|
Putting Southern Nevadans Back to Work |
Dina Titus believes her most important job in Congress is finding ways to put Southern Nevadans back to work as Nevada struggles with its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression following eight years of failed economic policies.
Dina supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aimed at restoring jobs in the construction industry by rebuilding Nevada’s infrastructure, creating new jobs in renewable energy development, and spurring new industries. But she did not stop there. Since then, she has fought for Southern Nevada to receive a greater share of funding for “shovel-ready” transportation projects, and pressured Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons to release federal stimulus funding for road projects more quickly – all with the goal of getting more Southern Nevadans back to work as soon as possible.
Dina joined with other members of the House of Representatives to form a Task Force on Job Creation, a group whose sole purpose is to identify innovative ways to create jobs, both immediately and for the long term.
Dina has worked to lay a foundation for new industries in Southern Nevada, including the promising field of renewable energy. She backed measures to provide tax credits for renewable energy developers, create new electric transmission lines for renewable energy, and grant funding for energy efficiency projects – pushing to create good-paying jobs while providing Nevada with cleaner energy. |
|
|
Helping Southern Nevadans Keep their Homes |
Southern Nevada has been ground-zero for the national foreclosure crisis, leading the nation for the last two years in the rate of foreclosure. But Dina has fought to give troubled homeowners every chance to keep their homes.
She successfully sponsored legislation requiring lenders to notify homeowners of help available to avoid foreclosure and spell out their options for modifying their home loans. Dina sponsored other legislation requiring lenders to notify homeowners of their eligibility for home loan assistance, and she backed legislation to reform the home loan industry to better protect consumers from being steered by loan originators to home loans they cannot afford. She also supported a first time home buyer tax credit and sponsored legislation to help military families who are forced to move and cannot sell their homes qualify for assistance.
Dina successfully pressed the Obama administration to revise the Making Home Affordable program to allow more Southern Nevadans to qualify for its benefits. And to help Southern Nevadans struggling to pay their mortgages, Dina has supported extensions of unemployment benefits and tax cuts for 95% of American families. |
|
Putting Kids and Education First |
Dina devoted her working life to educating our youth before she went to Congress. And in Congress, she has reaffirmed that commitment. When Congress was considering how to distribute funding for education in the federal stimulus package, Dina Titus pressed congressional leaders for flexibility in the funding to allow Nevada to receive its share of money to attract and retain quality teachers, and preserve both K-12 and higher education when they were threatened with drastic budget cuts proposed by Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons.
Recognizing that teachers often go out-of-pocket to supply their classrooms, and often can’t afford it, Dina introduced legislation doubling the amount teachers can deduct on their federal income tax returns for those personal expenditures.
Dina was a strong backer of legislation that provided more than $60 million in Pell grants for college students in Nevada’s Third Congressional District, and made college loans more affordable through a direct-loan program. And she successfully introduced an amendment to that legislation creating an initiative to make public schools healthier and more energy efficient while helping young children learn about the benefits of renewable energy. |
|
Making Health Care More Affordable for Nevadans |
With Southern Nevada’s families and small businesses facing rising health care costs and nearly a quarter of working Southern Nevadans going without health insurance, Dina Titus recognized that something needed to be done to reduce the economic burden they face. That is why she supported health care reform that lowers costs, improves access, and increases choices.
But Dina also has insisted that health care reform not create an unfair financial burden on individuals and families who already have health insurance or on small businesses that employ many Southern Nevadans. She spoke out against taxing middle income families to finance health care reform, as well as against a new payroll tax on mom-and-pop businesses.
In the effort to reform our health care system, Dina has stood up for Nevada’s seniors. Recognizing that our seniors are coping with rising medical costs, Dina not only supported closing the “doughnut hole” in the Medicare prescription drug plan, she also fought against insurance companies and their practice of capping lifetime benefits. In an effort to protect seniors at a time when every dollar counts, she sponsored legislation to protect seniors from increases in their Medicare premiums when they receive no cost-of-living adjustment in their Social Security benefits; this passed the House overwhelmingly with strong bipartisan support. |
|
Fulfilling Our Promise to Veterans |
|
As the nation fights wars on two fronts, in Congress Dina has remained true to the men and women in our armed forces, just as she did in the Nevada Legislature. She has visited Afghanistan where she met with General McChrystal and spent time with our brave troops on the ground. She sponsored successful legislation that gave veterans extra time to apply for the first-time homebuyer program when they return from overseas duty. She supported giving disabled veterans the same cost-of-living adjustments in their disability benefits as recipients of Social Security receive, and she fought for additional spending to expand women’s health care in the Veterans Administration, recognizing the increasing role of women in our armed forces. |
|
As a member of the important Homeland Security Committee, Dina has made protecting Americans from terrorist attacks one of her highest priorities in Congress. She has supported beefing up border security and was outspoken in her criticism of the Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist bombing attempt aboard a U.S. airliner, pledging a full investigation of intelligence and security lapses. |
|
Energy Independence through Renewable Energy |
Dina has promoted renewable energy as key not only to a cleaner environment but to a stronger economy based on domestic natural resources, leveraging solar, wind and geothermal power to create new jobs in Nevada while reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
She has supported legislation requiring U.S. electric utilities to meet 20 percent of their energy demand through renewable resources by the year 2020. She also supported tax credits for companies making key investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Dina further contributed to this effort with successful legislation to extend the limit in federal contracts from 10 years to 20 years for acquisition of renewable energy in order to encourage wide-scale deployment of renewable energy and open the door to greater investments in cleaner and more cost effective technologies. |
|
|
|
|
|
On The Issues