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Illinois State Senate 1996 - 2004
* Welfare legislation
* Created the Earned Income Tax Credit program that gave over $100 million in tax cuts for families throughout Illinois over 3 years.
* Expanded early childhood education
* Enlisted the support of law enforcement officials to draft legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.
* He passed a law to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they stopped. The law was at first very controversial, but due to Obama's skills as a negotiator and bipartisanships, he won the support of the police. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, he won the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose president credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.
* Pass the toughest campaign finance law in Illinois history. The legislation banned the personal use of campaign money by Illinois legislators and banned most gifts from lobbyists. Worked with U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL), 1988. Before the law was passed, one organization ranked Illinois worst among 50 states for its campaign finance regulations.
* Created a working, affordable health care plan in Illinois, that covers 70,000 kids and 84,000 adults, where all kids qualify for $40 per child. Obama sponsored and passed this legislation, working with Rod R. Blagojevich(IL Gov.) See All Kids http://www.allkids.com/ . It is a model for a workable, affordable national health care.
Illinois Honors:
* Outstanding Legislator Award
* Campaign for Better Health Care and Illinois Primary Health Care Association, 1998
* Best Freshman Legislator Award
* Independent Voters of Illinois, 1997
* Monarch Award for Outstanding Public Service, 1994
* “40 Under 40” Award, Crain’s Chicago Business, 1993.
US Senate, 2004 - present
He is a member of several Senate Committees:
* Committee on Foreign Relations, that plays a vital role in shaping US policy around the world.
* Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that addresses, among other things, issues of immigration and our borders.
* Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: oversees our nation’s health care, schools, employment, and retirement programs
* Committee on Veterans' Affairs: focused on providing our brave veterans with the care and services they deserve.
* 2005-2006: Environment and Public Works Committee, which safeguards our environment and provides funding for our highways
The Numbers
Obama sponsored 152 bills and resolutions brought before the 109th Congress in 2005 and 2006, and cosponsored another 427.
Legislation Passed in US Senate
* Lugar-Obama Act to decrease nuclear and conventional weapons proliferation around the world.
* Coburn-Obama Transparency Act transparency in federal spending, found at httP://www.usaspending.gov
* Cosponsored the Healthy Kids Act of 2007 and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2007 to ensure that more American children have affordable health care coverage.
* Obama worked to pass a number of laws in Illinois and Washington to improve the health of women. His accomplishments include creating a task force on cervical cancer, providing greater access to breast and cervical cancer screenings, and helping improve prenatal and premature birth services.
* As a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Obama passed legislation to improve care and slash red tape for our wounded warriors recovering at places like Walter Reed. He passed laws to help homeless veterans and offered an innovative solution to prevent at-risk veterans from falling into homelessness. Obama passed legislation to stop a VA review of closed PTSD cases that could have led to a reduction in veterans' benefits. He passed an amendment to ensure that all service members returning from Iraq are properly screened for traumatic brain injuries
* Congo: Obama and Leahy successfully passed an amendment to provide $13 million in assistance to the DRC for military reform and election assistance. The bill also provided the the US policy is to oppose and fight against the rape and killings of women that is a particular horror there. Obama has recently sent a letter to Sec. Rice demanding a report of their efforts there.
* Introduced Patriot Employer Act, August 2007, to reward companies for keeping jobs in the US
* As a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, Obama helped pass legislation in the recent improvements to the Higher Education Act to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,10.
* Obama passed legislation with Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) to give gas stations a tax credit for installing E85 ethanol refueling pumps.
* Obama sponsored an amendment that became law providing $40 million for commercialization of a combined flexible fuel vehicle/hybrid car within five years.
* Congressional ethics legislation, called the Gold Standard of ethics reform, passed by Obama and Feingold that ending subsidized corporate jet travel, mandating disclosure of lobbyists' bundling of contributions, and enacting strong new restrictions of lobbyist-sponsored trips. The Washington Post wrote in an editorial, “The final package is the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet.”
* Obama has introduced and helped pass bipartisan legislation to limit the abuse of no-bid federal contracts.
* Federal Ethics Reform: Obama and Senator Feingold (D-WI) took on both parties and proposed ethics legislation that was described as the "gold standard" for reform. It was because of their leadership that ending subsidized corporate jet travel, mandating disclosure of lobbyists' bundling of contributions, and enacting strong new restrictions of lobbyist-sponsored trips became part of the final ethics bill that was signed into law. The Washington Post wrote in an editorial, "The final package is the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet."
* Google for Government: Americans have the right to know how their tax dollars are spent, but that information has been hidden from public view for too long. That's why Barack Obama and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) passed a law to create a Google-like search engine to allow regular people to approximately track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans online. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "It would enable the public to see where federal money goes and how it is spent. It's a brilliant idea."
* Illinois Reform: In 1998, Obama joined forces with former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL) to pass the toughest campaign finance law in Illinois history. The legislation banned the personal use of campaign money by Illinois legislators and banned most gifts from lobbyists. Before the law was passed, one organization ranked Illinois worst among 50 states for its campaign finance regulations.
