Working for the 11th District

U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge looks back at her

first six months in Congress

STORY BY MARGARET BRILLER

Marcia L. Fudge, U.S. representative for the 11th Congressional District,
began her social service career as a result of growing up with parents who wanted
the best for her during a turbulent time in the civil rights movement.
 

“I grew up in a time of unrest in this country,” Fudge noted. “I think those of us who were fairly well-educated came from parents who wanted to make sure that we were involved. It’s what we grew up doing. I just happened to be one of the people who was very caught up in the movement and stayed in it. For me, it was a cause, a cause that you fight, because it’s right. I’ve always been a cause fighter, and I’ll always stay on that path.”

Born in 1952 in Cleveland, Fudge graduated from Shaker Heights High School, then received a bachelor of science in business administration from The Ohio State University in 1975. She received a law degree from Cleveland Marshall College of Law in 1983.

After graduation, Fudge worked as a law clerk and studied legal research.  While serving in the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office, she also worked on business aspects as the director of budget and finance and as an auditor for the estate tax department. She was appointed chief of staff to 11th District Rep.  Stephanie Tubbs Jones during Jones’ first term in Congress and also served on the board of trustees for the Cleveland Public Library.

In January 2000, Fudge was sworn in as mayor of Warrensville Heights, a middle-class suburb of Cleveland. She was the first African American and first woman to be elected as mayor of this suburb, where she presided until Jones’ unexpected death on Aug. 20, 2008.

A committee of local Democratic leaders selected Fudge as Jones’ replacement on the November ballot. She won the Nov. 4 general election, defeating Thomas Pekarek with 85 percent of the vote in the heavily Democratic, blackmajority district. She was unopposed ina Nov. 18 special election for the balance of Jones’ fifth term.

As the 11th District representative, Fudge serves as committee member for Education and Labor and Science and Technology and subcommittee member on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions; Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness; and Space and Aeronautics. She also serves as vice chair for the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education.

Following the summer recess, Fudge presented her “State of the 11th District” address in August and spotlighted key areas from the past six months for Kaleidoscope magazine:

HEALTHCARE REFORM

“It is necessary that we pursue healthcare reform,” stated Fudge. “If you look at the 11th District itself, there are 86,000 people who are uninsured, and there are many more who are underinsured.  Across the country, we have 14,000 people who lose healthcare every day. If we don’t do anything, we’re just going to make the situation worse.

“If you look at the State of Ohio from 2000 to 2007, healthcare costs increased by 76 percent. If we do nothing and the rate continues as it is, in another 10 years, 45 percent of all the money spent will go to healthcare. We live in a place that has the best healthcare in the world. It just does not make sense to me that people who live almost within walking distance to some of the best health facilities anywhere cannot afford to go into those hospitals, because they don’t have health insurance.

“We’re putting a large focus on community health centers, because we know it costs less to have someone go to a doctor, nurse practitioner or health professional at a center when they are not in a crisis mode than it does for someone who goes into an emergency room. It costs three times as much to go to a hospital as it does to go to a health center. We also know that people tend to go to the emergency room, because they don’t have healthcare and they wait until they are so sick, it is the only option they have. What we are promoting is that there be some wellness and preventive care. In our plan, people would be encouraged to have an annual physical exam and any other type of preventive testing or preventive care, because it would be covered under insurance that would be free to you.

“Over the years, healthcare has become where you spent most of your dollars toward the end of life. We havespent lots of money trying to take care of people who are very ill, as opposed to preventing people from becoming ill in the first place. We have to do preventive care, and that includes screenings for diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and all of the other issues that become chronic illnesses, especially those that start at an early age, such as asthma.

“For example, 48 percent of adult African Americans have some form of chronic illness, such as high blood pressure, hypertension, diabetes or asthma. Most insurance companies will drop you from their coverage if you become too sick. If you have these conditions early on in your life, it will be difficult to get insurance in the first place, because you have pre-existing conditions. I believe we have to look at how we get people on insurance rolls and how we help people pay for it.”

Fudge noted that nearly 50 percent of people in state and local jails and institutions have mental illnesses.“What we have is a system that really doesn’t treat mental illness,” she observed. “Most insurance companies will say you can go into a mental institution for up to 90 days once a year, and it can't cost more than X amount of dollars. We’re trying to remove those caps, so that people can stay the length that they need to. Often, when people come out of prisons, as an example, if they are not treated, they have the same issues that put them in there.”

Fudge estimated that one in 10 children has an emotional problem, such as attention deficit disorder, that requires counseling. “Most children are not diagnosed, because their families don’t have insurance that covers mental illness or emotional problems,” she stated. “And look at our veterans coming home. We have to find ways to treat people that I mentioned, because if they are treated early, the treatment is very effective. But insurance doesn’t do much of anything as a preventive nature or a chronic illness nature, and we’ve been losing these people down the road. I believe that you cannot be put off your insurance. You just can’t.”

EDUCATION REFORMS

“If you look at the Recovery Act,” Fudge said, “more than $100 million has been set aside in the 11th District for education, whether to keep teachers or staff members on payroll, get resources to fix up these crumbling buildings or buy new equipment. It has been, in my opinion, a much-needed shot in the arm for educational institutions for this district. This doesn’t include monies that have gone to community colleges or the $14 million that has gone toward training for the Workforce Recovery Act, as well as money that has gone to the police and fire departments. We’ve done a lot of things that are going to be very helpful for people over time. I’m really pleased with what we’ve done in the first six months. We started out increasing the number of children who are going to be insured through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).  There are more than 200,000 children currently in the SCHIP program in Ohio. We’re going to add thousandsmore for coverage under the SCHIP program. We’ve extended the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, known as COBRA, benefits. You know how hard Ohio has been hit. It’s outrageous that people who are losing their jobs cannot afford COBRA insurance, the governent has reduced the cost of COBRA by almost 65 percent so that people can continue to insure their families.”

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

Fudge noted that unemployment benefits have been extended an additional 13 weeks. “Those are big day-to-day issues that keep people from losing their homes or keep children from going hungry,” she said. “We’ve put millions of dollars into food stamps for the poor, and sadly, if you don’t know, probably the fastest-growing group of children in schools today is homeless children. We have to be sure these children eat.”

FINANCIAL AID FOR EDUCATION

“We have increased Pell Grants up to $5,500 this year and as high as $6,900 over the next 10 years,” Fudge said. Basically, we have effectively paid for the cost of those courses that community college students are taking. We’ve lowered the interest rate of student loans that the government subsidizes. We created a shorter and simpler form for financial aid. Across the country over a million college students who were eligible to receive Pell Grants didn’t apply, because the form was so convoluted and long. We made that situation easier as well. We are also trying to put in place programs to try to keep new students, help them stay in school and complete their education. One of the hardest things right now is to keep these firstyear freshmen in school, so we’re working very diligently to do that.”

SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE

“There is a whole portion of the Recovery Act that deals with small businesses,” Fudge noted. “If you have been behind because of this economy, you can get up to a $30,000 one-time loan to catch yourself up. We’ve talked about bonding for those people who want to get into construction and roadwork, because a lot of the money coming out of the Recovery Act is money for construction. We have given a net loss carryback for small business for five years, which should significantly help them in the short term with their cash flow and their tax burden.”

EMERGING LEADERS

Always a proponent of helping youth, Fudge initiated the Marcia L. Fudge Emerging Leaders Program in 2009 to recognize and encourage young, emerging leaders in the 11th Congressional District. Young leaders, dedicated to community service, will have an opportunity to assist Fudge in establishing policies and initiatives designed to engage, attract and retain young professionals as future leaders in the 11th District “We are pulling leaders together, so they will look at the community and see what things need to be done and how we can come together and do them,”Fudge said. We have a lot of programs that are going to help people over time,” Fudge concluded. “People may not see the effects today, but over the next six months to a year, you’re going to see significant changes in the way we operate and the numbers of people who are working or feeling better about themselves as a result of the work we’ve done"