Yesterday's New York Times included an excellent story about the rising costs of so-called "specialty" drugs, often prescribed for long-term and life-threatening illnesses, such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. Some insurance companies have made subtle changes in their plans recently, charging subscribers a percentage of the cost of the drug, rather than a flat co-payment. So instead of paying $20 for a 30-day supply of a critical medication, the cost soars to $325 or much, much more for the same supply.

The article has a theme that is very familiar to all of us in the fight for universal health care: the increasing hardships placed on people who were, or at least thought they were, adequately insured. But as long as health care is dominated by private, profit-driven insurance companies, none of us will be adequately taken care of. The rising costs of prescription drugs as described in the New York Times article is another in the growing list of compelling reasons to move to universal, single-payer health care.

In this morning's New York Times, Paul Krugman tells the stories of just a few of the 27,000 uninsured or underinsured Americans each year whose deaths could be prevented by adequate access to health care. He refutes President Bush's ludicrous claim a few months ago that people do have access to health care in this country, "After all, you just go to an emergency room."

Mr. Krugman goes on to mention the media's recent inquiries into the accuracy of statements by Sen. Clinton on the campaign trail, where she told one of the emergency room horror stories recounted in the article. Although I believe that Sen. Obama has the better health care plan between our two Democratic candidates, I think what is important to keep in mind is that we are finally restarting a national conversation about the need for universal health care. Candidates are talking about it, journalists are writing about it, and my Congressional colleagues and I will continue to keep pushing for it.

Forty years ago today, on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, Martin Luther King, Jr. was brutally murdered. He had traveled there to support local striking sanitation workers, despite decreasing political support for his campaigns against poverty and the war in Vietnam and numerous threats to his life. In the four decades since, people of every opinion and position have claimed to have his voice on their side--that if Dr. King were alive today, he would most certainly say this or that. For myself, I would rather have Dr. King speak in his own words. Because although his life was extinguished forty years ago today, the light that he shined in the darkest corners of our world was not.

Here is the text of the final speech Dr. King gave before his assassination. I know that it may be tempting to think back on this dark day forty years ago, and to feel sadness, frustration or even pessimism about how much work is left to accomplish Dr. King's Dream. But as I re-read this speech this morning, I was filled with a renewed sense of encouragement that I hope you will share, because I think Dr. King's words continue to ring as true in our time as they did in his: And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.

As you know, the House voted 233 to 32 last month to hold Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten in contempt for failure to comply with subpoenas issued by the Judiciary Committee in its investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings and the politicization at the Bush Department of Justice. Speaker Pelosi referred the contempt citations to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and on February 29, Attorney General Mukasey responded that the Justice Department would not prosecute.

Along with the contempt of Congress vote, the House authorized the Judiciary Committee to file a lawsuit to enforce the subpoenas. (TPM has our complaint posted here.) On March 10, we filed in the District Court here in DC. Since then, the Judge in the case, Judge John Bates, has scheduled the first oral arguments for June 23, and we hope to have a ruling on the White House's most expansive executive privilege claims shortly thereafter.

I will continue to keep you updated on the case as we move forward, but I also want to recommend TPMMuckraker.com for excellent, up-to-date coverage. And as always, thank you for all of your support as we work to bring accountability to the Bush Administration.

Over the past several weeks, Tibet has seen its largest protests for independence in nearly two decades. The protesters' cries for freedom have been with violence and a crackdown by the Chinese government. On Friday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and nine other Members of Congress visited the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government in India. I did not travel with them, but I want to echo Speaker Pelosi's call for "shedding bright light on what is happening inside Tibet."

As a nation and as individuals, we most hold China to its promises to improve its human rights record in advance of the upcoming Olympic games. For more information about what is happening in Tibet and what you can do to get involved, I recommend checking out this website: http://www.racefortibet.org/act/help.php.

Yesterday, the New York Times published this editorial on the current debate over updating FISA. It calls for President Bush to finally join that debate, instead of merely offering "propaganda intended to scare Americans, expand his powers, and erode civil liberties." It also praises the House for passing the FISA bill that Rep. Reyes and I authored, which "preserves constitutional protections against unreasonable searches" and denies retroactive immunity for the telecom companies.

I began this initiative with Senator Patrick Leahy.  I hope you can join us.

As the chairmen of the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary
Committees tasked with modernizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act (FISA),

we are working hard in Congress to pass a FISA bill that
protects our national security, preserves our civil liberties, and denies
the Senate's retroactive immunity to phone companies that participated in
the Bush-Cheney Administration warrantless surveillance program.

Now we're at a critical juncture.
The House and Senate have passed different versions of the new FISA
legislation, and we are meeting to resolve those differences.  The president
and his Republican allies are using this opportunity to pressure our
colleagues to give in and grant retroactive immunity.  President Bush has been irresponsibly making false claims that we are more vulnerable to terrorism until a new bill is passed.

That's why we need your help, right now, to push back
against the White House while the final FISA bill is being negotiated. Will you write a
letter-to-the-editor of your local newspaper to speak out and build
grassroots support for fixing FISA the right way? Help us respond to
White House scare tactics, preserve our civil liberties, and reject the
Senate's telecom immunity. 

Click here to send a FISA letter-to-the-editor to your hometown paper now.

We're pushing back against right-wing pressure. So now the
Bush-Cheney Administration is ratcheting up their scare tactics and
suggesting that congressional Democrats' efforts to get the FISA bill
right this time will invite another terrorist attack. They are trying to
scare Congress and the American people into accepting a FISA bill that
includes the Senate-passed retroactive telecom immunity and erodes our
privacy rights.

They've even launched a controversial television ad evoking
ticking time-bomb imagery straight out of primetime's 24 to shock the
American people into supporting another flawed FISA law. We've seen these
tactics before, but we can't let them get away with it this time. 
We are pushing for a better FISA bill in Congress, but a few loud voices
in Washington are more determined than ever to ram through another flawed
piece of legislation. 

Help build grassroots support across America and fight back against the right-wing fear machine: Visit FixFISA now.

Your letter-to-the-editor will ensure that friends and
neighbors in your own community see past the Bush-Cheney Administration's
fear-mongering. And when your Members of Congress turn to the editorial
page in their hometown newspaper, they'll know where you stand on siding
with those who conducted illegal warrantless surveillance.

We have teamed up to push for a final FISA bill that
protects our national security, preserves our civil liberties, and
refuses the Senate-passed retroactive immunity for telecom companies. But
we need your support to get this bill passed.

Thank you for taking the time to write a letter-to-the-editor of your local newspaper and for working with us to get FISA right this time.

CBS's Sixty Minutes tonight covered the story of the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman. The news magazine show features comments by Republican insiders about what they allege to be politically motivated prosecutions against Democratic officials.

One Republican state attorney general summed up the Siegelman prosecution this way:

"They targeted [Gov.] Don Siegelman because they could not beat him fair and square. This was a Republican state and he was the one Democrat they could never get rid of."

The prosecution was led by a U.S. Attorney in Alabama married to the campaign manager of Siegelman's Republican gubernatorial opponent.

You may view the whole feature below.

The Washington Post named Congressman John Conyers its Player of the Week highlighting the work of the Chairman to pass the contempt of Congress resolutions and to resist the White House pressure on the warrantless surveillance bill.

Here's the link to the Post article, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2008/02/player_of_the_week_john_conyer.html 

On Thursday, the House of Representatives took several historic steps towards protecting our system of checks and balances.  First, by a vote of 223 to 32, the House passed resolutions referring criminal contempt citations for former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, as well as authorizing civil actions against them should the Justice Department refuse to prosecute.  Second, we did not succumb to the White House political pressure concerning the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Thursday's contempt vote upheld the simple Constitutional principle that no one is above the law.  If an ordinary citizen could not ignore a subpoena without facing severe consequences, the same must hold true for the White House.

As this week's papers covered this story, many of them recount the Judiciary Committee investigation that began a year ago.  They talk of the fired U.S. Attorneys who testified, the thousands of pages of documents produced by the Department of Justice, and of the subpoenas ignored by the White House.  I hope that as you read those stories, you will remember that the path to today's contempt vote did not begin with just a subpoena, or a hearing, or even the firings in December, 2006.  Rather, it began with the Bush Administration's politicization of Justice and its refusal to submit to congressional oversight.  I commend my 232 colleagues who joined me in voting to hold the Bush White house accountable and who stood up for the rule of law.

I also want to commend the Democratic Leadership for standing up to the White House and refusing to succumb to political pressure concerning the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.  Last August we allowed ourselves to be jammed by the Senate and the White House.  This week, we stood up in the face of the pressure and let the President know that we intend to do our jobs as legislators and not hastily pass the flawed Senate bill with retroactive legal immunity for the telecommunications firms.  The White House, of course, has complained bitterly about the contempt vote as they have with many oversight actions Congress has taken. 

Much more remains to be done, but this week, we made real progress.  With your help, we all made a difference, and the nation and our constitution are stronger for it.  Thank you.