreasing GDP and increasing government spending for other safety net programs. The White House Council of Economic Advisors estimates that in Wisconsin alone, failing to extend the program will cost more than 5,000 jobs.\nDespite the fact that Congress is set to pass fewer laws this year than at almost any point in history, the House of Representatives is currently scheduled to finish its \u201cwork\u201d in Washington by the end of this week. As part of his #MoreWork2Do week, Rep. Pocan is highlighting many important items Congress should finish before it leaves on vacation, including the need to pass a new Farm Bill, vote on comprehensive immigration reform, and focus on legislation to promote job creation and economic growth.\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://kind.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-kind-delauro-and-blumenauer-tell-speaker-boehner-majority-leader", "Reps. Kind, DeLauro, and Blumenauer Tell Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Cantor: Keep Farm Bill Loopholes Closed", "2013-12-10", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Ron Kind", "K000188", "kind.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, DC--Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) today implored Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor to keep loopholes for multimillionaires closed in any final Farm Bill. Both the House and Senate-passed versions of the Farm Bill reformed payment limits for commodity programs by capping the total number of active personal management who can receive commodity payments.\nIt is unconscionable that these conferees would try to reverse the reforms backed by a majority of their colleagues so as to continue the flow of millions of dollars, beyond what they are entitled to, to a relatively few mega farms, the representatives wrote. CBO [Congressional Budget Office] has estimated $170 million in savings if Congress reforms payment limits for commodity programs by placing a hard cap of $250,000 (for married couples) on the total amount of commodity payments that producers can receive.\nMembers of Congress are currently negotiating a new five-year Farm Bill that could cut billions from nutrition and anti-hunger programs, even as multimillionaires continue to get exorbitant farm subsidy payments. The farm subsidy programs are rife with fraud, as the Government Accountability Office recently detailed.\nBy contrast, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps), has one of the lowest error rates of any federal program. Over 90 percent of all food stamp spending goes to families living at or below the poverty line.\nThe letter can be read in its entirety here.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221042642/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/wisconsin-continues-to-pay-a-price-for-failing-to-strengthen-badgercare-through-the-affordable-care-act", "Wisconsin Continues to Pay a Price for Failing to Strengthen BadgerCare through the Affordable Care Act", "2013-12-10", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Wisconsin Continues to Pay a Price for Failing to Strengthen BadgerCare through the Affordable Care Act\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTuesday, December 10, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, DC - Today, Senator Tammy Baldwin renewed her call for Governor Scott Walker to seize the opportunity to strengthen BadgerCare through the Affordable Care Act.  \u00a0  \u201cWisconsin continues to pay a price for Governor Walker\u2019s insistence on putting politics ahead of what\u2019s best for our state,\u201d said Baldwin.\u00a0 \u201cHe has refused to accept an investment to strengthen our BadgerCare program and instead he continues to take Wisconsin down a fiscally irresponsible path that covers fewer people at a higher cost to taxpayers. It doesn\u2019t have to be this way but Governor Walker insists on his plan of kicking tens of thousands of people off of BadgerCare and into an exchange he wants repealed - while at the same time keeping over 80,000 people out in the cold for another three months without the health care they need.\u201d  \u00a0  Because of the health care law, states can choose to expand their Medicaid coverage to all adults with incomes below 133 percent of poverty (around $32,000 for a family of four) and in return receive 100 percent of federal funding to cover those costs for the first three years and no less than 90 percent federal support for those costs in the years following. So far, 26 states and the District of Columbia have taken up this Medicaid expansion opportunity, In fact, thanks to these states and the opening of the new Health Insurance Marketplaces, we know that 6 in 10 currently uninsured Americans will have access to health coverage for $100 per month or less next year, and that number would rise to 8 in 10 if the states that haven\u2019t expanded coverage \u2013 including Wisconsin \u2013 did.  \u00a0  Expanding Medicaid is a smart choice for Wisconsin. Since expanding Medicaid reduces medical expenses that states pay for uncompensated care, the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that states would generate net savings from expanding Medicaid. According to Kaiser, expanding Medicaid could save states a total of $10 billion through 2022.  \u00a0  State analyses back up these national reports that Governor Walker\u2019s plan to reject the Medicaid expansion covers fewer people at a higher cost. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau has found that compared to taking the federal investment to expand Medicaid, Governor Walker\u2019s plan will cost Wisconsin taxpayers $119 million more over the next two years to cover 85,000 fewer people through BadgerCare. Through 2020, the Governor\u2019s plan costs $250 million more than expanding BadgerCare under the federal Medicaid expansion.  \u00a0  A recent story from a patient at the St. Clare Health Mission in La Crosse highlights the personal struggles Wisconsinites are facing under Governor Walker\u2019s plan. According to the La Crosse Tribune, a local man in his mid-40s, who has a hernia and whose employer would not allow him to work until it is repaired, is in jeopardy of losing his job because he will not have health insurance coverage at the beginning of the year. If the Governor had taken the opportunity to strengthen BadgerCare, this man would be covered and would be able to schedule a surgery the first week of January. But under Governor Walker\u2019s plan, he is not eligible for insurance until April 1, risking loss of his job because his employer won\u2019t wait that long.  \u00a0  ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221042654/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/us-senators-tammy-baldwin-and-edward-markey-preserve-public-access-to-local-television-channels-ensure-diversity-of-programming", "U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin and Edward Markey Preserve Public Access to Local Television Channels, Ensure Diversity of Programming", "2013-12-10", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin and Edward Markey Preserve Public Access to Local Television Channels, Ensure Diversity of Programming\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTuesday, December 10, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, DC \u2013 U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Edward Markey (D-MA) today introduced the Community Access Preservation (CAP) Act, legislation to ensure public access to local television programming.  \u00a0  \u201cThe 80-plus public, educational, and governmental access channels in the state of Wisconsin deliver invaluable public programming on a daily basis, commercial free and with the sole purpose of informing and educating our communities,\u201d said Baldwin. \u201cAs local budgets tighten and television delivery methods change, we must ensure that our local public access channels are able to continue to reflect local interests and bring diverse programming to the public.\u201d  \u00a0  \"PEG access stations are televised town squares where local citizens can see and hear what is happening in their own community, and respond with their own voices to the issues affecting their cities and towns,\u201d said Markey. \u201cI have long admired the goals of education and participation heralded by these TV channels, and I will continue to support the work of these vital local resources.\"  \u00a0  Across the country, there over 2,000 public, educational, and governmental (PEG) studios/operations and an estimated 5,000 PEG channels. In a time of media consolidation, these local, non-commercial access channels bring unique voices, perspectives, and programming to communities. Local school districts operate PEG channels to feature school board meetings and forums, homework helpers, interviews, lectures, and sporting events not otherwise broadcast on television. And religious programming represents 20-40 percent of local access programming.  \u00a0  PEG channels receive no federal funding.\u00a0 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 grants municipalities the right to assess a small franchise fee, which is paid to local or state governments to support community media centers. Several states, while intending to preserve PEG and community media, have adopted statewide video franchising standards that have devastated PEG funding. Since 2005, PEG access channels have suffered severe setbacks as a result of these statewide franchising laws passed in 23 states. These laws took away a local community\u2019s ability to negotiate with cable operators, resulting in six states -\u00a0 Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, and Missouri -\u00a0 losing all funding for PEG channels in 2012.\u00a0 In addition, in 2007, the FCC ruled, subject to some important exceptions, that PEG franchise fees could only be used for facilities and equipment, and not for operating expenses.\u00a0 As a result, many communities are closing PEG facilities because, while they have equipment, there are no funds to operate them.   \u00a0  The CAP Act amends the Cable Act to ensure that PEG fees can be used for any purpose, including paying employee salaries.\u00a0 The legislation reaffirms that cable operators must deliver PEG channels to subscribers without additional charges, and via channel placement with the same quality, accessibility and functionality as provided to local television broadcast stations.\u00a0 Finally, it requires operators to provide the support required under state laws, or the support historically provided for PEG, or up to 2 percent of gross revenue, whichever is greater.\u00a0 The CAP Act costs nothing, will address the severe challenges faced by PEG access channels and local community media, and will save thousands of jobs across the country.  \u00a0  \u201cCongress, through the cable acts of 1984 and 1992, intended to make sure that local communities could have PEG access channels and funding in return for the cable operators\u2019 use of public rights-of-way,\u201d said John Rocco, President, American Community Television. This legislation will restore what Congress intended and helps to secure a local community\u2019s ability to use these channels to communicate.\u00a0 We want to thank Senator Baldwin and Senator Markey for working together to save these channels.\u201d  \u00a0  \u201cWisconsin needs the CAP Act,\u201d said Mary Cardona, Executive Director of Wisconsin Community Media. \u201cIn 2007, state franchise legislation eliminated PEG funding. Since then, citizen-produced local programming has withered while local governments strive to retain coverage of local affairs.\u00a0 Some key public access centers in the state have closed their doors.\u00a0 The CAP Act will restore support for the community programming residents want.\u00a0 The continuing erosion of community television services in the state has been of great concern to Wisconsin Community Media and we could not be more thrilled at the re-introduction of the CAP Act by Senators Baldwin and Markey.\u201d  \u00a0  \u201cIn a time when religious programming face increasing challenges to its voice being given an equal platform, PEG channels offer a venue for these programs to be accessed,\u201d said Bishop John C. Wester, Diocese of Salt Lake City and chair of the USCCB Committee on Communications. \u201cThis is of particular importance for the elderly, disabled or homebound who long to remain connected to their religious communities but are unable to take part in their religious or community activities.\u201d  \u00a0  The CAP Act is supported by the Alliance for Community Media (ACM), American Community Television, The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), The National League of Cities, The United States Conference of Mayors, Americans for the Arts, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221062024/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/a-critical-lifeline_--congress-must-act", "A critical lifeline  - Congress must act", "2013-12-10", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Tuesday, December 10, 2013\n\t\t\t\t A critical lifeline  - Congress must act \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tAt this time, federal support for unemployment insurance is set to end a few days after the holiday season, cutting off vital support for 1.3 million Americans.\n\u201cOur nation\u2019s economy is moving forward but Wisconsin\u2019s economy continues to lag behind other states and far too many hard working people are still looking for a job. Wisconsin\u2019s economy can\u2019t afford the expiration of unemployment insurance because it will cost our economy jobs and slow growth. That is why it is critical that Congress takes action to continue federal support for unemployment insurance and provide a lifeline for Wisconsin families as they search for work in our recovering economy,\u201d said Senator Tammy Baldwin.\nAccording to the Wisconsin Budget Project\u2019s report released last week, over 65,000 Wisconsinites will be impacted if Congress fails to act by the end of the year. 23,700 long-term unemployed workers in Wisconsin will be immediately cut off EUC at the end of 2013, as shown in the chart below. Some 41,800 additional workers will exhaust their state-funded 26 weeks of unemployment benefits in the first half of 2014, and will be denied access to federal unemployment benefits.\nTammy joined a number of Senate colleagues is calling for the continuation of federal support for unemployment insurance. Today, she is encouraging Governor Walker and the entire Wisconsin Congressional delegation to join her efforts on behalf of hard-working families looking for a job in Wisconsin.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pocan-calls-on-congress-to-prevent-price-of-milk-from-doubling", "Pocan Calls on Congress to Prevent Price of Milk from Doubling", "2013-12-09", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Mark Pocan", "P000607", "pocan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "MADISON, WI\u2014Imagine if a gallon of milk suddenly cost $7 at every grocery store in south central Wisconsin. Unfortunately, that could become a reality starting in 2014 if Congress does not pass a new Farm Bill by the end of the year.\u00a0 At a press conference today in Madison at the Jenifer Street Market, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02) called for his colleagues not to leave Washington until action is taken to avoid these unnecessary price increases for families and farmers in south central Wisconsin.\n\u201cCongressional inaction has already shut down the government, and now it is threatening to double the price of milk to more than $7 a gallon,\u201d Pocan said. \u201cThis type of price increase would devastate our Wisconsin families and gravely harm our Wisconsin dairy farmers. Although the House is scheduled to finish its work by the end of the week, we will not have done our jobs if we fail to address this vital concern. I call on my colleagues not to leave Washington until we pass a Farm Bill and protect the economic security of our families and famers.\u201d\nIf Congress does not pass a new Farm Bill by the end of the year, the country will revert to the outdated dairy policies of the 1940s, which would effectively double the price of milk in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national average for a gallon of milk was nearly $3.50 in October.\nMembers of the House and Senate on the Farm Bill Conference Committee are now working to finish a final agreement on new legislation, but with the House scheduled to leave Washington at the end of this week, time is quickly running out. Reports indicate that one of the major areas of disagreement remain over cuts to the food stamp program\u2014the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). House Republicans are advocating for $40 billion in SNAP Cuts, which would deny benefits to approximately 150,000 Wisconsinites, put 4,000 Wisconsin kids at risk of losing access to free/reduced school lunches, and result in the loss of an estimated $170 million to the Wisconsin economy just next year. Pocan voted against these cuts earlier this year.\nMonday\u2019s press conference kicked off Pocan\u2019s #MoreWork2Do Week, where he will highlight major priorities Congress should tackle before leaving on vacation. Due to a lack of leadership from House Republicans, this Congress is set to pass fewer laws this year than at almost any point in history. Among the priorities Pocan will highlight this week include the need to pass a budget, extend unemployment insurance benefits, pass comprehensive immigration reform, and focus on legislation to promote job creation and economic growth.\n\u00a0\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221033356/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/in-the-news/immigration-vital-to-wisconsin-agriculture-farmers-tell-baldwin", "Immigration vital to Wisconsin agriculture, farmers tell Baldwin", "2013-12-09", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Immigration vital to Wisconsin agriculture, farmers tell Baldwin\t\n\t\t\t\t\n                \n            \n            \n            \n                \n                    By:\u00a0\n                    Mike Tighe\n                \n            \n            \n                \n                \n                \n            Monday, December 9, 2013\n            \n\t\n            \n            Immigration reform must ensure a supply of farm workers from other countries to help sustain Wisconsin agriculture, several farmers and ag representatives told U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Friday in La Crosse.\nImmigration and reforming crop subsidies in the federal farm bill dominated discussion during a roundtable that the Wisconsin Democrat convened at Dairyland Power Cooperative.\nBaldwin\u2019s session with nearly 20 farmers, educators and officials in the ag industry came as a congressional conference committee wrestles with a new five-year farm bill. Negotiators are snagged over the House version, which would cut $40 billion from food stamps over 10 years, and restructuring subsidies.\n\u201cSixty percent of the milk in Wisconsin is harvested by immigrants,\u201d said John Rosenow, a Buffalo County dairy farmer with 500 cows.\nRosenow told of a Minnesota customer whose Community Supported Agriculture enterprise had 30 workers, several of whom were deported after an immigration audit deemed them illegal.\n\u201cPeople who had been working for him for 12 years he had to let go,\u201d Rosenow said. \u201cIt almost killed his farm.\u201d\nRosenow, who said eight of his 20 employees are from Mexico, said that, at a time when farm labor is in short supply, \u201cWe found this great source of workers in Mexican immigrants.\u201d\nBeyond the economic issue of providing farm workers is the moral aspect that it also benefits the immigrants, he said.\nHe recently visited families of some of his workers in Mexico, where he said a building boom \u201cis the direct result of their jobs here.\u201d\n\u201cThese are people,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are not illegal aliens. \u2026 You need to get to know them as people.\u201d\nJohn Jones, who farms 900 acres with 100 cows near Bangor, said immigrants really want to work, while many Americans eschew hard labor.\n\u201cWe need the immigrants if you don\u2019t want a lot of people to go hungry.\u201d\nAgriculture faces a dearth of workers in coming years, said Michael Compton, who directs the School of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.\nWe're going to have 130,000 vacancies in the agricultural work force,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to be able to recruit and retain students in agriculture.\u201d\nJake Wedeberg, a 28-year-old organic farmer near Gays Mills, said farming offers opportunities to young people like him, and the farm bill should ensure that lifestyle.\n\u201cWe market through Organic Valley, and we want a stable pay price to keep the organic seal strong,\u201d Wedeberg said.\nJerry McGeorge, cooperative affairs vice president for the La Farge-based Organic Valley, said exports are increasingly important to Organic Valley and its 1,834 members.\nBut South Korea is threatening to bar any U.S. organic products, which it also attempted a few years ago but was thwarted.\n\u201cNow, it\u2019s trying it again,\u201d McGeorge said in urging Baldwin to work against the ban.\nKeith Wilson, a Cuba City farmer and an Organic Valley board member, said, \u201cIn the farm bill, we\u2019re very concerned about huge subsidies for large farms. It really distorts the picture for family farms.\u201d\nDuring an interview after the roundtable, Wilson said, \u201cI would really like to see a cap put on subsidies, especially to the large, wealthy farmers who don\u2019t need it.\u201d\nSubsidies often make large farms larger, benefiting investors and groups at the expense of family farms, he said.\n\u201cThey are making millions from subsidies and then morally how do they get rid of food stamps?\u201d Wilson said.\nBaldwin said she hopes the conference committee has something to present on the farm bill to the Senate next week if there is to be any hope of passing it before Jan. 1.\nConference leaders expressed confidence this week that they might reach a deal in time to avert the expiration of dairy subsides Jan. 1.\nBaldwin decried the House version\u2019s slashing of food stamps, now called SNAP for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.\nSNAP is important not only for the estimated 3.8 million people who would lose food stamps but also for farmers, Baldwin said.\n\u201cThere is a reason nutrition and agriculture are linked in the farm bill,\u201d she said. \u201cFarmers realize the connection between hunger and nutrition.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221183350/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=363872", "Tech giants' demand for NSA reform 'a major game-changer', advocates say", "2013-12-09", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Senior figures behind efforts to curtail the powers of American spy agencies have seized on the decision by the world\u2019s largest tech companies to call for radical surveillance reform, saying the unexpected intervention is a potential \u201cgame-changer\u201d.In an open letter published jointly on Monday, eight tech giants, including Apple, Google and Facebook, said disclosures by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that basic rights and freedoms were being undermined. The companies \u2013 which also include Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, LinkedIn and Twitter, and have a combined value of $1.4tn \u2013 called for widespread changes that, if enacted, would end many of the current programs through which governments spy on citizens at home and abroad. \"This is a major game-changer,\u201d Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group, told the Guardian. She said the letter was certain to get the attention of the White House and Congress, not least because the often-cautious tech companies wrote the letter in unison, accompanied by personal statements from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and his counterpart at Google, Larry Page. Tech giants usually leave public lobbying to the dozen or so industry associations in Washington. It is unprecedented for the major tech giants to put their names to a single political statement of this kind. \u201cThese are companies that have been deputised to be in the middle of a new, massive, systematic collection regime, against their will,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThey are being told they can\u2019t tell their users about it; they are losing business around the world and discovering that their data centres are being broken into. And I think they\u2019re ready to fight back.\u201d Harris said senior executives in tech companies had coalesced around a set of political demands closely aligned with those called for by the internet freedom community, including her organisation. The Center for Democracy and Technology receives some funding from all eight tech giants behind the letter, but is a non-profit advocacy group. The letter comes at a critical juncture. In six days, President Barack Obama will receive the findings of an independent review panel, consisting of five top-level experts appointed by the White House to propose a raft of possible reforms.  The make-up of the group, which includes Richard Clarke, a former White House counter-terrorism chief, and Michael Morell, the previous deputy director of the CIA, has been criticised as being too close to the intelligence community, but the administration insists its work has been independent and robust and will inform Obama's thinking about surveillance reform. Next month, Congress is expected to debate competing legislation that will either substantially change how the NSA and partner agencies do business \u2013 for example, by rendering illegal the current practice of collecting phone records in bulk \u2013 or make only a few marginal changes. The US intelligence community and its supporters on Capitol Hill are advocating only superficial changes that would leave their powers untouched and even codify practices that some legal experts argue are unconstitutional. This sets up a major legislative battle in the new year, which observers say could go either way. The position the White House takes in the debate could prove crucial. A key barometer of change will be whether the phone records collection program survives. In their letter, the eight internet companies pointedly said governments should \u201climit surveillance to specific known users for lawful purposes\u201d and \u201cshould not undertake bulk data collection\u201d. The letter also does not distinguish between citizens and non-citizens, revealing, perhaps, that executives at the companies are acutely aware of the potential for NSA revelations to damage their business abroad. Justin Amash, the House Republican whose amendment to end the mass collection of American citizens\u2019 phone records was only narrowly defeated in July, said the tech companies' statement would galvanise support for the USA Freedom Act, the bill which is proposing to end bulk collection. \u201cBusinesses increasingly recognise that our government's out-of-control surveillance hurts their bottom line and costs American jobs,\u201d Amash said in a statement. The legislation, which is authored by Republican Jim Sensenbrenner in the House and Democrat Patrick Leahy in the Senate, and has 120 bipartisan co-sponsors in both chambers, has become the rallying point for advocates of reform on Capitol Hill. Sensenbrenner said on Monday that tech companies were among those \u201cdirectly impacted by the NSA\u2019s overreach\u201d. The open letter, he added, \u201chelps add to the growing momentum for much-needed reform\u201d. Leahy, in a statement emailed to the Guardian, pressed the case for reform in the wake of the letter. \u201cThe global competitiveness of the American technology industry has been undermined by revelations of massive dragnet surveillance programs,\" Leahy said. \"We need to make substantial reforms to our surveillance laws to address the privacy concerns of innocent people whose information has been swept up in these programs, and to rebuild confidence in the US technology industry.\u201d Zoe Lofgren, a Democratic congresswoman whose California district includes part of Silicon Valley, said it was too early to determine the extent to which the intervention would alter the debate in a significant way. She pointed out that while the tech industry has a large and growing influence in Washington, and includes major donors to Obama\u2019s re-election campaign, \u201cthey\u2019ve not always, or even often, got their way on policy issues\u201d. \u201cIt is my perception that the spy agencies are pretty much oblivious to the impact on the country when it comes to the economy, credibility and the like,\u201d she told the Guardian. \u201cI don\u2019t know if this is going to convince them.\u201d Lofgren is close to the tech industry; earlier this year she introduced legislation to enable tech firms to disclose the nature of government surveillance orders they receive \u2013 a proposal that was incorporated into the USA Freedom Act and was among the demands in Monday\u2019s open letter. She said that irrespective of whether Congress implemented the kind of reform advocated by the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, those companies already recognise \u201cthe potential economic harm to overseas business is substantial\u201d, and are taking defensive action. That involves hiring the best cryptologists they can find in what Lofgren described as a developing \u201cencryption race\u201d between the private sector and government. \u201cAll of these companies are scrambling to increase security in order to prevent surveillance from their own government,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is very clear that the technology companies are not going to wait for Congress. They are going to amplify and deploy additional measures to protect the privacy of their users.\u201d View online, here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221183405/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=363871", "Twitter, Facebook and more demand sweeping changes to US surveillance", "2013-12-09", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "The world's leading technology companies have united to demand sweeping changes to US surveillance laws, urging an international ban on bulk collection of data to help preserve the public's \u201ctrust in the internet\u201d.In their most concerted response yet to disclosures by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Twitter and AOL have published an open letter to Barack Obama and Congress on Monday, throwing their weight behind radical reforms already proposed by Washington politicians. \u201cThe balance in many countries has tipped too far in favour of the state and away from the rights of the individual \u2013 rights that are enshrined in our constitution,\u201d urges the letter signed by the eight US-based internet giants. \u201cThis undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It\u2019s time for change.\u201d Several of the companies claim the revelations have shaken public faith in the internet and blamed spy agencies for the resulting threat to their business interests. \u201cPeople won\u2019t use technology they don\u2019t trust,\u201d said Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel. \u201cGovernments have put this trust at risk, and governments need to help restore it.\u201d The chief executive of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, said: \u201cRecent revelations about government surveillance activities have shaken the trust of our users, and it is time for the United States government to act to restore the confidence of citizens around the world.\" Silicon Valley was initially sceptical of some allegations about NSA practices made by Snowden but as more documentary evidence has emerged in the Guardian and other newspapers detailing the extent of western surveillance capabilities, its eight leading players \u2013 collectively valued at $1.4tn \u2013 have been stung into action amid fears of commercial damage. \u201cWe understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens,\u201d they say in the letter. \u201cBut this summer\u2019s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide.\u201d A separate list of five \u201creform principles\u201d signed by the normally fiercely competitive group echoes measures to rein in the NSA contained in bipartisan legislation proposed by the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee, Patrick Leahy, and the Republican author of the Patriot Act, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner. Crucially, Silicon Valley and these key reformers in Congress now agree the NSA should no longer be allowed to indiscriminately gather vast quantities of data from individuals it does not have cause to suspect of terrorism in order to detect patterns or in case it is needed in future. \u201cGovernments should limit surveillance to specific, known users for lawful purposes, and should not undertake bulk data collection of internet communications,\u201d says the companies' new list of principles. They also argue that requests for companies to hand over individual data should be limited by new rules that balance the \u201cneed for the data in limited circumstances, users\u2019 reasonable privacy interests, and the impact on trust in the internet\u201d. This places them in direct conflict with Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who is sponsoring a rival bill that would enshrine the right of security agencies to collect bulk data. Feinstein, who represents California, has been accused by critics of being a cheerleader for Washington's intelligence committee but now faces opposition from her state's largest industry. The companies also repeat a previous demand that they should be allowed to disclose how often surveillance requests are made but this is the first time they have come together with such wide-ranging criticism of the underlying policy. The industry's lobbying power has been growing in Washington and could prove a tipping point in the congressional reform process, which has been delayed by the autumn budget deadlock but is likely to return as a central issue in the new year. The Feinstein and Leahy/Sensenbrenner bills agree with technology companies that there should be greater transparency of court rulings regulating surveillance and more opportunity for privacy advocates to argue against intelligence agency requests. The eight technology companies also hint at new fears, particularly that competing national responses to the Snowden revelations will not only damage their commercial interests but also lead to a balkanisation of the web as governments try to prevent internet companies from escaping overseas. \u201cThe ability of data to flow or be accessed across borders is essential to a robust, 21st century, global economy,\u201d the companies argue in the list of reform principles. \u201cGovernments should permit the transfer of data and should not inhibit access by companies or individuals to lawfully available information that is stored outside of the country. Governments should not require service providers to locate infrastructure within a country\u2019s borders or operate locally.\u201d And they argue foreign governments need to come together to agree new international standards regulating surveillance, hinting at legal disputes and damage to international trade otherwise. \u201cIn order to avoid conflicting laws, there should be a robust, principled, and transparent framework to govern lawful requests for data across jurisdictions, such as improved mutual legal assistance treaty \u2013 or \u201cMLAT\u201d \u2013 processes,\u201d say the companies. \u201cWhere the laws of one jurisdiction conflict with the laws of another, it is incumbent upon governments to work together to resolve the conflict.\u201d Official responses to the Snowden revelations have been angriest in countries subject to US surveillance such as Germany and Brazil, but more muted in countries such as Britain and Australia, whose governments are close partners of the NSA. Martha Lane Fox, who recently resigned as the British government's digital champion, responded to the new letter by expressing concern at the lack of understanding of both the scale and complexity of the surveillance story within Britain's government. \"We do have an issue in this country among the corporate world, the political establishment and the general population where we have a shortage of skills and understanding for the digital age,\" she told the Guardian. \"There is an absence of a clear, coherent debate around this subject in this country and it's a very big issue that will only become more frequent the more technologically dependent we become.\" She pointed to comments made by the former Conservative home office minister Lord Blencathra and the Labour peer Lord Soley, who both expressed concern at the scope of surveillance by the security services. \"[The government] needs to listen to people, to examine whether their policies are fit for the digital age. It's not that people aren't used to their data being collected, but what it is being collected for, and there needs to be a distinction between the average person and a security threat.\" The eight internet companies behind the new letter also acknowledge that business also has a responsibility to protect privacy. \u201cFor our part, we are focused on keeping users\u2019 data secure, deploying the latest encryption technology to prevent unauthorised surveillance on our networks, and by pushing back on government requests to ensure that they are legal and reasonable in scope,\u201d they conclude. \u201cWe urge the US to take the lead and make reforms that ensure that government surveillance efforts are clearly restricted by law, proportionate to the risks, transparent and subject to independent oversight.\u201d Google, Twitter, Yahoo and last week Microsoft have all responded to public concerns over surveillance by increasing the security of their products, introducing \u201cperfect forward secrecy\u201d encryption to protect information travelling on their internal systems. \"The security of users' data is critical, which is why we've invested so much in encryption and fight for transparency around government requests for information,\u201d said Google's chief executive, Larry Page. \u201cThis is undermined by the apparent wholesale collection of data, in secret and without independent oversight, by many governments around the world. It's time for reform and we urge the US government to lead the way.\u201d View online, here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/media-center/enewsletters/real-problems-require-real-solutions", "Real problems require real solutions", "2013-12-08", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Dear friends, \u00a0 Although the legislative year is winding down, we are not slowing down. There is still much work to be done. We\u2019re going to spend the entire month of December working to bring relief for so many Americans who continue to experience daily hardships. Whether immediate fixes to the healthcare law, regulatory fixes for our rural communities or bringing job seekers and job holders together under one roof, read on for more about ways I am working on your behalf to make life a little easier, and hopefully a whole lot better, for our 7th\u00a0District community. Real problems require real solutions:\u00a0The number of Americans losing their health insurance continues to climb with estimates reaching tens of millions and some going up to 100 million. This week on the Floor of the House, I again talked about Denise, who is in need of a kidney transplant. I would prefer to fully repeal this law and replace it with an alternative, such as the one I\u00a0introduced,\u00a0but in the mean time, millions of Americans, like Denise, need a more immediate solution. I recently introduced\u00a0H.R.3621.\u00a0This bill would provide access to health insurance coverage of life-sustaining treatments furnished by certain providers and could mean the difference between life and death for many Americans in situations similar to Denise\u2019s. To watch a clip of my Floor remarks from PBS News Hour click on the image:\u00a0 Here are the jobs!\u00a0I hear so many people tell me I don't have the opportunity to get a good - better paying - job. And then I hear employers say I can't find good, skilled labor to fill the spots I have open. Monday\u2019s job fair in Wausau will bring those looking for jobs and those who are looking for employees under the same roof. Click on the image for more:\u00a0 \u00a0 Help our rural Wisconsin communities:\u00a0In the Financial Services Committee this week, we discussed legislation that would amend the CFPB\u2019s QM rule to more accurately determine rural communities in America: \u00a0 \u201cI live in rural America\u2026a lot of dairy there, a lot of farms in Central and Northern Wisconsin. If you look at the CFPB\u2019s QM rule in regard to balloon loans\u2026we have Douglas County in the northwest tip of Wisconsin\u2026outside of that little county where Superior is located, the whole county is rural. It is farms. [Under this rule] it is designated non-rural. The industry, the agriculture is all the same, but you only get these kinds of rules from bureaucrats in Washington who have no idea about our Wisconsin communities, our makeup, and how our economies work. When you have bureaucrats in Washington making decisions you see maps like the ones we have for the balloon loans that don\u2019t make sense.\u201d\u00a0To watch my full remarks from the hearing, click on the image: \u00a0 Thanks for taking the time to catch-up on the week that was. Check out the column on the right for details on tomorrow's job fair. For the latest on all my work on your behalf, please follow me on\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter Have a great week, \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Sean", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://kind.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-ron-kind-continues-fight-make-college-more-affordable", "Rep. Ron Kind Continues Fight to Make College More Affordable", "2013-12-06", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Ron Kind", "K000188", "kind.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Rep. Kind Cites New Study Finding that Wisconsin Ranks 8th in the U.S. for Student Loan Debt\nWASHINGTON, DC  U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) today renewed his call for action to make college loans more affordable, citing a new study finding that Wisconsin ranks 8th highest in the country for percentage of graduates with student loan debt.\nThe fact that our state has the 8th highest percentage of students graduating with debt should be a wake-up call for every Wisconsinite, said Rep. Kind. We have to reverse this trend. Helping our young people prepare to compete in the global marketplace is a smart investment, and an absolute necessity for the future of our state's economy.\nThe study, conducted by the Institute for College Access and Success, found the 68% of last year's graduates left school carrying student loan debt. The average debt amount was $28,102, which was the 14th highest in the nation.\nRep. Kind has taken concrete steps to keep college affordable, and has consistently voted against bills that aim to balance the federal deficit on the backs of students. He strongly opposed a so-called compromise on student loan interest rates this past summer, which will ultimately lead to higher interest rates. He also introduced the Protecting Education through Lifetime Learning (PELL) Grant Funding Act to direct any profit the government makesfrom federal student loan programs into the Pell Grant program.\nRep. Kind's efforts are especially needed as higher education in Wisconsin faces historic challenges. The state has cut funding for our public colleges by 11%, and at the federal level, mandatory spending reductions (known as the sequester) are cutting 5% from programs helping low-income students, minorities, and students with disabilities afford college.\nI have the privilege of representing 14 colleges and universities in the Third Congressional District and I know how tough it is on families trying to pay for college, concluded Rep. Kind. For a Wisconsin student to graduate from college and enter the job market with over $28,000 in debt creates a huge financial strain that can last for years. The time for action is now, before Wisconsin falls any further behind.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221062114/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/upcoming-staff-office-hours-in-viroqua", "Upcoming staff office hours in Viroqua", "2013-12-06", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Friday, December 6, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Upcoming staff office hours in Viroqua \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSenator Baldwin's office has announced that members of her staff will hold office hours in Viroqua on December 12, 2013. Constituents will have the opportunity to meet with staff and request assistance with a federal agency or discuss other federal issues. No appointment is necessary.\nHere are the details for office hours on December 12, 2013:\nViroqua\n2:00-3:00pm  Viroqua City Hall   202 North Main Street   Viroqua, WI 54665", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221193143/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=363891", "Patriot Act author: Obama\u2019s intel czar should be prosecuted", "2013-12-06", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the original author of the Patriot Act, says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be prosecuted for lying to Congress.\"Lying to Congress is a federal offense, and Clapper ought to be fired and prosecuted for it,\" the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview with The Hill. He said the Justice Department should prosecute Clapper for giving false testimony during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March. During that hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Clapper whether the National Security Agency (NSA) collects data on millions of Americans. Clapper insisted that the NSA does not \u2014 or at least does \"not wittingly\" \u2014 collect information on Americans in bulk.  After documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA collects records on virtually all U.S. phone calls, Clapper apologized for the misleading comment. The intelligence director said he tried to give the \"least untruthful\" answer he could without revealing classified information. Sensenbrenner said that explanation doesn\u2019t hold water and argued the courts and Congress depend on accurate testimony to do their jobs. \"The only way laws are effective is if they're enforced,\" Sensenbrenner said. \"If it's a criminal offense \u2014 and I believe Mr. Clapper has committed a criminal offense \u2014 then the Justice Department ought to do its job.\" Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Clapper, declined to comment. Sensenbrenner also said President Obama should fire Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander in the wake of the revelations about the spying programs. View online, here. He argued that, because members of the military are naturally more concerned with national security, both jobs should be filled with civilians. \"The successor of both Clapper and Alexander ought to be civilians,\" Sensenbrenner said. \"I think that civilians would be able to have a better balance in seeing the distinction between security and civil liberties.\"  Alexander is a four-star Army general, while Clapper is a retired lieutenant general in the Air Force. Senior White House officials are considering whether the next NSA director should be a civilian, as The Hill first reported last month. The NSA has been led only by military officers since its founding in 1952. Alexander has said he will retire in the spring. Sensenbrenner, a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is pushing the USA Freedom Act, which would limit the NSA's power, tighten oversight and end the bulk collection of phone records. He was the original author of the Patriot Act in 2001, which the NSA has cited when filing secret court requests to conduct surveillance. But Sensenbrenner claims that the NSA is overstepping the law and violating the Constitution.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221203142/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=363717", "Sensenbrenner Disappointed by EPA\u2019s Lack of Transparency", "2013-12-06", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Sensenbrenner Disappointed by EPA\u2019s Lack of Transparency  \n   \n    \n       \n      \n  \n    \n      f \n      t \n      #\n      e\n      \n      \n    \n    \n      \n        Washington,\n        Dec 6, 2013\n      \n       \n    \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n    \n      \n      \n      Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and several other members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee today sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy expressing concerns with the EPA\u2019s lack of transparency in its public outreach process regarding proposed greenhouse gas regulations for power plants.Congressman Sensenbrenner: \u201cPeople around the country deserve an opportunity to weigh in on policies that directly affect their lives. But instead of conducting an honest discussion, the EPA\u2019s listening session tour amounted to nothing more than a publicity stunt. The EPA\u2019s proposed regulations on carbon emissions will have damning effects on jobs, energy costs and the economy \u2013 especially in states like Wisconsin that rely on coal-fueled power plants. But not one listening session was held in Wisconsin. The EPA\u2019s disingenuous attempt at transparency is a slap in the face to all Americans who will be directly affected by its regulatory power grab.\u201d \u00a0  \n    \n  \n  \n  \n    \n      f \n      t \n      #\n      e", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/local-headlines_-baldwin-talks-postal-reform-during-stop-at-quad/graphics", "Local Headlines - Baldwin talks postal reform during stop at Quad/Graphics", "2013-12-06", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "www.baldwin.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Skip to primary navigation Skip to content\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\t    \n\t      \n\t      \n\t        \n\t       \t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t  News\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t  About Tammy\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t  Feedback\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tHow Can I Help You?\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t \n\t      \n\t    \n\t  \n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n        \t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFriday, December 6, 2013\n\t\t\t\tLocal Headlines - Baldwin talks postal reform during stop at Quad/Graphics\n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n                    \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n                    \n                    \n                 \t\n                    \n                    \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/press-release/duffy-to-host-wausau-jobs-fair", "Duffy to Host Wausau Jobs Fair", "2013-12-05", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "90 local businesses expected Wausau, WI \u2013\u00a0U.S. Congressman Sean Duffy (WI-07)\u00a0is hosting a jobs fair, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, for anyone seeking a job or a new career path. Ninety local businesses are expected to take part. The employment opportunities run the gamut from industrial and clerical positions to home healthcare and financial planners and range from internships to hourly and salaried positions. This event is free of charge and open to the general public and media:Monday, December 9, 2013 9:00 AM \u2013 2:00 PM University of Wisconsin-Marathon County Field House 600 South 7th\u00a0Avenue, Wausau Admission is free! To register, or for more information for job seekers, click\u00a0here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://gwenmoore.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=49&itemid=934", "Gwen Moore Mourns Nelson Mandela", "2013-12-05", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By Derek Wallbank - May 16, 2012 5:46 PM ET\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tThe U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tThe House today passed the bill, 222-205, on a mostly party-line vote. Democrats criticized the Republican-written measure as part of the party\u2019s \u201cwar on women.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cThey don\u2019t want to hear us talk about the war on women, but this is a direct assault on women\u2019s lives,\u201d Gwen Moore, a Wisconsin Democrat, said before the vote. Moore, who sponsored a proposal similar to a bill passed by the Democratic-dominated Senate, said she was once raped. Democrats said the Republican proposal would force immigrant victims to choose between staying with their abusers and risking deportation.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tPresident Barack Obama\u2019s administration prefers the Senate- passed version, S. 1925, and his administration threatened a veto of the House bill. Six Democrats joined 216 Republicans in voting for the House bill, while 23 Republicans and 182 Democrats opposed it.\r\n\r\n\tBoth parties put female lawmakers at the forefront of the debate. Republican Sandy Adams, a freshman lawmaker from central Florida who was a deputy sheriff before coming to Congress, sponsored the House bill. Adams said she had personal experience with the victims the bill is meant to aid, and that her first marriage was an abusive relationship from which she escaped.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u2018I Am Offended\u2019\r\n\r\n\t\u201cI have sat quietly and tried to behave here but I am offended when I hear that this does not protect victims,\u201d Adams said. \u201cAs someone who has been in the situation, who has been on the scenes of these crimes, we are trying to reauthorize something that\u2019s very important to victims. Victims, not politics.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tThe 1994 Violence Against Women Act and later reauthorizations of the law have easily passed both chambers of Congress.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tThe grants to women\u2019s shelters and police training weren\u2019t at issue, as the House and Senate versions would authorize spending of about $660 million annually. Instead, the debate centered on immigration visas for victims of domestic violence, gay rights and which party would be the best choice for women voters.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tThe House bill would curtail special visas reserved for immigrant victims of abuse who cooperate with law enforcement. Current law allows such visas to be used as a start toward legal permanent residence or citizenship. The House measure would block that path to citizenship in almost all circumstances unless the accused person is deported.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u2018Inexcusable\u2019\r\n\r\n\tIn the Senate, a group of Senate Democrats joined with House colleagues in calling for action on the Senate bill, which passed that chamber on a 68-31 vote April 26. Every woman in the Senate, and almost a third of Republicans, supported it.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cWhat is happening in the House is inexcusable,\u201d said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat. She said the House bill wouldn\u2019t provide adequate help for groups including immigrants, gays and college students.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tWith each chamber rejecting the other\u2019s plan, the competing Violence Against Women Acts would have to be merged before becoming law.\r\n\r\n\tThe House bill is H.R. 4970.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tTo view this article online, please click here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://gwenmoore.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2017", "Gwen Moore Mourns Nelson Mandela", "2013-12-05", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Though no words can wholly console those who mourn, my thoughts and prayers go out to every person touched by his kind spirit and resolve. May his legacy live on today and always.\r\n          share:\r\n          f \r\n          t \r\n        \r\n      \r\n        Contact: Staci Cox  (202) 225- 4572   Washington, DC  Today, Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-04) released this statement after learning that Nelson Mandela had passed.  Today we have lost a visionary leader and hero for human rights. Nelson Mandela broke the chains of oppression in South Africa and opened the hearts and minds of millions. His life's journey serves as an inspiration to all those who strive to create a more just world. He reaffirmed to all that hope and a steadfast dream of freedom will prevail over hatred and fear.   His courage and strength freed a nation and reshaped our history. In 2005, I had the honor and blessing of meeting this remarkable man. It was a powerful moment that left an indelible mark.  Though no words can wholly console those who mourn, my thoughts and prayers go out to every person touched by his kind spirit and resolve. May his legacy live on today and always.  ###  For Moore News Updates", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221033404/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/in-the-news/baldwin-talks-postal-reform-during-stop-at-quad/graphics", "Baldwin talks postal reform during stop at Quad/Graphics", "2013-12-05", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Baldwin talks postal reform during stop at Quad/Graphics\t\n\t\t\t\t\n                \n            \n            \n            \n                \n                    By:\u00a0\n                    Arthur Thomas\n                \n            \n            \n                \n                \n                    \n                    \n                    Waukesha Freeman\n                    \n                    \n                \n            Thursday, December 5, 2013", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221034537/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/focusing-on-healthcare-costs-not-cuts", "Focusing on healthcare costs, not cuts", "2013-12-05", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Thursday, December 5, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Focusing on healthcare costs, not cuts \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFor years now, the budget debate in Washington has come to be defined by a myopic fixation with cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits that people have worked for and earned.  The common refrain we hear from Republicans in Washington is that the only path to cutting the deficit can be found in breaking our promise to today\u2019s seniors and to the next generation who have earned the economic security these programs provide.\nOver the last several years, the same folks who insist on cutting benefits have obsessively worked to repeal and defund the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This obsession has produced more than 40 repeal votes in Congress and led to a government shutdown that hampered economic growth and cost us 120,000 jobs in October.\nThe country has seen what the Tea Party brinkmanship has to offer, and it is looking for something different. The budget conference committee has provided us with an opportunity to find a bipartisan compromise that breaks this destructive pattern of drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. It provides us with an opportunity for both parties to work together to pass a responsible budget that invests in the middle class, strengthens our economy and takes a balanced approach to reducing the deficit without shortchanging our future.\nThe budget that I supported, which passed the Senate last spring, builds on the $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction we\u2019ve already accomplished in the last two years. This budget makes smart spending cuts and confronts wasteful tax expenditures and loopholes that are not creating economic growth. It also treats seniors and families fairly and includes significant healthcare savings, building on the $700 billion in Medicare savings included in the ACA \u2014 savings that extended the solvency of Medicare without cutting benefits.\nThe budget savings we have proposed don\u2019t shift the burden to seniors, increasing their out-of-pocket costs. We have shown that there is, in fact, a path we can take where we can achieve healthcare costs savings without breaking our promises.  Unfortunately, a dialogue about how we continue down this responsible path of deficit reduction hasn\u2019t gotten as much attention as it deserves in the current budget debate. Changes to our healthcare budget should focus not solely on where we spend healthcare dollars but on how we spend them. There is widespread agreement that significant savings can be achieved by reforming the way we deliver and pay for health services. Leading economists estimate that we can produce huge cost savings every year by enacting and building on smart, targeted reforms.\nThe ACA was the first step in transforming healthcare delivery. The law provides healthcare practitioners with incentives to better integrate care, increase quality and lower costs. These efforts are producing impressive results across the country, including a number of examples in my home state.\nThedaCare Healthcare Partners in Northeast Wisconsin has excelled with the ACA\u2019s Pioneer Accountable Care Organization program, which gives healthcare providers incentives to better coordinate care. In its first year of participation, Bellin-ThedaCare earned more than $5 million in shared savings and lowered costs for its 20,000 Medicare patients by an average of nearly 4.6 percent. The Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin is using the ACA to better integrate pharmacists into clinical care teams. That initiative is set to save more than $20 million in three years. These parts of the law are empowering Wisconsin healthcare providers to provide higher-quality care at reduced costs. We must scale and build on these delivery reforms, which are already generating healthcare savings in our country.\nSince the ACA\u2019s passage in 2010, real per-capita healthcare spending has grown at the lowest rate on record for any three-year period. Healthcare price inflation has also reached its lowest rate in 50 years. Most healthcare economists agree that these slowdowns in healthcare spending have resulted in part from the important structural reforms enacted in the ACA. These reforms also have led to better quality, including a significant drop in hospital readmissions after Medicare began penalizing hospitals for causing them to occur.\nI\u2019m looking forward to the day when Congress moves beyond fighting old political battles. The years before the ACA, when healthcare costs were skyrocketing, people were denied coverage and families were forced into bankruptcy because our system was failing to provide healthcare security, should remain behind us. It\u2019s time for both parties to work together to build a stronger future. There\u2019s so much more to be done if we can form bipartisan consensus around enacting smart healthcare solutions.\nThat\u2019s why I\u2019m pleased to work with senators of both parties in pushing for transformative reforms that do not indiscriminately cut Medicare benefits or shift costs to seniors and states. A Delivery System Reform working group has been collaboratively endeavoring to study and build support for cost-saving measures, including reducing the burden of healthcare-associated infections. I\u2019ve been heartened by the bipartisan, bicameral proposals that have been recently introduced to reform Medicare physician payments to reward the quality of care over the quantity of services delivered.\nIn November, I introduced commonsense, bipartisan legislation with Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), The Quality Data, Quality Healthcare Act, which would increase the efficiency of healthcare by providing Medicare data to the decision-makers best able to use the information to improve healthcare quality and lower costs: physicians, healthcare systems, insurers, employers and research institutions.\nI believe that we can find significant savings in our healthcare system and improve the quality of care without slashing benefits that seniors have worked for and earned. This path continues a more fundamental shift in healthcare delivery: coordinating care, rewarding the best results and the brightest innovations, empowering physicians and health systems to make informed choices, and generating savings through more meaningful, longer-lasting reforms.\nA new path is before us, and the American people expect us to take it, together.\n#####\n--- Sen. Tammy Baldwin, as recently published in The Hill.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221034337/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/a-made-in-wisconsin-visit-to-quad-graphics", "A 'Made in Wisconsin' visit to Quad Graphics", "2013-12-04", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "633 W. Wisconsin Ave., Suite 1920\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMilwaukee, WI 53203", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221043737/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/in-the-news/sen-baldwin-says-bulk-mailing-rate-amendment-will-help-printing-firms", "Sen. Baldwin says bulk mailing rate amendment will help printing firms", "2013-12-04", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Sen. Baldwin says bulk mailing rate amendment will help printing firms\t\n\t\t\t\t\n                \n            \n            \n            \n                \n                    By:\u00a0\n                    Denise Lockwood\n                \n            \n            \n                \n                \n                \n            Wednesday, December 4, 2013\n            \n\t\n            \n            U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is championing an amendment to the postal reform bill that would curb large increases in postal rates for bulk mailers.\nBaldwin visited Quad/Graphics in Sussex Wednesday morning and spoke with Milwaukee Business Journal reporters and editors Tuesday to talk about the impact of the amendment on Wisconsin\u2019s economy. She outlined how the amendment would give postal customers \u201cpricing predictability\u201d and benefit forestry, paper and printing companies throughout the state like Quad/Graphics.\n\u201cForty percent of the paper we produce ends up in the mail stream\u2026 any significant \u2013 beyond inflation increases in postage \u2013 affects our paper industry very dramatically,\u201d Baldwin said.\nBaldwin\u2019s amendment strikes a section of the bill that would allow rates to be increased beyond the rate of inflation for bulk mailers.\n\u201cIt\u2019s pretty simple math for these folks that the postage is a significant part of their bottom line,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cIf it goes up, they are mailing less and nobody benefits. It\u2019s a very important provision to get rid of.\u201d\nJoel Quadracci, president and CEO of Quad/Graphics, spoke about the issue during committee hearings on the topic earlier this year in which he told the committee:\n\"As discussed, above-inflation postage rate increases cannot be part of this solution (whether they are from straight rate increases or reductions in work-share discounts). The rate caps enacted as part of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) have worked well to control postage rates and provide our clients with that much needed certainty.\"\nJeff Landin, president of Wisconsin Paper Council, supports the amendment.\n\u201cNow, unless changes are made to Section 301, an already difficult coated paper market is likely to see more damage due to further declines in mail volume,\u201d Landin said. \u201cYour efforts to provide predictable and moderate rate increases will not only benefit the paper industry in Wisconsin, it will help the USPS by providing more mail to deliver.\u201d\nMore than 600 companies, retailers, nonprofits, newspapers and other organizations around the country support the amendment.\nThe bill is still in committee, Baldwin said.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=db926bb4-5302-45b3-83ae-ee5d7ada4793", "MEDIA ADVISORY: Senator Johnson to Host Town Hall Meeting in Milwaukee", "2013-12-04", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Ron Johnson", "J000293", "www.ronjohnson.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Oshkosh, WI \u2013 U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson will host a town hall meeting at Milwaukee\u2019s City Hall.\u00a0 Sen. Johnson will give his State of the Nation presentation, which highlights the fiscal challenges our country faces today. Following his presentation, Sen. Johnson will take questions from the audience. What: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sen. Johnson Town Hall  When: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Friday, Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. Where: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Milwaukee City Hall, 200 E. Wells St., Room 301-B, Milwaukee Note:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Members of the media are invited to attend\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u00a0###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pocan-comments-on-alec-s-new-attempts-to-shield-itself-against-tax-laws", "Pocan Comments on ALEC\u2019s New Attempts to Shield Itself against Tax Laws", "2013-12-03", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Mark Pocan", "P000607", "pocan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02) released the following statement on today\u2019s Guardian story detailing the American Legislative Exchange Council\u2019s (ALEC) new efforts to shield itself against tax laws. When he served in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Pocan became a member of ALEC to learn more about the group and expose its potentially illegal lobbying activities.\nBy filing as a non-profit 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt charity, ALEC is required to verify that it does not spend more than 20 percent of its time lobbying. However, as Pocan learned when he attended the group\u2019s national conferences, ALEC spends almost all of its time lobbying\u2014it writes model legislation on behalf of its corporate partners and then helps state legislatures pass these bills.\nBut according to the Guardian, ALEC is now: \u201choping to avoid legal, tax and ethical challenges by creating a separate sister organisation it calls the \"Jeffersonian Project\". The new body would be categorised as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organisation, a designation that would allow Alec to be far more overt in its lobbying activities than its current charitable status as a 501(c)(3).\u201d\n\u201cThe only charity work ALEC does is on behalf of needy corporations and lonely legislators,\u201d Pocan said. \u201cIt is past time that ALEC is exposed for what it is\u2014a corporate lobbying firm doing the bidding of corporations. As the article details, they are now trying to not only hide their intensions, but their funding as well in a new \u201csocial welfare\u201d organization. The IRS needs to step in and strip ALEC of its ability to rig the democratic system and rob the American taxpayers.\u201d\u00a0\nLast year, Pocan sent a letter to the IRS urging them to investigate ALEC\u2019s tax filing. He also wrote a letter to the ALEC Chairman asking him to justify its tax filing status. He never received a response.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221034341/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/badger-meter_innovators-strengthening-our-made-in-wisconsin-economy", "Badger Meter – innovators strengthening our 'Made in Wisconsin' economy", "2013-12-03", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Tuesday, December 3, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Badger Meter \u2013 innovators strengthening our 'Made in Wisconsin' economy \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe Milwaukee region has quickly become a world hub for water research, education and economic development and Badger Meter is just another example of bright innovators helping to build and strengthen our \"Made In Wisconsin\" economy.\n\n  Badger Meter was founded in Milwaukee over a hundred years ago and is a leader in the marketing and manufacturing of flow measurement and control technologies. Badger Meter's products measure and control the flow of liquids - such as water, oil and chemicals - and have earned a reputation across the globe. They also have an Innovation Center that includes labs where engineers and scientists simulate different conditions to further develop their technologies.\n  \u00a0\n\n  \u00a0Click here, to read more about building a 'Made in Wisconsin' economy.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=fd8cd3f5-3a74-4e67-9816-85b18a3c5bca", "Johnson Comments on Obama Administration's New Obamacare Sales Attempt", "2013-12-03", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Ron Johnson", "J000293", "www.ronjohnson.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Senator Johnson made the following remarks on President Obama\u2019s re-sale attempt. \r\n\u201cToday, President Obama takes his show on the road again to re-sell Obamacare.\u00a0 He will find that the American public is not quite as gullible as he hopes, and Wisconsinites and Americans across the country will see this campaign for what it is \u2013 an attempt to distract from the failed policy and incompetent management that have been hallmarks of Obamacare.\u00a0 Obamacare has put America's health care system in jeopardy, and apparently the best President Obama can do is spend more taxpayer money on a public relations campaign.  \"But Americans are smarter than that and they will see through his rhetoric.\u00a0 The president and Democrats in Congress need to admit that Obamacare doesn\u2019t work and begin working with Republicans to find real health care solutions.\"\r\n\u00a0\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=de36a41f-3508-4817-8443-578cd63e1639", "Johnson Announces Staff Mobile Office Hours", "2013-12-02", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Ron Johnson", "J000293", "www.ronjohnson.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Oshkosh, Wisconsin\u00a0\u2013 Senator Ron Johnson (WI) announced today that his staff would be available for mobile office hours at the dates and locations listed below. These office hours allow constituents to meet with the Senator\u2019s staff to request assistance with a federal agency or regarding other federal matters.\r\nTuesday, Dec. 10th, 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.\u00a0   Solon Springs Community Center   11523 South Business Highway 53, Solon Springs, 54873\r\nWednesday, Dec. 11th, 9:00 a.m. -10:00 a.m.\u00a0   Bayfield City Hall    125 South First Street, Bayfield, 54814\r\nWednesday, Dec. 11th, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.\u00a0   Glen Flora Village Hall    N5746 Cedar Street, Glen Flora, 54526\r\nWednesday, Dec. 11th, 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.\u00a0   Augusta City Hall, Council Chambers    145 West Lincoln Street, Augusta, 54722\r\nThursday, Dec. 12th, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.\u00a0   West Bend City Hall, Council Chambers    1115 South Main Street, West Bend, 53095\r\nFriday, Dec. 13th, 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.\u00a0   Melvina Village Hall    604 Central Drive, Cashton, 54619\r\nFriday, Dec. 13th, 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.\u00a0   Walworth Town Hall    W6741 Brick Church Roadd, Walworth, 53184\r\nFriday, Dec. 13th, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.\u00a0   Williams Bay Village Hall    250 Williams Street, Williams Bay, 53191\r\nFriday, Dec. 13th, 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.\u00a0   Lynxville Village Hall    362 Spring Street, Lynxville, 54640", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/media-center/enewsletters/thanks-and-giving", "Thanks and Giving", "2013-12-01", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 1, 2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dear friends, \u00a0 This past Thursday, Rachel and I sat down for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by our six little turkeys (Lucia and Paloma pictured on the left), as well as a few additional friends and family, and were again thankful for the many blessings in our lives. As we now enter the official season of giving and prepare to brave the shopping mall and toy stores to find the perfect gifts, it\u2019s worth remembering that often the most memorable gifts do not come in shiny packages with ribbons and bows. Sometimes it is the gift of our time or talent that can mean the most to a person in need \u2013 and often leave a sizable impression on us as well. The 7th\u00a0District is vibrant with groups, organizations and businesses that are at the ready to give of their time and talents to help those in need in our community. This month my office is teaming up with many of them for several events and we hope you will join us! Whether lending an ear to a Veteran who may be telling his or her story for the first time, offering food and shelter to a family who has fallen on hard times, or giving council to someone in search of a new job or career path, we all have our talents and we hope you can lend a bit of your time during this busy holiday season to join us at one \u2013 or all \u2013 of the events below: \u00a0 Veteran History Project Workshops Wausau\u00a0  \u00a0Friday, December 6, 2013\u00a0  8:00am\u00a0  \u00a0Marathon County Historical Society\u00a0  \u00a0410 McIndoe Street\u00a0  \u00a0Wausau,\u00a0WI\u00a054403 Superior\u00a0Saturday, December 7, 2013\u00a0  9:30am\u00a0  \u00a0Richard I. Bong Veterans\u00a0Historical Center\u00a0\u00a0305 Harbor View Parkway\u00a0\u00a0Superior,\u00a0WI\u00a054880 Job Fair Monday, December 9, 2013\u00a0  \u00a09:00am\u00a0  \u00a0University of Wisconsin-Marathon County Field House\u00a0  \u00a0600 South 7th Avenue, Wausau, 54401 Hunger & Homelessness Summit Wednesday, December 18, 2013  8:30am\u00a0  \u00a0Northcentral Technical College\u00a0  \u00a01000 W. Campus Drive, Wausau, 54401 For more information about any of these events, click\u00a0here\u00a0\u00a0or call our Wausau office, (715) 298-9344.\u00a0 Rachel, the kids, and I wish you, and your family, a safe and blessed holiday season. I hope to see you at one of the upcoming events, in the mean time, have a great week. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 - Sean", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=a3896d27-6f15-49cf-a7a1-639add93b32e", "Johnson Comments on Latest Sign of Obama Administration Incompetence", "2013-11-27", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Ron Johnson", "J000293", "www.ronjohnson.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Earlier today Senator Johnson made the following remarks on the new delay in Obamacare.\r\n\"The delay of online enrollment for small businesses is yet another example of this administration's ineptitude and the damage Obamacare is inflicting on job-creating small businesses. The sooner we pull the plug on Obamacare, the fewer people will be harmed by this massive governmental overreach. The federal government is not even capable of doing what thousands of large and small businesses do day in and day out -- creating and operating a functioning website. We simply can't allow it to become even more involved in our health care system or our personal medical decisions.\"\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/press-release/duffy-announces-64-million-in-state-federal-funding-for-sawyer-county-airport", "Duffy Announces $6.4 million in State & Federal Funding for Sawyer County Airport", "2013-11-26", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Wausau, WI ---\u00a0U.S. Congressman Sean Duffy (WI-07)\u00a0today announced the approval of over $6.4 million in local, state and federal funding to improve and expand operations at Sawyer County Airport in Hayward. This funding includes a $4,561,868 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration that Rep. Duffy's office\u00a0helped\u00a0secure. This project will include the addition of\u00a0state-of-the-art navigational equipmentas well as a full-length parallel taxiway to the primary runway.\u00a0Rep. Duffy\u00a0offered the following comments:\u201cI am excited about\u00a0these upgrades for\u00a0Sawyer County.\u00a0These modernizations will provide\u00a0greater opportunities for businesses in Hayward and nearby communities.\u00a0Additionally, it will\u00a0ensure\u00a0critical air transport services at Hayward Memorial Hospital \u2013 even in the worst of weather. This is a great partnership between all levels of government. I am glad the local, state and federal levels could each do our part to make this a reality.\u201d Sawyer County Clerk, Kris Mayberry added, \u201cSawyer County is grateful to Congressman Sean Duffy and his staff for their assistance in securing funding for the Sawyer County Airport improvement project.\u00a0 The improvements to the Airport will provide residents and visitors alike with a safer, more accessible airport, including for medical patient evacuations.\u00a0 The updated airport is important in keeping Sawyer County\u2019s infrastructure competitive for purposes of economic development and job retention and creation.\u201d Picture from Left to Right: Hal Helwig (County Chair), Kris Mayberry (County Clerk), Walt Jaeger (Airport Property Committee), Patty and Dan Leslie (Hayward Airport managers), Congressman Sean Duffy (WI-07)", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://kind.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-ron-kind-praises-grant-award-improve-energy-efficiency-wisconsin", "Rep. Ron Kind Praises Grant Award to Improve Energy Efficiency in Wisconsin", "2013-11-26", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Ron Kind", "K000188", "kind.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, DC  U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) welcomed the news that Wisconsin is receiving a grant award totaling $475,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) State Energy Program. The competitively awarded grant is for projects whose goal is to increase statewide energy savings and boost the energy efficiency of public institutions, local governments and industrial sectors.\nThis grant will help support a forward-looking approach aimed at promoting energy efficiency and helping communities reduce energy waste, said Rep. Kind. These investments will protect the environment, save taxpayer dollars and help Wisconsin continue to lead the way in smart, innovative renewable energy solutions and innovations.\nWisconsin's award is part of nearly $4 million in grants to 13 states aimed at increasing statewide energy savings and boosting energy efficiency. Wisconsin's awards  totaling $475,000  fall into two categories. One will attempt to remove regulatory, market and utility barriers to industrial energy efficiency (while helping create a sustainable model), accounting for $75,000 of the federal funding. The other project will focus on retrofitting public housing as well as local government and state facilities, (including the installation of low-wattage LED lighting and an upgrade to existing heating and cooling systems), accounting for $400,000 in grant funding.\nRep. Kind wrote letters in strong support of the grant.\nThe DOE's State Energy Program provides support through formula and competitive grants, assisting states in saving energy and harnessing clean energy technologies. States use the grants to increase technology use, build partnerships, and facilitate energy-related emergency preparedness.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221062223/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/blog/upcoming-staff-office-hours-in-wausau-and-rhinelander", "Upcoming staff office hours in Wausau & Rhinelander", "2013-11-26", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Tuesday, November 26, 2013\n\t\t\t\t Upcoming staff office hours in Wausau & Rhinelander \n\t\t\t\t\n                 \n\t\n\t            \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t  \t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSenator Baldwin's office has announced that members of her staff will hold office hours in Rhinelander and Wausau on December 2, 2013. Constituents will have the opportunity to meet with staff and request assistance with a federal agency or discuss other federal issues. No appointment is necessary.\nHere are the details for office hours on December 2, 2013:\nWausau\n10:00-11:00am  Marathon County Public Library  300 N. 1st Street  Wausau, WI\nRhinelander\n1:00-2:00pm  Rhinelander Public Library  106 N. Stevens Street  Rhinelander, WI", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221180824/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=363238", "Help Me Reform the NSA & Hold the Government Accountable", "2013-11-25", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "The NSA's overreach has infringed on American civil liberties, damaged diplomatic efforts with our allies and tarnished the integrity of the intelligence community. Of course, this debate over the NSA's bulk collection of phone records is no longer simply a discussion about balancing national security and privacy. Americans' personal information, constitutional rights and livelihoods are at stake. Citizens and businesses of Wisconsin's Fifth District and around the country have been very clear: the indiscriminate, bulk collection of Americans' data must be stopped. Congress has an obligation to hold the NSA accountable and deliver effective reforms that strengthen personal privacy safeguards and individual control over our most sensitive information. That\u2019s why I joined with Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to introduce the USA FREEDOM Act, which would end bulk collection, reform the secret FISA Court, increase transparency and protect our constitutional right to privacy. With over 100 bipartisan cosponsors and the support of businesses, our friends abroad and advocacy groups ranging from the ACLU to the NRA, I am confident that the USA FREEDOM Act is the most responsible approach to reform American surveillance. This bill is largely about accountability and transparency. And in that spirit, I\u2019m gathering as much input as possible from my constituents.\u00a0 Your questions, ideas and opinions will help me deliver reforms that work best for you and your neighbors in the Badger State. Thanks to a new online tool named Madison, we can have an open and constructive debate on the USA FREEDOM Act. Click here to sign up for Madison. Together we can strengthen your privacy rights through this comprehensive bill. I look forward to working with you in this interactive forum.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=89cbf898-2b3b-40a0-b805-4f1a7cd7661a", "Johnson Announces Staff Mobile Office Hours", "2013-11-25", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Ron Johnson", "J000293", "www.ronjohnson.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Oshkosh, Wisconsin\u00a0\u2013 Senator Ron Johnson (WI) announced today that his staff would be available for mobile office hours at the dates and locations listed below. These office hours allow constituents to meet with the Senator\u2019s staff to request assistance with a federal agency or regarding other federal matters.\r\nMonday, Dec. 2nd, 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.    Tennyson Village Hall    101 Bunker Hill Street, Potosi, 53820\r\nMonday, Dec. 2nd, 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.   Rock Springs Public Library    101 1st Street, Rock Springs, 53961\r\n\u00a0Monday, Dec. 2nd, 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.    North Freedom Village Hall    105 North Maple St., North Freedom, 53951\r\nMonday, Dec. 2nd, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.    Mount Hope Fire House    127 E. Main Street, Mount Hope 53816\r\nMonday, Dec. 2nd, 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.    Gratiot Community Center    5895 Main Street, Gratiot, 53541\r\nThursday, Dec. 5th, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.    Mattoon Village Hall    31 Slate Street, Mattoon, 54450\r\nThursday, Dec. 5th, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.    Eland Village Hall    W19141 Maple Street, Eland, 54427\r\nThursday, Dec. 5th, 1:50 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.    Hewitt Village Hall    7640 McLean Dr., Hewitt, 54441\r\nFriday, Dec. 6th, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.    VFW Post 9336    514 Willow St., Arena, 53503\r\nFriday, Dec. 6th, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.    Linden Village Hall    332 Church St., Linden, 53553", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/media-center/enewsletters/when-saying-sorry-isnt-enough", "When saying sorry isn't enough", "2013-11-23", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Dear friends, The President apologized for misleading the American people about his healthcare law. However, his apology does not change the reality that his law has forced millions of Americans to lose the healthcare plans they presumably liked. It does not change the fact that Denise may not have coverage she needs when the time comes for her to receive a kidney transplant. His apology certainly doesn\u2019t help Warren, who had a doctor a few miles away from his home, but thanks to the President\u2019s law, he will now need to drive up to 70 miles each way. However, it is not enough to just talk about the harmful impact of this law, we have to be resolved to do something about it. This week I re-introduced my prescription plan that would bring much needed relief to my constituents and the many Americans who have found themselves inconvenienced by this law.\u00a0 A few key points from, The Patient Centered Healthcare Savings Act of 2013: \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Allow consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines, which will increase choices for all Americans and ensure competition which will bring down healthcare costs. \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Expand the usefulness of Health Savings Accounts by removing restrictions on contributions, and permit expenditures for premiums and additional preventive health services. \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ensures adequate coverage for all individuals by: strengthening state high risk pools, requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions, and allow those up to age 23 to stay on their parents\u2019 plans, and permitting association health plans. \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Roots out Medicare waste, fraud and abuse by cracking down on unlawful durable medical equipment (DME) providers. Join the Energy Revolution:\u00a0This week the House passed, and I was glad to support, three bills that would bolster our energy production and create jobs. Today, thanks to the private sector, the United States is poised to become a global energy leader, decreasing our dependency on hostile foreign governments in the Middle East and creating hundreds of thousands of great paying jobs.\u00a0 However, bureaucratic regulations and red tape are standing in the way of our ultimate success. These bills support energy industries in the 7th District such as sand mining.\u00a0 It's time for the President to get out of the way, and join the Energy Revolution as well.\u00a0 Read more\u00a0here. The \u201cUltimate Consumer Protection\u201d:\u00a0Three of my Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reform bills cleared the Financial Services Committee this week. Among them H.R. 2571, the Consumer Right to Financial Privacy Act of 2013. When the Federal government collects and monitors information on Americans, especially when there is little or no justification for it, it really makes Americans mad. If the CFPB wants to collect, retain and monitor information on Americans, they have to get our permission. This bill is the ultimate consumer protection giving Americans direct control of our information when it relates to the government. Read more about all three bills\u00a0here.\u00a0 These are just a few things I did on your behalf this week with the hope of making life a little better for all of us. I\u2019m looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving (and hopefully a Packer win) with Rachel and the kids this Thursday. As we gather around our table to give thanks for the many blessings in our lives, I remain grateful for the privilege of being your Representative in Congress. I hope you, and your family, have a very happy, safe and blessed Thanksgiving. \u00a0Have a great week, \u00a0 \u00a0Sean", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/press-release/community-government-team-up-to-work-towards-end-to-hunger-homelessness", "Community & Government Team-Up To Work Towards End to Hunger & Homelessness", "2013-11-22", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Duffy to host Summit December 18th\u00a0in Wausau \u00a0 Wausau, WI \u2013\u00a0U.S. Congressman Sean Duffy\u00a0(WI-07)utilizes the commemoration of National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week\u00a0to announce his plans to host a \u201cHunger & Homelessness Summit\u201d in an effort to bring community and government organizations together to tackle hunger and homelessness in Wisconsin\u2019s 7th\u00a0Congressional District. Full details about the upcoming event are below.\u00a0Rep. Duffy\u00a0also offered the following comments: \u201cThere is still much work to do to reduce homelessness and hunger in our communities throughout the 7th\u00a0Congressional District. The December 18th\u00a0summit will bring together local government officials, economic development associations, non-profits, religious organizations, and government agencies to foster what I hope will be a productive discussion about ways we can work together to curb this issue in our own backyard.\u201d Rep. Duffy emphasized the importance of a public and private partnership adding, \u201cAddressing and solving these issues will take whole communities and many different partners at the table. I look forward to learning more about these issues and our neighbors who are impacted by them, ways to address them in our communities, and learning about what other communities are doing to address these issues.\u201d In 2011 and 2012, 13.5% of homes in the 7th\u00a0Congressional District faced food hardships, including 22.7% of our children. Additionally, over 2,000 individuals received documented care from homeless shelters, not to mention the thousands that did not receive care or live \u201ccouch-to-couch. This event is open to members of the media and will include media availability. To RSVP and receive updates about the event itinerary, please email\u00a0Cassie Smedile. \u00a0 WHAT Hunger & Homelessness Summit hosted by CONGRESSMAN SEAN DUFFY \u00a0 WHEN WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18 8:30 AM \u2013 5:00 PM   WHERE  Northcentral Technical College 1000 W. Campus Drive, Wausau   REGISTER Register online at duffy.house.gov Or call 715-298-9344", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://duffy.house.gov/press-release/duffys-office-to-host-veteran-history-workshops", "Duffy's Office to Host Veteran History Workshops", "2013-11-22", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Sean Duffy", "D000614", "duffy.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Wausau, WI \u2013Following the success of the first workshop in Hudson, the office of\u00a0U.S. Congressman Sean Duffy (WI-07)\u00a0is hosting two additional Veteran History Project training workshops in Wausau and Superior. The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war Veterans so that future generations may hear directly from Veterans\u00a0and better understand the realities of war. These recordings are entered into the collection in the Library of Congress, where they will serve as a permanent reminder of the sacrifices these men and women made defending our country.\u00a0 During the workshop, interested volunteers will learn interview techniques and staff will help connect \u00a0them\u00a0with a Veteran\u00a0to conduct future interviewsfor the project. Anyone who knows\u00a0a Veteran\u00a0who is interested in telling their story, or simply wants to learn more about the project is invited to attend. For more information about the project, \u00a0and to register, click\u00a0here.\u00a0These workshops are open to the public and media. Details for both workshops are below:", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["http://gwenmoore.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=49&itemid=929", "Gwen Moore Recognizes Native American Heritage Month", "2013-11-22", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By Staff|5/16/2012 3:05 PM (Talk Radio News Service)\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tHouse Democrats voiced extreme opposition to a GOP version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) they argue lacks provisions that extend the authority of the law to minority women, Native American women and members of the LGBT community.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) argued that the Republican bill \u201cis a step backward\u201d from current legislation. Instead, House Democrats are pressing leadership to take up a Senate version that gained bipartisan support and passed by a 68-31 margin.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cIn sharp contrast, the House Republicans have brought to the floor today a controversial bill that will weaken protections we give to those who suffer domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking,\u201d Pelosi said. \u201cAll people deserve to be protected from domestic violence, there should be no exceptions in this law.\u201d\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\tRep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), through personal experience, argued that the provisions being omitted from House Republicans\u2019 VAWA will inadequately support minority women and as well as women living on tribal lands.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cI am particularly aggrieved that this bill ignores the special circumstances of women who are minorities, women who are in the shadows,\u201d Moore said. \u201cAnd where we have created a veritable sanctuary for those who would commit sexual assault and abuse them on tribal lands.\u201d\r\n\r\n\tThe White House issued a veto threat to the GOP bill Tuesday.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cFor instance, H.R. 4970 fails to provide for concurrent special domestic-violence criminal jurisdiction by tribal authorities over non-Indians, and omits clarification of tribal courts\u2019 full civil jurisdiction regarding certain protection orders over non-Indians,\u201d the White House said in a statement.\r\n\r\n\t\u00a0\r\n\r\n\t\u201cThe bill also fails to include language that would prohibit discrimination against LGBT victims in VAWA grant programs. No sexual-assault or domestic-violence victim should be beaten, hurt, or killed because they could not access needed support, assistance, and protection.\u201d\r\n\r\n\tHouse Republicans are likely to pass their version of VAWA Wednesday. As a result, both chambers will have to move to conference \u2013 yet again \u2013 in hopes of finding common ground.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://gwenmoore.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2119", "Gwen Moore Recognizes Native American Heritage Month", "2013-11-22", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Gwen Moore", "M001160", "gwenmoore.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Gwen Moore Recognizes Native American Heritage Month \r\n   \r\n    \r\n       \r\n      \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e\r\n      \r\n      \r\n    \r\n    \r\n      \r\n        Washington, DC,\r\n        November 22, 2013\r\n      \r\n       \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      \r\n      \r\n        The rich culture and heritage of the Native American community has had an undeniable positive impact on our way of life. As Thanksgiving approaches, let us remember the great contributions that Native Americans have made and continue to make to bridge our communities and improve our nation.\r\n          share:\r\n          f \r\n          t \r\n        \r\n      \r\n        Contact: Staci Cox  (202) 225- 4572   Washington, DC  Today, Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-04) released this statement in honor of Native American Heritage Month.  The rich culture and heritage of the Native American community has had an undeniable positive impact on our way of life. As Thanksgiving approaches, let us remember the great contributions that Native Americans have made and continue to make to bridge our communities and improve our nation. This week I was proud to celebrate the Native American code talkers whose service and unique languages proved invaluable during WWI and WWII. The Wisconsin tribes who received the Congressional Gold Medals included the Ho-Chunk, Oneida and Menominee Nations. It was such an honor to join them as they received this long overdue recognition.   Protecting the sovereignty and promoting the economic, political and social self-determination for the Native American community remains a pressing priority given the numerous challenges they face. One of our key legislative priorities this year was the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). For far too long, non-Native men could assault Native women with impunity. VAWA not only works to end this scourge, but it also helps provide vital support services to Native American victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. I was proud to be the lead House sponsor of such vital legislation that became law earlier this year.  I am so pleased to support our 11 federally recognized Native American tribes in Wisconsin, including the Forest County Potawatomi whose philanthropic efforts and job creation have improved the lives of many in the Milwaukee area. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with Native Americans in my state and across the nation. Native American Heritage Month is celebrated every year in November. To learn more about this month, please visit this website. ###  For Moore News Updates  \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221042714/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/baldwin-klobuchar-join-in-friendly-wager-on-this-weekends-minnesota-wisconsin-football-games", "Baldwin, Klobuchar Join in Friendly Wager on This Weekend's Minnesota-Wisconsin Football Games", "2013-11-22", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Baldwin, Klobuchar Join in Friendly Wager on This Weekend's Minnesota-Wisconsin Football Games\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tJust in time for Thanksgiving, the Senators put Minnesota turkey and wild rice and Wisconsin bratwurst and cheese on the line for the Gopher-Badger and Vikings-Packers games\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFriday, November 22, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) today joined in a friendly wager on this weekend\u2019s Minnesota-Wisconsin football games. With the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers playing the University of Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday and the Minnesota Vikings playing the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, the senators wagered Wisconsin bratwurst and cheese against a Minnesota Jennie-O turkey and wild rice \u2013 one dish for each game.\n\u201cWhile I\u2019m sure Senator Baldwin\u2019s office would enjoy a Minnesota turkey and some Minnesota wild rice for Thanksgiving dinner, I\u2019m looking forward to sampling some of the finest brats and cheese Wisconsin has to offer after cheering on the Gophers and Vikings this weekend,\u201d\u00a0Klobuchar said, noting that\u00a0Minnesota is the number one turkey producer in the country.\n\"When the Badgers and Packers beat the Gophers and Vikings like they always do, the turkey and wild rice will go wonderfully with some made in Wisconsin cranberry sauce,\" said Baldwin.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "truncated": false, "filtered_table_rows_count": 863, "expanded_columns": [], "expandable_columns": [], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "units": {}, "query": {"sql": "select url, title, date, year, month, party, chamber, state, member_name, bioguide_id, domain, scraper, source, date_source, text, has_text, collected_at, updated_at from releases where \"chamber\" = :p0 and \"state\" = :p1 and \"year\" = :p2 order by date desc limit 101", "params": {"p0": "House", "p1": "WI", "p2": "2013"}}, "facet_results": {"party": {"name": "party", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?chamber=House&state=WI&year=2013", "results": [{"value": "Democrat", "label": "Democrat", "count": 557, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?chamber=House&state=WI&year=2013&party=Democrat", "selected": false}, {"value": "Republican", "label": "Republican", "count": 306, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?chamber=House&state=WI&year=2013&party=Republican", "selected": false}], "truncated": false}, "chamber": {"name": "chamber", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?chamber=House&state=WI&year=2013", "results": [{"value": "House", "label": "House", "count": 863, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?state=WI&year=2013", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}, "state": {"name": "state", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?chamber=House&state=WI&year=2013", "results": [{"value": "WI", "label": "WI", "count": 863, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?chamber=House&year=2013", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}, "year": {"name": "year", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?chamber=House&state=WI&year=2013", "results": [{"value": "2013", "label": "2013", "count": 863, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?chamber=House&state=WI", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}}, "suggested_facets": [], "next": "2013-11-22,https~3A~2F~2Fweb~2Earchive~2Eorg~2Fweb~2F20140221042714~2Fhttp~3A~2F~2Fwww~2Ebaldwin~2Esenate~2Egov~2Fpress-releases~2Fbaldwin-klobuchar-join-in-friendly-wager-on-this-weekends-minnesota-wisconsin-football-games", "next_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?chamber=House&state=WI&year=2013&_next=2013-11-22%2Chttps~3A~2F~2Fweb~2Earchive~2Eorg~2Fweb~2F20140221042714~2Fhttp~3A~2F~2Fwww~2Ebaldwin~2Esenate~2Egov~2Fpress-releases~2Fbaldwin-klobuchar-join-in-friendly-wager-on-this-weekends-minnesota-wisconsin-football-games&_sort_desc=date", "private": false, "allow_execute_sql": true, "query_ms": 278.58425956219435, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}