Federal Legislative Update
April 2004

April 30, 2004
April 22, 2004
April 15, 2004
April 2, 2004

April 30, 2004

News from Capitol Hill...

On the front burner

IDEA

The Senate is poised to act on IDEA reauthorization. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reaches every public school. Approximately 12 percent of public school students receive assistance through special education.

 NEA needs your help.

Our special needs children require special attention and additional resources.

When IDEA was passed in 1975, the law included a commitment to pay 40 percent of the average per student cost for every special education student. That commitment has never been met. Congress has made significant progress in recent years, but still funds only some 20 percent.

Since 1975, the unfunded federal portion has cost local schools and taxpayers more than $300 billion. See the impact on your state. 

Five-Minute Activist

Tell Congress: It's time to keep the promise.  

"Highly Qualified" Teachers - The House-passed IDEA reauthorization bill doesn't recognize the qualifications of experienced and state-certified special education teachers. Instead, it forces teachers with multiple subject assignments to prove that they are "highly qualified" in each, in order to be deemed "highly qualified."

The Senate has worked to improve the "highly qualified" language. More work remains.

Five-Minute Activist

Tell your U.S. Senators: Special educators who are fully certified or licensed as special education teachers should be deemed "highly qualified."  

EEOC's new rule protects retiree health benefits

The EEOC approved an NEA-supported rule clarifying that early retiree health benefits do not violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. This important victory helps protect health benefits offered by many school districts to early retirees. The rule does not become final until it is approved by the Office of Management and Budget and appears in the Federal Register.

Money matters

The House and Senate continue negotiating a spending plan for the budget year beginning October 1, 2004. The issue in contention: paying for tax cuts. NEA priorities for the negotiated spending plan include:

• Increased funding for ESEA/"No Child Left Behind" Act. Both the House and the Senate plan fall further behind in funding the law.

• Keeping the reserve funds for higher education's Pell Grants and student aid included in the Senate plan, and

• Rejecting the House plan's requirements to cut mandatory programs such as Medicaid that funds children's health insurance and some school medical services.

Stay tuned.

GPO/WEP Repeal

• Cosponsors Grow - NEA member advocates won five new House cosponsors during the April Congressional Recess, bringing the total to 296: Chandler (D-KY), Miller [Candice] (R-MI), Meeks (D-NY), Slaughter (D-NY), and Kind (D-WI). Senate cosponsors now number 31.

• Alaska Legislature Urges Support for GPO/WEP Repeal - Hard work by NEA-Alaska advocates won a formal resolution urging Alaska's Congressional Delegation to support repeal of the Social Security Offsets.

• Negotiations Continue - NEA continues to work with House repeal bill sponsors McKeon (R-CA) and Berman (D-CA) on negotiations with the Social Security Sub-committee chair, Clay Shaw (R-FL).

More on GPO/WEP.

Overtime Final Rule: Changes under Scrutiny

The Department of Labor issued an NEA-opposed regulation allowing employers to avoid paying overtime. Employers can implement it after 120 days, approximately August 20. Senator Harkin continues to push an NEA-supported amendment to protect overtime. E-mail your Senators about this issue.

Higher education

The bulk of the work on higher education reauthorization remains. Hot issues include college costs, student access and teacher preparation programs. Action could resume in the next few months.

Career and technical education

Reauthorization of career and technical education could move soon. NEA Goal: Ensure strong career and technical education in secondary and postsecondary programs.

April 22, 2004
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News from Capitol Hill...

Employee rights

Retiree health benefits - We won!

The Issue: Early Retirement Plans that provide health benefits until the retiree becomes eligible for Medicare are legally at risk.

School districts will be increasingly unwilling to continue these health benefits for early retirees without corrective action.

Today the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), by a vote of 3-1, approved the NEA-supported rule — Age Discrimination in Employment Act: Retiree Health Benefits (29 CFR Parts 1625 and 1627: RIN 3046-AA72) — to clarify that offering early retirees health insurance coordinated with Medicare does not violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

No further action is needed right now. However, there are additional steps where your help will be needed before the rule can become effective. Stay tuned!

NOTE! The AARP launched a grassroots effort opposing the rule and most likely contacted members in your state. AARP alleges that the rule would jeopardize the health benefits of Medicare-eligible retirees. NEA strongly disagrees and opposes the AARP position.

Overtime final rule; Changes under scrutiny

The Department of Labor issued the final version of the Overtime Rule on April 20. Employers can implement it after 120 days, approximately August 20.

Your job and overtime pay

The Department — facing a barrage of criticism — rewrote the original overtime pay take-away rule. The "new rule" makes some selected positive changes. The 454-page rule is being carefully analyzed to determine precisely the kinds of workers denied overtime pay.

 Five-Minute Activist

Last year, the Senate and House backed an amendment by Senator Tom Harkin (IA) to block the part of the rule that takes away overtime pay from workers. Harkin and other Senators are fighting hard right now to win a new vote on a similar amendment.   

Urge your Senators to support Senator Harkin's efforts to protect overtime pay for workers. 

DOD personnel system delayed; We spoke with one strong voice!

The Department of Defense has delayed implementation of its new personnel system. Political pressure from Capitol Hill — deluged with messages of concern — forced the change.

Thanks and congratulations to all who contacted their Members of Congress about this important issue.

NEA and the Federal Education Association (FEA) represent some 9,000 Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) professionals who provide a world-class education to the dependents of active-military-duty personnel. 

The plan the Pentagon had been pushing thus far would have virtually eliminated all bargaining rights and taken away the very workplace protections that allow DoDEA teachers to perform at such high levels. 

The Defense Department will now work with its human resources office to ready proposed regulations dealing with union negotiations by late November.  

Looking ahead - A lesson from our past

We never win our rights once and for all; we are challenged to win them over and over again. NEA and FEA will keep a steady eye on the goal: the repeal of a new personnel system for which there is simply no excuse.

IDEA - Closing the special education funding gap

The Senate will vote on renewing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in early May. NEA and the IDEA Full Funding Coalition need your help.

Hagel-Harkin Amendment

Five-Minute Activist

Urge your Members of Congress to support fully funding the federal share of IDEA costs.  It's past time to keep the promise.  

April 15, 2004
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News from Capitol Hill...

Money Matters

IDEA - Closing the special education funding gap

When the Senate votes on renewing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in early May, Senator Harkin will offer the Hagel-Harkin Amendment [Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Tom Harkin (D-IA)] to fully fund the federal share of IDEA costs.  

Congress has never fully funded the 40 percent federal share.  For years, cash-strapped states and school districts have been forced to cut programs or increase taxes to make up the federal shortfall.  This amendment means relief. 

NEA and the IDEA Full Funding Coalition need your help to win full funding.

Five-Minute Activist

Urge your Members of Congress to support fully funding the federal share of IDEA costs.  It's past time to keep the promise.

The spending plan

Congress headed home for the April 12-16 recess without agreeing on a spending plan for the 2005 budget year (Oct. 1, 2004 - Sept. 30, 2005).

It's a matter of priorities: Do we fund critical services, including education, or do we limit services to cut taxes further?

NEA opposes any budget plan that would shortchange federal education mandates, restrict access to higher education, force cuts in Medicaid (jeopardizing children's health and stressing state budgets), and open the door to tax cuts that further decrease state revenue. Stay tuned!

Employee rights

Overtime - A Senate vote in the offing?

Senators may get to vote soon on the NEA-supported Harkin Amendment to block the Labor Department rule change that would deny some 8 million workers overtime pay.

Five-Minute Activist

Make your voice heard. Urge your Senators to support overtime rights.

Social Security offsets

NEA/TSTA local leaders from the greater Houston area gave U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay a surprise reception back home in Texas. Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) and Texas Federation of Teachers (TFT) members — some 400 to 500 strong — marched together to a Delay rally. They are none too happy with the Congressman's failure to support repeal of the Social Security offsets that penalize Texas teachers.

Delay accused the teacher unions of giving out false information and implied that teachers don't understand the issue. NEA GPO/WEP Cadre member Joyce-Roberta Miller Alper addressed DeLay and minced no words in laying out the facts:

• Teachers are informed.
• Teachers are discussing their own earned money lost through the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and their spouse's earned money lost through the Government Pension Offset (GPO).
• Mid-career changers — faced with the loss of their own earned benefits and/or a spouse's earned benefits — are dissuaded from entering the profession.
• And more.

News reporters — barred from the event by Delay — waited outside the closed doors to interview teachers as they exited.

NEA and the House repeal bill sponsors, Representatives Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Howard Berman (D-CA), are in hard negotiations with Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Clay Shaw (R-FL) to bring the bill to the House for a vote.

More information on Social Security Offsets

Department of Defense teachers - A security threat?

The Department of Defense is attempting to eliminate the bargaining rights of Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) teachers under the guise of national security.

NEA and the Federal Education Association (FEA) represent some 9,000 DoDEA education professionals who provide a world-class education to the dependents of active military duty personnel.  The Department's plan would take away the very workplace protections that allow DoDEA teachers to perform at such high levels.

Five-Minute Activist

Urge your Members of Congress to call on DOD to discard its current plan and to create a system consistent with Congressional intent.

April 2, 2004
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News from Capitol Hill...

IDEA - Closing the special education funding gap

The Senate could begin debate on reauthorizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA (S. 1248) as early as this coming week.

Five-Minute Activist

Urge your U.S. Senators to support mandatory full funding of IDEA. It's past time to keep the promise.

The Hagel-Harkin Amendment

Senator Harkin (IA) will offer a bipartisan amendment — the Hagel-Harkin [Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Tom Harkin (D-IA)] Amendment. The NEA-supported Hagel-Harkin Amendment — based on Hagel-Harkin S. 939 — would for the first time fully fund the federal 40 percent share of IDEA costs through guaranteed increases in federal funding over eight years.

Congress has NEVER met its commitment to provide the promised 40 percent funding since the law was first enacted in 1975. For cash-strapped states and school districts forced to cut back programs or increase taxes to make up the federal shortfall, this amendment means RELIEF. See the impact on your state.

Money matters:

House and Senate negotiations stuck over paying for tax cuts

It's a matter of priorities: Do we fund critical services, including education, or do we justify capping services to cut taxes further?

NEA is pressing hard for increased "No Child Left Behind" (ESEA/NCLB), IDEA, and higher education funding and strongly opposes cuts that jeopardize children's health.

At issue: The spending plan for the 2005 budget year (Oct. 1, 2004-Sept. 30, 2005).

The House and Senate each have a plan.

• Both plans shortchange ESEA/NCLB.
• Both plans slide IDEA further behind full funding.
• The Senate plan supports access to higher education through increases for Pell Grants and student loans. The House plan offers no help to higher education.
• The House plan could cut $2.2 billion from Medicaid, jeopardizing children's health.
• The Logjam - Paying for Tax Cuts. Both plans demand that increases in spending be paid for — or "offset" — by other spending cuts. The Senate demands that tax cuts, too, be paid for. Not the House.

The House would cap spending for services, but not for tax cuts that jeopardize programs for children and families and increase the national debt.

NEA opposes any budget plan that would shortchange federal education mandates, restrict access to higher education, force cuts in Medicaid, and open the door to tax cuts that further decrease state revenue. Stay Tuned.

NEA wins on child care

The NEA-supported bipartisan Snowe (R-ME)-Dodd (D-CT) Amendment that boosts guaranteed funding for child care assistance to states sailed through the Senate this week in a landslide vote (78-20).

Quality childcare promotes school readiness. Childcare is essential for individuals who need access to postsecondary education in order to acquire new work skills. Currently, funding reaches only one of every seven eligible children.

The underlying bill, however, was subsequently put on hold.

ESEA/NCLB and common sense #4

NEA members are making their voices heard. And the tide is beginning to change. This week, Education Secretary Paige announced the fourth change in as many weeks in the rules implementing ESEA/NCLB.

States may now allow averaging of up to three years to meet the 95 percent test participation mandate. The change also allows for student absences due to "medical emergencies."

Thumbs Up - A Win for Common Sense: This marks the fourth change similar or identical to changes NEA called for more than a year ago.

Thumbs Down - Acknowledging the Mistake, but Not Fixing the Results: The Department took two years after the law passed to issue clear guidelines explaining how schools should account for the test scores of students with disabilities and limited-English proficient students and the 95 percent test participation rate in calculating adequate yearly progress (AYP). Yet the Department refuses to make the changes retroactive.

The Result: Schools are inaccurately labeled "in need of improvement," confusing the community and misdirecting resources from schools in need of additional support to schools that are, in fact, making AYP.

Fundamental problems remain unresolved. NEA is working hard for passage of 16 bills in the U.S. House and Senate that fix and fund NCLB. More information on ESEA.

The overtime battle rages on

Five-Minute Activist

Urge your Senators to support overtime rights.