In 1963, Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act to end unfair discrimination against women in the workforce. At that time, 25 million female workers earned just 60 percent of the average pay for men. April 9th is Equal Pay Day, the day American women's earnings for 2012 catch up with...

At one time, Iowa was the third-largest coal-producing state in the nation, and my father -- after many years working in coal mines -- was stricken with black lung that left him prone to pneumonia and made it difficult for him to work. Although he stopped working in the mines...

The American public made it clear on November 6: Their top priorities are good jobs and a demand-driven, full recovery from the worst economic crisis to hit the country since the Great Depression.

With the so-called "fiscal cliff" looming, we have to ensure that any grand bargain rejects damaging cuts...

It's become an article of faith among certain "serious" people in Washington that any agreement to rein in deficits must include cuts to Social Security. I couldn't disagree more strongly. After all, Social Security can pay full benefits until 2033, by law it is not allowed to add...

Later this month, when our country marks the 22nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, many of the law's champions will lament that the employment situation for our citizens with disabilities has not improved since the ADA was signed.

In recent years, that situation has gotten worse. According...

Over the past century, women have made remarkable strides towards equal rights and equal participation in American society. We now take for granted the idea that a girl can grow up to become a doctor, lawyer, or astronaut -- whatever she wants to be. However, there was a time in...

Over the next five years, more than a million military service members will return to civilian life. In the years immediately following World War II, the successful reintegration of veterans into our communities and civilian workforce was a key factor in the remarkable post-war growth of the U.S. economy and...

It might surprise many in Washington, but if you ask hardworking Americans what their greatest economic concern is they don't say budget deficits or the national debt. No, what I hear most often from Americans is that they are frightened at the prospect of being financially insecure in retirement.

With working families struggling to make ends meet and Americans taking to the streets to protest the growing gap between the haves and have-nots, it is long past time for Congress to start coming up with real solutions that will create jobs and rebuild a strong American middle class. Unfortunately,...

Since the first Thanksgiving almost 400 years ago, Americans have spent each fall counting our blessings for the abundance produced by this continent's food and agriculture system. It is a gift that has kept on giving: We Americans today are, in general, able to consume more food, with more variety...

They will probably never see their names in lights or walk on a red carpet, but our public servants -- from police officers to firefighters, from sanitation crews to social security personnel, from teachers to postal workers -- are the unsung heroes of our communities. They have dedicated their careers...

The Aug. 23 ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth halting federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research has had a chilling effect on one of the most promising fields of biomedical inquiry. A U.S. Court of Appeals has stayed Judge Lamberth's preliminary injunction, allowing funding to continue while the case...

This week, Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) is due to offer an amendment to the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act that could effectively kill the Prevention and Public Health Fund. This would be a grave mistake.

Bear in mind that a major transformational element of the new health reform...

The Americans with Disabilities Act -- signed into law on July 26, 1990 -- has been described as the Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities. It sets four goals for people with disabilities: equal opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency.

But at its heart, the ADA is...

Haven't we heard this story before? It features a high-pressure sales force persuading consumers in search of the American dream to go deep into debt to purchase a product of often dubious value. Default rates are sky high. Taxpayer money is squandered. Top executives walk away with fortunes.

This sounds...

Every American at some point has stood in front of an ATM and gasped as the screen showed just how much the machine was charging you to access cash from your very own bank account. The national average per ATM transaction is $2.50, but in some parts of the country,...

Yesterday morning, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions heard testimony from a variety of witnesses on a pressing, national issue -- the need to ensure fairness for older workers. We heard from the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a leader from AARP, who both described...

On April 20th, Americans will observe Equal Pay Day -- the date that marks the 110 extra days that women must work into 2010 in order to equal what men earned in 2009.

Nearly half a century after Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act, too many women in this country...

After the recent blizzard, a newspaper columnist noted that Washington had been "immobilized by snow." "This is highly unusual," she quipped. "Normally, Washington is immobilized by Senators."

It's a funny line. But the unprecedented abuse of the filibuster by Republicans is no joke.

When many people think of the...

Last week, when Senate Democrats passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the right wing's quest to kill President Obama's No. 1 domestic priority ended. Santa has delivered a lump of coal to Senator Jim DeMint, who gleefully predicted that defeat of health reform "will be [Obama's] Waterloo;...