By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Members of the House Trade Working Group called on the Obama administration Wednesday to review current U.S. trade agreements and push for a trade overhaul in the upcoming World Trade Organization ministerial meeting.

“We want to work together to develop a trade agenda that we can all be proud of,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) during a press conference.

Rep. Michael Michaud (D-Maine) and Slaughter said they want Obama to live up to campaign promises on trade by dismissing the Doha round trade liberalization talks, agreements aimed at lowering trade barriers for developing countries, and start a compete overhaul that focuses on labor rights for American workers.

“As our nation’s representatives prepare to head to Geneva, we want them to know that the trade act not only represents a way here at home, it also mirrors calls from many WTO countries to turn around the WTO,” said Michaud. “This represents exactly what many nations have called for at WTO: a review of the existing views and the will to fix what is broken.”

Earlier this year Michaud introduced a legislation that calls for a review of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central Free Trade Agreement. The bill has support from nearly half of the House Democratic Caucus.

“Even our trading partners are astonished that all these years we have watched our country away decline without making a peep,” said Slaughter. “We have just gave away, gave away, gave away.”

Though President Barack Obama has not addressed trade agreements recently, he will meet with the WTO general council in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the WTO trading system and the global economic climate on Nov. 30.

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Rapid advancement of technology coupled with reduced trade barriers are the most important factors in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, witnesses told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing Tuesday.

“An agreement that focuses on technology offers a path forward that developed and developing countries can embrace, “ said Karen Harbert, President and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy.

Harbert said during her testimony that an effort to reduce global tariffs and non-tariff barriers on clean energy goods and services is essential in ensuring that alternate energy technologies can penetrate the global marketplace.

“Future growth of the U.S. clean energy economy will depend on access to foreign markets,” Jake Colvin, Vice President of the National Foreign Trade Council said in his testimony. “Demand for environmental goods and services is growing rapidly in developing countries, which offer significant opportunities for U.S. companies.”

Colvin explained that U.S. exporters are currently facing disproportionally high tariffs that impede their ability to sell environmental goods and services abroad.

“Reducing these impediments would allow U.S. companies to capture a larger share of the the more than $600 billion environmental goods and services market,” Colvin said.

President Barack Obama expressed reservations earlier this year about tariff provisions included in the House climate legislation, the House bill would levy tariffs beginning in 2020 on environmental goods and services from countries that have not committed to control greenhouse gas emissions.

Senate Democrats who represent states dependent on manufacturing have said they will not vote for a bill that does not include “border adjustments” to safe-keep U.S. presence in the market.

Agreements regarding trade policy will be a critical component as to what the U.S. will commit to during the United Nation’s climate conference in Copenhagen in December, where 190 nations will draft an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Leaders of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice urged U.S. Senators Monday to remove language from the final health care reform bill that restricts federal funding for abortion.

“Health care reform that attacks the rights of more than half of the population by subjecting some of their most basic and intimate decisions to a large and powerful church’s governing body is not reform at all,” said Barry Lynn, Executive Director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, during a morning press conference hosted by the National Press Club.

While the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, an organization with members from a variety of religious backgrounds, advocated women’s reproductive rights, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pushed House leaders to amend their bill to prohibit abortion coverage.

The Stupak-Pitts amendment, included in the House bill, restricts abortion coverage in a government-run insurance plan as well as in private plans funded by government subsidies.

“How surprising and appalling to see that a provision designed to curtail women’s right to abortion was slipped into the health care bill at the behest of a powerful religious group, a provision that reflects the doctrine of that group,” Lynn said.

President Barack Obama has remarked that he does not believe health care reform should change the “status quo” in regards to abortion. However, many moderate Senate Democrats say they will urge firm restrictions on abortion funding in the final health care bill.

Obama has not commented as to whether he will sign a bill with language that prohibits abortion funding.

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

State department spokesman Phillip Crowley said Friday that International efforts to relocate detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility is progressing.

“We remain committed to close Guantanamo,” Crowley said in a briefing at the Foreign Press Center. “We‘re gratified at the cooperation and support that we have received from a variety of countries over the last couple months.”

Crowley did not specify how many detainees have been moved, but said the State Department is working to find a place for all detainees that are cleared to be removed.

“There are still significant blocks of detainees that we are still trying to determine what we might be able to do with them,” Crowley said.

Closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has been a priority of the Obama administration since the president took office in January, but Obama has been criticized by progressive Americans for working too slowly to move the prisoners.

“Obviously, it has become more of a challenge than might have been anticipated, but clearly we are committed to the closing of Guantanamo as soon as we can.”

Crowley also commented on last week’s Fort Hood shooting, saying that, though the suspected shooter has been identified as a Muslim man, the military will not start to discriminate based on religion, and he does not expect it to affect enlistment.

“I certainly do not think that the fact that the suspect is of a particular faith should in any way effect the willingness of American citizens, regardless of their ethic background or faith, to want to serve in the United States military,” Crowley said.

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stepped up her call for immigration reform Friday, saying that while Congress has lagged on the issue, comprehensive reform is more realistic and necessary than ever before.

“Everybody recognizes that our current system isn’t working and that our immigration laws need to change,” Napolitano said in a morning address at the Center for American Progress.

Napolitano said the Obama administration will give a strong push for immigration reform in early 2010, noting that the immigration debate has changed since two years ago when it was last taken up by Congress.

“In 2007, many members of Congress said that they could support immigration reform in the future, but only if we first made significant progress securing the border,” Napolitano said.

Napolitano said DHS has proved their commitment to border law enforcement as the U.S. Border Patrol has grown to 20,000 and erected a 600 mile border fence, adding that the number of illegal immigrants trying to enter into the United States has significantly decreased.

“I’ve been dealing hands-on with immigration issues since 1993, so trust me: I know a major shift when I see one, and what I have seen makes reform far more attainable this time around,” stated Napolitano, who served as Governor of Arizona, a border state, from 2003-2009.

She specified that Immigration reform would not serve as a free path to legalization for the 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. Rather, reform would require illegal immigrants to register with DHS and pay fines and back taxes, pass criminal background checks and learn English.

“This is a task that is critical, it’s attainable and that we are fully committed to fulfill,” Napolitano said.

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton announced Thursday a new initiative to expand the ICE’s Secure Communities initiative, a program that uses biometrics, such as taking digital finger-print samplings, to identify and remove illegal immigrants that have committed crimes in the U.S.

Since its inception in October 2008, ICE’s Secure Communities has identified 11,000 people who were convicted with Level 1 offenses or crimes such as murder or rape, of those 1,900 offenders have been deported from the United States.

“By the end of 2011 we project having a presence in every state,” Napolitano said. “By 2013, assuming Congress continues to fund our efforts, Secure Communities plans to expand nationwide and be available to every law enforcement agency in the country.”

Morton said the Secure Communities initiative, which was enacted one year ago, has identified more than 111,000 criminal illegal immigrants in local custody during the program’s first year.

Critics say the Secure Communities initiative could be abused and result in racial profiling, explaining that a law abiding immigrant could be arrested with the sole intention of having their immigration status checked, at the discretion of a local officer.

“There is no distinction between citizen or non-citizen, every single person who is booked into a jail, gets their fingerprints checked and gets their immigration history checked,” Morton said, replying to the criticism. “This is not about, has not been and won’t be about conducting basic civil-immigration enforcement for non-criminal offenders.”

Morton noted that the goal of the initiative to identify and deport serious offenders that are dangerous, but under the initiative all illegal aliens that have committed a crime will be sent back to their country of origin.

“At the end of the day, if you are here unlawfully, not only are you deportable, but you certainly shouldn’t be committing crimes. We are going to identify those people and we are going to remove them.”

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) urged Congress Tuesday to consider legislation that would mandate paid sick leave for employees with the H1N1 virus.

“Paid sick days have always been a good and common sense idea, but in light of the recent H1N1 epidemic it has also become a necessary one,” DeLauro said while testifying to the Senate Health, Education and Labor Pensions Committee.

According to the Department of Labor and Statistics, only one in four low wage workers have access to paid sick days. These employees often work jobs that require frequent contact with the public. Adding to the problem is the fact that many workers go into work when sick in order to maintain the income they need.

“This isn’t just a workers’ rights issue, it’s a public health emergency,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.). “Families should not have to choose between staying healthy and making ends meet.”

DeLauro worked with the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) earlier this year to push the Healthy Families Act, a bill that would mandate employers to guarantee employees one hour off for every 30 hours worked, allowing employees to earn up to seven sick days a year. Such a bill is necessary now, said DeLauro.

HELP Committee Ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said legislation that forced employers to provide paid sick days would be detrimental to small businesses that are already struggling to retain employees during economic hardships.

“Many employers are not able to maintain current payrolls, which is evidenced by the rise in unemployment,” Enzi said. “If this bill is enacted, employers will adjust somewhere either by reducing current healthcare… or by downsizing their number of employees.”

Many Republicans shared similar concerns when DeLauro and Kennedy urged passage of the bill in May. Dodd argued that given the current spread of H1N1, the bill is necessary now.

“If paid sick leave had been a reality when this pandemic began, we would be in better shape,” Dodd said. “I want it in place immediately to help parents and workers.”

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Unemployment increased to 10.2 percent in October, the highest rate since 1983, leaving Americans with 190,000 less jobs, Bureau of Labor and Statistics Commission Keith Hall told Congress in a Joint Economic Committee hearing Friday.

“The declines are much smaller and less widespread than they were last Fall and Winter,” Hall said. “Nevertheless, some industries are still experiencing notable employment decline.”

Hall told the committee that in October the heavy construction, manufacturing and retail industries have had a particularly significant decline in employment losing a combined total of 163,000 jobs.

However, he added that some industries have seen an increase in employment. Health care and help services are among the few that have added jobs, with a much smaller figure of 63,000 combined jobs.

Hall said since the recession began the number of unemployed has more than doubled to 15.7 million.

“The number of long-term unemployed remained high in October,” Hall said. “5.6 million workers have been jobless for 27 weeks or more.”

He said the increasing number of people who have become discouraged in looking for work and therefore remained unemployed have added to the problem. In October there was a reported 808,000 discouraged workers, a figure up from 484,000 last year.

“These are individuals are not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them,” Hall said.

Committee members on both side of the aisle agreed that in terms of job creation, the economy is not where it needs to be. Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said she believes the nation is on track to recovery, while Republicans argued that the Obama administration has not done enough to facilitate employment growth.

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the decision has not been made over whether lawmakers will be allowed to offer amendments to the Affordable Health Care for All Americans Act once it reaches chamber floor, including any amendment pertaining to abortion.

“We may not have any amendments,” Pelosi said during her weekly press conference.

Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) along with many other pro-life democrats have threatened to oppose the bill until language barring federal funding for abortions is introduced.

Current versions of the House health care legislation do not directly address the issue of abortion, however House leaders have maintained throughout the health care debate that the bill would not allow abortions to be federally funded.

The Speaker needs 218 votes to pass the bill, including as many pro-life Democrats as possible. Pelosi said that although she knows some Democrats have strong convictions regarding abortion, she still believes in their support for health care reform.

“Congressman Ellsworth’s record in Congress and his statements outside of Congress have been strongly pro-life,” Pelosi said. “He and others who have strong pro-life convictions want very much to see a health care bill passed.”

The House Rules Committee Friday will finalize all the rules for this weekend’s House health care debate.

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Tom Udall (D-NM) said Wednesday that health care reform legislation must include extensive measures to promote wellness and prevention.

“As I have said many times… we currently do not have a health care system in America, we have a sick care system,” Harkin said.

The Iowa Senator explained that simply treating illness after diagnosis is much more costly than using the same money to promote preventative treatment.

“Our aim is to recreate America as a genuine wellness society, a society focused on healthy lifestyle and preventing the chronic diseases that take suck a toll on our bodies and our budgets,” Harkin said.

Both Harkin and Udall have been long time advocates of promoting prevention, claiming that for every dollar invested in wellness, several dollars used for expensive treatments are saved.

“Our current system is clearly broken and unsustainable. We really have a disease management system,” Udall said. “We really must get out in front of these diseases.”

Harkin maintained during the press conference that both the Senate and House bills will be done and in conference by Christmas.