Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/WomenAndAmericanPolitics (Danielle N. Pritchett)/Sandbox/Mary Bono Mack: Policies, Committees and what how she plans to make a difference

Mary Bono Mack serves on various committees that help serve a wide variety of people. She is involved with different types of organizations all of which help to address major issues and focus on voices that may not be otherwise heard. All of her committees have been highly successful and point towards creating a better America. The Committee of Energy and Commerce strives to improve the environment, economy and healthcare. As the chairwoman of this committee, Mary Bono Mack is very active and has gotten many government officials involved in helping promote a better overall environment. Since the passing of Bono Mack’s husband, Congressman Sonny Bono, there have been two major acts put in place in his honor. Since taking over as Congresswomen for her late husband, Mack has been the point man involved in both of these acts, fighting relentlessly for them. The Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act was the first act Mack lobbied for after her late husband’s passing. This act helped to extend and protect copyright to last for the life of an author plus another 70 years. Since passing this act, Mack has campaigned for the validity of websites, especially those involving cyber bullying. She also later passed an act called Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass (SPY ACT). Mack also lobbied for the Sonny Bono Memorial Salton Sea Reclamation Act. This act strived to clean and preserve the Sea in California. This act was placed in honor of Sonny Bono who wanted to create a cleaner and healthier environment. Since the Act was put in place in 1998, California has made steps to reserve their seas and clean their parks. On April 2, 2009, Mary Bono Mack, along with Senators Harkin, Cornyn and Udall introduced the Healthy Workforce Act. This Act was started to help supported small businesses. It gave a tax credit of up to 50% for health promotion programs. This proved to be a very successful Act as it promoted overall health and made it easy to reach out and engage all of the employees. This Act particularly reached out to small businesses so that they would have more opportunities to afford different types of health services. Most small businesses can not afford to offer their employees health insurance without losing money out of pocket. This Act would help to break through one of the major barriers that small businesses face. A year later, Bono Mack founded a “Take-Back” program which fought against medication abuse. This bill legalized the disposal of unused medication to drug collection programs in an effort to make prescription drugs less accessible to people, teens and young adults in particular. In an effort to reduce drug abuse, Mack founded a caucus called Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in order to get more congressional involvement. In a written statement, Bono Mack stated “prescription drugs have become the drug of choice because of easy access-with over half the people abusing prescription pain relievers getting them from family and friends.” The bill was unanimously voted for by Congress in July of 2010.