AFSCME FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE REPORT: top stories of the week from Capitol Hill

[Omaha Steve]

Below are the top stories of the week from Capitol Hill.

AFSCME FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE REPORT
March 30, 2007

The Congress now begins its Spring recess, with the Senate returning on Tuesday, April 10 and the House on Monday, April 16. The next Weekly Report will be published on Friday, April 13.

In this issue:

* Senate Votes for Troop Withdrawal
* House Approves Budget Plan
* Employee Free Choice Act Introduced in the Senate
* House Top Trade Leaders Announce New Policy That Includes Labor Rights
* Congress Restores Funding for Child Support Enforcement Programs
* House Financial Services Committee Approves the Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act
* House Approves Transit and Rail Security Measure
* Senate Approves County Payments Measure for Forest Communities
* Senate Budget Resolution Increases Law Enforcement Funding
* Public Employee OSHA Bill Introduced
* Top Aide Contradicts Gonzales on U.S. Attorneys Firings

Senate Votes for Troop Withdrawal
The Senate, by a vote of 51 to 47, approved the $123 billion emergency war spending bill that also sets a goal of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Republicans Chuck Hagel (NE) and Gordon H. Smith (OR) voted with Democrats to pass the bill, while Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman (CT) voted against it. The House passed a different version of the bill which also contains withdrawal language. President Bush has pledged to veto any bill that contains troop withdrawal language. Republican efforts to remove the troop withdrawal language were thwarted when the Senate defeated, by a vote of 48 to 50, an amendment by Sen. Thad Cochran (MS), Ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, to delete the Iraq troop withdrawal timetable from the FY 2007 War Supplemental.

The Senate bill directs the President, within 120 days of enactment, to begin to redeploy the troops from Iraq, with a goal of having only a limited number of troops remaining in the country on March 31, 2008. The House bill includes a timetable for withdrawal requiring most troops to be out of Iraq by the end of August 2008. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) hope to reach an agreement between the House and Senate and send the bill to the President as soon as possible.

One Senate amendment added language increasing the minimum wage to $7.25 over two years, but Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) also added over $12 billion in business tax breaks that he said was needed to increase his leverage for negotiating a larger package in conference. The House-passed version of the spending bill includes $1.3 billion in small-business tax breaks along with the minimum wage increase. Both the House and Senate bills include money to keep the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) running, as well as additional funds for other domestic emergencies.
(Ed Jayne- [e-mail])

House Approves Budget Plan
The House approved by a vote of 216 to 210 its budget plan, which includes a significant increase of nearly $25 billion in extra spending for domestic priorities in FY 2008 over President Bush’s budget, fully funds defense and assumes a surplus by 2012. Like the Senate-approved plan, which provides slightly less in new spending, it rejects the harmful Bush domestic budget cuts and imposes new strict pay-as-you-go budget rules requiring new tax cuts and entitlement spending to be paid for.

According to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the new funding in the House Democratic budget "makes critical investments in education, children's health care, transportation infrastructure, and alternative energy research and development - while rejecting the President's request to cut Head Start, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), COPS and first-responder programs, and Community Development Block Grants." The budget also allows for immediate relief for the tens of millions of middle-income households which would otherwise be subject to the alternative minimum tax and possible expansion of certain middle income tax breaks, like relief from the marriage penalty and extension of the child care tax credit.

The final House vote was along party lines after several substitute budget plans were rejected, including a Republican plan calling for deep cuts in domestic services and extension of the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Not a single Republican voted for the final plan. The bill now goes to conference with the Senate where the differences between the two plans will have to be resolved. Budget Resolutions are not signed into law by the President and they are non-binding except for the funding level given to the Appropriations Committees which guides action on the FY 2008 spending bills.
(Ed Jayne- [e-mail])

Employee Free Choice Act Introduced in the Senate
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy introduced The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) this week with 46 of his Democratic colleagues signed on as original cosponsors. The only Democrats who are not on the bill (S. 1041) are Sens. Blanche Lincoln (AR), Mark Pryor (AR), Ken Salazar (CO) and Ben Nelson (NE). Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (PA) had cosponsored EFCA in the last Congress, but has not signed on again as an original cosponsor. Passage of EFCA, which reforms private sector labor law, is a top priority for AFSCME and the entire labor movement. To get ahead economically, workers need the freedom to create and join unions without interference from management.

S.1041 is identical to the House passed bill (H.R. 800). It would strengthen penalties for companies that coerce or intimidate workers; establish mediation and binding arbitration when the employer and workers cannot agree on a first contract; and enable workers to form unions when a majority signs union authorization cards.
(Marge Allen- [e-mail])

House Top Trade Leaders Announce New Policy That Includes Labor Rights
Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin (D-MI) announced a new trade policy that represents a significant step forward in fixing the Bush Administration's broken trade policy. If adopted, for the first time all countries would be required to adopt, maintain and enforce basic international labor standards. The penalty for failing to do so would be identical to the penalty that is currently used in NAFTA and other existing trade agreements to penalize foreign countries that violate the investment and copyright provisions in those existing agreements. This new policy would also require countries to implement and enforce common multilateral environmental agreements. The Administration has negotiated four recent trade agreements that are currently awaiting congressional action. They are free trade agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. The Administration must now renegotiate those deals to meet the new higher standards that Reps. Rangel and Levin have proposed if they hope to win congressional approval in the House.
(Marge Allen- [e-mail])

Congress Restores Funding for Child Support Enforcement Programs
AFSCME and our allies have been bringing to Congress' attention the draconian impact of child support cuts enacted last year as part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA). Congress has begun to take steps towards restoring funding for child support enforcement activities. The House Budget Resolution, which passed on March 29, includes a call for additional legislative action to ensure that states and local governments have sufficient funding to collect child support owed to families. In addition, legislation was introduced in both the House and Senate this month that would repeal the DRA’s prohibition on matching child support incentive payments with federal funds, the most costly child support enforcement provision to states. The House bill, Child Support Protection Act of 2007 (H.R. 1386), was introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and currently has 16 bipartisan cosponsors. The identical Senate bill (S. 803) was introduced by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and currently has seven bipartisan cosponsors. AFSCME strongly supports these bills.
(Fran Bernstein- [e-mail])

House Financial Services Committee Approves Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act
On March 28, the House Financial Services Committee voted 37-29 to approve the Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act (H.R. 1257), which would grant shareholders of publicly traded companies the opportunity to cast a non-binding vote on their executives’ compensation plans. AFSCME strongly supports this legislation because it is needed to address rapidly rising executive compensation and the disconnection between executive pay and performance. AFSCME testified in support of H.R. 1257 at the Committee’s recent hearing. The bill’s sponsor, Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), said, "We have taken an important step in giving shareholders the ability to express their approval or disapproval of pay packages for executives ? Excessive executive pay has been proven to have a significant impact on company’s profits and shareholder returns, and now the owners of the company will be given a voice."
(Marc Granowitter- [e-mail])

House Approves Transit and Rail Security Measure
On March 28, the House approved the Rail and Public Transportation Act of 2007 (H.R. 1401). The measure provides approximately $7 billion over four years for rail, mass transit and bus security. It provides $3.36 billion for public transportation security, $2.4 billion for rail security, $200 million for research, $140 million for fire safety improvements to Amtrak tunnels and $87 million for bus security. H.R. 1401 requires rail and public transportation systems to submit detailed security plans to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for approval. These plans would clarify roles and responsibilities of federal, state and local agencies in securing rail and public transportation systems. In addition, the House defeated an amendment offered by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) that would have eliminated the Over-the-Road Bus Security Assistance grant program that is critical to ensuring the security of passengers and workers. The Senate approved a similar measure earlier this month.
(Cynthia Bradley- [e-mail])

Senate Approves County Payments Measure for Forest Communities
An amendment to the Iraq War supplemental spending bill in the Senate would extend the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act ("County Payments") and provide about $5 billion for rural schools, counties and communities through 2012. The amendment, offered by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), would provide $526 million in emergency funding for the program. The Secure Rural Schools Act expired last year and rural communities around the country are facing extreme financial difficulty, particularly in the state of Oregon. The amendment was approved by a vote of 75-22 and similar language was included in the Iraq spending bill approved recently in the House.
(Cynthia Bradley- [e-mail])

Senate Budget Resolution Increases Law Enforcement Funding
Several important non-binding law enforcement funding amendments were agreed to as part of the Senate Budget Resolution:

* An amendment by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to provide an additional $43 million for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.
* An amendment by Sen. John R. Thune (R-SD) to provide for $99 million in Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) Hot Spots program.
* An amendment by Sens. Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) to provide an increase in Byrne formula grants from the Committee's recommended $530 million to $900 million. Along with the Budget Committee's decision to carry forward the $191 million (plus inflation) from FY 2007 for Byrne discretionary grants, this additional funding is close to the $1.1 billion that law enforcement agencies have been seeking.
* An amendment by Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-DE) to increase funding for the COPS Program to $1.15 billion for FY 2008 to provide state and local law enforcement with critical resources was adopted.

(Jayne Clancy- [e-mail])

Public Employee OSHA Bill Introduced
Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D-NJ) has introduced the Fairness for State and Local Workers Act (H.R. 1517). This bill would require state and local governments to implement protections provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). When OSHA was originally enacted, public employees were excluded. However, since that time, about half of the states have enacted their own laws extending the safety and health protections to public employees. This bill would ensure that all state and local government workers are protected.
(Barbara Coufal - [e-mail])

Top Aide Contradicts Gonzales on U.S. Attorneys Firings
The former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Gonzales was more involved in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys than he has acknowledged. Kyle Sampson, who recently resigned from his position at the Justice Department, testified that Gonzales and his aides have made a series of inaccurate claims about the issue in recent weeks. Sampson also implicated presidential adviser Karl Rove testifying that New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias was added to the dismissal list after Rove intervened by complaining about Iglesias’ work in the area of voter fraud after the November 7 elections. In addition, Sampson acknowledged that other senior White House aides were more closely involved in the dismissal than had been previously reported. Sampson’s testimony is a direct contradiction to Gonzales’ previous statements that he was detached from the details of the firings.
(Cynthia Bradley- [e-mail])

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