President Obama and our Democratic leaders in Congress have been working to pass health care reform legislation before the end of the year. Today the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) took an important step towards that goal when it released its latest version of health care reform legislation. The bill follows President Obama’s principles for reform by lowering costs, protecting patient choice and expanding access to quality, affordable care, and includes a strong public option and a shared employee responsibility provision. According to analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the plan will cost significantly less than previously estimated and covers 97 percent of Americans. Here’s the AP story and a link to the text of the bill.

Chairman Ted Kennedy (MA) and Senator Chris Dodd (CT) sent a letter to their colleagues on the HELP committee late yesterday announcing the new CBO estimate, which scored the plan at $611.4 billion over 10 years, with the new coverage provisions scored at $597 billion – a significant reduction from earlier estimates (Ezra Klein of the Washington Post did a good round up of the CBO estimates). Here’s an excerpt from their letter:

“…For the 47 million Americans currently living without health insurance, a public option will represent an opportunity to access quality, affordable care. For those who have insurance but still struggle to get the care they and their families need, the healthy competition provided by our proposal will offer a wider variety of options while keeping costs down.

“And for the many Americans who have good coverage, nothing will change. They will still be able to keep their doctor, their hospital, and their insurance plan. What our proposal offers these families is stability – no longer will Americans with good health care have to worry about losing everything if they lose or change their job, or if someone in their family becomes sick or injured.

“Even in the face of scare tactics and false claims that a public option would destroy consumer choice or the insurance industry, a vigorous public option is what Americans want. According to two recent public polls, three out of four Americans support the establishment of a public option to compete with private insurance plans and offer families better choices when making health care decisions.

“Moreover, a strong public option isn’t just what Americans want – it’s what America needs. All of us understand the importance of the work we’re doing. The health of our economy and our families rely on it. But if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. The Senate must not, and the HELP Committee will not, shy away from this challenge. We must not settle for legislation that merely gestures at reform. We must deliver on the promise of true change.”

President Obama issued a statement praising the bill, saying:

“For decades, Washington has failed to act as health care costs continued to rise, crushing businesses, families and placing an unsustainable burden on governments. Today the Senate HELP committee has produced legislation that lowers costs, protects choice of doctors and plans and assures quality and affordable health care for Americans.”

The HELP Committee could vote as early as next week on their version of the bill, which will then be coupled with the Senate Finance Committee’s companion measure.

The President answered questions from the audience, as well as from people who had submitted their queries via Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. He made a strong case for reform, by reminding folks in the room of his three principles -- lowering costs, preserving patient choice and expanding access to quality, affordable care – and reiterated his commitment to a public option, a health insurance exchange and a fiscally responsible, deficit neutral plan. He said he wouldn’t accept the status quo and is dedicated to enacting health care reform this year.

Our broken health care system is something I’ve had to face every single day as the Governor of Virginia. We’ve been able to do some great things, but families and businesses in Virginia struggle with the high costs of care as much as anyone in this nation. Think about this: 1 in 7 Virginians doesn’t have health insurance; and since 2000, average family premiums have increased by 99 percent.

As powerful as those numbers are, I think the most powerful case for reform are real stories – stories of people who can’t afford insurance, are denied care because of a pre-existing condition, lose insurance coverage when they lose their job, or have been forced into bankruptcy to take care of a sick child or elderly parent. Over the past several weeks, we’ve collected hundreds of thousands of these stories. Have you read them? You can, here. Have you seen them? Here are five web videos we’ve released over the past couple of weeks: Kristine, Cesar, Cathy, Lisa and Russell.

Reforming our health care system will be hard; and, as the President has said so many times before, if it were easy we would’ve done it already. Sure, the details need to be worked out, and yes, we will have to work hard to get reform that lowers costs, preserves choice and expands access. But the Obama administration has already had success in lining up support from groups that have opposed reform in the past -- pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, insurance companies and doctors associations. If you consider that millions of people are calling for reform because they won’t accept our broken system for any longer, and if you remember that President Obama has demonstrated incredible leadership and commitment to this issue – you will believe, as I do, that we can pass health care reform this year.

Here's how to get involved and do your part to enact comprehensive reform.

"For all of the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under Minn. Stat. § 204C.40 (2008) to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota."

Via the Star Tribune;

"Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled [under Minnesota law] to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota," the court wrote.

In upholding a lower court ruling in April, the justices said Coleman had "not shown that the trial court's findings of fact are clearly erroneous or that the court committed an error of law or abused its discretion."

UPDATE (Cloe): Former Senator Norm Coleman concedes.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

"Republican Norm Coleman ended his bruising eight-month court fight over Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat this afternoon, conceding to Democrat Al Franken after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in Franken's favor.

"Two hours after the decision was released, Coleman said he would 'abide by the results.

"'Further litigation damages the unity of our state," he said during a news conference held at his St. Paul home. "The future today is that we have a new United States senator."

UPDATE 2: President Obama remarks;

"I look forward to working with Senator-Elect Franken to build a new foundation for growth and prosperity by lowering health care costs and investing in the kind of clean energy jobs and industries that will help America lead in the 21st century.”

Today President Obama joined a crowd of about 250 people in the East Room of the White House for a first-of-its-kind event honoring and celebrating the accomplishments of LGBT Americans. Invited guests included families, volunteers, activists, community leaders and local officials, who were all on hand to celebrate Pride Month.

ABC news' article on the event is excerpted below:

"The President and First Lady entered to thunderous applause. President Obama told the group he is committed to equality for their community.

"This struggle continues today, for even as we face extraordinary challenges as a nation, we cannot and will not put aside issues of basic equality," he said, "We seek an America in which no one feels the pain of discrimination based on who you are or who you love."

Brian Bond, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and a gay American, wrote a post on the White House blog in anticipation of today’s event. We'll post the President's full remarks as soon as they become available.

UPDATE (by Cloe): Here are President Obama's full remarks.

Here’s an excerpt from the grist.org article about the vote:

"'Today the House has passed the most important energy and environment bill in our nation’s history,' said Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who co-authored the bill with Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).

“…President Obama immediately praised the passage of the bill on Friday night, and called on the Senate to follow suit. ‘Today the House of Representatives took historic action with the passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act,” said Obama. 'It’s a bold and necessary step that holds the promise of creating new industries and millions of new jobs, decreasing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. Now it’s up to the Senate to take the next step.'”

You can read the President’s full remarks and watch his weekly address “Opening the Door to a Clean Energy Economy” below.

The fight to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation looks like it’s gearing up to be a fight about embracing a clean energy future, or getting stuck in the past; about denying the false argument the GOP has been pushing that we have to choose between doing something good for our environment or good for our economy.

Today, President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu announced aggressive actions to promote energy efficiency that will save American consumers up to $4 billion dollars annually by 2012. Secretary Chu said:

“When it comes to saving money and growing our economy, energy efficiency isn’t just low hanging fruit; it’s fruit laying on the ground. The most prosperous, competitive economies of the 21st century will be those that use energy efficiently. It’s time for America to lead the way.”

The actions announced today include:

-- Major changes to energy conservation standards for numerous household and commercial lamps and lighting equipment. (Seven percent of all energy consumed in the United States is for lighting.)

-- The announcement of a $346 million investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of energy efficient technologies in all major types of commercial buildings as well as new and existing homes. (Residential and commercial buildings consume 40 percent of the energy and represent 40 percent of the carbon emissions in the United States.) Funded projects include: advanced building research, solid state lighting research & development, and expanding ENERGY STAR to accelerate development of energy efficient products and expand the ENERGY STAR brand into new areas.

You can more about the new standards in the Washington Post article on the announcement.

Today, the House of Representatives took historic action with the passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act. It's a bold and necessary step that holds the promise of creating new industries and millions of new jobs; decreasing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil; and strictly limiting the release of pollutants that threaten the health of families and communities and the planet itself. Now it's up to the Senate to take the next step. And I'm confident that in the coming weeks and months the Senate will demonstrate the same commitment to addressing what is a tremendous challenge and an extraordinary opportunity.

As always happens when we debate issues of this magnitude we see lines of demarcation. There are those who argue that the status quo is acceptable, those who would have us continue our dependence on foreign oil and our reliance on fossil fuels despite the risks to our security, our economy, and the planet. But the American people know that the nation that leads in building a 21st century clean energy economy is the nation that will lead in creating a 21st century global economy. I want America to be that nation. And with this vote, the House has put America on the path to being that nation.