Belated Mothers Day present from the GOP

  Mothers Day is over, but Republicans led by Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, are gearing up to unveil a sweeping legislative package geared heavily to the nation's working moms.

   Granger, vice-chair of the House Republican Conference and the highest-ranking GOP woman in the House, has spent weeks quietly working with other Republican women House members to help craft an American Families Agenda that will be unveiled at a press conference on Wednesday.

     The package includes more than 40 bills and is being touted as a major election-year initiative by the House Republican leadership.

   Along with broad family issues such as health care and education, it is also expected to include a number of bills tailored to working women struggling to raise children and hold down careers.  Republicans thus hope to court a powerful constituency that has tended to side with Democrats.   

-- By Dave Montgomery