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News from Capitol Hill. . .

April 26, 2013

URGE CONGRESS TO TAKE ACTION ON IMMIGRATION REFORM

The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin “marking up” the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill on May 9, with committee action expected to stretch for multiple weeks, and floor votes possible by June. While review of the entire bill and potential amendments continues, the bill includes the following elements of most importance to NEA:

• A 5-year path to citizenship for DREAMers who arrived before age 16 and completed high school or a GED
• Prioritizing family unification
• A 13-year pathway to citizenship for those in the United States prior to Dec. 31, 2011

The United States is a nation of immigrants and how we treat new immigrants reflects our commitment to the values that define us. NEA continues to urge Congress to:

• Enact and expand the DREAM Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
• Preserve the unity of families, traditional and nontraditional.
• Create a realistic path to citizenship for the 11 million aspiring citizens who call America home.

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

• E-mail Congress or call 1-866-632-6057 or 1-866-NEA-6057 — Tell your Senators and Representative you support comprehensive immigration reform.
• Sign the petition — Students and their families deserve fair immigration reform now

SUPPORT & CO-SPONSOR BILLS TO CREATE ESP OF THE YEAR AWARD

The House and Senate are taking steps to provide long overdue recognition to the important work performed each day by education support professionals. Bipartisan bills to create a national Education Support Professional of the Year Award have been introduced in both chambers: S. 456 by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and H.R. 1763 by Representative Dina Titus (D-NV). Urge your Senators and Representative to support and co-sponsor these bills.  

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

• E-mail Congress — Tell your Senators and Representative to support and co-sponsor the Education Support Professional of the Year Award (S. 456/H.R. 1763)
• Sign the petition — National Classified School Employee of the Year Award Act

SPEAK OUT FOR SOCIAL SECURITY FAIRNESS, CO-SPONSOR BILL TO REPEAL GPO & WEP

A bipartisan bill was introduced in the House this week to repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which reduces public employees’ Social Security spousal or survivor benefits by two-thirds of their public pension, and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which reduces the earned Social Security benefits of an individual who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security. This week, Representatives Rodney Davis (R-IL) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced a bill that would amend Title II of the Social Security Act and repeal GPO and WEP. A bipartisan bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate the week of May 6.

GPO and WEP penalize people who have dedicated their lives to public service by taking away benefits they have EARNED. Nine out of ten public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal benefit, even though their spouse paid Social Security taxes for many years. The WEP causes hard-working people to lose a significant portion of the benefits they earned themselves. Urge your Representative to support and co-sponsor the bill to end GPO and WEP, and restore Social Security fairness.  

TAKE ACTION TODAY! 

• E-mail Congress — Tell your Representative to support and co-sponsor the bill to end GPO and WEP, and restore Social Security fairness.  

TELL CONGRESS TO RESTORE BUDGET CUTS, NOT MAKE MORE

To end delays in airline flights caused by furloughs of air traffic controllers due to the sequester, Congress has passed the Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013. The vote in the Senate was unanimous and the vote in the House was 361-41. NEA decried this piecemeal approach, noting that educators and special-needs students are facing nearly $3 billion in cuts, and asking: Where is the bill to end their sequester cuts?  

Meanwhile, work is beginning on fiscal year 2014 funding bills, with significant differences expected in the overall funding levels used by Senate Democrats and House Republicans — a reflection of the vastly different budgets each has passed. The NEA-supported Senate budget would preserve federal funding for education, provide new revenue, and help create jobs; the NEA-opposed House budget would slash funding even more for education and healthcare for kids. Keep the pressure on and tell Congress, “No more cuts to kids and education!”

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

• Email Congress or call 1.866.293.7278, our Educator Connector Line — Tell your Senators and Representative to support the Senate budget that protects funding for education and demands new revenue. 
• Share your story — Tell us how budget cuts are hurting your students.
• Take the Kids Not Cuts pledge — Already took it? Ask friends to sign it and join the fight.

CHEERS AND JEERS

Cheers to:

	Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) for leading the effort that culminated in a total of 63 Senators voting to end the filibuster of the Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 743), setting up the measure for final passage when the chamber returns from its scheduled week-long recess. This bipartisan legislation would allow states and local governments to collect sales tax from remote sellers like amazon.com — a vital step that would help stop the erosion of their tax base and provide needed resources for education and other critical priorities.
	Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Dina Titus (D-NV) for introducing legislation to create an ESP of the Year Award. The original co-sponsors in the Senate are Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Al Franken (D-MN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). The original co-sponsors in the House are Representatives Lois Capps (D-12), Susan Davis (D-CA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), John Garamendi (D-CA), Denny Heck (D-CA), Michael Honda (D-CA), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Tom Petri (R-WI), David Price (D-NC), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Frederica Wilson (D-FL).
	Representatives Rodney Davis (R-IL) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) for introducing a bill that would amend Title II of the Social Security Act and repeal GPO and WEP.
	Representatives Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Tim Walz (D-MN) for opposing the piecemeal approach to dealing with the sequester taken by the Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013,and urging action to address and fix the entire sequester.

Jeers to:

	30 Senators who voted to filibuster the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would generate tens of billions of dollars in badly needed revenue for state and local governments.
	Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) for introducing the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act (PEPTA), which neither protects employee benefits nor reduces costs nor increases transparency — it imposes costly regulations and threatens to tax state and local government bonds.