Comprehensive Study Could Improve Diplomacy, Says State Department Official

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

Director of Policy Planning for the U.S State Department Anne-Marie Slaughter said Monday that a new study aimed at plotting out the future of the department, the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, could yield improvements in international relations.

“[Following the success of the QDDR] we would have much greater capabilities in the building of a new global architecture of cooperation,” said Slaughter. “[This] would include a greater capability and greater strategy in building bilateral partnerships with emerging nations and with our traditional allies. We would have a far greater capacity to work with non-state actors.”

According to the State Department, the QDDR hopes to provide a short, medium, and long-range blueprint for U.S. diplomatic and development efforts by showing how the current and future administrations should develop foreign policy, allocate resources, deploy staff, and exercise authority. The Review’s final report will be presented to President Barack Obama and Congress.

Slaughter spoke about the QDDR’s efforts at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C. Her remarks coincide with the release of the center’s recommendations for Obama’s National Security Strategy.

The CAP report states that the NSS should fundamentally change the U.S. response to radical extremists, increase U.S. funding for development in “weak or failing” states and use diplomatic tools to engage with hostile regimes, among other recommendations.

“Everywhere you turn, it is clear that we need not only government power, but the power of the private sector, the power of [non-government organizations], the power of think thanks like [CAP] -- all putting in their comparative advantage and resources to tackle common problems,” Slaughter continued.

The Obama administration was required to deliver its first NSS report within five months of the president taking office, according to the CAP report’s executive summary. The administration has yet to issue one.

Retired Army Major General Paul Eaton, who also spoke on behalf of the CAP report, discussed the government’s unresolved issues with allocating resources, which the QDDR and the CAP report seek to correct through their recommendations.

“There is no hard-ass Colonel who is telling people in a directive fashion, in the development of a plan, how you’re going to resource the plan,” he said. “There’s no mechanism today to establish directive authority, to establish tasking authority and to make things happen in a comprehensive, integrated fashion. Until that entity is created, [our diplomatic and development efforts aren’t] going anywhere," said Maj. Gen. Eaton.

Napolitano Commits To Immigration Reform

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stepped up her call for immigration reform Friday, saying that while Congress has lagged on the issue, comprehensive reform is more realistic and necessary than ever before.

“Everybody recognizes that our current system isn’t working and that our immigration laws need to change,” Napolitano said in a morning address at the Center for American Progress.

Napolitano said the Obama administration will give a strong push for immigration reform in early 2010, noting that the immigration debate has changed since two years ago when it was last taken up by Congress.

“In 2007, many members of Congress said that they could support immigration reform in the future, but only if we first made significant progress securing the border,” Napolitano said.

Napolitano said DHS has proved their commitment to border law enforcement as the U.S. Border Patrol has grown to 20,000 and erected a 600 mile border fence, adding that the number of illegal immigrants trying to enter into the United States has significantly decreased.

“I’ve been dealing hands-on with immigration issues since 1993, so trust me: I know a major shift when I see one, and what I have seen makes reform far more attainable this time around,” stated Napolitano, who served as Governor of Arizona, a border state, from 2003-2009.

She specified that Immigration reform would not serve as a free path to legalization for the 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. Rather, reform would require illegal immigrants to register with DHS and pay fines and back taxes, pass criminal background checks and learn English.

“This is a task that is critical, it’s attainable and that we are fully committed to fulfill,” Napolitano said.

Elizabeth Edwards Says Medical Debt Deserves Bankruptcy Protections

By Julianne LaJeunesse, University Of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Elizabeth Edwards testified at a hearing Tuesday in favor of changing current bankruptcy law to one that includes medical debt. At the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight and the Court, Edwards said Kerry and Patrick Burns, constituents of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) are "exactly the reason" why Whitehouse's Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2009 is important.

Edwards, wife of former Senator and Presidential Candidate John Edwards (D-N.C.), spoke at the hearing as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and said that without health care reform, family's yearly health insurance payments could exceed $30, 000 by the end of the next decade.

Edward suggested Whitehouse consider additional interim steps for his bill, but said, "the problem is simply an issue associated with our failing to address adequately, and I hope that we will be addressing, the medical insurance problems that exist in this country."

Kerry Burns of Coventry, Rhode Island testified about her experience with bankruptcy, saying that in March, she lost her son Finnegan to a Cystic Fibrosis related illnesses. She told the Congressmen about the many surgeries Finnegan underwent, and said that because of gaps in her health insurance coverage, her and Patrick couldn't pay their mortgage and lost their home. The Burns are filing for bankruptcy now, and their experience, Whitehouse said, is one that would be covered under his bill.

"We actually had to borrow the money in order to officially go bankrupt," Burns said. "As if this were not enough, a credit counseling class is required both before and after the filing, with fees in addition to the filing."

Whitehouse's bill if passed, would waive both the "means test" and credit counseling requirements for those seeking bankruptcy, and at the hearing, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-W.I.), a member of the Committee, asked Whitehouse to be a co-sponsor.

Committee Ranking Member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said he felt compassion for the Burns family, but said that under the current Bankruptcy Act of 2005, the Burns could have avoided some of the expenses paid during their bankruptcy application. Sessions made it clear at the hearing, that he believes Whitehouse's bill is a move away from moral financial responsibility.

Aparna Mathur, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute also expressed concern about bankruptcy fraud, saying, "Where do we draw the line for who we want to help and who we don't. The most effective solution to the problem of rising bankruptcies, is to create the right conditions for an economic recovery so that families can hold on to their jobs, retain their earning power, stay in their homes, and live within their means. We should help avoid bankruptcy rather than making it easier to file it."

Edwards countered Mathur's argument, adding that bankruptcy judges are "in the very best position" and "they're sitting with the debtor in front of them, with the creditors who are going to give information if they know it, right there in front of them."

Shriver Report Touches Upon Equal Pay, Rights For Women In Workplace

By Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico

Equal pay, equal housework and more government obligations to women workers were all on the table at Monday's Center for American Progress' conference on California First Lady Maria Shriver's report on women in the workforce.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said during her quick statement that the government is on the side of women workers, and said through increased education and grants, women will become more prepared for advanced jobs, such as green energy jobs.

"Allied health and information technologies are two of the areas that are the fastest growing in our economy," Solis said. "And that's why my agency has announced approximately $220 million in competitive grants to train workers in these high growth occupations. And we'll work to ensure that women have access to these growing fields, and that these jobs pay well, and that they're secure."

Solis recognized that women face challenges when working outside of the home and said the Department of Labor wants to review policies to make it easier for all employees to have more flex time, or time that would make make employment and household duties less disjointed.

Heather Boushey, a senior economist for CAP said if women are to be good workers, social institutions need to change, adding that Shriver's "A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," a collaborative study, found that families already, though maybe unknowingly, discuss disparities in male to female wages, and that despite government action to prevent women from receiving less pay for equal work, families are having to come up with ways to support what feels like an individual experience, and not a national wage difference.

Boushey added that just because more women are becoming the family "breadwinner," doesn't mean the rules are the same.

"We all know that too many women, and especially too many low-wage women, simply cannot compete in the way that a traditional male breadwinner could, primarily because they don't have a stay-at-home wife to take care of all of life's little and big emergencies," Boushey said.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro's (D-Conn.), who also spoke at the event, said the Shriver Report marks a milestone that's an occasion to reflect on how far women right's have come, but said "the process of change will not stop" and said that "society still undervalues the work woman do today."

DeLauro also called on the U.S. Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, an amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and said U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey's (D-Calif.) Balancing Act, which provides benefits for needy families, is worthy of Congressional attention.

Michael Kimmel, a sociology professor who has studied the relationship between men who support women's rights at Stony Brook University in New York, said men are ready to support women and that familial lives are bettered by women's increased access. He also joked that woman are more attracted to men who can do the dishes.

Shriver's report calls for updated labor standards, more focus on family and employee health benefits, reformation of anti-discrimination laws, modernization of the social insurance system, and increased government support for early child care and elder care.

California's First Lady Issues Report On Women In The Workplace

By Marianna Levyash - Talk Radio News Service

The Center for American Progress welcomed California First Lady Maria Shriver Friday afternoon to discuss her newly released report entitled "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything."

The report reveals a comprehensive study about men and women as dual equals in the workforce.

"The goal of this report is to take a look at who the American woman is in 2009," said Shriver.

For the first time in American history, women are one-half of all U.S. workers and the breadwinners in two-thirds of American families. Currently, there is a decline in male-dominated jobs, but a growth in female-dominated jobs.

Shriver's report reflects a national poll that looks at the changing opinion of working class Americans about the role of women in the workforce.

"The goal is to turn us into a people's nation," she said.

The California First Lady hopes that government, policy groups, and individuals can come together to demand social change to strengthen people's lives.

The report is available at www.awomansnation.com.