AFSCME Legislative Highlights
Legislation Department
May 19, 2006
Congress — Week ending May 19 In this issue:
House Passes Irresponsible Budget Resolution After Many House Republican Moderates Cave To Unenforceable Promises
On May 18 at 1:00 a.m., after weeks of uncertainty and cancelled votes because House leaders couldn't muster the necessary votes for passage, the House adopted its unrealistic and harmful $2.8 trillion budget resolution for FY 2007 (H.Con.Res. 376) by a vote of 218-210. Every single Democrat present voted against the budget plan joined by 12 Republicans: Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick (PA), Jim Gerlach (PA), Virgil Goode (VA), John Hostettler (IN), Timothy Johnson (IL), Walter Jones (NC), John McHugh (NY), C.L. "Butch" Otter (ID), Jim Ramstad (MN), Rick Renzi (AZ), John Sweeney (NY) and Heather Wilson (NM).
Unfortunately, many Republican moderates who were holding out against the budget cuts included in the resolution, most notably their leader Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE), caved to their leadership's pressure and voted in favor after receiving unenforceable promises that an additional $3.1
billion reserve fund would be added for labor, health, and education programs. Importantly, the overall spending cap was not increased above President Bush's request of $873 billion, which is $4 billion less than last year's spending for Labor-HHS-Education programs. Therefore, if these funds are restored, they would have to be paid for elsewhere in the budget, mostly by cutting other "mandatory" spending programs that could include Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, foster care, Social Services Block Grant, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), child support enforcement, or other areas of human need.
We should be proud of AFSCME's intense grassroots work fighting the House budget resolution. As a result of our activists' efforts, GOP leaders knew the vote was in doubt until the end. Consequently, they pulled out all the stops by threatening to take away committee leadership positions from dissenters, promising more money for pet funding projects in their districts, and making their hollow promise to add more money to priority programs at a later date.
In March, the Senate passed a budget resolution that increased the cap on spending $16 billion above President Bush's request. It is unlikely a conference agreement will be reached between the House and Senate budget resolution bills. Several House appropriations committees have already taken action on their spending bills for FY 2007. The Senate is not moving as quickly on its appropriations bills, and the Labor-HHS-Education bill is often taken up last because it is the most contentious.
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Senate Moves Ahead on Immigration Reform
Attention in Washington, D.C. this week was focused on finding a compromise on the controversial issue of immigration reform. As the Senate began its consideration of dozens of amendments to S. 2611, the immigration reform bill that was approved in the Senate Judiciary Committee in April, President Bush announced that he will dispatch 6,000 National Guard troops starting next month to help secure the porous U.S.-Mexico border. In a nationally televised prime-time speech, Bush also endorsed new procedures that would give undocumented workers who have worked and lived here for an extended time preferred status in obtaining citizenship by paying a fine and back taxes. In addition, the President restated his support for a large guest worker program. Two days later, President Bush asked Congress to approve a $1.95 billion budget request to deploy National Guard troops and 1,000 additional enforcement agents to the U.S.-Mexico border.
After four days of debate the Senate approved several important modifications to the underlying immigration bill while turning back others. Importantly, an amendment supported by AFSCME and sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) was approved, 79-18. The Feinstein-Bingaman amendment would reduce the annual number of guest workers permitted under the new H-2C visa program to 200,000 a year, down from 325,000 under the Committee bill. The amendment would also remove the provisions allowing for annual increases of up to 20 percent while giving Congress the ability to raise the cap later.
The Senate also passed, on a unanimous vote, an amendment sponsored by Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and John Cornyn (R-TX), that would disqualify illegal immigrants who had been convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors or had ignored a court-issued deportation order the ability to obtain a work permit. The amendment was softened by allowing the secretary of homeland security to waive the disqualification in exceptional circumstances. The Senate then approved, 83-16, an amendment
offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to build 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border and would also order the immediate construction of 500 miles of vehicle barriers along frontier lands identified as prime entry points for smugglers and illegal immigrants.
The Senate passed, 63-34, a provision offered by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) to designate English as the national-not official-language of the U.S. and to require applicants to pass an English proficiency test. The vote seemed to be largely symbolic, since the immigration agency's standard handbook for naturalization already mandates that most applicants be able to read, write and speak basic English, with some exceptions for age and disability. Soon after approving the Inhofe amendment, the senators approved, 58 to 39, an amendment offered by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO), declaring that English is "the common and unifying language" of the U.S. Senators said the conflict will have to be worked out in negotiations with the House.
Senators approved, 50-48, another amendment sponsored by Sen. Cornyn that declared that illegal immigrants seeking a guest-worker permit could not petition for legalization on their own but instead had to be sponsored by an employer. This amendment was later modified, 56-43, by an amendment offered by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) that would permit undocumented workers who had worked in the U.S. for more than four years to self-petition for legalization instead of needing to be sponsored by an employer. However, the Senate retained a requirement that the application for a green card could be granted only if the Labor Department certified a need for workers, which lawmakers said would help ensure that foreign workers do not take jobs from Americans.
An important amendment, which AFSCME supported and was offered by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), that would have removed the entire guest worker program failed, 69-28. The Senate also rejected, 43-52, an amendment offered by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to establish a grant program to provide financial assistance to states and local governments for the costs of providing health care and educational services to non-citizens, and to provide additional funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. However, the Senate did agree to a Cornyn amendment, 62-32, to impose an additional $750 fee (or $100 for each dependent) on any unauthorized alien who applies for legal status. The funds would be used to reimburse state and local governments for health and education services.
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Supreme Court Decides Not To Consider State Tax Subsidy Case
The Supreme Court decided not to consider a case at this time which would have been an important test of the constitutionality of state investment tax credits and related tax giveaways. The case is important to unions because current state and local tax break incentives for corporations cost states and localities billions of dollars that could be much better invested in education, health care, job creation and other vital public services. In the case, plaintiffs lost their homes and small businesses when Toledo, Ohio decided to obtain a site for Daimler's new Jeep plant and used eminent domain to complete the deal. Furthermore, the government gave away large tax breaks to Daimler, while Ohio and Toledo lack funds for local schools and public services. Before making final location decisions, it's typical for large profitable corporations to play states and localities off against each other in a counterproductive downward spiral of competing tax breaks.
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Bipartisan Senate Majority Opposes Bush's Cuts To CDBG-Urges Increase to $4.3 Billion
In a direct rebuke to President Bush's proposed budget cut to the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, a bipartisan Senate majority announced support to increase CDBG formula funding to $4.3 billion. These 57 Senators wrote a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee urging them to fully fund this important program. In contrast, Bush's proposed budget would cut CDBG by about $1 billion. This bipartisan Senate effort matches recent House developments in which a group of Republican moderates publicly urged House Republican leaders to increase funding for CDBG. Separately, although the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) claims it is seeking to change the CDBG formula to more effectively target the program, many community development leaders believe HUD is only interested in reducing CDBG's overall funding level.
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AFSCME Participates in Press Conference on Speaker Hastert's Out of Touch Comments on Tax-Paying American Families
Members of Congress were joined by two hardworking AFSCME families represented by Torre Torrence from Largo, MD and Coral Dayon from Trenton, NJ at a Capitol Hill press conference to refute Speaker Hastert's comments regarding the taxes paid by middle-class families. During floor debate on the budget, Hastert said: "Well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two, you don't pay any taxes. So you probably, if you don't pay any taxes, you are not going to get a big tax cut."
Reps. James Clyburn (D-SC), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Ms. Torrence and Ms. Dayon highlighted the stark ways in which Republican policies favor the wealthy over the middle class, as evidenced this week in the GOP budget and the $70 billion in tax cuts that President Bush signed into law Wednesday.
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AFSCME PA Affiliates Gather to Highlight Santorum's Anti-Working Families Record and Urge Santorum to Vote No to the Estate Tax Repeal
AFSCME leaders and active and retiree members from AFSCME Councils 33, 47, 88 and Local 1199C met in Philadelphia's Love Park to speak out against Sen. Rick Santorum's (R-PA) poor record on working family issues. AFSCME activists urged Sen. Santorum to oppose repeal of the estate tax.
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