Select a State * NATIONAL MAP * Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

• ISSUES
  • Budget & Taxes
  • Health & Safety
  • Health Care
  • Pension Security
  • Privatization
  • Women
• JOBS WE DO
  • Corrections
  • Early Childhood Education
  • Emergency Services
  • Environmental Stewardship
  • Health Care Workers
  • Higher Education
  • Home Care
  • Housing
  • Human Services
  • K-12 Schools
  • Law Enforcement
  • Library Workers
  • Nurses
  • Probation and Parole
  • Public Administration
  • Public Works
  • Transportation
• LEGISLATION & POLITICS
  • Legislation
  • Politics & Elections
• MEMBERS ONLY
  Savings, Resources & more…
• PUBLICATIONS
• PRESS ROOM
• ABOUT AFSCME

Week Ending January 18, 2008

Congress – The Week of January 14, 2008

The House of Representatives reconvened this week but the Senate remained in recess for one more week.  Talk of the slumping economy and the need for some type of economic stimulus was front and center.

Economic Stimulus Plans Proliferating as Economic Activity Starts to Sink

As the House of Representatives reconvened this week and with the Senate scheduled to do so next week, economic stimulus proposals have begun to proliferate in Washington.  Most economists now regard a recession as very likely this year, with projections varying on its severity and length causing Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and even President Bush to back the need for some economic stimulus.

Many Republicans, however, still remain skeptical about the need for a robust response to the situation, and focused are primarily on tax cuts, including making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent (which even conservative economists agree would have no helpful impact on the current situation) to tax rebates to individuals and corporate tax cuts.  While Democratic proposals vary, they are being talked about as needing to be “temporary, targeted, and timely”.  In general they include plans to spend federal funds on programs that can create an immediate boost to economic activity and tax cuts targeted on low and middle income families.

AFSCME has taken the lead with a number of other labor and advocacy groups to urge Congress to provide immediate fiscal relief to the states and local governments as declining revenues, especially from falling property taxes, threaten to force layoffs and service cutbacks during the year. Among the proposals being considered is an increase in the federal Medicaid match (FMAP), which was enacted during the last recession, as well as increased funds for other federally funded state and local government services.  In addition, we are urging enactment of a strong program of extended unemployment benefits combined with the unemployment insurance modernization bill that overwhelmingly passed the House last year.  That bill includes substantial funding to shore up the badly frayed UI delivery system and state employment services.

At one congressional hearing the Economic Policy Institute called for a stimulus package with an increase in Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP), a increase in Food Stamps, a targeted tax rebate, and spending on repairs of schools and other public infrastructure. 

AFSCME Urges Congress to Eliminate Benefit Inequities for Public Retirees

Joseph Rugola, International Vice-President of AFSCME and Executive Director of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE)/AFSCME Local 4, testified before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security and called on Congress to repeal or drastically reform  two unfair federal laws – the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) – that are cutting into the retirement benefits of hundreds of thousands of retired federal, state and local government employees.  The laws offset spousal Social Security benefits of public-sector retirees who pay into public pension plans instead of Social Security, nearly one-third of public sector employees, creating significant hardships for many public retirees.

To learn more about GPO and WEP and to read Joseph Rugola's full testimony, please visit the Legislation page on our website: www.afscme.org.  

Sign Up to Receive the Weekly Report and Action Alerts via Email and Become an AFSCME e-Activist

In an effort to move toward electronic transmission which will allow us to put important federal legislative updates in your hands sooner, we urge you to sign up to receive the Federal Legislative Report via your email address.

Please go to http://www.unionvoice.org/afscme/join.html and check the "Federal Legislative Report" box under Subscriptions on the bottom of the page. Then send an email to legislation@afscme.org with your name and address, and we will remove you from the mailing list.

Print Version Email This Page

What's This?