Schwartz Backs Specter

Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz has announced her support for incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter. Among her reasons:

When the Bush Administration threatened to cancel Philadelphia’s successful school lunch program, Senator Specter and I joined with other Philadelphia-area congressional delegates to save the program. As a result, 110,000 Philadelphia school children will continue receiving nutritional lunches and we are now pushing to extend the program nationally.

Senator Specter and I also share a commitment to health care excellence. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he successfully pushed to triple funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from $11 billion to $32 billion. His leadership won an additional $10 billion for NIH in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, investing new dollars in Pennsylvania’s academic institutions and into future drugs and devices that will save lives and save dollars.

Specter’s decisive vote for President Obama’s Recovery Act cost him the support of the Republican Party but won him recognition for political courage. With his support, we averted a national depression and brought $16 billion into Pennsylvania to create jobs, extend unemployment benefits and health care coverage, support renewable energy and repair aging roads and bridges.