Legislation & Politics

Week Ending March 27, 2009

President Obama's budget agenda advances in House and Senate.  Health care reform remains high priority in Congress.

Obama Budget Agenda Advances in House and Senate

On Wednesday night, the House Budget Committee adopted a budget outline by a party-line vote of 24-15 that will advance President Obama's visionary budget goals.  The Budget Committee's plan includes funding to reform our health care system and so-called "reconciliation" instructions that would allow legislation implementing Obama's health care and education policies to move through the Senate without the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.  The Committee considered and rejected 27 of 28 Republican amendments, including one by ranking member Paul Ryan (R-WI) that would have barred the use of a health care reserve fund to pay for the creation of a public health insurance plan option.  That amendment was defeated 14-23.  Ryan's amendment to strike the reconciliation language failed 14-22.  The House budget plan advances President Obama's commitment to invest in domestic priorities, including annually-funded programs administered by state and local governments.

On Thursday, the Senate Budget Committee adopted its version of a budget blueprint also on a party-line vote of 13-10.  It includes a "reserve fund" for both health care and education legislation, which cannot add to the budget deficit.  The Senate plan does not include reconciliation language and therefore would require 60 votes to pass health care reform legislation.  However, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) refused to rule out the use of reconciliation instructions in the final conference agreement.  The Senate plan proposes approximately $8 billion less for annually-funded domestic programs than the House proposal.  The Budget Committee rejected Republican proposals to cut funding and to freeze non-defense annually-funded domestic spending at its current levels. 

The full House and Senate are expected to vote on their budget plans next week. 

Health Care Reform Remains High Priority in Congress

This week, Congress continued its focus on health care reform.  The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on improving access to health care, which focused on supporting and expanding primary care through physician incentives, reforming the Medicare payment system, and increasing federal support for medical education.  Panel Republicans pushed for medical liability reform.

 The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee addressed insurance market reform in national health reform, focusing on small groups and individuals.  Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said in his opening statement that a public health insurance plan option is necessary to encourage competition and is "good for our country."  Witnesses testified that we must build on our employer-based system; outlaw insurance companies cherry picking the healthiest subscribers; ensure that coverage is adequate and affordable; manage costs better; and cover everyone.

The Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care's hearing explored including long-term care reform as an essential component of broader health care reform. Witnesses urged greater emphasis on home- and community-based services within Medicaid.  Witnesses differed on the role of public programs in funding and structuring long-term care.

Employee Free Choice Act Faces New Hurdle

The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1410; S. 560), introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), has a growing list of 224 House and 39 Senate co-sponsors.  However, AFSCME was disappointed to learn that Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) has reversed his position and decided to vote against cloture, a procedural motion which would prevent the bill from moving to a full Senate vote without the support of 60 senators.  Sen. Specter supported cloture and co-sponsored the bill in the last Congress. Even if Al Franken is finally seated as Minnesota's second senator, one Republican vote will still be needed for cloture.  We are aggressively moving forward in D.C. and key states to fight for passage of this critically important bill.   

Federal Employees Paid Leave Bill Advances

This week, a House Subcommittee passed the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (H.R. 626), which would grant four weeks of paid parental leave to federal employees and allow federal employees to use any accumulated annual or sick leave to offset 12 weeks of unpaid Family Medical Leave Act leave.  AFSCME will continue to support the bill as it moves through Congress. 

Bill to Provide New Insurance for Home Care Services Introduced

Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) introduced AFSCME-supported legislation to create a national insurance program for workers who become functionally disabled.  The Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Act of 2009 (S. 697; H.R. 1721) would be financed through voluntary payroll deductions and would provide benefits for supports and services to workers to help them stay independent, employed and remain in their communities.  The insurance program would be structured to share the risk among a broad-based pool of workers, allow CLASS Act benefits to supplement, not supplant, other disability benefits and promote the expansion and strengthening of a reliable and qualified long-term care workforce. 

Economic Recovery Legislation Implementation Continues

The Obama administration released further rules, guidance and funding allocations to states pursuant to the economic stimulus bill (P.L. 111-5), the American Recovery and  Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA):

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made an estimated $1 billion in ARRA funds available to states' child support enforcement programs.  The ARRA temporarily reversed a provision in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that ended the practice of providing federal matching funds for states' expenditure of incentive payments.  The provision is effective Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2010.  States will receive the additional match funding based on any incentive funds used during fiscal years 2009 and 2010, including incentives earned and not spent in prior years.  States will access the additional funds as they currently do, through grant awards based on quarterly expenditures.  For information regarding additional federal funds for incentives expended during FY 2009 and 2010:   http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pol/AT/2009/at-09-02.htm.  For state-by-state first quarter incentive awards: http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/cse/qtr1awards.html.

HHS released guidance to states on compliance with the requirements for the enhanced Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) provisions that were included in ARRA (available from the Legislation Department).
 
The Department of Education posted a slideshow covering guiding principles and funding availability for education programs funded by the ARRA at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/presentation/index.html.

The Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) has provided memoranda to assist in the implementation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) under ARRA: http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/rules/Memo/09/022509.pdf; http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/rules/Memo/09/022609.pdf; http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/rules/Memo/09/030609a.pdf.  Also posted are a number of transmittals in Q&A format addressing SNAP certification provisions: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/recovery/recovery-snap.htm. 

The USDA also issued guidance on administering information systems for the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC): http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/recovery/memos/WIC_031309.pdf.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released ARRA guidance (available from the Legislation Department).

The Department of Labor (DOL) released additional guidance to states concerning Unemployment Insurance modernization incentive payments, state administration grants, and corrects earlier guidance related to relief from interest accrual and payments on advances to state unemployment funds: http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/corr_doc.cfm?docn=2732.
 
The DOL also released a series of "Q&As" regarding the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) and the premium reduction under ARRA:
http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/ebsa/EBSA20090301.htm. 
 
President Obama sent an ARRA memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies regarding ARRA implementation and responsible spending (available from the Legislation Department).    

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