Senate Health Care Hearings

What are your character's main goals for the Senate Health Care Hearings?

• In Washington he has been the lead consensus builder on the difficult issues of healthcare, immigration, and financial regulation
• He has a reputation for focusing on local issues that are important to average New Yorkers not normally associated with United States Senators, ranging from tourism, to local taxes, to job creation
• When it was revealed that Canon Inc., was considering relocating from its corporate headquarters in Long Island because of a dispute over road infrastructure funding, Schumer stepped in to advocate New York State redirect federal stimulus dollars to make the road improvements and keep the company and its jobs on Long Island
• When it was revealed that Adidas planned to end its contract for the manufacture of NBA jerseys with American Classic Outfitters, an upstate New York apparel company, and outsource production overseas, Schumer blasted the company citing the risk to 100 workers at the plant
• Schumer authored the Assault Weapons Ban in 1994 with California Senator Dianne Feinstein, which expired in 2004Schumer is also a supporter of providing hunters with tax deductions for donating venison and other game to feeding programs.
• Schumer is strongly pro-choice, and has been given a 100 percent rating by the NARAL
• With Congress woman Nita Lowey he has been working to ban the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, often found in baby bottles and plastic children's food containers
• Schumer is also seeking a ban on the use of cadmium, a carcinogen known to brain development in children, in toys and children's jewelry
• He delivered over $20 billion dollars in to New York to support the states security and recovery efforts after the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York City and worked to deliver $200 million in Homeland Security funds to protect New York City mass transit
• Schumer was a supporter of the Iraq War Resolution, is an American Israel Public Affairs Committee(AIPAC) member, and a strident pro-Israel member of Congress, although he was very critical of President George W. Bush's strategy in the Iraq War; he suggested that a commission of ex-generals be appointed to review it
• The senator also is involved with legislation to address the Darfur genocide. Last year, he cosponsored two bills calling for peace in Darfur. Both bills, S.455 and S.684, passed in the Senate. He also voted in favor of measures to help increase the efficiency of peace keepers serving in Darfur
• In March, 2009 Sen. Schumer announced his support for same-sex marriage, noting that it "was time."
• previously supported civil unions
• backs a full reversal of the Defense of Marriage Act
• Schumer wrote he was "concerned that IndyMac's financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers and that the regulatory community may not be prepared to take measures that would help prevent the collapse of IndyMac."
• Schumer in 1987, in opposition to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, (introduced banking reforms, some of which were designed to control speculation)
• supports S.1160 : A bill to provide housing assistance for very low-income veterans.
• supports S.1347 : A bill to amend chapter 171 of title 28, United States Code, to allow members of the Armed Forces to sue the United States for damages for certain injuries caused by improper medical care, and for other purposes.

What do you want to accomplish?

My bill (SCHIP extension act) simply states:

The qualifications will extend in the hopes that more people will be able to qualify. With the raising of cigar tax dollars, we would be able to pay for the medical expenses that people that make 93K or less a year need for them and their families.

How do you plan to accomplish it?

Shyana Brown, who will be playing a struggling New Yorker, will tell her compelling story and explain how she struggles on a day to day basis with paying bills and getting medical attention for both of her daughters who need help. She will explain how it is unfair that she cannot get medical insurance due to her income, yet she cannot pay her medical bills. She also introduces an idea on how to get money from taxes that come from cigar companies to help pay for the new people who would qualify for this medical insurance.

Who are you working with to get this done?

I am working with my peer Shyana Brown who is a woman living in New York with two girls. One girl has Autism and her other daughter needs a heart transplant and is constantly hospitalized. She makes a little over 88,100 dollars a year which is where the qualification for SCHIP health coverage draws the line and does not cover her and her daughters. We are working to convince the senators to pass the law to increase the qualifications.