Federal Legislative Update
January 2004

January 30, 2004
January 27, 2004
January 14, 2004

1/30/04

News from Capitol Hill...

The home sprint to November '04 - Congressional record incomplete

Congress is in the home sprint to the November '04 elections with a long unfinished agenda. Tell Congress you're watching!

Career and technical education

NEA is committed to ensure strong career and technical education in both secondary and postsecondary education.

Child nutrition

NEA is committed to protecting and expanding child nutrition programs. Hungry children can't learn.

Educator tax relief

The deduction for out-of-pocket classroom supply expenses expired on December 31, 2003. The NEA-supported H.R. 785 will expand and make permanent the above-the-line deduction for both classroom supply and professional development expenses.

Fixing and funding ESEA/NCLB

NEA is committed to helping ensure great public schools for every child by fixing and funding the law. Many provisions of the NEA Great Public Schools Bill have been introduced in separate bills before Congress.

On February 2 the President will release his budget proposal for the 2005 budget year that begins October 1, 2004. NEA will be holding lawmakers accountable.

Head Start reauthorization

The NEA-opposed House bill (H.R. 2210) passed by one vote, 217-216. The Senate has yet to act.

NEA supports the high standards and accountability requirements of Head Start. Reauthorization should include increased funding and funding for early childhood educator professional development. NEA opposes block grants and high-stakes testing for very young children.

Health care

NEA is committed to ensuring universal health care for all and fixing problematic provisions in the recent Medicare bill.

Higher education reauthorization

The House has acted on some pieces of higher education reauthorization. The Senate has yet to act.

NEA is committed to expanding access to higher education through increased funding for Pell Grants and student loan programs; supporting high quality teacher preparation programs; and equal treatment for two- and four-year institutions.

IDEA reauthorization

The House passed its reauthorization bill (H.R. 1350) on April 30, 2003. The Senate has yet to act on its bill, S. 1248.

NEA is committed to strengthening IDEA by moving toward full funding, fixing the definition of "highly qualified teacher" as it applies to special educators, and reducing burdensome paperwork requirements.

Literacy

NEA supports legislation to address the adolescent reading and dropout crisis.

Overtime

NEA opposes the proposed Department of Labor rule that seeks to redefine and effectively broaden several categories of employees who are exempt from overtime compensation rules. Congress' efforts to ensure that workers currently covered do not lose overtime rights fell short in the face of the Administration pressure.

NEA is actively partnering with the labor community as well as the National Employment Law Project to consider ways to address the overtime issue through legislation.

Social Security offsets

The House repeal bill (H.R. 594, McKeon-Berman) now has a total of 285 co0sponsors, a bipartisan super-majority of House members. Most recent additions: Ruppersberger (D-MD) and Peterson (R-PA).

NEA is committed to repeal of the unfair Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision.

Tell Congress you're watching!

  1/27/04

News from Capitol Hill...

The Omnibus Bill

The vote

Opponents prevailed on Tuesday, January 20, but fell short two days later. Sixty-one senators, one more than the 60 votes required, voted to end debate and move the bill to a vote. The Senate passed the NEA-opposed Omnibus Bill by a vote of 65 to 28, some four months into the budget year that began October 1.

See how your Senators voted on cloture and final passage:

What the vote means

Enactment of this catch-all spending bill, H.R. 2673, means:

• Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) programs are shortchanged for the third consecutive year.
  
• The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) falls some 50 percent short of the promised federal share.
  
• Private and religious school vouchers are funded with federal taxpayer dollars for the first time. Under the District of Columbia voucher program: no protection is offered special needs students; voucher schools' teachers are not required even to hold a bachelor's degree; voucher schools are not held to the same accountability standards as their public counterparts; and the voucher program is governed directly by the U.S. Office of Education, not by the Office of the Mayor that governs all other District of Columbia programs.
  
• Some 8 million workers are at risk to lose overtime pay.
  
• Gun sale records will be destroyed within 24 hours, dramatically reducing law enforcement efforts to track gun crimes.
  
• And more.

"No justice - No peace"

These issues profoundly affect millions of constituents who flooded Congress with messages in opposition to the bill. NEA Congressional supporters have pledged to continue to fight the bill's onerous provisions in this 2004 Congressional Session.

NEA priority now a White House initiative

The President's State of the Union speech included an NEA priority for the 2004 congressional session: reading help for middle and high school students. While the proposed $100 million grant program would provide funds only to 50 to 100 school districts for reading intervention programs to help middle and high school students catch up to their peers in reading, it is a beginning.

NEA members win cosponsor support for key bills

Social Security offsets

NEA members won seven new cosponsors for H.R. 594, the McKeon-Berman bill for full repeal of the unfair Social Security Offsets (Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP)) during the congressional recess. With these additions, cosponsors now total 283:

On January 26, the House Social Security Subcommittee holds a Florida field hearing on Social Security's future.

The question for Chairman Clay Shaw:
"Will you commit to move offsets repeal out of committee?"

Deductions for out-of-pocket costs

H.R. 785 extends and improves the tax deduction for out-of-pocket expenses incurred for classroom supplies. The deduction in place for 2002 and 2003 has expired. H.R. 785 increases the amount of the deduction, expands allowable costs to include professional development expenses, and makes the deduction permanent. With four additions, cosponsors now total 181:

Ask your Representative to become a cosponsor.

Fixing and funding ESEA/NCLB

H.R. 2394 suspends sanctions against schools that fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) unless Title I is funded at the level authorized in the law. The newly passed Omnibus Bill shortchanges Title I reading and math help for poor children for the third consecutive year. With five additions, the total number of cosponsors has grown to 55:

Ask your Representative to become a cosponsor.

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  1/14/04

News from Capitol Hill...

Omnibus Bill playing jeopardy with children and families

When the Senate returns on Tuesday, January 20, it will take up the House-approved Omnibus Bill that shortchanges education programs, funds private and religious school vouchers, jettisons overtime protection, and overlooks public safety.

Contact your U.S. Senators to take a stand against this bill.

What is the Omnibus Bill?

The Omnibus Budget Bill is a catch-all spending bill. It would fund services in 11 of the 15 cabinet departments, including Labor, Health, and Education, that still have no budget for the 2004 fiscal year that began on October 1, 2003. These departments are currently operating at last year's funding levels under a 'Continuing Resolution' that runs through January 31.

Why does NEA oppose the bill?

ESEA Funding: The bill shortchanges ESEA/"No Child Left Behind" programs, leaving states scrambling to meet student needs.

IDEA Funding: The bill shortchanges IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), failing to provide the funding Congress set in the spending blueprint (Budget Resolution) for the 2004 budget year.

Private and religious school vouchers: The bill funds private and religious school vouchers in the nation's capital city, even though majorities of both the DC Council and the School Board oppose them, and voucher funding lacked the votes to pass the Senate.

Overtime protection: The bill does not include crucial House- and Senate-supported language, which protects overtime rights that are threatened by the Department of Labor's proposed new rule.

Public Safety: The bill includes new language which requires that the government destroy background check records on gun purchasers within 24 hours, instead of the current 90 days. The language was not considered by either the House or Senate and had no public scrutiny.

Congress should do the responsible thing: rewrite this flawed bill.

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