AFSCME Legislative Highlights
AFSCME LEGISLATIVE
REPORT
September 15, 2006
In this issue:
Senate Panel Looks at Nonprofit
Hospitals
On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee
held a hearing to examine the low levels of charity care, higher
charges to the uninsured, aggressive collection practices and
other abuses by a few nonprofit hospitals and whether new
regulations should be developed to prohibit such abuses. AFSCME
submitted a statement for the hearing record, prepared by
Council 31, which described abuses at Resurrection Health Care,
a hospital system where the Council is conducting an organizing
campaign.
In return for a tax exemption on income, nonprofit health
care facilities are required to provide benefits to their
community. However, some nonprofit hospitals behave more like
profit-maximizing corporations rather than institutions centered
on a mission to serve their communities. While the chair of the
Senate Finance Committee, Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), has been
holding hearings and studying the issue for some time, it is not
clear that the Committee will draft legislation to tighten up
existing rules.
AFSCME's statement to the Committee highlighted that the
public is best served by policies that foster a strong public
and nonprofit health care sector. The statement also called upon
the Congress to enact comprehensive health care reform.
(Barbara Coufal- bcoufal@afscme.org)
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House Panel Approves Voter ID
Legislation
Legislation that would require voters to
present a photo identification card before casting their ballot
passed the House Administration Committee on September 14. The
"Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006" (H.R. 4844) passed on a
party line vote of 4-3. The legislation would require all
eligible voters to obtain a government–issued photo ID in
order to cast a ballot, after showing their birth-certificate or
passport to prove citizenship. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) introduced
H.R. 4844 claiming that the measure is designed to reduce voter
fraud. In reality, it would simply encourage discrimination and
prevent many eligible voters from exercising the most sacred and
important civil right they have.
At AFSCME's convention in August, a resolution was adopted by
the delegates expressing the Union's opposition to any and all
forms of voter ID legislation. The resolution stated that "Voter
ID will do nothing to improve our election system and ensure
that every vote counts. Voter ID will not prevent any fraud from
occurring. A photo ID is not definitive proof of address, nor
does it definitively provide other relevant information. Low
income people and senior citizens would be disproportionately
affected by the requirement for a Voter ID because they are less
likely to have a valid driver's license or state-issued ID, and
it is harder for them to get one."
(Cynthia Bradley- cbradley@afscme.org)
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House Approves Watered Down Earmark Reform
Bill
In what will probably be the only
congressional response to the ethics and lobbying scandals which
have befallen Congress over the past two years, the House voted
245-171, mostly on party-lines, to approve H.R. 1000 which would
impose limited disclosure requirements on House appropriations
earmarks and special interest tax breaks. Although Democrats
want to require the House to disclose the congressional sponsor
of every earmark and any tax legislation benefiting special
interests, the bill is narrowly written to require disclosure of
the sponsors of tax breaks benefiting only a single corporate
entity and would expire at the end of the current Congress. The
Resolution also permits these weak requirements to be overridden
by a simple House majority.
(Marc Granowitter- mgranowitter@afscme.org)
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Senate Votes to Approve Security Training For Port
Workers
The Senate approved port security
legislation (H.R. 4954) that included an amendment requiring
mandatory training for all port workers. The bipartisan
amendment was offered by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and will ensure
that tens of thousands of port workers are properly prepared in
the event of a terrorist threat or attack. The amendment
requires that the Department of Homeland Security establish and
implement a meaningful worker security training program, utilize
the expertise of various training partners and mandate that
terminal operators establish a strategy and timeline for
including training as a
part of all port security plans.
Labor unions have fought for mandatory training for some time,
however the Administration has largely ignored proposals to
provide this training.
(Cynthia Bradley- cbradley@afscme.org)
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House Votes To Build Wall Along Mexican Border and
House GOP Leaders Announce Intention to Pass Additional
Immigration Measures
House Republican leaders, as
part of their pre-election push, announced that they intended to
press for the passage of 10 border security measures, which
would be included in the spending bill on homeland security
programs, before recessing in late September. Following that
announcement, the first of the initiatives (H.R. 6061) which
would require the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the
U.S.-Mexican border was brought to the House floor for a vote
where it passed 283-138. In addition to the fence, H.R. 6061,
sponsored by Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-NY),
authorized other provisions extracted from a broader immigration
bill (H.R. 4437) which the House passed in December 2005,
including a "virtual" fence made up of unmanned aerial vehicles,
ground sensors, cameras, and other surveillance technology.
Whether the Senate will accept these provisions is uncertain
since the Senate and President Bush are pressing for a broader
immigration reform bill that would include a guest worker
program.
(Marge Allen- mallen@afscme.org)
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House Approves Bill to Establish Public Database of
Contracts and Grants
This week, the House
approved the Senate-passed Federal Funding Accountability and
Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590). This bill establishes a
single federal database disclosing federal grants and contracts
awarded to businesses, nonprofit organizations and state and
local agencies. The searchable database will be available to the
public and accessible on the internet by January 2008. The
legislation also establishes a two-year pilot program to
identify a method for monitoring subcontracts and subgrants. By
July 2009, subcontracts and subgrants are to be included in the
broader database. The database will provide a very helpful tool
for monitoring contracts awarded by the federal government and
the subcontracts and subgrants awarded by state and local
governments. This uncontroversial bill now goes to the President
for his signature.
(Barbara Coufal- bcoufal@afscme.org)
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Congressional Study Shows State-by-State Impact of
Bush Social Security Privatization Plan
If President
Bush's Social Security privatization plan had been in place for
today's workers over their full careers, they would be
experiencing annual benefit cuts ranging from $6,013 in
Washington, D.C. to $7,598 in New Jersey, according to an
analysis by House Committee on Ways and Means Democrats. The
Bush privatization plan includes two cuts in Social Security
guaranteed benefits. First, it imposes a middle-class benefit
cut by changing the way the benefit formula is revised to keep
pace with the economy. This cut would apply to everyone, even
people who chose not to have private accounts. And, the Bush
plan includes a tax on those who opt for private accounts. Under
this scheme, private account holders would be required to repay
the Social Security Trust Fund for diverting funds to their
private accounts, which would result in a very substantial
reduction in the guaranteed Social Security benefit.
(Fran
Bernstein- fbernstein@afscme.org)
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New GAO Report Confirms Middle-Class Benefit Cuts
>From Bush Social Security Plan
A new report by the
Government Accountability Office (GAO), "Social Security Reform
Implications of Different Indexing Choices," confirms that the
middle-class benefit cuts outlined by President Bush as part of
his proposal to privatize Social Security would have a dramatic
and negative effect on benefit levels. The GAO analyzed possible
changes to the indexing of Social Security benefits–how
they are adjusted over time to keep up with the economy. The
analysis included the middle-class benefit cut proposed by
President Bush, referred to as "progressive indexing" by
supporters, which would index future benefits to prices rather
than to wages for everyone who earned more than $20,000 a year.
Under his proposal, benefits would be reduced for 7 in 10 future
workers. "Changes to the benefit formula...will have similar
results regardless of whether the change is an indexing change
or a straight benefit reduction."
(Fran Bernstein- fbernstein@afscme.org)
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500,000 Medicare Beneficiaries Will Lose Automatic
Enrollment in Drug Plan Next Year
As many as half a
million low-income beneficiaries who were automatically enrolled
in the Medicare drug benefit this year will not be automatically
enrolled for 2007, even though they likely will qualify,
according to a statement this week by Mark McClellan, outgoing
Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In addition, the enrollment period in 2007 will be only six
weeks instead of the six months allowed in 2006, adding to the
obstacles low-income seniors will face next year in receiving
the prescription drugs they need at affordable prices. These new
coverage barriers will compound the existing drug program's
shortcomings, including Medicare's inability to negotiate for
lower drug prices, and the "doughnut hole" coverage gap during
which beneficiaries must pay the full cost of their
prescriptions until they reach their annual out-of-pocket limit.
(Fran Bernstein- fbernstein@afscme.org)
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Study Finds Health Savings Accounts Attract Wealthier
Americans, Don't Decrease Health Care Costs or Improve Health
Care Quality
Health savings accounts (HSAs) tend to
"attract healthier individuals who use less health care
or...higher-income individuals with the means to pay higher
deductibles and the desire to accrue tax-free savings,"
according to a report released last week by the GAO. The report,
entitled "Consumer-Directed Health Plans: Early Enrollee
Experiences with Health Savings Accounts and Eligible Health
Plans," noted that more than half of those with HSAs earn
$75,000 a year or more, compared with 18 percent of all tax
filers. The GAO also found that individuals with greater health
needs would likely pay higher prices for health care financed
through an HSA rather than through a traditional health care
plan. And, HSAs have had little impact on individuals' spending
on health care. This report bolsters the arguments of AFSCME,
other health care advocates and many members of Congress that
HSAs run counter to what's needed for real health care reform.
(Fran Bernstein- fbernstein@afscme.org)
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