America Celebrates the 81st Annual Black History Month

In honor of the 81st Annual Black History Month celebrating the history, lives and progress of African Americans, Claire offered the following statement:

"We must never forget our past. African Americans have overcome incredible barriers throughout this country's history. We must celebrate that history throughout the year so that we never forget how far we have come and the great opportunity to make important advancements for generations to come."
-- U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill

Claire Asks Tough Questions About Wasteful Spending on Defense Contracts

From taking the Inspector General of the Department of Defense to task for allowing a 230,000 sq. ft. "temporary" building in Virginia to be constructed using inappropriate funds to questioning Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on obvious conflicts of interest in their bidding procedures, Claire has been a thorn in the side of waste and fraud and a very important advocate for taxpayers.

Two weeks ago, Claire began her initial inquiry regarding abuses and lack of competition in defense contracts. A scratch below the surface proved that the situation was far worse than anticipated. In hearing after hearing, Claire asked tough questions about wasteful spending practices. If her questions haven't caught the attention of government officials, these accounts reported in the papers they read ought to do the trick.

Defense News reported, It's eye-opening for me," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. A former state auditor, McCaskill is an expert in how government acquisition is supposed to be conducted. She said she is astonished at the absence of outrage in response to multiple government investigations and reports on profligate Defense Department contracting practices - No Competition in 1/3 of DoD's Interagency Contracts

GovExec News reported, McCaskill's ambition to become the GAO senator -- to get "GAO's products to permeate everything I do in my job as a senator" -- is coming true with her seats on both the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Armed Services committees. - Freshman Missouri senator sets out to tackle government waste

Air Force Times reported, A state auditor before she was elected to the Senate last fall, McCaskill said, "I don't know whether to laugh or cry" over the IG report. Quizzing Gimble about the Army office buildings built at Fort Belvoir, she asked, "Doesn't somebody get fired?" - DoD procurement laws routinely broken, IG says

USA Today reported, "If there's not accountability when something like that happens, we might as well throw in the towel," said freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.- Defense official says Pentagon hid unspent funds in accounts

Claire Delivers on Campaign Promise to Cut Taxes for Middle Class Families

Senator Chuck Schumer and freshmen Senators presented a new bill designed to give tax relief to middle class families. Schumer also credited candidate like Claire for focusing on the needs of middle class America. Now these new Senators are making good on their promises by moving forward on legislation that will offer tax cuts to families for child care, sending their kids to college or taking care of an older parent to name a few.

The "Middle Class Opportunity Act of 2007" would

• help families with young children via a doubling of the child tax credit in the first year and expansion of the dependent care tax credit;
• help families avoid unfair tax penalties by providing relief from the individual AMT;
• help families send kids to college via the simplification, consolidation, and expansion of the various tax benefits for higher education; and
• help families care for their aging parents through a new elder-care credit.

"For the past six years the President has cut taxes for millionaires and as a result, corporate executives are making out like bandits by way of economic growth limited to Wall Street while the rest of America still feels the squeeze," Claire said. "The middle class is the real engine that drives our economy. It's time we reroute those tax cuts to give the middle class a break in a way that helps fuel our economy for all Americans."

Claire's First Month Featured in the Kansas City Star

Claire has been busy in her first month as a new Senator and it's not going unnoticed.

• Click here to read a quick glimpse of her experience.

New Whip Assignment, Spot on Truman-Style Committee, and a Seat at Truman's Desk

Claire has recently been named as a Deputy Whip under Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL). The Whip Team will assist Senator Durbin on the floor and will be responsible for mobilizing votes within the Senate Democratic Caucus on major issues. Other Deputy Whips for the 110th Congress are Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH); Ben Cardin (D-MD); Tom Carper (D-DE); Russ Feingold (D-WI); Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Patty Murray (D-WA); Bill Nelson (D-FL); Mark Pryor (D-AR); Ken Salazar (D-CO); and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

"A razor-thin Democratic majority means that every vote counts and there is no room for error. The Whip Team for the 110th Congress is committed to delivering the votes and to helping ensure that America's priorities move forward," Durbin said.

After receiving her seat on the Senate floor, building officials arranged for her assigned desk to be a desk used by none other than Missouri's own Harry Truman.

With 5 committee assignments, including Armed Services, Commerce, Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Aging, and Indian Affairs, Claire has been placed on well over a dozen subcommittee assignments. Probably none had more of a historic Missouri tie than her assignment to the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is the successor to the 1940's Truman Committee.

The Truman Committee was chaired by Senator Truman to look into wartime spending. It was so successful that they kept the committee alive and expanded the breadth and scope of the investigations. With Claire's focus on honing in on wasteful government spending, she is eager to get down to business.

Read a Column by Claire - "Washington Presents: Auditor in Wasteland"

Click here to go to Springfield's KY3 TV blog to read Claire's recent column entitled "Washington Presents: Auditor in Wasteland".

Claire Seeks To Protect Workers in Airline Mergers, Using TWA as Worse Scenario Example

In a Commerce Committee hearing, Claire warned major commercial airline executives and labor leaders against the harmful repercussions to workers in mergers. McCaskill cited the fallout in Missouri from the merger between Trans World Airlines (TWA) and American Airlines as an example of what can happen when only the bottom line is considered in those situations.

"I think there have been so many examples we have seen in corporate America where the decisions have not been as accommodating to the people at the middle and the bottom, as they have been to the people at the very, very top," McCaskill said. "Mediocre C.E.O.s are getting hundreds of millions of dollars while somebody who has spent forty years of their lives working as hard as they know how is out of a job."

Claire stressed the importance of considering competition, local economies, and workers in addition to profitability in negotiating mergers in the future.

Bush's Visit To Missouri to Tout His New Health Care Plan Receives Sharp Criticism from Claire

Just days after his State of the Union Address, President Bush headed to Kansas City to spin the merits of the new health care initiative he laid out in his annual speech to the nation. The junior Senator from Missouri immediately took to the floor of the Senate to talk about the truth behind what the President's plan would do to discourage employer sponsored health care. She also explained how the plan would actually tack on an additional tax for some middle class families.

• Click here to for excerpts of the Claire's floor speech.