In his State of the Union speech, the President outlined an ambitious agenda for his final year in office. I look forward to working with him and making progress on important issues that the Congressional leadership failed to act on last year. We must act to repair and rebuild our nation's schools, strengthen Social Security and Medicare, enact a real Patients' Bill of Rights, pass common sense juvenile justice and gun safety legislation, and provide responsible and targeted tax cuts. These issues are important to the American people. We owe them our best effort at bipartisan cooperation to complete our unfinished business. These priorities should not be passed off to the next President or the new Congress to address, as some of my Republican colleagues have suggested.

I welcome the President's commitment to expand prosperity to every corner of the country and build on the strength of our robust national economy. His new initiatives for health care and education, along with the call for action on national priorities left unfinished last session, offer a good tonic for Hawaii's fragile economic recovery. Increased federal support for school repair, Head Start, and after-school programs will boost state efforts to provide quality education to Hawaii's children.

A voluntary prescription drug benefit for Medicare and the President's long-term care tax credit are two initiatives important to Hawaii families. We have one of the fastest growing populations over age 85, and as the baby boom generation ages it is imperative that we focus on the health and income security needs of older Americans. Quality long-term care insurance coverage is a national priority. As Ranking Democrat on the Federal Services Subcommittee, I am working on bipartisan legislation to bring long-term care insurance to Hawaii's federal employees, military personnel, and retirees. This initiative would serve as a model for the private sector.

The President made clear that he intends to remain engaged and promote an agenda of opportunity, community, and responsibility for the next twelve months. Over the last seven years his Administration has assembled an impressive record of accomplishments, including two consecutive budget surpluses, a robust national economy and sustained economic growth, the creation of over 20 million jobs, the highest home ownership rates in history, the lowest rate of violent crime in a quarter century, and an unprecedented expansion of educational opportunities for college-bound students. This year affords us the opportunity to secure peace and prosperity and make a positive difference in the lives of the American people.