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Fighting for our Values, Investing in the Bayview Community, Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act

March 30, 2012
Pelosi Update

Fighting for our Values
This week, House Republicans passed a budget that ends the Medicare guarantee, gives tax breaks to the wealthiest, destroys jobs and threatens Americans’ health care by repealing the Affordable Care Act. This dangerous plan forces seniors to pay more for less benefits. At the same time, it gives those making more than $1 million per year an average tax cut of $394,000 while preserving tax breaks for Big Oil. In addition, the Economic Policy Institute estimated the budget would destroy 4.1 million jobs through 2014.

My Democratic colleagues and I have offered a different path. Our values-based budget creates jobs, invests in our small businesses, honors the entrepreneurial spirit of America, strengthens the middle class, and builds ladders of opportunity for people who are willing to work hard, play by the rules, and take responsibility. This plan protects Medicare for our nation’s seniors, provides access to Pell Grants for students and reduces the deficit in a positive way. We are committed to reigniting the American dream so that all may have the opportunity to succeed.

Congresswoman Pelosi joins the ribbon cutting at Practice Fusion’s new headquarters.Congresswoman Pelosi celebrates expansion, innovation, and job creation in the health care industry on the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act during a ribbon cutting at Practice Fusion’s new headquarters in the Tenderloin.

Investing in the Bayview Community
It was a great honor to join the Young Community Developers last week to discuss their work in the Bayview community to transform our young people’s lives in a way that preserves their dignity, talent, inspiration and imagination.

During my 25 years in Congress, I have been proud to fight on behalf of community-driven solutions in Southeast San Francisco: improving public housing at Alice Griffith and Hunters View, ensuring accessible, high-quality affordable housing and securing three quarters of a billion dollars to cleanup and redevelop Hunters Point in a way that strengthens the existing local community. Additional initiatives have improved infrastructure, including Third Street Rail which brings people to and from work in a way that improves their quality of life and the quality of the air they breathe, addressed environmental health and health disparities, and created job opportunities and training through programs such as Jobs Now.

These investments restore hope to the community and provide residents with equity, ownership, and jobs. We will continue to fight to promote justice, advance prosperity, and build better lives for local residents at the ground level.

Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act
On Wednesday, I joined House Democrats to announce the introduction of legislation to provide for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). For nearly 20 years, VAWA has strengthened communities and provided critical, life-saving support to victims of violence. Because of this law, more victims report domestic violence to the police, rape crisis centers have been able to keep their doors open, and law enforcement and victims services providers are working together to better meet the needs of victims. Not only has VAWA saved lives, it has saved money, nearly $12.6 billion in net averted social costs in just its first six years.

All Americans are entitled to feel safe in their workplace, in their homes, and walking on our streets. Yet too many women continue to live in fear. And that is why we must reauthorize – and strengthen – the Violence Against Women Act.

Please feel free to forward this information to your family and friends. To learn more about these efforts, to express your views, or to sign up for email updates, please visit my website. I am also on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi.