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He was also one of 14 senators in 1996 to speak out against and vote against the Defense of Marriage Act. He cosponsored and voted for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 1996, which would have prohibited job discrimination based on sexual orientation by federal employers.
Kerry helped to reauthorize the Microloan program into SBA policy as a source for over $300 million in loan funding and technical assistance. A great percentage of microloans have gone to traditionally underserved groups, including 43 percent to women-owned businesses, 39 percent to minority-owned businesses and 11 percent to veteran-owned businesses. Small businesses also retained benefits under the Small Business Technology Transfer program. As part of Microloan, a Welfare-to-Work program was piloted. He and Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-MO) coauthored emergency legislation which gave customized loan and borrowing access to small businesses hit by the affects of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) sponsored a bill to extend disaster relief to small businesses affected by the airways system shutdown that followed September 11. Senator Kerry supported the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, which gives targeted credit breaks to operational family-owned small businesses or farms by exempting them from payment of the first $1.3 million in estate taxes and deductions for health insurance of the self-employed. This legislation also included deductions for home office expenses when directly pertinent to the operation of a small business.
Kerry has proposed a "payroll tax holiday," exempting the first $10,000 of one's income from being subject to a Social Security tax. According to Kerry, this will target tax relief on the middle-class and lower-class by giving every worker a $765 tax cut and doubling that to $1,530 for every two-income household. He also wants to raise the minimum wage along with the Earned Income Tax Credit, so that non-Welfare working-class families receive tax deductions. John Kerry went to bat for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to keep funding and gain emergency funding. A sponsor of the Family and Medical Leave Act, Senator Kerry believes that working parents should not fear losing their jobs when taking care of newborn or sick children.
His Early Learning Opportunities Act, which became law in 2000, helps families by expanding and coordinating early childhood development efforts. YouthBuild, created on a federal level by U.S. Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA), assists young adults gain education and employment skills by engaging in construction programs and home building for low-income and homeless people.
Kerry co-authored the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act, a package of funding for AIDS prevention programs and investments in purchase funds for vaccines, the AIDS bill Bush is touting as his own. He authored the Nurse Reinvestment Act to bring nurses to underserved areas and assist nurses in furthering their education. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) is a co-sponsor of the Family Opportunity Act, which will give states the option to expand Medicaid coverage for children with disabilities up to age 18 in families with incomes up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level (or $46,000 per year for a family of four). His health care plan calls for assistance to all families up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. He cosponsored the Persian Gulf War Veterans Act of 1996 to make medical connections between physical afflictions and wartime toxic exposure.
The senator was one of the original organizers of the first Earth Day in Massachusetts (in 1970), and chaired the National Earth Day board in 1990. He and Senator Barbara Boxer passed a Senate amendment to impose a moratorium on oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and the West Coast, including California's coastline. Kerry cosponsored Lincoln Chafee's Brownfields Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act of 2000, a bipartisan bill providing national brownfields cleanup and redevelopment in urban areas. And he co-sponsored the Estuary Habitat Restoration Partnership Act of 1998.
Senator Kerry's first statement in the United States Senate was in strong support of Roe v. Wade. Senator Kerry was an original cosponsor of the Violence Against Women Act, which has provided over $1 billion for battered women's shelters, hotlines, and other crucial resources In 1996, Senator Kerry was an original cosponsor of the Women's Health Equity Act. The U.S. Senate passed H.R. 774, the Women's Business Center Amendments Act of 1999, introduced by Senator Kerry. . Senator Kerry was a prosecutor he made fighting violence against a women a top priority, establishing a first in the nation domestic abuse and sexual assault unit in the Middlesex County Prosecutor's office. In the fight against child abuse, Kerry has presented a "Two Strikes and You're Out" bill, which would stipulate mandatory life sentences for two-time child predators who engage in the rape or sexual assault of children.
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