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Do you support or oppose amending the United States Constitution to protect the right to life of prenatal human beings (Human Life Amendment)?

Do you support or oppose using federal funds for abortion?

Do you support or oppose enacting strict payment limitations as a means of focusing policies and providing resources to programs that promote rural development and entrepreneurship and target support to small- and moderate-sized, family-owned-and-operated farms and ranches?

Do you support or oppose a ban on cloning processes that create human embryos for any purpose?

Do you support or oppose abolishing the (federal) death penalty and replacing it with imprisonment for life without possibility of parole?

What is your position on the following issues involved in reauthorizing the 1996 Welfare Reform Act’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): Increasing work requirements? Restoring eligibility for legal immigrants? Increasing childcare funding?

Do you support or oppose providing federal tax relief to low-income, working families to sustain them above the poverty line? (e.g., refundable child tax credit and/or earned income tax credit)

Do you support or oppose providing federal financial support, through education-expense tax credits, vouchers, or tax credits for donations to fund K-12 scholarships, to enhance the ability of families to choose any K-12 school—public, private or religiously-oriented—they deem best-suited for the education of their children?

Do you support or oppose providing the educational benefits and services of federal K-12 programs (e.g., the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act; the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) to students and teachers from private and religiously oriented schools on a basis equitable to that of public school students and teachers?

Do you support or oppose providing federal funds for research that relies upon the destruction of live human embryos in order to obtain their stem cells for experimentation (embryonic stem cell research)?

Do you support or oppose linking decisions on U.S. military aid to a country’s record on religious freedom and other basic human rights?

In your view, what principles should guide U.S. foreign policy in order to advance the cause of lasting peace in the Middle East?

What is your position on the proposed Millennium Challenge Account, which, if fully implemented and focused on poverty, would nearly double U.S. spending to combat global hunger and promote human development?

In your view, what public-policy initiatives or alternatives, if any, should replace or modify the current mixed-financing system of health care coverage, in order to secure universal access to affordable, quality health care for all persons in the U.S.?

Do you support or oppose protecting anti-hunger programs [e.g., school lunch, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), food stamps and nutrition programs for senior citizens] from budget cuts?

What is your position on legislation intended to legalize the status of undocumented, seasonal agricultural workers who can demonstrate that they have been working the U.S. for several years and commit to continuing to work in seasonal agriculture for an additional length of time (Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act of 2003; H.R. 3142 or S. 1645)?

Do you support or oppose increasing the number of immigrant visas available to close family members of U.S. citizens and recent immigrants in order to decrease the period of time such families must wait to be reunited?

Do you support or oppose amending the U.S. Constitution to provide a national definition of marriage as only the union of a man and a woman?

Do you support or oppose increasing the federal minimum wage from the current $5.15 per hour to $7.00 per hour over two years?

Do you support or oppose exempting faith-based providers of social services and health care from secular laws that would otherwise require them to conduct or engage in activities contrary to their religious faith?

Candidate declined to respond. Letter on file with the Nebraska Catholic Conference.

Comments: We Nebraskans are rooted in the land. It’s important to grow opportunities for family farms and rural communities. I’ve released a seven-point agricultural plan to help foster good economic development. I also support payment limitations.

Comments: I would be open to the possibility of the death penalty in cases where a heinous criminal remains an ongoing danger to society.

No specific response

No specific response

No specific response

Comments: I support welfare reform.

Comments: I support tax relief, especially increasing the child tax credit and marriage penalty relief.

No specific response

Comments: Parents are the primary educators of their children. Educational choice is an important part of public policy discussions. For example, the Lincoln Public Schools System allows for open enrollment.

Comments: Government should recognize the important contributions both public and private schools bring to society. It’s especially important in the field of special education that the federal government help all schools reach their potential.

No specific response

Comments: Religious freedom and other basic human rights are an important part of all foreign policy decisions.

Comments: The United States has a unique opportunity in the world to help encourage political stability, the rule of law, economic development and social progress.

Comments: I support the Millennium Challenge Account principles. Exact funding levels will have to be determined.

Comments: Health Savings Accounts are an important new initiative allowing families to better control costs and allowing more persons to access insurance.

Comments: It is important to help people in need. Government officials have a responsibility to taxpayers to ensure that government funds are appropriately allocated and spent.

No specific response

Comments: Government policy must be fair. Policy that rewards circumventing the law, no matter how noble the intention, is problematic and undermines the ability of America to be generous to those in need.

No specific response

Comments: The United States has been a just and generous nation that has welcomed many new families, particularly those fleeing economic and political persecution. I support a fair and orderly immigration policy that allows for families of U.S. citizens and recent legal immigrants to be more quickly reunited in cases of demonstrated need.

Comments: A just minimum wage is an important part of good public policy. However, raising the minimum wage also has public policy consequences: it reduces the number of entry-level jobs and increases welfare roles. At this time, I oppose an increase in the minimum wage.

Comments: An average of 24,000 children a day die of starvation. Our food system is dependent on oil supplies that are rapidly declining. To force people to have children against their choice is wrong.

Comments: I believe in health care for all. If poor women can’t afford to raise more children or provide health care for their children they should not be forced by the government to give birth.

Comments: Agricultural subsidies should be focused toward preserving what family farms that we have left that are performing valuable environmental, social, and economic functions in rural America.

Comments: There may be situations where the future of humanity depends on broadening scientific understanding.

Comments: The state should not have the right to kill its own citizens. Terrible mistakes are made by elected officials. The Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq was a horrible mistake that has killed thousands of innocents.

Comments: Far too many children are born into poverty in this country. New mothers face an increasing likelihood of poverty, homelessness, malnutrition, a lack of health care, an absence of public transportation, etc.

Comments: Every family should have the resources to develop the full potential of every family member.

Comments: Every child should be provided with the educational tools to develop to their fullest potential.

Comments: Stem cell research is a pro-life policy.

Comments: Quit using violence to steal oil from other countries now that we’ve depleted our own oil reserves. If we develop renewable energy in the USA, the wars in the Middle East will end.

Comments: We need to end world hunger once and for all.

Comments: The Canadian single payer system of health care provides health care for all. The system works well and we should adopt it ASAP.

Comments: When we eliminate hunger among the children of the world, then we can ban abortion. But in a world where an average of 24,000 children a day die of starvation or malnutrition; that is wrong.

Comments: The people who are feeding us should have the benefits needed to assure the health and safety of their families.

Comments: Families should not be held hostage by an unjust economic system.

Comments: I am happily married to my wife of 16 years. Not all people are the same, though, and I believe in protecting the rights of all to develop long-term committed relationships with a consenting adult.

Comments: The minimum wage for a full-time worker should be high enough to escape from absolute poverty.

No specific response

Comments: I generally oppose any legislation that takes from one group and gives to another. The government should concern itself with reducing the number of laws, regulations and taxes that make starting a business or running a small farm so difficult.

No specific response

No specific response

Comments: The entire "Welfare Program" is a failure. Forty years after the war on poverty—the poverty level has increased. Welfare has not helped eliminate poverty—it supports it.

Comments: The federal government is not a surrogate Santa Claus. The government has no business putting their (sic) hands into my pockets and take (sic) my money, to give to someone else. If I did that to you—it’s called theft. When the government does it – it’s called compassionate re-distribution of wealth.

Comments: We should stop meddling in other peoples’ affairs. Every time we prop up another mad-dog dictator, we get bit. Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Shah, the Taliban are all notorious examples.

Comments: The government should not be in the health care business. Whenever the federal government gets involved in a problem in order to fix it, they invariably make it worse.

Comments: These are areas best left to the states and to public charities. They provide much better service at a much lower cost.

Comments: Let’s face it – without migrant workers the agricultural industry would shut down. Let’s make honest workers of these immigrants.

Comments: Be careful for which laws you want, because the very laws you clamor for today will be the same ones to be used against you tomorrow.

Comments: The minimum wage actually increases unemployment for those most in need of a job.

Comments: If faith-based agencies want to take from the public till, then they must be ready to abide by the same laws and restrictions that govern the rest of us.

Comments: In general, I do not support funding abortions using federal monies, but I think money can be spent on programs that advocate abortion as an option.

Comments: I am opposed to cloning human embryos for the purpose of giving birth to clones, but I am in favor of embryonic research.

Comments: I am strongly opposed to the death penalty.

Comments: I oppose increasing work requirements because I want to know more about the specifics before I support it.

Comments: Both Israel and Palestine must renounce violence before we support them economically and militarily. I support an independent Palestinian state, but I also renounce terrorism as a means to get there.

No specific response.

Comments: No position; it helps, but is not the solution to global economic inequities.

Comments: Universal, single-payer health care paid for in part by taxes on health sins: cigarettes, alcohol, junk food. Reduce costs by allowing re-importation of medicine from Canada.

No specific response.

Comments: No opinion. We must allow for the current level of immigration. I am in favor of accelerating the entry of workers that we are in short supply of.

No specific response.

Comments: In general I oppose. If the medical standards require them to engage in these activities then it should be required for the health and safety of their patients. Otherwise, I support religious choice.

Comments: The original intent of the federal farm policy was to provide a safety net for family farmers. Yet today, two-thirds of farm payments go to the largest 10% of producers. We need to tighten payment limits and devote more funding to support rural development, as well as young and beginning agriculture producers. I have introduced legislation aimed at boosting the number of beginning farmers and ranchers.

Comments: I cosponsored and voted for The Human Cloning Prohibition Act when it passed the U.S. House of Representatives last year. This bill would comprehensively prohibit attempts to clone a human being, including for research, using embryonic stem cells. I will continue working to ban all forms of human cloning.

Comments: The death penalty is appropriate for the most heinous murder cases.

Comments: While I am concerned that providing immediate Federal welfare assistance to newly arrived immigrants sends the wrong message to those seeking to enter our country, I strongly support private organizations and individuals seeking to help immigrant families in extraordinary circumstances.

Comments: I am and always have been morally and ethically opposed to research in which human embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death. Adult stem cell research must be vigorously pursued as significant advances have already been made in this area.

Comments: I strongly support the close and vigilant monitoring of human rights abuses in foreign nations, but U.S. military aid must be specific to the situation in a particular country and warranted by pressing national security needs.

Comments: The United States should apply all necessary pressure on Palestine and Israel so they can both reach an agreement on how to find peace. It has to be an agreement they can both live with and not one that is impressed upon them, otherwise lasting peace can never be attained.

Comments: I have voted for funding of the MCA to aid countries that make important economic and political reforms.

Comments: Health care in our nation could be improved by a Patient’s Bill of Rights with a legally binding independent review board of medical experts to review denied insurance claims.

Comments: I am concerned by proposals that allow blanket amnesty to illegal immigrants, but I strongly support extending seasonal and guest worker opportunities for undocumented workers seeking a better life for their families.

Comments: Raising the minimum wage often hurts those who are most in need by setting the bar for initial job entry too high. The minimum wage blocks entry-level workers from getting jobs and learning valuable skills. I prefer a policy course to make the minimum wage irrelevant, as it is in many industries.

Comments: Faith-based social service organizations must be allowed to maintain their religious identities with private dollars. The federal dollar must be used to provide direct services and not for any proselytizing activities.

Candidate declined to respond. Letter on file with the Nebraska Catholic Conference.

Candidate did not respond.

Candidate did not respond.

No Specific Response

Comments: When I am asked about my stance on abortion, my response is often short and direct. Simply put, I believe in the sanctity of life and will vote consistently to reduce the impact of Roe v. Wade. I intend to work with President Bush toward our common goal of reducing the number of abortions performed in this country. Furthermore, I do not support the use of federal dollars for programs that present abortion as an option.

See above response.

No response

No specific response

Comments: The prospect of cloning a human being presents serious moral, ethical and human health implications. As a person who believes strongly in the sanctity of life, I will continue to support legislation that prohibits the engineering of human life solely for the purpose of experimental research.

No specific response

Comments: I am not convinced that the death penalty is a strong deterrent of violent crime. I would generally be in favor of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, so that research can be done about its validity.

No response

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No response

No specific response

Comments: I have supported several tax reducing measures since coming to Congress, including the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Act of 2003. These two bills, along with a number of other measures, decreased the marriage penalty, increased the child tax credit and delivered immediate relief to all taxpayers.

No response

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No response

Comments: I do not support school vouchers primarily because I believe that the best use of public funds is to strengthen the public school system, which is available to all children.

No response

No specific response

Comments: Since I believe strongly in the sanctity of life, I can no more support the destruction of an embryo than I can support the taking of a human life outside the womb. I do not believe that the use of tax dollars should be devoted to research resulting in the destruction of viable embryos or fetuses.

No response

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Comments: I am concerned about the number of illegal aliens in the United States and the federal government’s ability to secure our borders. But above all, immigrants who practice good citizenship, pay taxes and are active in our local communities play a vital role in the Third District and it is time we have a system in place that protects all workers in America.

No response

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Candidate did not respond.