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Hillary Clinton
United States Senator
 In 2000, Hillary was elected to the United States Senate from New York. As
Senator, Hillary has continued her advocacy for children and families and has
been a national leader on homeland security and national security issues.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Hillary worked with her
colleagues to secure the funds New York needed to recover and rebuild. She
fought to provide compensation to the families of the victims, grants for
hard-hit small businesses, and health care for front line workers at Ground
Zero. And she continues to work for resources that enable New York to grow, to
improve homeland security for New York and other communities, and to protect all
Americans from future attacks.
She is the first New Yorker ever to serve on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, working to see that America's military has the necessary resources to
protect our national security. She has visited troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
and at Fort Drum in New York, home of the 10th Mountain Division and other New
York bases, as well as at Walter Reed Military Hospital. She has learned
first-hand the challenges facing American combat forces. Hillary passed
legislation to track the health status of our troops so that conditions like
Gulf War Syndrome would no longer be misdiagnosed. She is an original sponsor of
legislation that expanded health benefits to members of the National Guard and
Reserves and has been a strong critic of the Administration's handling of Iraq.
But Hillary has recognized that we can't ignore our problems at home while we
face challenges overseas. She has introduced legislation to tie Congressional
salary increases to an increase in the minimum wage, because she believes if
America's working people don't deserve a raise, neither does Congress. She has
supported a variety of middle-class tax cuts, including marriage penalty relief,
property tax relief, and reduction in the Alternative Minimum Tax, and supports
fiscally responsible pay-as-you-go budget rules. She helped pass legislation
that encouraged investment to create jobs in struggling communities through the
Renewal Communities program. She has championed legislation to bring broadband
Internet access, which is so important in today's information economy, to rural
America.
In the Senate, Hillary has not wavered in her work to expand quality affordable
health care to more Americans. She worked to strengthen the Children's Health
Insurance Program, which increased coverage for children in low income and
working families. She authored legislation that has been enacted to improve
quality and lower the cost of prescription drugs and to protect our food supply
from bioterrorism. She sponsored legislation to increase America's commitment to
fighting the global HIV/AIDS crisis, and is now leading the fight for expanded
use of information technology in the health care system to decrease
administrative costs, lower premiums, and reduce medical errors.
Her strong advocacy for children continues in the Senate. Some of Hillary's
proudest achievements have been her work to ensure the safety of prescription
drugs for children, with legislation now included in the Best Pharmaceuticals
for Children Act, and her legislation to help schools address environmental
hazards. She has also proposed expanding access to child care. She has passed
legislation that will bring more qualified teachers into classrooms and more
outstanding principals to lead our schools.
Hillary has been a powerful advocate for women in the Senate. Her commitment to
supporting the rights guaranteed in Roe v. Wade and to reducing the number of
abortions by reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies was hailed by the New
York Times as "frank talk...(and) a promising path." Hillary is one of the
original cosponsors of the Prevention First Act to increase access to family
planning. Her fight with the Bush Administration ensured that Plan B, an
emergency contraceptive, will be available to millions of American women and
will reduce the need for abortions.
Hillary is strongly committed to making sure that every American has the right
to vote in fair, accessible, and credible elections. She introduced the Count
Every Vote Act of 2005 to ensure better protection of votes and to ensure that
every vote is counted.
In 2006, New Yorkers reelected Hillary to the Senate with 67 percent of the vote |
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