AFSCME Legislative Report
AFSCME LEGISLATIVE REPORT
December 21, 2007
In this issue:
President Bush Continues to Block Funding for Important Programs
As of this writing, Congress is preparing to approve an omnibus spending bill for FY 2008 that funds key programs in which AFSCME members work. This omnibus package provides funding for labor, health care, human services, education, transportation, housing and community development programs. Bush has threatened to veto any measure that would include more than his requested level of spending. The bottom line is that the President's actions will result in cuts to many of the services provided by state and local governments and childcare workers.
In addition to the President's recklessness, GOP congressional leaders would not allow the budget bill to move forward unless it included funding for the Iraqi war. The Senate voted 76-17 to attach war funding to the spending bill and send the measure back to the House for a final vote. The House is positioned to vote to approve the President's cuts as of this writing. We will provide a more detailed analysis of the omnibus bill after the holidays.
(Cynthia Bradley- cbradley@afscme.org)
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Senate Approves Bill to Continue Children's Health Care Program (SCHIP) and Address Other Health Care Matters
Unable to win over enough Republican support to override the President's veto of the last SCHIP compromise bill or to make needed improvements in the Medicare program, the Senate approved legislation on Tuesday that boots these decisions to next year and 2009. The House is expected to follow with approval of the legislation this week.
The bill continues the State Children's Health Insurance Program under current law until March 2009. The bill includes additional federal funding for states so that they may maintain their current enrollment levels until that date. However, failure to enact a new SCHIP bills means that four million children eligible for coverage will not be added to the SCHIP rolls.
With respect to Medicare, the bill delays for six months a scheduled cut in payments made to doctors who treat Medicare beneficiaries and instead provides a one-half percent increase. Physicians were facing a cut of 10 percent at the start of the year without passage of this legislation. Democratic leaders had originally planned to eliminate the physician pay cut, make improvements in the Medicare program for low-income beneficiaries and improve the solvency of the Medicare program. These improvements would have been paid for by eliminating the windfall subsidies paid to insurance companies that offer a private version of Medicare, so-called Medicare Advantage plans. Despite the need to make these improvements in the Medicare program, the White House and GOP leaders in the House and Senate refused to agree to any reduction in the subsidies to the private plans. The issue must be revisited next year before the delay in the physician pay cut runs out.
(Barbara Coufal- bcoufal@afscme.org)
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AFSCME Department of Legislation
Phone:
202/429-5020 or 800/732-8120
Fax: 202/223-3413
E-mail:
legislation@afscme.org
Website:
http://www.afscme.org/
Produced by
Union Labor
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