Strong families

Years of economic pain and uncertainty have taken their toll on middle class families. Too many continue to struggle. Worries over everyday affordability and long-term financial security persist in Nebraska and across the nation. Those Americans who have jobs are often underemployed, forced to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Still, some families can't get ahead.

Increased pressure on shrinking family budgets adds stress on adults raising young children or caring for elderly parents. While Washington remains paralyzed over how to pass big policy changes to jumpstart the economy, there are reasonable measures I believe we can all agree on to make life easier for working families.

I've introduced a number of proposals -- my "Strong Families, Strong Communities" plan -- to help all Americans have more take-home pay and more options to provide for their families.

An important part of this effort came earlier this year, when I introduced a plan to ensure men and women receive the take-home pay they deserve for the work they perform. In other words, equal pay for equal work. I've also been focused on ways to enhance work training programs and help unemployed men and women find good-paying jobs. Last month, I introduced a bill to increase access to capital for aspiring entrepreneurs with limited financial resources so they can turn their dreams of a business into a paycheck-producing reality.

Recently, I wrote a bill, the Allocating for Children's Education (ACE) Act, to address another concern for middle class families: rising education costs. All parents -- whether their children are in public or private schools, or are homeschooled -- face steep costs related to purchasing school supplies or covering extracurricular expenses. This is especially true for parents with special needs children.

A "Coverdell" education savings account is a savings plan available for families to use in order to pay for qualified education expenses. These include tutoring, books, tuition, technology, and supplies. Currently, families can set aside up to $2,000 in a Coverdell account. Taxes are not paid on savings as long as the funds are used for educational expenses.

As a result, families who regularly contribute to Coverdell accounts can save thousands of dollars over the long-term. The ACE Act would increase the contribution limit to $5,000, allowing parents to save more money. This bill gives parents more opportunity to save responsibly so they can afford to provide their children a high quality education.

I've also written legislation to give families more control over their healthcare. I've heard from thousands of Nebraskans who have fewer health care options because of ObamaCare. Another problem with ObamaCare is that it provides increased authority to a federal task force to determine what preventive services are covered by private insurers. These decisions also impact the services provided by Medicare and Medicaid.

In 2009, this federal task force made the controversial recommendation that women between the ages of 40-49 did not need regular mammograms. In response to widespread backlash, Congress included in ObamaCare a provision negating the recommendation, leaving federal mammography coverage unchanged until the task force decides to make a new recommendation. This same federal task force has also recommended against regular prostate screenings.

Decisions over important health care services like mammograms and prostate screenings impact countless families across the country. I'm offering The Healthy Families Act, which will keep the power given to this federal task force in check by increasing transparency and public involvement in the decision-making process.

I hope my colleagues will come together behind these common sense proposals, which can help improve the lives of families across the country. Thank you for taking part in the democratic process, and I look forward to visiting with you again next week.