With nearly 2 million people without health insurance in North Carolina, we have the fastest growing number of uninsured people in the nation. Even with the federal health care law, we have a great deal of work to do today.

We must continue to help uninsured children obtain coverage and ensure that we have a safety net for those people who cannot afford insurance. We also must help small businesses offer health insurance for their workers.

As a nation, however, we will not solve our health care challenges until we contain runaway health care inflation. Health care costs continually increase at double-digit rates. This is simply not sustainable.

I am co-chairing the Comparative Effectiveness Study Commission to identify ways we can improve health care, contain costs, and position North Carolina to benefit economically from this growing research sector.

Additionally, I was named to the Board of Directors of North Carolina Health Information Exchange, a new foundation responsible for expanding utilization of health information technology and electronic medical records, which will also improve quality and contain costs.

Wake County is a wonderful place to live for many reasons – our strong economic base, good weather, cost of living, and cultural life, among others. People are moving here from all over to enjoy what we call home.

Our county is experiencing explosive growth as a result. In the mid-1990s, Wake had 450,000 people. Today, there are more than 900,000 residents. In 20-30 years, our population is expected to nearly double again.

This growth is placing an intense stress on our institutions and infrastructure – our schools, our roads, our water and sewer, our social services and open space. It also contributes to long-term environmental challenges, such as worse air and water quality and global warming.

This session, the General Assembly enacted legislation I introduced and championed to clean up Falls Lake, finalized rules to clean up Jordan Lake, and passed what is probably the most important public transportation law enacted in the history of our state – the Congestion Relief and Intermodal Bill – which creates dedicated streams of revenue for public transportation.

I am proud that both the Sierra Club and the Conservation Council named me an “Environmental Champion,” WakeUP Wake County recognized my efforts on Falls Lake, and the Metro Mayors Association named me its Legislator of the Year for my efforts to promote public transportation.

North Carolina is facing difficult economic challenges. In a twelve month period between 2008 and 2009, the state’s unemployment rate doubled; it still has a long way to go to be where we want it. We, like the entire country, are suffering the effects of the great recession caused from the credit crisis.

Getting people back to work is my top priority. Small businesses are the engines of our economy, and we need to help them get back on their feet. We need to reward them for hiring new workers, help them with their crushing health care expenses, and get credit flowing to them again.

I have experience creating jobs from my work at the Self-Help Credit Union in Durham, which helps small businesses grow so that business owners can create wealth for their families and their communities. I worked to convert an historic but abandoned hospital into a small business incubator, where entrepreneurs could benefit from small business assistance while they grew their businesses. I also raised capital for community development credit unions across the state so they would have more funds to lend to local small businesses at affordable interest rates. Currently, I serve on the Governor’s Innovation Council which is identifying ways to stimulate economic activity where North Carolina can compete globally.

We must also create clean energy jobs in North Carolina. The clean energy sector creates good paying jobs that can’t be shipped overseas, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, and lowers carbon emissions to combat the climate crisis. I was honored to have been awarded “Legislator of the Year” by the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association for my efforts to strengthen this sector.

Our communities must be safe. We cannot live our lives to the fullest if we are not secure. It is imperative that we prevent crime by catching criminals through use of their DNA so they cannot commit more crimes and by banning internet sweepstakes casinos and video poker.

I cosponsored the bill in the Senate to expand the DNA database to include felony arrestees. There are hundreds of unsolved crimes that can be solved by expanding the DNA database in this way. Adding felony arrestees not only will solve past crimes but also prevent future ones by getting these criminals off the streets.

Commercialized gambling also creates crime and wreaks social havoc on North Carolina families and communities. I spearheaded the Senate’s efforts to make crystal clear that internet sweepstakes casinos are illegal. Too many people get sucked into gambling addiction, tearing apart their families and resulting in crimes to satisfy their addiction.