Federal Legislative Update
May 2004
May 21, 2004
May 14, 2004
May 7, 2004
May 21, 2004
News from Capitol Hill...
Social Security offsets - A breakthrough!
A new bill filed in the U.S. House and Senate this week marks the first step to Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) repeal. The bill calls for replacement of the WEP Social Security offset with a more equitable formula.
The bipartisan bill was filed in the House by Representatives Brady (R-TX), McKeon (R-CA), Berman (D-CA), Shaw (R-FL), Michaud (D-ME), and Sam Johnson (R-TX), and in the Senate by Senator Hutchison (R-TX).
- What: The "Public Servant Retirement Protection Act" (H.R. 4391/S. 2455)
- Who: Individuals with income currently in the Social Security system from both covered and non-covered employment, whether or not they are currently retired.
NEA remains totally committed to elimination of the GPO and the WEP. The work continues. Putting the first step in context:
- Tough negotiations with Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Shaw to move legislation addressing the WEP and the GPO out of committee led to this first opportunity since NEA began working on the bill in the 1980s to make a breakthrough.
- Our full-repeal sponsors, Representatives McKeon and Berman, strongly recommend moving ahead. They believe they can win a hearing and a vote.
- The intent of this first step is to help members. If committee hearings reveal the bill's drawbacks outweigh its benefits, NEA will withdraw its support.
- NEA will also be on point to watchdog how Congress would pay the bill's estimated $7.7 billion cost.
Retiree health benefits - Your voice matters!
NEA offered testimony this week in support of the recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) decision allowing continuation of early retiree health benefits coordinated with Medicare. The ruling must be approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and be published in the Federal Register before it becomes final.
AARP continues a grassroots campaign of opposition that would jeopardize current and future retiree health benefits if the EEOC rule is not finally implemented. NEA and the labor community broadly disagree sharply with the mischaracterization and support the EEOC's decision.
Five-Minute Activist
To protect retiree health benefits, let your voice be heard. Thank the EEOC for maintaining current health benefits and share your message with Congress.
Money matters
The NEA-opposed Conference Agreement on the spending plan for the 2005 budget year leaves education behind.
The House this week narrowly passed the Conference Agreement by a vote of 216-213. All Democrats and nine Republicans opposed the Agreement. The nine Republicans who challenged their leadership and voted NO are Franks (AZ), Gerlach (PA), Goode (VA), Hefley (CO), Hostettler (IN), Jones (NC), Paul (TX), Simmons (CT) and Smith (NJ).
- Special education funding falls further behind, leaving the federal share at less than half the 40 percent of funding promised decades ago.
- ESEA/"No Child Left Behind" programs are shortchanged by approximately $9 billion below the funding level set in this education law. The result: Some 4.6 million low-income children would be without the services and assistance they need to succeed.
- Students would receive less help to make college affordable. It provides no funding for expanding student aid; rejects a Senate-passed reserve fund that would provide resources to address the Pell Grant shortfall; and even places funding for the current maximum grant in jeopardy.
The Conference Agreement faces a rocky road in the Senate. Opposition by Republican moderates, Senators Chafee (RI), Collins (ME), McCain (AZ) and Snowe (ME) has forced postponement of a vote until June.
NEA urged Senators to "just say NO." Stay tuned.
May 14, 2004
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News from Capitol Hill...
IDEA
Senate passes rewrite of special education bill; Significant work ahead for Conference Committee
The Senate approved reauthorization (S.1248) of the nation's special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), after months of bipartisan work, by a landslide vote, 96-3.
NEA gives the bill an "Incomplete." The Senate improved upon the House-passed bill, but significant work remains for House and Senate negotiators in Conference Committee, including clarifying the definition of "highly qualified" teacher.
Votes on NEA-supported amendments
Hagel-Harkin mandatory full funding amendment fails, 56-41
The bipartisan Hagel-Harkin Amendment to lock in increases over the next six years and fully fund the federal share of IDEA costs failed by a vote of 56 (YES) to 41 (NO). Under budget rules, Hagel-Harkin needed 60 votes to pass.
Since 1975, the shortfall in funding the federal share of IDEA has cost local schools and taxpayers more than $300 billion. See the impact on your state.
How did your Senators vote? Voting AYE:
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Ten Republicans — Chafee (RI), Coleman (MN), Collins (ME), Hagel (NE), McCain (AZ), Murkowski (AK), Roberts (KS), Snowe (ME), Specter (PA), Warner (VA);
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Independent Jim Jeffords; and
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45 Democrats (all present and voting except Miller-GA).
They merit thanks for their strong stand.
Absent: Hollings (D-SC), Kerry (D-MA), Santorum (R-PA).
Gregg Funding Amendment - Another Empty Promise: The Senate-approved Gregg Amendment authorizes funding that would grow to the full 40 percent federal share by 2011, but actually commits no money.
NEA opposed the Gregg funding amendment. The current IDEA legislation already authorizes Congress to provide its 40 percent share of IDEA costs, a commitment that Congress has never honored.
Paperwork reduction passes (Voice vote)
The Santorum (R-PA) Amendment is a step forward in addressing the paperwork problem. The amendment calls for a 15-state demonstration project that allows waivers of some paperwork. The provisions strike a balance between relieving administrative burdens on educators and preserving the civil rights afforded to disabled students and their families.
Transient special education students (Voice vote)
The bipartisan Murray (D-WA)-Dewine (R-OH) Amendment helps ensure continued special education services to children with disabilities who are homeless or in foster care and frequently move from school to school.
Environmental health and developmental disabilities
The Clinton (D-NY) Amendment opens the National Children's Health Study now underway to the Department of Education that will study the relationship between environmental health factors and developmental disabilities.
Next step: Conference committee
The House- and Senate-passed bills now go to a House-Senate Conference Committee that will negotiate the considerable differences between the bills, including the definition of a "highly qualified" teacher.
Other NEA priorities include opening the paperwork reduction project to all states.
Highly qualified teachers - Work in progress
NEA Position: Licensed and certified special educators should be recognized as "highly qualified" under the law.
The House bill requires licensed and certified special educators to also demonstrate competence in each academic subject they teach. The Senate improved on the House provisions, but significant work remains to be done in Conference Committee.
Five-Minute Activist
Tell Congress: The qualifications of licensed, certified special educators should deem them as "highly qualified."
Social Security offsets — Stay up-to-date!
Read the latest GPO/WEP news.
House cosponsors hit 300!
The Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 594) now has 300 bipartisan cosponsors thanks to the activists who've mastered patience and persistence.
The latest additions: Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Ralph Regula (R-OH), Donna Christensen (D-VI, non-voting), and Nita Lowey (D-NY).
Legislative status
Negotiations continue with Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Clay Shaw (R-FL) on a proposal to address the offsets.
Fifteen-Minute Activist:
Talk to the media. It's easy with this sample Letter to the Editor.
Retiree health benefits (EEOC ruling)
May 17 – NEA testifies before the Senate Special Committee on Aging in support of the EEOC decision that maintains important retiree health benefits.
May 7, 2004
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News from Capitol Hill...
On the front burner
IDEA - Moving toward the starting gate?
The Senate is poised to act on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reauthorization the week of May 10, after a months-long delay
$$ - Since 1975, the shortfall in funding the federal share of IDEA 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 - Licensed and certified special educators with multiple subject assignments should not have to prove they are "highly qualified" in each.
Five-Minute Activist
Tell your U.S. Senators: The qualifications of licensed, certified special educators should deem them as "highly qualified."
Overtime: NEA-supported Harkin Amendment passes
The NEA-supported Harkin Amendment to block Department of Labor (DOL) changes to the overtime pay rules passed the Senate, 52-47.
The NEA-opposed DOL changes, due to take effect in late August, weaken the language used to define overtime-eligible duties and jeopardize the 40-hour work-week, the eight-hour day, and overtime pay.
Voting for the Harkin Amendment: All Democrats (except Senator Miller-GA) and Republican Senators Murkowski (AK), Campbell (CO), Snowe (ME), Specter (PA), and Chafee (RI). Not voting: Senator Kerry (MA), who was addressing education issues in Albuquerque.
Next Steps: The House supported blocking the new regulations last year, but has not yet acted this year.
EEOC protects retiree benefits, not cuts
NEA will testify in support of the decision before the Senate Special Committee on Aging on May 17.
"Mis-Leading," Politicizing, and Fund Raising - The AARP has launched a grassroots campaign fueled by fear-mongering in opposition to a recent decision by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that AARP mischaracterizes as a threat to the rights of Medicare-eligible retirees. In a current mailing to members, the organization is using the issue to raise funds for political activity that would jeopardize current and future retiree health benefits if the EEOC rule is not finally implemented.
NEA and the labor community broadly sharply disagree with the mischaracterization and support the EEOC's decision.
The Facts: The EEOC decision simply allows employers to continue to offer health benefits for retirees not yet eligible for Medicare. The EEOC action is crucial because a prior court ruling held that offering such benefits coordinated with Medicare violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
The EEOC decision does not cut the benefits of Medicare-eligible retirees. It does not change bargained contracts. It does not change state law. Our strength at the bargaining table and the legislature is what wins and protects our health benefits. Nothing in the EEOC's decision changes this.
Five-Minute Activist
Thank the EEOC for maintaining current health benefits and share your message with Congress.
Social Security offsets - Work underway
The Chairman Comes to the Negotiating Table: The first negotiations in the long history of NEA efforts to win repeal of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) are continuing.
The tenacity of our primary repeal sponsors, Representatives McKeon (R-CA) and Berman (D-CA), supported by the strong advocacy of NEA members and other activists, has brought the Chairman to the negotiating table.
A discharge petition - a procedural mechanism to bring a bill directly to the House floor - is circulating among House Democrats. Given the breakthrough in opening negotiations, Representatives McKeon and Berman believe a partisan discharge petition is not helpful at this time.
The committee process is the strongest vehicle to win repeal legislation. NEA is committed to results and does not support the discharge petition.
NEA remains confident in Representatives McKeon's and Berman's commitment to resolve the issue and address the unfair offsets.
Fifteen-Minute Activist
Pay an at-home visit to your Members of Congress. Congress will be in recess for Memorial Day, Independence Day, and the August Recess. Members will also be in their home districts for extended weekends during this election year. Pay a visit and tell your story.
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