I have the highest number of Social Security recipients of any Member of Congress, and it is always good to hear about how women in their districts are affected by any changes, by the need for changes in Social Security.

When given the chance, women have proven they will participate in the electoral process.

If a woman did not work and have the opportunity to save and invest on her own throughout her lifetime, she is often totally reliant on her family and Social Security for her retirement years.

The women who pass away before they receive Social Security, for them this is nothing but a tax from which they or their family will never receive a benefit.

For centuries, the world has heard the oppressed, the downtrodden and the vulnerable cry out for their freedoms, for their rights and for a chance to emerge from the shadows of the tyranny and bloodshed that they had lived with.

While Kuwait is not a democracy, giving only half the population a voice in their government is not a policy this Congress should support and one that I am glad that Kuwait's leaders are changing.

While all of these are important and significant events, it is the United States foreign policy that furthers the advancement of freedoms and rights for women that is the most striking for me.