As I travel across the state and listen to New Yorkers, there is no question how worried people are about the economy -- if the job they have today will be here tomorrow, if the job they lost is ever coming back, and how they are going to make ends meet and provide for their families. I share these concerns and I'm working each and every day to put New Yorkers back to work, support small businesses and grow our economy for the long term.

But what I also hear from people time and again is that they have very little faith that Congress is working to solve their problems. Frankly, when they look to Washington they see a lot of people who are more concerned about scoring cheap political points than improving their lives and solving their problems.

The fact is, New Yorkers feel they're not being heard, that too much business is happening behind closed doors and too often the system only benefits the special interests that have way too much power. That's why I am traveling the state during August recess to promote my transparency agenda and let New Yorkers know that making Washington work for you is one of my top priorities.

As I wrote back in July, the four pillars of my reform agenda are as follows:

   1. Make Federal Funding Requests Fully Transparent
   2. Reduce Corporate Special Interest Influence on Elections
   3. End Automatic Congressional Pay Raises
   4. Ban Anonymous Holds on Legislation