Along with Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz), her co-leader of the Progressive Caucus in the House, Woolsey signed a letter to President Barack Obama declaring that the caucus would not support a bill that did not include a public option. "A health reform bill without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs," they said, a position Woolsey has adamantly repeated. The letter has been signed by 55 other representatives.

In an effort to produce a compromise, Obama conducted negotiated in September 2009 with key Democratic lawmakers, including Woolsey. But Woolsey has said that she will not support the "trigger" plan being floated by the Obama administration as a potential compromise. Under the plan, proposed by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the government would set goals for the health-insurance industry, and if they are not met, a public option would take effect. This plan "is putting off what we should be doing in the first place," Woolsey said. "We need a robust public health care plan immediately."

Iraq and International Affairs

Along with other members of the Progressive Caucus, Woolsey has also been a spirited opponent of the war in Iraq. She voted against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002 and against every subsequent bill allocating funding to the war. She cofounded the Out of Iraq Caucus and sponsored legislation in 2005 calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops. (The bill was defeated, 128 to 300.)

In 2007, after Democrats regained the House majority and public opinion had shifted against the war, Woolsey and other anti-war lawmakers suddenly held more sway on the issue. Woolsey wanted the troops out by the end of the year, as opposed to the August 2008 deadline that Speaker Pelosi was pushing for, but she and other liberal Democrats were credited with pressing the party leadership to demand a withdrawal timeline.

From her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Woolsey has also been outspoken on several other international issues. In April 2009, she was arrested along with four other members of Congress and three activists in a Darfur protest in Washington, D.C. "I hope that is very clear to our administration and to international communities that violence in Darfur must end," she said.

The Economy

In 2008, along with a few other ultra-liberal lawmakers, Woolsey voted against the $700 billion financial bailout measure because she objected to bailing out Wall Street while providing no help to homeowners and working families. Along with the rest of her party, Woolsey voted for the $787 billion federal stimulus package in February 2009.

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