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Legislation Department GOP Adjournment Strategy Backfires The GOP leadership strategy for wrapping up consideration of must-pass spending bills was dealt a serious blow when the Senate, by a vote of 28-69, rejected adoption of the Legislative Branch spending package. Senators from both parties objected when the bill was combined with the Treasury, Postal and General Government spending bill and repeal of the federal telephone tax, which had not been voted on separately. With only two of the regular thirteen spending bills signed into law and the October 1 start of the new fiscal year rapidly approaching, members of Congress are increasingly nervous about finishing their work so they can go home to campaign for reelection. Senate Majority Leader Lott (R-MS) said the Senate's failure to act on the measure "increases the possibility" of a lame-duck session after the November elections. Earlier, 18 GOP House members joined with nearly the entire Democratic caucus in backing a motion to instruct members of the House-Senate conference on the Labor, Health and Human Services spending bill to reject language blocking the Administration's request for funding of President Clinton's school construction and class size reduction initiatives in favor of block-granting federal education dollars to the states. Minimum Wage Bill Remains Stalled Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and House Democratic Whip, David Bonior (D-MI) are continuing to push for a minimum wage increase before Congress adjourns, but acknowledged that there are serious obstacles to passage. Kennedy said that he would never accept amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that the GOP leaders are demanding as part of any deal. Bonior criticized the $76 billion in tax cuts that are another feature of the GOP package. The GOP leadership is proposing five amendments to the FLSA that would deny tens of millions of workers overtime pay. The five are as follows:
House Subcommittee Approves Needlestick Bill On Tuesday, the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Workforce Committee approved the needlestick bill (H.R. 5178) introduced last week by Reps. Cass Ballenger (R-NC) and Major Owens (D-NY). Rep. Ballenger intends to request that the House GOP leadership place the bill on the House suspension calendar for a floor vote before the end of the session. The suspension calendar is used for bills that are considered non-controversial. Amendments are not allowed, but passage requires a "yes" vote of two-thirds of the House. Also this week, Senators Jim Jeffords (R-VT), Michael Enzi (R-WY), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced a companion bill (S. 3067). Because a single legislator can stall action on a bill, the prospects for passage are much less certain in the Senate. Because these bills establish the needlestick requirement through the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), state and local government employees in 27 states and the District of Columbia would not be covered. AFSCME is working on a separate track to add language to a Medicare bill, extending the needlestick protections to public hospitals in the non-OSHA states. The requirement on public hospitals would be made a condition of receiving Medicare payments. Support for Comprehensive Unemployment Insurance Reform Package Grows The comprehensive unemployment insurance reform plan being pushed by AFSCME, attracted additional backing this week, with letters of strong support from the National Governors' Association and a number of large employers, including Daimler Chrysler Corporation, Deere & Company, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Tyson Foods Inc., USX, and the American Society of Payroll Management. In addition, the Council for Economic Development, a large and respected business research organization expressed its support for the benefit improvements in the proposal. However, continued opposition to the proposal from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has made key Republicans in the House leadership unwilling to commit to moving forward with the plan. Long Term Care Insurance Expanded for Federal Employees President Clinton signed into law a bill that extends long term care insurance for 13 million federal employees, members of the military and their families. Employees will pay the premiums, but because of the size of the group, rates are expected to be 15 to 20 percent below the cost of individual long term care policies. Higher Education Benefits for Corrections Officers' Dependents Cleared for White House H. R. 2059, a bill which expands an existing program to allow spouses and children of corrections officers who are killed or severely disabled to qualify for educational funds, passed the House on September 19, 2000. This bill extends the retroactive eligibility dates from 1997 to 1978 for financial assistance for higher education for spouses and dependent children of federal, state and local law enforcement offices, including corrections officers. The Senate passed S. 1638, the companion bill, on May 15, 2000. The measure was presented to the President on September 21, 2000. PNTR Clears Senate When the Senate voted this week to approve Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for China by a margin of 83-15, with 7 Democrats and 8 Republicans opposing, no one was surprised. The overwhelmingly pro-trade Senate was merely doing what it had been expected to do for many months. Granting China PNTR, which will go into effect when China joins the World Trade Organization (WTO), the 135-member group that sets global trade rules, will end a 20-year practice under which Congress reviewed China's trade status on a year-to-year basis. Congressional Leadership Stalls on Violence Against Women Bill Despite strong bipartisan support in the House and the Senate, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is in danger of not passing this year. Although the bill can be brought to the House and Senate floors at any time, the leadership in the Congress is holding VAWA hostage while they make deals on others bills that have absolutely nothing to do with VAWA. VAWA responds to the epidemic of crimes against women in a comprehensive fashion by providing funds for services to victims of domestic and sexual assault. Through VAWA, millions of federal dollars have been used to fund programs that make an important difference in the lives of countless women and children across the country. VAWA funds the National Domestic Violence Hotline, domestic violence shelters and services, rape crisis centers, and training on violence against women issues for police officers, judges, and prosecutors. Employers Pushing Visa Changes for Foreign Workers The Senate is currently debating S. 2045,a a bill that would raise the number of H-1B visas-visas for foreign born technology workers to 195,000 annually for the next three years. Two years ago, Congress raised the limit on H-1B visas to 115,000 (from 65,000) for 2000 and to 107,500 for 2001. Those increases were calculated to meet the immediate employment demands of the high tech industry who claim that there is a shortage of high tech workers, while also setting out a long-term strategy for investment in training and educational opportunities for domestic workers. The 1998 legislation also mandated that data be collected on the industries receiving H-1B workers because Congress acknowledged that there was an absence of essential information on the effects and real needs for the program. Labor is opposing the proposed legislation which includes unlimited loopholes that would push the number of temporary visas even higher. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee cleared legislation, H.R. 4548, by a vote of 16-11, that would overhaul the H-2A visa program that documents farm-workers from Mexico and other countries to perform seasonal labor on U.S. farms. The House bill would ease the wage and housing requirements on farmers and require that domestic farm workers register in a database in order to find employment. Labor and Hispanic groups strongly oppose the bill, arguing that it would remove critical worker protections from the H-2A program and would leave foreign farm laborers worse off than they are now. As the congressional session moves closer to adjournment either or both of these visa bills could be rolled into a year-end spending bill.
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