AFSCME Legislative Highlights
 Legislation Department
May 5, 2006
Congress — Week ending May 5
Negotiations continue among House GOP leaders on crafting a budget plan. Defying veto threat, Senate passes $109 billion emergency spending bill. AFSCME testifies at employment service hearing. Voting Rights Act extension introduced.
In this issue:
Negotiations Continue Among House GOP Leaders on Crafting Budget Plan
House GOP leaders have said they hope to reach an agreement to take up their harmful budget plan that calls for more spending cuts in vital services for children, seniors and other vulnerable populations and more tax cuts for the rich. In order to appease moderate Republicans who are requesting more money for social programs, the latest plan under consideration would add $4 billion beyond the President's proposal for Labor-HHS-Education programs, plus another $2 billion for other domestic programs. This still remains a cut, since it would take more than $7 billion in increased Labor-HHS-Education funding to maintain the current level of services for next year. Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), who has been outspoken in seeking $7.2 billion in additional funds, has said he will continue to oppose the budget unless the numbers continue to go up, but other GOP moderates may be persuaded to support the plan with the lower amount added back. AFSCME continues to oppose any budget deal that forces cuts in health care, education, nutrition, child care, and many other vital public services delivered by state and local government and our members. Cutting services to pay for tax giveaways to millionaires is unacceptable and hurts our nation.
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AFSCME Continues to Fight Federal Budget Cuts
On Monday, May 1, AFSCME Council 81 active and retiree members held a demonstration outside a local town hall meeting in Wilmington, Delaware. AFSCME activists urged Rep. Mike Castle and other House members to vote against the harmful budget resolution.
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Senate Approves $109 Billion Emergency Spending Bill Despite Bush's Veto Threat
The Senate voted 78-20 to approve the $109 billion FY 2006 emergency supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 4939). While senators offered amendments to increase and decrease spending, the net total of amendments added around $10 billion to the bill. Overall, the bill provides $71 billion for America's military operations; $28.9 billion for hurricane relief; $2.6 billion for pandemic flu planning of which $350 million goes to state and local governments; and $1.9 billion for border security. The bill also contains $200 million for transit, as well as language allowing the Federal Transit Administration to waive any federal transit requirements for the next two years, including labor protections. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill if its spending exceeds $94.5 billion. The bill now goes to a House-Senate conference committee that will try to iron-out differences between the bills.
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IVP Greg Devereux Testifies for Increased Funding for State Employment Service Offices
International Vice President and Executive Director of AFSCME Council 28 Greg Devereux of Washington State appeared before a House subcommittee this week and made a strong case for restoring and increasing funding for the Employment Service. The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), and the ranking Democrat is Rep. Jim McDermott (WA).
State employment service offices are facing a national cut of almost $60 million that will take effect on July 1 under the terms of the spending bill that was enacted into law last fall. The Administration is asking for another $34 million cut in this year's budget request. In addition, the Administration is proposing to end America's Job Bank which is the largest job bank in the world and a mainstay of the state job banks.
The full testimony can be found on the AFSCME website.
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Voting Rights Act Extension Brings Republicans and Democrats Together
On Tuesday, May 2, leaders in both the House and the Senate introduced a 25-year extension of expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). Thirteen Democratic and Republican legislators participated in a press conference on the steps of the Capitol to announce the introduction of the legislation and their support for renewing key expiring provisions of the VRA. The bipartisan introduction of the bill in both chambers was an historic event in light of the divisiveness which presently exists in the Congress on most issues. "The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006" (H.R. 9/S. 2703) was named for three famed heroines of the civil rights era. The VRA is one of the most important and effective laws in U.S. history.
The three expiring provisions are: section 5, which requires states and localities with a history of voting discrimination to get pre-approval before making changes in their election procedures; section 203 which requires counties to provide language assistance where more than five percent of the citizens are non English-speaking; and sections 6-9, which requires the Department of Justice to send federal examiners and observers to monitor elections where there is evidence of voter intimidation. Several hearings are scheduled for the month of May, and the bill is expected to come to the floor of both chambers before the July 4th recess.
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Senate Bill that Would Wipe Out Patient Protections is Set for Floor Debate Next Week
On Tuesday, the Senate is expected to take up the "Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act" (S. 1955), sponsored by Sen. Michael B. Enzi (R-WY). AFSCME opposes this bill because it would override state patient protections, including coverage for child immunizations and check-ups, mammograms, prostate and cervical screenings, emergency and maternity services, diabetic supplies and other vital services. The bill would also drive up the cost of comprehensive coverage on which working families rely.
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House Passes Toothless Lobby Reform Bill
On Wednesday, the House narrowly passed a lobby reform bill (H.R. 4975) that fails to make real change in a system that allows insiders with special connections to advance narrow interests at the expense of the common good. H.R. 4975 makes only minor changes that would do little to change the way this Congress works. Furthermore, the House GOP leadership used an unusual maneuver that automatically combined the lobby reform bill with the previously passed "527 Reform Act" (H.R. 513) a bill that would undermine the ability of labor unions to conduct grassroots activities in support of state and local candidates and eliminate independent 527 organizations that speak out about elected officials and issues of national importance. H.R. 4975 was passed by a vote of 217-213 largely along party lines with 20 Republicans voting against the bill and eight Democrats in support. The Senate previously passed its own lobby reform bill, but has not passed legislation restricting 527 organizations and union accounts.
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Funding for Compensation Program for Health Care Workers and First Responders Approved in Senate
On Wednesday, the Senate approved an amendment to the emergency supplemental spending bill, providing $289 million for a program to compensate health care workers and first responders who have serious adverse affects from receiving pandemic flu vaccines or other flu countermeasures. The amendment, an AFSCME legislative priority, was offered by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and was passed by a vote of 53-46.
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House Agriculture Subcommittee Reports Out Its FY 2007 Funding Bill
On May 3, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee reported out its FY 2007 funding bill for the Department of Agriculture. The full Committee is expected to vote on the bill on May 9. The subcommittee funded the Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) at $5.244 billion, which is $40 million over FY 2006 levels and $44 million over the Bush Administration's request but is less than the $5.38 billion AFSCME and anti-hunger advocates project is needed to support an anticipated WIC monthly caseload of 8.2 million participants. The subcommittee rejected the Administration's harmful proposals to cap funding for WIC nutrition services at 25 percent of total funding and to restrict Medicaid adjunctive eligibility for WIC recipients at 250 percent of poverty. The subcommittee funded the Food Stamp Program at a level $2.8 billion below FY 2006, which was justified based on Administration estimates that food stamp participation will decrease. A $3 billion reserve fund was included in the bill. Child nutrition programs were funded $685 million above last year. And in an important victory for anti-hunger advocates, the subcommittee rejected President Bush's proposal to defund the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and instead provided $118.3 million for this program, which provides food packages to low-income seniors and children. The Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is not expected to consider its bill until after the Memorial Day recess.
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Fate of Senate Immigration Bill Unclear
Although efforts to pass an immigration reform bill in the Senate collapsed just before the two-week Easter recess, Senate leaders returned to Washington determined to try again to craft a bill that could survive the 60-vote threshold needed to close off debate prior to voting on the actual bill. Senators are feeling pressure to act on immigration, at least in part as result of the widespread and large immigration rallies and boycotts that have taken place around the country. However, it is too early to predict whether or not these negotiations will succeed in a deal that returns the bill to the Senate floor for debate and votes.
While most Democratic senators support providing a path-to-legalization for the 11-12 million undocumented workers who are residing in the U.S., some senators are also looking for ways to reduce the size of a guest worker program that was approved in the Senate committee bill. When debate resumes, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) is expected to offer an amendment to strike the entire guest worker program. Other Democrats are also talking about increasing the wage levels that employers of guest workers would have to pay.
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Harmful Bill With Business Tax Loopholes Introduced in Senate
On May 4, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Senate version of the Business Activity Tax Simplification Act (BATSA), which would open huge new corporate tax loopholes and deprive states and localities of $10 billion in annual revenues. Big business supports BATSA because it would relax the prevailing standard for states and localities to levy taxes from a relatively strict "economic nexus" to the more relaxed "physical presence". The National Governors Association estimates that BATSA would annually cost states $4.7 billion-$8 billion.
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Bill Introduced to Provide Parental Leave for Federal Workers
On April 6, Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Tom Davis (R-VA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) introduced the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2006 (H.R. 5148) to ensure that at least one-half of the 12 weeks of parental leave made available to a federal employee would be paid leave. Currently, employees have to use vacation, sick or unpaid family and medical leave to stay home with a child. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Government Reform.
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