Suburban Caucus

An informal group of over 70 Republican members of the United States House of Representatives with primarily suburban constituencies, founded by Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL). He planned a suburban agenda in early 2004, made a presentation on it at the party's national convention in New York, formed a House GOP caucus around it and commissioned pollster John McLaughlin to test potential policy items.

From initial membership of 22, it has grown to over 50 members. Caucus members include representatives from New York to California, Minnesota to Florida. It's includes moderates such as Mike Castle of Delaware, and more conservative House members like Pete Sessions of Texas and Tom Feeney of Florida.

The agenda is broken down into four main categories: education, healthcare, conservation and economic issues. Specific points include: keeping child molesters from becoming teachers; making health insurance fully portable; long term saving for children; more cleanup and less court for the superfund environment program; and expanding federal backup to fight international drug gangs.

• Health Information Technology Promotion Act (H. R. 4157) setting guidelines to establish electronic medical records
• School Safety Acquiring Faculty Excellence Act (H.R. 4894) linking state and national criminal databases to make sure interstate child molesters are not hired as teachers, coaches or bus drivers.
• Charitable Donations for Open Space Act (H.R. 5056) creating tax easements for charitable donations for open space.
• Gang Elimination Act of 2006 (H.R. 5291) fighting new suburban drug gangs.
• Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act (H.R. 5313) establishing local grant programs to protect suburban open space.
• 401 Kids Family Savings Accounts (H.R. 5314) establishing savings for kids from birth to pay for education or to purchase first home.
• Deleting Online Predators Act (H.R. 5319) protecting children from online predators especially on social networking sites such as MySpace.com.

• "Suburban agenda" (Washington Times Editorial, 11 May 2006)
• "In turnaround try, House GOP focuses on suburban voters" (The Hill's Congress Blog, 9 May 2006)