Issues

• Our Maryland: America in Miniature

  Maryland remains the greatest state in the nation, in no small part due to the diversity of our industries and people, the investments that we have made, and our abundant natural resources. About the size of Belgium, Maryland is the wealthiest state in the nation, has the lowest poverty in America, relatively low unemployment, the best K-12 schools in the nation, the second highest number of people with advanced degrees, the second highest number of jobs in science and technology, the second highest salaries for women in the workforce, ranks fifth in the nation in technological innovation, and is one of only eight states in America with a coveted AAA bond rating. Our Gross Domestic Product at $400 billion annually ranks 13th in the nation per capita, which is about the size of the GDPs of Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emeritus. Our employers support a wide variety of workforces and industries, including our Services Sector, which makes up some 82 percent (community, social, personal and tourism services, 27%; wholesale and retail trade, 25%; government, 19%; finance, insurance, and real estate, 6%; and transportation, communications, and utilities, 5%.), our Manufacturing Sector, which accounts for about nine percent, our Construction Sector, which makes up about seven percent, and our diverse Agricultural Sector, which accounts for about two percent. Our greatest natural treasure, the Chesapeake Bay, is America's largest estuary with its 4000 miles of shoreline, and supports numerous industries, including boating, tourism, fishing, aquaculture, shipping and other commerce. Our proximity to the federal government in the District of Columbia positioned Maryland extremely well for many federal agencies to call Maryland "home," including NIST, NIH, FDA, FERC, and others. Importantly, these assets and investments do not come without substantial sacrifice on the part of all Marylanders, who share the values of community, diversity, excellence, hard work, and leaving a better world for our children.
  

• Good Jobs and a Stronger, More Diversified Economy

  Strengthening our economy by creating high-paying, highly-skilled jobs, and by diversifying our economic sectors, must be among our highest priorities in these tough fiscal times. I continue to work with the Governor and groups like the Maryland Building and Construction Trades Council, the Tech Council, chambers of commerce, and activists, in advancing legislation to grow our economy, invest in new economic sectors, and create the kinds of jobs that strengthen economic security and prepare our workforce for the new global economy. For more information about these efforts, or to share with me your thoughts and ideas, please contact us.

• World Class Schools

  There is no higher legal or constitutional responsibility of government than to provide an adequate and equitable education for all of our children. I learned that first-hand attending public schools, and later, by working in public schools with special-needs students. That's why I have been so honored to work throughout my tenure in public office -- both in the House and the Senate -- to provide the necessary standards and resources that have made Maryland K-12 schools the best in the nation for the last 3 years. But to maintain that progress, we need to strengthen our commitment to our educators and our kids by ensuring that our schools have the resources and revenues solutions that they need to succeed. For more information about these efforts, or to share with me your ideas to improve education, please contact us.

• Health Care Reform

  Access to quality, affordable health care should be a right of all Americans. Having lived without health care as a child, I understand the struggles of families who are without care, which is why health care reform became the single issue that motivated me to attend law school and to serve in public office.  On the federal level, I serve on the Leadership Conference on Guaranteed Health Care, and on the Working Group of State Legislators for Health Reform (convened by President Obama's White House), in which I played an active role in advising the White House during the development and implementation of the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" -- the largest expansion of health care since the implementation of Medicare. On the state level, my work in the House and Senate has focused on expanding care, reducing costs, and increasing quality -- and I am honored to have authored a new law to ban health care discrimination in Maryland -- in addition to serving as a member of the Health and Human Services Subcommittee, the Joint Committee on Health Care Delivery and Financing, and as the Senate Chairman of the Task Force to Study Financial Matters Relating to Long-Term Care Facilities. For more information about these efforts, or to share with me your ideas to advance health care reforms, please contact us.

• A Healthy and Sustainable Environment

  We all have a moral duty to protect our environment for our children, and for generations to come. I take this responsibility dead seriously, and have taken every available opportunity to advance environmental protections throughout my tenure in public office -- including authoring legislation to ban "Oil Sands" petroleum products, and passing a new law to strengthen penalties for polluters of deadly phosphorus. For my efforts, I am very honored to have received the highest "Lifetime" environmental rating in Maryland from both the League of Conservation Voters and Environment Maryland. For more information about these efforts, or to share with me your ideas for a more sustainable environment, please contact us.

• Consumer Protection

  Protecting consumers from unscrupulous practices is one of government's most important functions. For my work, I am extremely proud to have been named to the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition's "Hall of Fame" in 2010. In addition, working with the Attorney General, the Governor, law enforcement, activists, and residents, I have authored and cosponsored a range of legislation -- including new laws to protect seniors from reverse mortgage fraud, to make sure that consumer and lending markets are safer and more accountable, and to increase protections from retaliatory evictions so that seniors and other tenants can live in secure and safe conditions, free from fear of harassment or unnecessary legal actions. For more information about these efforts, or to share with me your ideas to better protect our residents, please contact us.

• Government Reform, Efficiency and Transparency

  Reforming government to improve transparancy, service and access, is critical. I continue to work with residents and groups, like Progressive Working Group and Common Cause to advance efficiency and accountability measures and ensure that government works for the families and small businesses that it represents. But government can not sustain itself in a deep fiscal crisis without also tightening its own belt, just like families and small businesses continue to do in this difficult economy. That's why I support strong efficiency measures to evaluate and trim waste, fraud and abuse within the system, in order to make government more lean, efficient and cost effective. And while we continue to ask government workers to cut back on pay increases, to take furloughs, and to do more with less, I have rejected my own pay raises, have voluntarily given back my own salary equal to the cost incurred by government workers through furloughs, and have returned to the state annual savings from my Annapolis office budget throughout my tenure in public office.  For more information about these efforts, or to share with me your ideas to make government efficient and transparent, please contact us.