The National Security Agency routinely collects 1.7 billion emails, phone calls and communications every single day. Any kind of digital communication can be recorded and stored. Where you were when you wrote an email, where the recipient was when it was read, the text of the message can...

Everyone talks about the weather and no one can do anything about it. Right? Wrong. Human activity has sharply increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, dramatically affecting our weather.

The effects of climate change are already being felt in the U.S. and around the world in the form of not only extreme weather, but encroaching disease, water shortages, acidifying oceans, species loss and increasing atmospheric temperatures.

The scientific consensus is that climate change is caused by increases in concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activity. That's right. We are helping to create our own bad weather.

Science has determined that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide before the industrial revolution was 275 parts per million. Today it is about 394.

While we may already be past a tipping point, if we set a limit on concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now, there is a chance we can soften the negative effects of global climate change.

Let's look at the evidence: The amount of reflective surface area on the Earth, now provided primarily by ice and snow, is lessening. Geological deposits with gigatons of methane, which has well over 15 times the warming capacity of carbon dioxide, are being released from permafrost and from the bottom of the ocean. There is a growing acidification of the ocean and a loss of forest cover due to deforestation and forest fires. This hinders the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

These conditions challenge our resolve as a people. We simply must set aside all partisan, philosophical and economic differences in a great movement to save our planet for ourselves and for future generations.

Accordingly, and consistent with the best science available, I will submit to Congress a resolution which will help promote national, economic and environmental security by the adoption of a target of 350 parts per million of atmospheric carbon dioxide. It will be a yardstick by which to evaluate domestic and international climate change policies. Our nation should develop domestic and international energy and environmental policies that are sufficiently flexible to accommodate advancing science, tipping points and apparent changes in weather which now threaten life, the environment, property, the economy and our infrastructure.

It is time to unite to save our nation and our...

Tonight's presidential debate will focus on foreign policy. As we listen to Democratic and Republican presidential candidates it is worth saying that a thoughtful foreign policy isn't about who can drop the most bombs.

Consider the case of Libya. In the midst of a civil war, Gaddafi...

The Iraq War Remains with Us as Long as the Lies Continue.

Ten years ago, on October 10, 2002, the United States House of Representatives made one of the most calamitous mistakes of a generation. Congress, with willful blindness, voted to attack, invade and occupy a sovereign, oil-rich nation in...

Ten years ago today the debate over the Iraq War came to Congress in the form of a resolution promoted by the Bush administration. The war in Iraq will cost the United States as much as $5 trillion. It played a role in spurring the global financial crisis. Four thousand,...

A bipartisan coalition in Congress, at my urging, recently defeated legislation that would authorize up to $21,000,000 of taxpayers' money to build a series of parks in honor of the Manhattan Project, the project that resulted in the development of the atomic bomb. Supporters of the "Bomb Park" have vowed...

This Labor Day, President Obama has the opportunity to defend the economic rights of millions of Americans by supporting a substantial increase in the minimum wage.

Presently $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage is inadequate. The purchasing power of a worker earning minimum wage in 1968 is equal to...

After more than 10 years of war against al Qaeda and the accompanying global "war on terrorism," we have failed to learn that our actions create reactions. Our presence creates destabilization, then radicalization. Occupations create insurgencies. In Afghanistan, we have fueled the very insurgency we struggle to fight....

Since the economic collapse of 2008, we have begun to see some of the specific ways banks are accelerating the flow of wealth straight upwards. Credit card banks are especially abusive of their wealth and power. They erect massive structures of red tape that most American families don't have the...

We don't know who they are, but we know that we are for them. And it is possible that we are helping people that we have claimed to be against.

As we strongly condemn violence wrought in support of the Assad government, recent allegations of

If an airline pilot failed an annual exam, and the Federal Aviation Administration simply lowered its standards to allow that pilot to continue to fly, would you board the flight? If a surgeon failed a licensing exam, and the medical board simply lowered its standards and allowed the surgeon to...

Late last month, Barclay's Bank, a multinational bank and financial institution based in the United Kingdom, admitted to regulators that it tried to manipulate something called "Libor" before and during the financial crisis in 2008. "Libor" is an acronym for London Interbank Offered Rate. It is a rate used as...

On July 1, in less than two weeks, interest rates on student loans will double to nearly seven percent unless Congress takes action, and does so in a responsible manner.

The doubling of student loan interest rates will adversely affect nearly seven million of America's best and brightest students. Students...

The United States' use of cyberweapons against Iran threatens to undermine the critical and sensitive ongoing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. Building trust is a significant component of these negotiations, and the use of cyberweapons may break down that trust and leave us vulnerable to similar attacks.

In September 2008, top executives at Bank of America decided to acquire Merrill Lynch. On November 3, 2008 Bank of America sent financial information about the merger to shareholders who would need to approve the deal in a vote on December 5. However, the financial situation at Merrill Lynch rapidly...

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is not a benevolent organization. NATO is not about the North Atlantic and it's not about our collective defense.

NATO is a cost-sharing organization that finances aggressive military action. By hiding behind the claim that the organization provides for 'common defense,' NATO allows us...

This week, Congress is considering two pieces of legislation relating to Iran. The first undermines a diplomatic solution with Iran and lowers the bar for war. The second authorizes a war of choice against Iran and begins military preparations for it.

H.Res.568: Eliminating the Most Viable Alternative to War...

Upon the solemn 42nd anniversary of the shootings at Kent State University we remember with love and compassion those who were affected. There are many of us who remember where we were when the news broke that the students had been killed. We will never forget how this tragedy changed our nation. News of the shootings sparked massive nation-wide protests and defined the way a generation of Americans interacted with its government.

What happened as a result of the shootings is well-documented. What we still don't know, to this day, is why the shootings took place. An audio recording of the events of May 4th may have answers.

The only known audio recording of those events was made by Terry Strubbe, who placed a microphone out of his window and recorded 29 minutes of audio. At least two copies of the Strubbe tape were made, with one ending up in Yale University's Kent State Collection in 1989. In 2010, the Cleveland Plain Dealer engaged forensic audio engineers to examine a copy of the Yale recording made by Alan Canfora, one of the thirteen victims of the Kent State shootings. That analysis found that shots were fired before the National Guard opened fire. That evidence could be significant, because it could connect an FBI paid informant who was on campus that day and who possessed a gun that might have been the one caught by Strubbe's microphone.

As Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I requested that Yale University make another copy of the Strubbe tape to ensure its authenticity, and sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that the Department of Justice undertake a forensic analysis of this authenticated recording. The DOJ concluded that the tape was unintelligible, but that the sounds preceding the fire from the guardsmen were likely to be the sound of Strubbe's dorm room opening and closing.

Despite the detailed response from the Justice Department, significant questions remain. There was no attempt to reconcile major discrepancies in conclusions among expert analysts. The role of Terry Norman, the FBI informant on campus that day was not discussed. In order to lay these questions to rest, I wrote to the Justice Department requesting the full analysis used to reach their conclusions.

The Kent State shootings remain a significant event in American history, and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this tragedy. Nothing less than a full investigation is...

Yesterday, the president announced that the U.S. signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghanistan, committing the United States to the country for a long time to come. The agreement addressed the transition to Afghan-led security forces by 2014. Human and monetary costs to the U.S. will continue to skyrocket.

Rich Trumka is right.

The AFL-CIO president is calling for massive infrastructure investment. After decades of neglect, our infrastructure is crumbling as maintenance and replacement schedules get pushed back. Much of our aging infrastructure is beyond its useful life or at full capacity. We need to invest in repairing and renewing our crumbling infrastructure before disaster strikes.

There is a simple way to pay for needed investments which doesn't require taxing or borrowing. Congress has the power under Article 1, Section 8, of the United States Constitution to originate money, and Congress can use this power to pay for upgrading our infrastructure. We can provide direct investments and grants to the States to deal with their infrastructure needs

I've introduced a bill, H.R. 2990, The National Emergency Employment Defense Act (The N.E.E.D. Act), to allow our nation to fund this much-needed investment.

H.R. 2990 enables money to be issued by spending it into circulation on programs approved by Congress -- without taxing or borrowing. A priority is the repair or replacement of infrastructure, starting with the $2.2 trillion the American Society of Civil Engineers reports we need to spend over the next 5 years to make it safe. It also calls for grants to the States, to enable them to make investments in their own infrastructure renewal programs.

This investment in infrastructure is long overdue. This investment alone would create millions of well paying jobs across America. We simply can't afford not to do this. We need to act.

Learn more about the N.E.E.D. Act