When residents in Illinois voiced outrage two years ago upon learning that the Exelon Corporation had not disclosed radioactive leaks at one of its nuclear plants, the states freshman senator, Barack Obama, took up their cause.
Mr. Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and introduced a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authorities immediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in Iowa in December that it was the only nuclear legislation that Ive passed.
"I just did that last year," he said, to murmurs of approval.
A close look at the path his legislation took tells a very different story. While he initially fought to advance his bill, even holding up a presidential nomination to try to force a hearing on it, Mr. Obama eventually rewrote it to reflect changes sought by Senate Republicans, Exelon and nuclear regulators. The new bill removed language mandating prompt reporting and simply offered guidance to regulators, whom it charged with addressing the issue of unreported leaks.
Those revisions propelled the bill through a crucial committee. But, contrary to Mr. Obamas comments in Iowa, it ultimately died amid parliamentary wrangling in the full Senate.
I Have Released My State Records - LIAR, as of March, 2008, state bills you sponsored or voted for have yet to be released, exposing all the special interests pork hidden within.
We couldn't find a reference for Barack Obama's supposedly claiming that he had "released" his state records, only that he said he "didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records" and that they might not exist. Politico.com noted in October 2008 that:
Obama's Senate files became an issue after he pressed Hillary Rodham Clinton during their nomination battle to release the schedules from her eight years as first lady.
When her campaign demanded Obama release his state Senate files, he told reporters he did not "maintain a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records." The records "could have been thrown out. I haven't been in the state Senate now for quite some time," he said.
His campaign later said that "files pertinent to ongoing casework" were passed to his successor, but Obama didn't save correspondence with the general public, state associations or lobbyists, or memos on legislation and correspondence with Illinois state agencies. Some of the records that have surfaced have done little to dampen the demand for a more complete accounting.
In Barack Obama's book Dreams from My Father, beginning at the start of Chapter 9, he writes in detail about the efforts of community organizers to push a grassroots campaign advocating the removal of asbestos from the Altgeld Gardens housing project in Chicago. Although in his book Obama emphasizes his own role in the effort, many other people who took part in are indeed mentioned as well.
It is unclear to us what bill or statement is supposedly being referenced here.
We couldn't find a reference for Barack Obama's having described himself as a "bold leader in Illinois," but certainly some of his supporters have claimed that of him (just as some of his critics have claimed the opposite).
Barack Obama did pass 26 bills in his final year as an Illinois state senator. We could not find any reference to his claiming that all of them were "my own" bills, but he certainly received a boost in passing them from Illinois Senate President (and fellow Democrat) Emil Jones, who "helped Obama learn the ways of the state legislature and gave Obama the chance to work on the ethics legislation and death penalty reforms that Obama now boasts about in his presidential campaign":
Emil Jones Jr. helped Obama master the intricacies of the Legislature. When Democrats took control of the state Senate, Jones, though he risked offending colleagues who had toiled futilely on key issues under Republican rule, tapped Obama to take the lead on high-profile legislative initiatives that he now boasts about in his presidential campaign.
And when Obama wanted a promotion to the U.S. Senate, Jones provided critical support that gave the little-known legislator legitimacy, keeping him from being instantly trampled by the front-runners.
As FactCheck.org noted in March 2008 about the 'NAFTA-Gate' controversy:
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