AFSCME Legislative Report
 AFSCME LEGISLATIVE REPORT
Congress — Week ending December 16
Congressional session sputtering to a close with massive budget cut bill up in the air. AFSCME launches ads against lawmakers who supported budget cuts. Religious Leaders arrested at Capitol in protest of budget. The Congress is scheduled to be in session all weekend. We will post a wrap-up report next week with final actions.
In this issue:
GOP Leaders Using Defense Spending Measure in an Attempt to Expedite Spending Cuts and Open Artic to Drilling
Despite objections, GOP leaders say they will use the Defense Spending (DOD) bill as an end of the year, catchall to pass a number of unrelated measures, including possibly the controversial
provision to open the Artic National Wildlife Area (ANWAR) to drilling by the oil companies. ANWAR is currently in the Senate version of the spending cut bill and is opposed by over 30 moderate Republicans in the House. If ANWAR is moved to the DOD bill the spending cut bill is likely to pass.
Among the other unrelated items that may be added to the bill are a possible one percent across-the-board cut in all spending including defense protection against lawsuits for makers of a pandemic flu vaccine, without providing a compensation program to assist those seriously injured by the vaccine with health care costs and lost wages; funding for a potential flu pandemic at about one-half the level called for by the President; a supplemental appropriations bill that would provide funding to Louisiana and other states affected by Hurricane Katrina; and a campaign finance provision which could adversely affect AFSCME and other unions. AFSCME is strongly opposed to the proposed across-the-board cut which would bring already low spending below the levels needed to maintain vital public services and program needs.
AFSCME has pushed the Congress to provide funding directly to safety net health care facilities in the Gulf region, especially Charity Hospital in New Orleans where many AFSCME members worked. However, the GOP chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have resisted direct funding of health care facilities. The "527 Reform Act of 2005" (S. 271), a campaign finance bill introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russell Feingold (D-WI), would limit the ability of AFSCME affiliates to engage in grassroots activity in support of state and local candidates.
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Religious Leaders and the Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities hold Prayer vigils for a Compassionate Budget — AFSCME Launches Ad Campaign
AFSCME launched a week of action in opposition to the budget cuts, including TV ads in seven congressional districts represented by lawmakers who voted to support the massive budget cut bill. The week also included a sit-in protest at the Capitol where 114 religious leaders were arrested for blocking access to buildings. That vigil was replicated across the country in targeted states and districts. AFSCME also generated over 30,000 calls into those same targeted districts.
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Moderates Get Little for Supporting Revised Health and Education Spending Bill
The Senate is expected to clear a slightly revised plan for the fiscal year (FY) 2006 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill that still slashes funding for vital social programs that are important to state and local governments and working families. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee said "(t)here is not enough money in it."
With only minimal changes, the House, a scant month after the bill was first rejected, narrowly adopted the bill this time around by a 215-213 vote. All Democrats and 12 Republicans voted against the $602 billion bill, which would provide $142.5 billion in discretionary funding. Originally, 22 Republicans opposed the bill when it was rejected by a vote of 209-224. Spending for discretionary programs is set at $163 million less than for FY 2005, but $785 million more than President Bush's budget request. In order to secure passage, the new plan increased rural health spending by $90 million and struck a provision barring Medicare coverage of erectile dysfunction drugs.
Unfortunately, no priority area within the bill escapes drastic and harmful reductions as overall responsibility for many programs continues to be shifted to the states. Education, health care, human services, and labor programs are cut by $1.5 billion below what was spent last year. Total education funding is still reduced by $56.5 billion, the first time federal funding for education has been cut in a decade. Many essential health care programs are cut or eliminated, including the Health Communities Access Program and Preventative Health Block Grants and other grants to state and local health departments to improve bioterrorism preparedness, and the revised bill cuts $120 million from funding to prepare for the flu pandemic. The revised plan increases funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), but still leaves it far short of what will be needed for this winter to meet rising natural gas and home heating oil costs. In addition, the Department of Labor initiatives designed to assist working families and the unemployed, including the Employment Service and UI, are cut by almost four percent.
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Senate Approves Non-Binding Motion Against Including TANF In Budget Reconciliation Bill
The Senate voted 64-27 to approve a non-binding resolution offered by Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) that instructed Senators negotiating an agreement on the budget reconciliation bill to reject House efforts to keep the five-year TANF reauthorization bill in the final legislation. The House had added the TANF legislation in an attempt to end run the four-year political stalemate on the TANF bill. While the motion is non-binding, it is helpful to our efforts to block the House attempt to bypass the normal legislative process. AFSCME has strongly opposed the House bill because of its restrictive work requirements and inadequate child care funding.
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House Democrats to Introduce Pandemic Flu Bill
In consultation with AFSCME, House Democrats have drafted a comprehensive bill to address pandemic flu preparedness and are planning to introduce it before the Congress recesses this year. Importantly, the bill would establish health and safety protections for first responders and health care workers to protect them from exposure to the flu virus. The call for health and safety protections is in response to the President's pandemic flu plan which recommends the stockpiling of surgical masks rather than respiratory masks recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unlike respirators, surgical masks do not filter pathogens from the air and would not prevent health care workers from breathing in the virus.
The bill also provides narrow liability protections for makers of pandemic flu vaccines but couples this protection with a no-fault compensation program that would compensate individuals for health care costs and lost wages should they be seriously injured by a flu vaccine. The Democratic proposal is modeled on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program which provides compensation for individuals harmed by childhood and other vaccines, including the seasonal flu vaccine. The approach in this bill contrasts with efforts by the GOP leadership to provide broad immunity for vaccine makers without providing a compensation program.
The bill addresses another AFSCME priority by providing substantial funding for state and local health departments and for hospital preparedness.
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House Subcommittee Approves Bill Restricting State Tax Revenues
A House Judiciary Subcommittee voted to approve tax legislation that would deprive states of about $6.6 billion per year of needed revenues by expanding corporate tax loopholes. The Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law voted to approve the "Business Activity Tax Simplification Act of 2003" (H.R. 1956) which would expand federal limits on taxation to include the sale of services and intangibles and would extend these limits beyond corporate income tax to other state business taxes. The bill would also narrow states' ability to tax corporations that do business in states by imposing a "physical presence" requirement and creating new safe harbors for non-taxable activities such as the use of nonexclusive contractors or sales agents. AFSCME, the National Governors Association, and other state and local government groups oppose the bill.
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Punitive Immigration Bill Debated on House Floor
The House started debate on a bill (H.R. 4437) designed to curb illegal immigration. Hiding under the straightforward title of "The Border and Immigration Enforcement Act", the bill is intended to punish undocumented workers instead of providing realistic and fair solutions to a complex issue. While the current immigration system is deeply flawed and poorly executed, H.R. 4437 would, for the first time in our nation's history, make it a federal felony crime, instead of a civil offense, for any person — every man, woman and child — to be in the U.S. in violation of an immigration law or regulation. If passed, this would mean that every undocumented worker in the U.S. today would be instantly turned into a criminal and would be denied the ability to ever earn legal status. The Government Accountability Office has reported that the current voluntary employment verification system is broken — unable to identify fraud and maintain accurate records. Despite this, the bill would expand this broken system by requiring every employer to verify the legal status of every employee at the risk of wrongly denying work to many legally authorized workers.
Because the bill is so punitive, it has significant opposition not only from the Democratic caucus but also within the Republican ranks. In an effort to avert defeat, the GOP House leadership permitted a long slate of floor amendments. The major spilt within the Republican ranks is between one faction that wants only to criminalize undocumented workers and even to deny citizenship to the children of undocumented workers who are born in the U.S. and the other faction that supports guestworker programs that would permit undocumented workers to continue to work and live in the U.S.
The Senate is planning to consider broad immigration reform early in the 2006 session. Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) is working on a comprehensive bill that incorporates major portions from three leading Senate bills that have already been introduced.
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Hurricane Relief Bill to Include a Voucher Program
AFSCME is greatly concerned with the hurricane relief package which may be attached to the defense spending bill. It will contain a school voucher plan for the Gulf states region. Direct cash payments would be provided to private and religious schools.
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Violence Against Women Act Close to Passage
The House and Senate have resolved their differences over the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) bill. VAWA includes a comprehensive package of grant programs and policy improvements to help end domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, rape and stalking.
The Senate is in position to pass VAWA today but some obstacles - such as procedural difficulties and unrelated political arguments - still remain. Once the Senate passes the final bill, it will be sent to the House, and it must pass the bill before they recess.
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