Legislation & Politics

Week Ending March 6, 2009

Congress – The Week of March 2, 2009

Omnibus Funding Bill Stalls in Senate.

Senate Passes This Year's Omnibus Spending Bill

The Senate had hoped to complete action on the House-passed omnibus spending bill (H.R. 1105) for the remainder of FY 2009 which ends on September 30, but so far has been unable to garner the votes to end debate. The Congress is now expected to move another temporary funding measure for FY 2009 to keep the government running at last year's funding levels. Earlier the Senate defeated a number of Republican amendments, including one from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to freeze spending at 2008 levels and strip all earmarks from the bill. President Obama has indicated his support for the bill despite opposition to numerous earmarks which have generated strong opposition.

President Obama's Health Care Reform Summit

 On March 5, AFSCME participated in President Obama's Health Care Reform Summit. The summit, attended by approximately 120 participants with approximately half from the Congress, was part of the new administration's effort to gain momentum for the President's health care reform initiatives. The immediate goal was to create a dialogue among the stakeholders and bipartisan representatives from the Congress about the urgency for reform. In addition, broad policy themes were briefly discussed, but the emphasis at this early date in the process was to set a collaborative tone and gain consensus around the need for reform.  

The administration clearly met its objectives for the meeting. Participants ranging from representatives from health insurance plans, hospitals, providers, consumers, business and labor all agreed that reform is urgently needed and should be tackled this year. There was strong support for covering everyone, transforming the health care delivery system to promote prevention and enhance quality, and implementing information technology as funded in the recently enacted economic recovery bill. There was recognition by the participants, and by the President, that this transformation will require substantial investment, but that the investment will reap economic dividends over the medium to long term.

A few Republican congressional representatives voiced dissent at the idea that reform can and should be enacted this year. However, on this day, their position was both muted and overwhelmed by the strong support for health care reform among the participants.

House Committee Approves Water Bill

On March 5, a House committee approved the Water Quality Investment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1262), legislation that would provide $13.8 billion over five years for wastewater treatment grants and loans. The bill combines several important water bills that Congress has been unable to pass in recent years. Of particular interest to AFSCME is the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a federal program that helps states with the ability to assist local governments protect water quality and improve wastewater treatment facilities. AFSCME was successful in blocking language that would have required local governments to privatize their water treatment activities as a condition for receiving federal funds.

Federal Aviation Administration Bill Approved

Just weeks before the short-term extension of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) authorization was due to expire, a House committee approved a long-term bill on March 5. The legislation (H.R. 915) would reauthorize the FAA through FY 2012, and provide $70 billion for the agency whose authorization had expired in October 2007. The bill also includes language that would fix the collective bargaining problem that has existed for years at the agency.

Obama Takes on Contracting Abuses

This week, President Obama ordered new guidelines for contracting in federal agencies. He ordered a government-wide review of federal contracting procedures to be completed by July 1 and new guidelines in place by September 30. The president declared, "We will stop outsourcing services that should be performed by the government," noting that annual spending on private contracts had doubled to more than $500 billion during the Bush administration. The guidelines will set criteria for contracting out public services, limit allowable circumstances for no-bid contracts, and assess agencies' ability to properly manage contracts given the shrinking federal workforce tasked with contracting oversight.

Additional Resources on Implementation of the Economic Recovery Law

Helpful resources continue to become available as states and localities begin drawing down funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The Council of State Governments has released a very useful report that summarizes all of the relevant provisions of ARRA, including a list of every funded program and a handy timeline of the bill's various deadlines. The link is http://www.staterecovery.org/federal-assistance.

In addition to the ARRA implementation information provided in last week's Weekly Report:

The Department of Labor has released a program letter on unemployment insurance (UI) modernization, incentive payments, administrative funding and interest on advances. Attachment VII of the program letter lists state allocations of incentive payments and administrative funding. UI Program Letter 14-09.
 
The Department of Labor announced the commencement of the new temporary Federal Additional Compensation (FAC) program, which will provide a $25 weekly increase in unemployment compensation for eligible workers. These extra benefits are 100% federally-funded. Extra payments will begin as early as the week of March 1, 2009, for weeks of unemployment effective Feb. 22, 2009. http:///dol.gov/recovery/implementation.htm.

The U.S. Department of Education has posted additional information on its website containing guidance on how schools can use the ARRA's State Stabilization funding for school modernization projects. http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/modernization/index.html.

The Department of Justice announced state allocations of Byrne/JAG formula grant funding. State allocations; Additional information on http://doj.gov/recovery.
 
The Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service released guidance on nutrition programs funded by ARRA, including dispensing increased administrative funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called Food Stamp program). http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/rules/Memo/09/022309.pdf.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released guidance for ARRA's additional funding for clean water and drinking water revolving loan funds. States must obligate all funds within 12 months of enactment, devote at least 20% of the funds to 'green infrastructure' projects and provide at least 50% in the form of grants. The EPA released guidance to its regions, which can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/recovery/.

The Departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced weatherization assistance:
http://www.hud.gov/recovery/2009/02/27/comms/pr09-016.cfm?CFID=15758401&CFTOKEN=77259353.

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