POPVOX
Editor

The State of the Union, 2013

12 min read

The State of the Union, 2013

2/18/13: Last week, the President addressed the Congress in his State of the Union speech. The tradition comes from a directive in the Constitution that says the President "shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." (Read the full text of the President's speech.)

The President's speech outlined his policy priorities for the year. The POPVOX team deconstructed the speech and identified related bills and policies already pending before Congress that address the issues the President raised so that our users can weigh in. Congress needs to hear from constituents as they make critical choices — and POPVOX will deliver your message to your Members of Congress.

Sequestration

"In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dollars’ worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year. These sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness. They’d devastate priorities like education, and energy, and medical research. They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. That’s why Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in Washington as the sequester, are a really bad idea."

Related Bills

  • Sequester Sequestration — Automatic, Across-the-Board Cuts to Federal Spending: The deadline for Congress to take action to avoid across-the-board spending cuts is March 1st.
  • HR 505 The Balancing Act (the Congressional Progressive Caucus's plan): "Eliminates the impending “sequester” cuts and replaces them with an equal amount of revenue by closing corporate and individual tax loopholes. This creates the equal overall cuts-to-revenue balance when looking at the budget beginning in 2011, when the Budget Control Act was passed. The bill also cuts approximately $300 billion from wasteful Pentagon spending and reinvests the money in job creation. The bill is expected to create more than 1 million jobs by investing in infrastructure, teachers, and putting money in consumers’ pockets." ( According to the bill sponsor, Rep. Keith Ellison [D, MN-5]))
  • HR 607  : To delay until 2016 provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act scheduled to take effect in 2014 or 2015 and to delay the application of sequestration until 2014. (Sponsored by Rep. William Thornberry [R, TX-13]).

Medicare Reform

"On Medicare, I’m prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission."

Related Bills

Health Care Reform

"Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. And the reforms I’m proposing go even further. We’ll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors. We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital; they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive."

Related Bills

Tax Reform

"Now is our best chance for bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and helps bring down the deficit. We can get this done. The American people deserve a tax code that helps small businesses spend less time filling out complicated forms, and more time expanding and hiring — a tax code that ensures billionaires with high-powered accountants can’t work the system and pay a lower rate than their hardworking secretaries; a tax code that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas, and lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that are creating jobs right here in the United States of America. "

Related Bills

Deficit Reduction

"Now, most of us agree that a plan to reduce the deficit must be part of our agenda. But let’s be clear, deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan. "

Related Bills

See Federal Debt and Deficit Reduction bills.

American Jobs and Manufacturing

"Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing. … And I ask this Congress to help create a network of 15 of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is made right here in America. "

Related Bills

Energy

"After years of talking about it, we’re finally poised to control our own energy future."

Related Bills

Climate Change

"But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change."

Related Bills

Infrastructure

"Ask any CEO where they’d rather locate and hire — a country with deteriorating roads and bridges, or one with high-speed rail and Internet; high-tech schools, self-healing power grids. … So tonight, I propose a “Fix-It-First” program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country."

Related Bills

  • HR 787: To greatly enhance America's path toward energy independence and economic and national security, to rebuild our Nation's aging roads, bridges, locks, and dams. (Sponsored by Rep. Tim Murphy [R, PA-18])

Home Mortgages

"Right now, there’s a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s rates. Democrats and Republicans have supported it before, so what are we waiting for? Take a vote, and send me that bill."

Related Bills

  • HRes 26 Resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the States should enact a temporary moratorium on residential mortgage foreclosures. (Sponsored by Rep. Marcy Kaptur [D, OH-9])
  • S 249: to provide for the expansion of affordable refinancing of mortgages held by the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. (And HR 736 in the House.) (Sponsored by Sen. Robert Menéndez [D, NJ])
  • S 361: to require the lender or servicer of a home mortgage, upon a request by the homeowner for a short sale, to make a prompt decision whether to allow the sale. (Sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski [R, AK])

Education

"Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for a private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives. So tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America."

Related Bills

College

"Through tax credits, grants and better loans, we’ve made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years. But taxpayers can’t keep on subsidizing higher and higher and higher costs for higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure that they do. So tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid."

Related Bills

Border Security

"Real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my administration has already made — putting more boots on the Southern border than at any time in our history and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years."

Related Bills

Immigration Reform

"Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship — a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally. And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy… And as we speak, bipartisan groups in both chambers are working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts."

Related Bills

See more Immigration bills.

Women

But we can’t stop there. We know our economy is stronger when our wives, our mothers, our daughters can live their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence. Today, the Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act that Joe Biden originally wrote almost 20 years ago. And I now urge the House to do the same… And I ask this Congress to declare that women should earn a living equal to their efforts, and finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year."

Related Bills

Minimum Wage

"Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour."

Related Bills

Cybersecurity

"America must also face the rapidly growing threat from cyber-attacks. Now, we know hackers steal people’s identities and infiltrate private emails."

Related Bills

Global Poverty

"In many places, people live on little more than a dollar a day. So the United States will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades by connecting more people to the global economy; by empowering women; by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve, and helping communities to feed, and power, and educate themselves; by saving the world’s children from preventable deaths; and by realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation, which is within our reach."

Related Bills

  • HCR 7 Resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the US should provide, on an annual basis, an amount equal to at least one percent of US gross domestic product (GDP) for nonmilitary foreign assistance programs. (Sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee [D, CA-13])
  • HRes 19 Resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Senate should ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). (Sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney [D, NY-12])

Veterans and Military Families

"We will keep faith with our veterans, investing in world-class care, including mental health care, for our wounded warriors — supporting our military families; giving our veterans the benefits and education and job opportunities that they have earned."

Related Bills

Voting Process

"I’m announcing a nonpartisan commission to improve the voting experience in America. And it definitely needs improvement. I’m asking two long-time experts in the field — who, by the way, recently served as the top attorneys for my campaign and for Governor Romney’s campaign — to lead it."

Related Bills

See more Voting bills.

Gun Violence

"It has been two months since Newtown. I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to reduce gun violence. But this time is different. Overwhelming majorities of Americans — Americans who believe in the Second Amendment — have come together around common-sense reform, like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun."

Related Bills

See more Firearms and Gun Control bills.

Please keep in mind that highlighting a bill doesn't imply a POPVOX endorsement in any way. Rather, we're simply trying to offer one more way to stay informed of an overwhelmingly complex legislative system.

 

Editor
«
»

Be Informed, Not Intimidated

Editor
Jan 20, 2017 1 min read

CONFIRMATION HEARING: Betsy DeVos, nominee for Education Secretary

Editor
Jan 20, 2017 4 min read

CONFIRMATION HEARINGS: Rep. Ryan Zinke, nominee for Secretary of…

Editor
Jan 20, 2017 4 min read