Our national parks are governed as public ecological trusts, not theme parks, and that's meant a legacy of conservation that matches any in the world. I think we should keep up the good work. Unfortunately, bottled water interests -- especially Coke -- disagree.

Bottled water creates a great deal of...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and other Republican Party leaders have staked their party's future on a false premise. They say the wealthy are already providing for everyone else, and middle class families need to sacrifice for a change while millionaires reap the benefits.

This year's Ryan budget is a product...

If Congress cannot come up with a replacement to the sequester before the end of the week, we should eliminate the sequester entirely. One million working Americans should not be forced to pay the price for Republican stubbornness. If this goes into effect, it will be one of the most...

We join millions of other Americans, and the community of Newtown, in grief for the families of the children and adults killed on Friday. As parents, we cannot imagine the deep pain that such a tragedy leaves in its wake.

Our nation has endured far too many...

Burning Korans and urinating on dead bodies is, without question, bad diplomacy in Afghanistan, but by themselves these latest episodes did nothing to make us reconsider our timetable for leaving. We had plenty of good reasons already to withdraw. It is the recent killing of 16 unarmed civilians that is...

With President Barack Obama preparing to address a joint session of Congress about our unemployment crisis tonight, our message to him -- as his reliable supporters and political allies -- is simple: Think big and act boldly.

Americans expect and deserve nothing less.

Millions of people are waking up every...

When the debate over the fiscal 2012 budget began, the country -- or, more accurately, the media -- was focused on Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) proposal. Introduced on behalf of the Republican House majority, our colleague's plan puts the interests of wealthy corporations first by slashing Medicare and Medicaid and...

Despite a weak economic recovery and persistent, unacceptably high unemployment, Washington is prematurely pivoting from job creation to deficit reduction. Worse yet, many of the budget proposals flooding Washington are nothing but reverse Robin Hood plans to redistribute wealth from working families to the most privileged among us.

Last week,...

Budgets are more than collections of numbers. They are a statement of our values. The Congressional Progressive Caucus Budget is a reflection of the values and priorities of America's working families. The "People's Budget" charts a path that keeps America exceptional in the 21st century, while...

Reps. Keith Ellison (DFL-Minn.) and Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) are the co-chairmen of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

After months of symbolic legislation aimed at pleasing its political base, the House Republican majority Tuesday unveiled its plan for America's future. Sadly -- but not surprisingly -- it looks a lot like the...

Last week, I wrote a letter to Cindy Mann, who leads state services for Medicare and Medicaid, calling for a comment period and a public hearing before Gov. Jan Brewer cuts almost 300,000 people from our state Medicaid program. Brewer has been talking about doing this

When President Obama announced his troop escalation in Afghanistan one year ago, I wasn't shy about saying the new strategy would make the insurgency worse. I believed the economic and human costs would be far too high, crippling our ability to recover from a deep recession.

Unfortunately,...

The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives just voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Everyone is arguing about what this means -- is it purely symbolic, or the first step on a longer road? I strongly believe it's the latter, and that today's vote means a great...

According to a recent analysis, there are more than 1,000 oil rigs and drilling structures sitting idle in the Gulf of Mexico. These structures have not been affected by the recently announced drilling moratorium -- rather, they were abandoned by their owners, sometimes many years ago, and allowed to...

Once again, war is being paid for with a credit card while investments in our children's future are tossed aside. These investments -- $10 billion for teacher jobs, $1 billion for summer youth employment, $5 billion for Pell grants, $701 million for border security -- were cut from the war...

The economy is on everyone's mind today, and it's no wonder. Unemployment is around 9.5 percent. People who have jobs are afraid to leave them. The housing market is still recovering, and millions of Americans are facing foreclosure despite being employed full time. Everywhere you go, you hear about struggles...

It is disingenuous to say this is an "emergency" supplemental. The only "emergency" is this: In funding the longest war in history, we are putting America further into debt with China, expanding the deficit, increasing wasteful government spending, undermining our budgetary process, risking Social Security and solidifying debt that military...

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez tanker leaked 11 million gallons of oil into Alaskan waters. The spill took over the American imagination - no one thought a single accident would cause so much ecological damage. It was, for lack of a better term, our environmental Chernobyl. Arctic habitats for birds...

Last week, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a statewide law forcing local police officers to question and potentially detain anyone they "reasonably suspect" to be an undocumented immigrant. If you believe our local law enforcement agencies, who will be required to implement the mandates of this law, it will lead...