Congressman Pete Stark To Hold Town Meetings on Jan. 21

Congressman Pete Stark will be holding two town hall meetings in Southern Alameda County next week, according to a note released from his office.

Stark represents numerous East Bay cities including Newark, Union City, Fremont and San Lorenzo.

Here is the message from the Stark's office:

Creating jobs and making our economy work for all Americans must be Congress’ top priorities. Yet under the House Majority this year, we’ve accomplished little to help get our economy back on track. Instead, we’ve spent our time voting on bills destined to fail in the Senate.

We’ve taken numerous votes to repeal health reform, weaken environmental protections and slash critical government investments like medical research and education.

In the coming year, Congress needs to come together to put our economy on solid ground and rebuild the middle class. We must invest in infrastructure to put people to work rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools. We must ensure that our teachers, police and firemen are kept on the job, not downsized under shrinking state budgets. We must create fairness in our tax code so deficit reduction doesn’t happen on the backs of middle class families, children, and senior citizens.

I will continue working to protect health reform. The new law is good for Americans’ health and it is good for our pocketbooks. A recent report by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families shows that health reform has already helped expand health insurance coverage to one million more children -- even in our suffering economy when the number of uninsured kids typically grows.

New data from the Medicare agency also shows that more than 2.6 million seniors are saving money when they fall into the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap. Due to health reform, seniors with high drug costs have saved an average of $569.

The Centers for Disease Control has also quantified that 2.5 million young adults under age 26 are getting health coverage on their parents’ insurance thanks to health reform.

Our country faces serious challenges in 2012, but there are also many opportunities for progress. To move our country forward, the Congressional Majority must be willing to reach across party lines and pursue balanced legislation.

I hope to discuss these and other issues with you. Please visit me at one of my upcoming town meetings on Saturday, January 21st.

Sincerely,

Pete

Learn more about the congressman and his plans for town hall meetings by visiting his website, http://www.stark.house.gov.