Murray Outlines Goals For Helping Children, Announces Re-Election Bid
Two days before Mother’s Day, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray unveiled plans to improve the health and education of the nation’s children.
The Washington senator hasn’t proposed actual legislation, but on Friday she was more specific about her intentions than ever before.
Murray also confirmed she’ll seek a second term to try to carry the package through Congress.
Among her stated goals:
Establish national standards for health care for all children.
Put computers in every classroom.
Increase access to school-to-career opportunities.
Launch a bipartisan “Time for Youth” congressional working group.
Encourage family-friendly business practices.
In outlining her proposals, the mother of two teenagers said that Mother’s Day is a time “to pay respect to our own mothers.
“But it is also a time as mothers and fathers that we need to think about our role in this country and what we need to do to make the world a better place for our young children,” Murray said.
Murray didn’t explain how she would implement what she described as her “mix of legislative proposals and initiatives I will be pushing in the months and years ahead.”
Murray’s package, titled a “Commitment to Children,” builds on recommendations from parents and families at a series of town hall meetings she ran in Yakima, Vancouver, Tacoma and Spokane.
Some of her ideas, she said, will materialize in legislative proposals such as spending more on Headstart or making surplus government computers available to schools.
Other elements will focus on congressional input from young people and encouraging businesses to allow employees to spend more time with their children.
Murray indicated earlier this year that she would run for re-election in 1998. The former preschool teacher was firmer in that commitment Thursday.
“I do plan on running for re-election,” she said.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jim Lynch Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this story.