Lost in the excitement of the Super Tuesday was the 15^th anniversary of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a law that has given millions Americans the ability to take unpaid time to care for loved ones or recover from their own serious illness without fear of losing their job. After eight years of moving through Congress and two presidential vetoes, on February 5, 1993 President Bill Clinton fulfilled his campaign promise and signed FMLA into law - the first bill he signed as president.

Under the current law employees who have worked for 12 months and put in at least 1,250 hours at their job can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a sick family member, care for a newborn or newly adopted baby, or recover from their own illness. In the 15 years since the enactment of FMLA, more than 50 million people have taken advantage of this opportunity. However, only workers whose company employs more than 50 people are eligible for the leave. Because of these restrictions, FMLA is only available for 45 percent of people in the private sector.

This January marked the first-ever expansion of FMLA when President Bush signed the Department of Defense Authorization Conference Report which included additional unpaid family medical leave for the families of American soldiers. This plan, originally sponsored by Senators Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton will give families of wounded military personnel up to six months of unpaid leave to care for their loved ones. At a time when military families have exhibited great sacrifice and undertaken tremendous amounts of stress, this law is a necessary next step in FMLA improvement. Read the rest of this entry »

The United States is falling behind in the race to graduate students with high-level science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees to trade partners like India, China, Japan, and South Korea. According to Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, only 5 percent of American college students graduate with engineering degrees, compared with 46 percent in China. The number of American science and engineering Ph.D. recipients is shrinking as well. Meanwhile, China, India, and other countries are investing enormous resources in further developing their institutions of higher education. Recently, the Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007 put out by the World Economic Forum dropped the United States from first to sixth position in country rankings.

This new reality is startling. Engineering and mathematics graduates drive our economy through innovation that creates new jobs and new industries that then employ others who do not have advanced degrees. Research and development turns into production and exports, a fact that is vital not only to the trade balance but to the health of the American economy. If we graduate more scientists and engineers, America will reap the financial benefits of our technological superiority. But if the current trends continue, we risk losing our competitive advantage in today’s economy.

Read the rest of this entry »

So close, but so far away. At first blush, that seems to be the story of California’s efforts to secure health care coverage for all. The Democrat-dominated State Assembly had passed a groundbreaking reform plan, and Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was ready to sign it into law. Then the State Senate (also a majority-Democratic body) balked at the $14 billion price tag in the face of a $14 billion deficit. The reform effort died in a committee.

This Golden State setback means that even though there has been some serious progress toward reform at the state level (notably in Massachusetts), the states can’t go it alone.

The federal government needs to be an active partner in reform, because it controls the purse strings for health-care financing. It needs to build upon the efforts underway in the dozens of states that have been inspired by the Massachusetts example. Such inspiration is laudable, but federal action is indispensable if we as a nation are ever going to bring about genuine reforms to our outdated and inequitable health-care system.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the emerging political stories of the presidential nominating contest this year is high turnout, a sign of relatively high levels of citizen engagement in the election process that should carry over until November. But a big part of this story should be of cheer to Democrats no matter which candidate they prefer: the Democratic contest is attracting startling numbers of voters in state after state, with independents being especially attracted to the Donkey brand.

Read the rest of this entry »

As the current tight races in the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries highlight, competitive elections increase voter turnout and participation. Unfortunately, most congressional and state legislative races are walkovers, the results of years of gerrymandering districts to favor incumbents on both sides of the aisle.

That’s why Virginia Governor Tim Kaine’s proposal in his State of the State address to create a bipartisan system for redistricting in the commonwealth is so important. As Kaine explained, “our legislative districts should be drawn with the people, not the politicians, first in mind.”

The question of how to reform redistricting is, unfortunately, very complicated. Some reforms focus on who draws the maps. This makes the most sense with respect to state legislative redistricting, where there is an inherent conflict-of-interest present when legislators design their own political futures. But independent commissions can also reduce congressional incumbent, and party, pressure on legislators drawing congressional maps. Seventeen states currently give independent commissions some role in redistricting decisions, but only four — Arizona, Washington, Hawaii, and New Jersey — give them a final say, subject to judicial review, in both congressional and state legislative redistricting.

Read the rest of this entry »

From The Washington Post:

At the dawn of the 21st century, conventional wisdom was that America held unmatched cultural, economic and military power. George F. Will wrote: “It is good to be alive in America at the end of the first (but not the last) American century.” In late 1999, Charles Krauthammer wrote: “No other nation has exercised such military, economic, diplomatic and cultural reach since Rome. . . . America bestrides the world like a colossus.”

Boy, have times changed.

Read the rest of this entry »