AFSCME Legislative Highlights
Legislation Department
June 23, 2006
Congress — Week ending June 23
House passes estate tax reduction. Minimum wage increase falters in the House and Senate. Voting Rights Act pulled from the House schedule.
In this issue:
House Passes Estate Tax Bill That Costs Nearly as Much as Full Repeal
House leaders decided to ignore a central part of President Bush's legislative agenda when they gave up on efforts to pass full repeal of the estate tax, and instead, in the face of Senate opposition to a full repeal, approved a new reform version that loses nearly as much revenue as full repeal. The original repeal would cost $1 trillion over the 10-year period after it is implemented, while the reform version loses over $825 billion. The House approved H.R. 5638, introduced June 19 by Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA), by a vote of 269-156, which would permanently reduce, but not repeal the estate tax, which reduces taxes for the very wealthy.
The new Thomas measure would exempt from taxes estates up to $5 million for individuals and $10 million for couples. Assets exceeding the exempted amounts would be taxed at the capital gains tax rate, which is currently 15 percent. Estates of more than $25 million would be taxed at twice the capital gains rate or 30 percent under current law. Also included in the Thomas bill is a provision that would save a modest amount for the federal Treasury but would do so at the expense of states and create a significant problem for many state budgets. This provision would repeal the existing federal tax deduction for state estate and inheritance taxes that estates or heirs pay. Without the federal deduction, a number of these state estate and inheritance taxes, which already are under fire in a number of states, may have difficulty surviving since repeal of the deduction would increase the burden of state taxes.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) wants to clear the package, but House leaders warned that if the language is modified in the Senate, House conservatives would no longer back the measure.
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A Majority of Senators Vote to Raise the Minimum Wage Increase; House Committee Rejects an Increase in the Minimum Wage
An amendment offered by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over a 26 month period received 52 votes while 46 senators opposed it. But because the amendment was attached to a spending bill, according to Senate rules, it would have required 60 votes to actually pass. Eight Republicans joined every Democrat, except for Jay Rockefeller (WV) who was absent for health reasons, in voting for the increase. That is a pickup of three since Sen. Kennedy offered the identical amendment last March.
The eight Republicans who voted for the amendment were Sens. Lincoln Chafee (RI), Norm Coleman (MN), Susan Collins (ME), Mike DeWine (OH), Richard Lugar (IN), Olympia Snowe (ME), Arlen Specter (PA), and John Warner (VA).
After voting on the Kennedy amendment, senators voted on a Republican alternative minimum wage amendment offered by Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY). This amendment failed to get a majority of the senators voting in favor, losing 45-53, although it would have received 46 votes if Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) had been present. The Enzi amendment would have repealed Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) coverage for over seven million workers; permitted employers to replace the 40-hour work week with an 80-hour work period that would deny overtime pay until 80 hours over two weeks were worked even if the employee worked more than 40 in either week; and would have invalidate state wage protections for tipped workers.
Also this week, the House Appropriations Committee defeated, on a vote of 28 to 34, an amendment to the draft 2007 Science-State-Justice-Commerce spending bill that would have increased the federal minimum hourly wage from $5.15 to $7.25 by January 2009. A week ago, the same committee approved the same amendment as part of the Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS)-Education spending bill (H.R. 5647) on a vote of 32-27. However, the amendment on the Labor-HHS bill is unlikely to survive. GOP House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH) said that he will "probably not" allow a bill to come to the floor that raises the minimum wage because he believes it would result in job losses. The provision could be stripped from the Labor-HHS spending bill without a vote of the full House on the grounds that it legislates on an appropriations measure.
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Senate Budget Committee Approves Harmful Changes to Budget Process; House Passes Narrower Line-Item Veto
The Senate Budget Committee voted 12-10, on straight party lines, to approve harmful changes to the federal budget process. Introduced by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH), the so-called "Stop Over Spending Act of 2006" would create many new budget rules, including new deficit caps implemented by automatic cuts to entitlement programs, new restrictive caps on discretionary spending, and the line-item veto. The bill also creates a new "Entitlement Commission" and "Sunset Commission" which are designed to cut the federal government's investments in public services. AFSCME opposes this legislation.
Democrats countered with their own 11 point plan, which proposed a two-sided process to cover spending and taxes. Democrats also tried to prohibit Congress from using the reconciliation process to increase the deficit and tried to exempt Social Security, Medicare, and veterans' benefits from the Entitlement Commission. Although Sen. Gregg will try to move this bill to the full Senate as soon as possible, this vote will probably occur after July 4.
In contrast to the Senate's broad changes, the House voted on one specific issue, the line-item veto. The House voted 247-172 to pass the "Legislative Line Item Veto Act" (H.R. 4890). While this bill would grant the President authority to propose eliminating specific funding items from a congressional spending bill, it would require Congress to vote to approve the President's proposal before it would take effect. To try to ensure the Supreme Court does not knock down this law, this line-item veto legislation is considerably watered down from past versions. AFSCME opposes this bill.
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Republican Leadership Postpones Consideration of Voting Rights Act
On the day of a scheduled vote on important voting rights legislation, the House Republican leadership removed the bill from the schedule, delaying the vote and jeopardizing the chances of getting the legislation approved before Congress leaves for its summer recess. The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 (H.R. 9) would reauthorize three key provisions of the historic Voting Rights Act that are scheduled to expire next year. Despite strong bipartisan support, a small group of Republicans were successful in delaying the vote on this important civil rights legislation. The decision to pull the vote was influenced by recent actions of Reps. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Charles Norwood (R-GA) and Dan Lungren (R-CA). These particular lawmakers are trying to gut the vital protections of the Voting Rights Act.
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House to Hold Hearings on Immigration
In an effort that is designed to postpone further action on immigration reform, the House GOP leadership announced that they would hold a series of field hearings during the August recess, pushing off final negotiations on a bill until fall at the earliest. Those hearings will take place before the start of the formal negotiating process between the House and Senate, which could take months to complete given the complexity of the issue and the competing business, labor and social concerns. The hearings will be held at the discretion of the chairmen of the Judiciary Committee, the Homeland Security Committee, the Government Reform Committee and any other House committee that can demonstrate tangential jurisdiction over immigration, GOP leaders said.
In December 2005, the House passed a bill that would tighten border controls, clamp down on employers who hire undocumented workers, and declare illegal immigrants and those who assist them to be felons. The decision to hold future hearings was the clearest sign yet that House Republicans have largely given up on passing a broad rewrite of the nation's immigration laws this year. They believe that their get-tough approach is far more popular with voters than the approach backed by President Bush and the Senate, which would create a guest-worker program for future immigrants and offer most of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal residents a chance to become citizens.
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Fight Over Tuberculosis Protections for Health Care Workers Expected
For the third year in a row, the House spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education includes a provision that prohibits the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from enforcing a regulation requiring health care employers to annually test the fit of respirators for workers who are at risk of exposure to tuberculosis (TB). The annual fit test is required whenever any employers are required to provide respirators to protect workers from airborne hazards, ranging from paint fumes to dust to infectious particles. However, the provision inserted in the bill prohibits OSHA from enforcing the annual fit test only where TB is a threat, putting health care workers and first responders at greater risk of contracting TB.
When the Labor-HHS-Education bill is brought to the House floor, an amendment will be offered to strip out the harmful provision. A similar amendment was offered last year and was narrowly defeated by a vote of 206 to 216.
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House May Take Up Flawed Health Information Technology Bill
Next week, the House may debate legislation that would encourage the adoption of health information technology by providers. Last week, two House committees debated the "Better Health Information Technology Promotion Act" (H.R. 4157) but produced different final products. However, both of the bills approved by the Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee are flawed and were opposed by Democrats. House GOP leaders are trying to determine which version of the bill to place before the full House.
The aim of health information technology (HIT) is to digitize patient records so that all of a patient's providers have access to a patient's complete health care record. HIT has the potential to reduce costs and improve care. But HIT also raises potential pitfalls if worker and consumer concerns are not addressed. For example, the Ways and Means Committee's version of H.R. 4157 would preempt state privacy laws that protect patients from inappropriate disclosure of their health records. Neither of the bills produced by the two committees includes any provisions that address how health information technology will impact the jobs of health care workers.
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Federal Consent Decree Legislation Expected to Move
The Federal Consent Decrees Act (S. 489), introduced by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), is expected to be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Consent decrees not only ensure compliance with federal law but outline quite specific plans for compliance. Consent decrees (similar to contracts) have become a primary tool for ensuring that states and localities comply with federal rules in areas such as labor grievances, special education, water quality and Medicaid. The bill would allow state or local officials to end consent decrees after four years or after a new state or local administration takes office.
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Senate Appropriations Committee Reports Out Agriculture Appropriations Bill for FY 2007
On June 22, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to send to the full Senate the FY 2007 Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. The bill contained few changes from the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee spending bill that passed earlier in the week. The Appropriations Committee set funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) at $5.264 billion, which includes a $125 million reserve. This funding level is slightly higher than the House Agriculture Appropriations bill (H.R. 5384), but lower than the $5.388 billion hunger advocates and AFSCME believe is necessary to serve 8.2 million participants in an average month. Both the subcommittee and the Appropriations Committee rejected President Bush's proposal to limit nutrition services and funding for administration.
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