AFSCME Legislative Highlights
Legislation Department
June 16, 2006
Congress — Week ending June 16
Amid Republican disarray, House leaders postpone action on the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill, including minimum wage increase. Democrats unveil their policy agenda.
In this issue:
Internal Conflict Forces House Republican Leaders to Pull Back Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Spending Bill
Shortly after the full House Appropriations Committee reported the annual spending bill for labor, health and human services and education programs, House Republican leaders announced that they would not send the bill to the floor next week. During the markup, the committee approved a minimum wage increase proposed by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) with the support of seven Republican members despite objections from Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and from the business community.
With the bill already in some trouble because funding levels were below the amount Republican moderates had wanted in exchange for supporting the budget resolution earlier this spring, the leadership decided that cross currents within the Republican caucus over the minimum wage and funding levels made the bill too politically controversial to take to the House floor. Despite this development, AFSCME will continue working with the Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities (ECAP) and other allies to press Congress for higher funding levels as the year progresses.
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House Leader Says Privatization of Social Security Will Top 2007 Agenda
Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA) told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that he intends to make reform of the Social Security system his top priority next year. This is particularly important because Rep. McCrery, who is currently Chairman of the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, is widely expected to succeed Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA) as Chairman of the full Ways and Means Committee if Republicans retain control of Congress after midterm elections this fall. McCrery said that while Social Security, tax, and health care reform were all on his agenda, he would push to privatize Social Security first in 2007. McCrery said a rewrite of the tax code and revamping the nation's healthcare system probably will wait until at least 2009. McCrery has been a long-time advocate of Social Security privatization.
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House Subcommittee Approves Spending Bill for Justice Programs
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Science-State-Justice-Commerce approved by voice vote its FY 2007 spending bill and sent it to the Appropriations Committee for review. Members were restricted by the House Republican leadership's $59.8 billion limit on overall discretionary spending. The available funds were only 4.6 percent more than last year's enacted level and almost identical to President Bush's FY 2007 request. As in past years, there was bipartisan opposition to President Bush's proposal to cut local law enforcement and the Subcommittee Chair rejected Bush's proposed 52 percent cut.
The bill provides a total of $22.1 billion for Department of Justice programs, $724 million more than FY 2006 and $1 billion more than President Bush's request. The bill would appropriate $2.6 billion for assistance to state and local law enforcement for crime fighting initiatives ($1.5 billion more than Bush's request), including $405 million for SCAAP (reimbursing States for criminal alien detention costs); $390 million for violence against women prevention and prosecution programs; $558 million for the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grants program; $281 million for juvenile delinquency prevention and accountability programs; $100 million for law enforcement technologies and interoperability; and $99 million for meth hot spots.
The Appropriations Committee is expected to vote on June 20 and the full House is expected to vote before the July 4th recess.
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House May Take Up Sunset Commission Legislation
House GOP leaders are drafting legislation to establish a sunset commission to review federal programs and agencies to determine whether they should be terminated, continued, consolidated or changed in some other way. The bill could be put to a House vote as early as next week. Under the bill, the commission would be able to review programs and agencies behind closed doors and without any requirement that they seek input from the public. The commission's recommendations would be packaged into a single bill that would go to the House and Senate under "fast track" procedures. Such procedures would prohibit Members of Congress from making any changes to the recommendations. The entire package, which could include recommendations for hundreds of programs and laws, would be presented for a single up or down vote. By packaging the recommendations in a single, unchangeable bill, proponents hope to ram through unpopular changes that could not be accomplished if considered on their own.
In some cases, we can expect the commission to call for the outright elimination of programs that the White House has been trying to terminate, especially programs in education, law enforcement and social services. But the commission could also do substantial harm by recommending changes that eliminate protections, weaken enforcement, or undermine the mission of programs and agencies through consolidation, block granting or privatization. Proponents of the sunset commission have specifically identified the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as one program to be targeted for change. In addition, the commission could recommend the termination of programs that employ AFSCME members, the privatization of federal work, the elimination of civil rights, Davis-Bacon, whistleblower and other worker protections that are embedded in many laws.
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Democrats Unveil "New Direction for America"
On June 14, congressional Democrats announced their "New Direction for America" agenda. The overarching message is that Democrats' are committed to expanding opportunity, security and prosperity for all Americans, while Republicans are ignoring real American priorities. The issues uniting Democrats include real neighborhood and homeland security, affordable health care starting with fixing the prescription drug law so it serves seniors and not just drug companies and HMOs, good paying jobs that are not shipped overseas, affordable college education through expanded tuition assistance, ending dependence on foreign oil, and ensuring a dignified retirement by protecting Social Security.
The New Direction platform takes the Bush Administration and Republican Congress to task for moving our country in the wrong direction. Their record includes a 70 percent increase in family health insurance payments; a stagnant minimum wage for 7.5 million workers while corporations receive billions in tax subsidies to send jobs overseas; a doubling of gas prices while we are dependent on foreign oil for 60 percent of our energy needs; a record budget surplus turned into record deficits; and $12 billion of cuts for student aid while college costs escalate.
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House Votes to Protect U.S. Aviation from Foreign Takeover
Once again, the House of Representatives voted to stop the Administration from implementing a new rule that would allow for foreign interests to control U.S. airlines. An amendment to the FY 2007 Transportation-Treasury-HUD-Judiciary-D.C. spending bill (H.R. 5576) would delay for a year an Administration-backed rule that would allow foreign interests to control U.S. airlines' business decisions. The delay will give the Congress an opportunity to review the rule, particularly aspects that deal with security. The proposed rule is in violation of current law which prohibits foreigners from owning more than 25 percent of a U.S. airline's stock and requires that airlines be under the "actual control" of U.S. citizens. AFSCME and several other labor unions were opposed to the rule because it would threaten the jobs and rights of thousands of U.S. aviation workers and pose a security threat to the nation. The amendment delaying the misguided rule was passed by a vote of 291-137.
The overall $139.6 billion Transportation-Treasury-Housing-DC spending bill was approved by a vote of 406-22 after rejecting a number of amendments that would have stripped several House members' pet projects from the bill.
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