Fighting for Our Values: Investments for the Future and Ending DOMA

Investments for the Future
This week, I joined leaders from across the San Francisco Bay Area to discuss crucial investments that will create jobs and lay the foundation for long-term economic growth in our City. Speaking with the job-generators of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Silicon Valley Leadership Group; transit advocates including Supervisors Mirkarimi, Campos, and Cohen, Nat Ford and Muni Board Members Tom Nolan, Cheryl Brinkman, and Leona Bridges; and San Francisco firefighters, the overwhelming message was clear: we know that working together, we can keep our City at the forefront of progress, innovation, and a quality of life that is unsurpassed.

Congresswoman Pelosi discusses the importance of preserving public safety funds with firefighters from San Francisco Local 798 and Los Angeles.

San Francisco is already benefitting from public and private investments that are putting people to work rebuilding our transportation system and improving our infrastructure, including:

• Hunters Point cleanup – new affordable housing and a green technology hub;
• Treasure Island – creating newly 3,000 permanent jobs;
• Third Street Central Subway, relieving congestion between downtown and Chinatown;
• Transbay Transit Center, connecting the region through transit and high-speed rail; and
• Transforming Doyle Drive into the Presidio Parkway

Republicans continue to push a spending bill that will destroy jobs, undermine our economic growth, and weaken communities. For San Francisco, their plans will:

• Reduce Community Development Block Grants by two-thirds;
• Cut Community Health Centers by 45%;
• Eliminate high-speed rail funding and rescind the $900 million California received in Fiscal Year 2010;
• Eliminate housing vouchers for homeless veterans;
• Decrease transit capital investments, including for the Central Subway and BART to Silicon Valley; and
• Eliminate federal funding for the Presidio

As we negotiate our spending bills, their plan includes kicking 6 million seniors out of Meals on Wheels. While Democrats are prepared to meet them halfway, this does not mean kicking 3 million seniors out of a vital program. Rather, we must find a higher ground to responsibly reduce the deficit without causing lasting damage to our economy and our nation’s most vulnerable citizens.

Attack on Public Radio
The misplaced priorities of my colleagues across the aisle even go so far as to attack the high-quality, fair, and family-oriented programming of public radio stations and National Public Radio. This week, they voted to prohibit funding for NPR and the use of federal funds by public stations to acquire programming. Defunding public radio does not create jobs and it does nothing to reduce the deficit. Republicans also jeopardized the security of our families by voting against a Democratic effort to ensure that public broadcast networks continue receiving funds to disseminate AMBER Alerts regarding abducted children.

Sponsoring Legislation to End DOMA
This week, I joined with my Democratic colleagues Reps. Nadler, Frank, Baldwin, Polis, and Cicilline as an original co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act to repeal the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA is unfair and indefensible; and it betrays our nation’s long-held – and long-cherished – value of equality for all.

Gabby Giffords Honorary Save-a-Life Training
On Wednesday, I joined my colleagues at an American Red Cross training in honor of Congresswoman Giffords to teach Members of Congress and their staff CPR and first aid skills. Like the heroic intern Daniel Hernandez whose brave actions saved Rep. Gifford’s life, we can all be a resource in our communities in a time of emergency with the right training.

You can participate in the American Red Cross’ Gabrielle Giffords Honorary Save-a-Life Saturday on March 19th in your local community, or learn more about preparing for an emergency on my website.

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 Web site. I am also on Twitter https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi.