Congress —
Week ending September 23
Social Security privatization on life support. Senate Judiciary
Committee approves John Roberts as Supreme Court Chief Justice.
Hurricane Katrina relief bills moving in Congress.
In this issue:
Major Contracting Out Victory
Working with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), AFSCME scored a major victory
when the Senate added language to the FY 2006 Agriculture Appropriations
bill to prohibit states from turning over the operation of their food
stamp program to private contractors. Texas and Indiana currently are
moving to privatize this important program of assistance to the needy.
The Harkin amendment, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter
(R-PA), was approved on a voice vote. AFSCME was instrumental in
securing Sen. Specter's support. The legislation now goes to a
conference committee with a House-passed bill where we will be working
to keep it in the final bill that is sent to the White House.
Bush Dealt a Major Setback: Social Security
Privatization is on Life Support
With every passing day, it becomes more and more likely that Bush's
top domestic priority — privatizing Social Security — is going to go
down in defeat. It appears that any plan to privatize Social Security
lacks sufficient votes in the Senate and now in the House. This week
Rep. Gerald Weller (R-IL), a member of the Ways and Means Committee that
must act on privatization legislation before it can go to the House
floor, announced that he will oppose legislation that would use the
Social Security surplus to establish personal accounts for workers. It
had been widely expected that if any Social Security legislation moved
through that committee and to the floor this year, it would include a
version of the McCrery-Shaw bill which uses the surplus to establish
private accounts. Weller's opposition is significant because Weller is
the first Republican member of the Ways and Means Committee to come out
against this GOP leadership-backed bill. Last week, Rep. Tom Reynolds
(R-NY), Chairman of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee and
whose job it is to keep the GOP House majority in the 2006 elections,
had predicted that the House would not vote on any legislation to
privatize Social Security.
It has been clear for many months that the Senate Finance Committee
lacked the votes to approve any privatization bill. Therefore, the only
strategy for moving a privatization bill forward in this Congress was to
have the House act first and then send a bill to the Senate, where it
could go directly to the floor for consideration. With the possibility
of action in the House rapidly declining, it is a distinct possibility
that we will not see a privatization bill passed in this Congress. And
if Social Security privatization does die in this Congress, it will be
because the American people rejected it. It will not be because the
Administration messed up its response to Hurricane Katrina or that gas
prices have gone through the roof or that wages have hit the floor. It
will be because the more that the American public heard about what
privatizing Social Security would mean for them, the more they rejected
it. And it means that the opponents of privatizing Social Security, led
by AFSCME, succeeded in making the American public understand how much
they had to lose if Social Security were privatized.
Senate Judiciary Committee Approves John
Roberts as Chief Justice
Judge John G. Roberts is one step closer to being the Chief Justice
of the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest ranking judge in the country. The
Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 5 to approve Judge Roberts'
nomination and send the matter to the full Senate where a vote is
expected the week of September 26.
AFSCME announced opposition to confirming Judge Roberts based
primarily on his anti-civil rights and anti-worker record. As a lawyer
in private practice, Roberts sided with the rich and powerful against
workers. He also worked to dismantle the civil rights gains of the 1960s
and '70s. During the confirmation hearings, Judge Roberts refused to
answer questions related to equal justice for women, minorities and the
right to privacy. Although he insisted he was merely representing the
views of the Reagan Administration, he refused to put any distance
between that Administration's policies and his own personal views.
Finally, the Bush Administration has resisted releasing important
documents that would provide further insight into Judge Roberts' record
when he worked for the Reagan and Bush, Sr. administrations.
Short-Term Katrina Tax Bill — Passed in the
House and Senate
The House and Senate passed a package of tax incentives (H.R. 3768)
intended to provide victims of Hurricane Katrina with cash, housing, and
employment benefits. Included in the bill is a Katrina Disaster Employee
Retention Credit that would provide a 40 percent tax credit for up to
$6,000 in wages paid before the end of the year by employers whose
businesses are located in the disaster area, and an extension of the
Work Opportunity Tax Credit to employers who hire displaced workers.
Also included is a provision which would provide to those who house
dislocated evacuees rent-free with a $500 deduction per evacuee, capped
at $2,000. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the final bill
will cost $6.11 billion over 10 years.
House Conservatives Offer $500 Billion Plan
to Pay for Katrina
The House Republican Study Committee, made up of the House's fiscal
conservatives, outlined a detailed plan of budget cuts that would pay
for the Katrina relief proposals. They want to postpone the Medicare
prescription drug benefit for a year, cut the Medicaid program by $50
billion over five years, reduce health and education benefits for the
military and cut federal retirees' health care. Not included in the
package is any discussion of rolling back the Bush tax cuts.
Unemployment Benefits for Hurricane Victims
Moving Through Congress
The Senate is preparing to vote on legislation that would provide
unemployed workers from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama an additional
13 weeks of benefits for a total of 39 weeks of benefits. In addition, a
Senate committee also has approved a Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA)
program that will provide 39 weeks of unemployment assistance to certain
individuals who are not eligible to collect regular unemployment
benefits and extend the deadline for filing for benefits from 30 to 90
days. The legislation also raises the minimum DUA benefit by a small
amount. While both actions are encouraging, we, along with the AFL-CIO,
had been urging approval of 52 weeks of benefits and a higher minimum
benefit because the unemployment benefits in these states are the lowest
in the nation.
Meanwhile, negotiations in the House of Representatives over an
extension of regular unemployment benefits centered around a 26-week
extension, for a total of 52 weeks of benefits, increasing the benefit
amount, and providing increased administrative funds for the increased
number of claims. While it had been our hope to have the bill on the
House floor this week, it appears that the House leadership may be
resisting moving forward. There is some concern that a growing backlash
over Katrina-related spending could complicate adoption of the proposal.
In addition, there has been no action on Disaster Unemployment
Assistance in the House.
Improved Communication for First Responders
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on
September 22nd approved an array of Hurricane Katrina-related bills,
including legislation that would provide grants for "interoperable"
communications equipment to be used by first responders. Just last week,
similar legislation that was included as an amendment by Sen. Debbie
Stabenow (D-MI) to the Senate Commerce, Justice State spending bill, was
rejected. Both the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York and Hurricane
Katrina highlighted the need for improved communications between first
responders.
House Approves Head Start Bill After
Removing Nondiscrimination Protections
On Thursday, the House approved a bill (H.R. 2123) reauthorizing the
Head Start program by a vote of 231 to 184. During the debate, an
amendment offered by Reps. Charles Boustany, Jr. (R-LA) and John Boehner
(R-OH) to strip civil rights protections from the bill was approved by a
vote of 220-196. Under the amendment, faith-based organizations that
receive a federal grant to operate a Head Start program would be allowed
to engage in religious discrimination when hiring Head Start teachers
and other employees. As a result, workers could be excluded from
taxpayer-funded Head Start jobs because of the religion they practice.
The Boustany-Boehner amendment was agreed to largely along party lines
with nine Republicans joining all but 10 Democrats in opposing the
amendment.
On a more positive note, AFSCME worked with children advocates to
defeat an amendment offered by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) that would
have allowed for-profit entities to convert a part of their Head Start
grant into profit. The effect of the amendment would have been to
encourage for-profit entities to compete for Head Start grants and to
reduce the funds that would otherwise be used to serve Head Start
children.
Early Education Disaster Relief Bill Moving
to the Senate Floor
A bill offered by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Michael Enzi
(R-WY) to provide education disaster relief has passed out of the HELP
Committee. The Kennedy-Enzi bill provides Hurricane relief that
authorizes an additional $112 million for CCDBG and $45 million for Head
Start as well as some increased flexibility for states and Head Start
grantees. The bill is moving to the Senate floor this week. Currently,
the House does not have a counterpart to the Kennedy-Enzi bill. This
could also be delayed because of Hurricane Rita.
The Senate Finance Committee may consider a second Katrina bill that
might include additional child care dollars.
Education Relief Package May Include
Federal Money for Private Schools
The Senate is faced with competing education aid packages. One, by
Sens. Kennedy and Enzi, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions (HELP) Committee, would not explicitly provide money to private
schools to educate public school students displaced by Katrina. The
other, by the Bush Administration, would provide grants of up to $7,500
per child to families, through states, to send students to private
schools. The grants would go to families with limited incomes. AFSCME
has concerns that the private school plan is a way to introduce school
vouchers.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) has offered her own bill with Sen. David
Vitter (R-LA) to provide $4,000 per student to any school, public or
private, that takes in displaced schoolchildren. Also Thursday, the
Senate passed by voice vote a bill (S. 1764), sponsored by Sen. Kay
Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), to allow the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) to pay for extra school supplies and new teachers in
school systems that have taken in students evacuated because of Katrina.
Intergovernmental Relations — Update
The following is a periodic report on the activities of state and
local government interest groups and other advocacy organizations.
- Governors Support Bipartisan Disaster Relief Medicaid Bill —
Adding to widespread support for health care coverage for Hurricane
Katrina victims, the National Governors Association (NGA) sent a
letter to Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA)and Max Baucus (D-MT) in
support of their disaster relief Medicaid bill. The Emergency Health
Care Relief Act of 2005 (S. 1716) would provide 100 percent federal
funding for Medicaid coverage for low-income Katrina survivors, as
well as retain the current higher federal matching rate to ease the
financial burden on states. The bill is expected to be considered by
the Senate early next week.
