|
National Issues |
|
ISSUE:
card
check bill |
| On March 1,
the House passed H.R. 800, the "Employee Free Choice Act," a
bill that would do away with the right to a secret ballot election when
deciding whether employees should be represented by a union. Instead,
unions would be certified as the bargaining agents for workers once they
persuade a majority of eligible employees to sign authorization cards.
Because this process is conducted in the open, it could expose employees
to all types of coercion and intimidation. Unions see the card check process as a way to reverse their declining prospects in the workplace. Fifty years ago, 35 percent of all workers belonged to unions. Now just 12 percent do, and nearly half of them are government employees. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced the card check bill late last month as S. 1041. All but four Senate Democrats joined him as co-sponsors. The bill is expected on the Senate floor before Memorial Day, but it won't get a final vote if the Republicans' threatened filibuster is successful. For more information or to contact your senators, visit: http://www.voteforbusiness.com/capconn/alertdetail.aspx?AlertID=418. |
|
ISSUE:
minimum
wage |
| The minimum
wage provisions passed by the House and Senate are identical. Both would
boost the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in three steps over two years. But
the tax packages that were included to soften the blow to small business
differ in important ways and, so far, neither chamber has been willing to
bend much to accommodate the other. The U.S. Chamber prefers the House's
$1.3 billion tax cut package (over 10 years) to the Senate's $8.3 billion
plan because the Senate included onerous business tax increases to offset
the costs of their package. It isn't even clear where they'll resolve
their differences. The Senate wants to negotiate prior to convening a
formal conference committee but the House, impatient with the stalemate,
added its minimum wage/tax provisions to its version of the Iraq war
supplemental spending bill. Until this is settled the minimum wage will
remain where it is. Last month, Sen. Kennedy and Rep. Rose DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the "Healthy Families Act" (S. 910/H.R. 1542), which would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide seven days of paid sick leave annually. |
|
ISSUE:
taxes and spending |
| Both the House and the Senate narrowly approved $2.9 trillion budget resolutions for fiscal 2008 that also chart a spending path for the next five years. What those resolutions don't say but seem to assume is that many of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 won't be extended beyond their 2010 expirations. While there's room to quibble about how to describe this policy shift, those at the paying end of it will definitely see it as a massive tax increase. The fiscal and economic consequences of all of this are uncertain, but they'll certainly be a campaign issue in next year's elections. |
|
ISSUE:
global warming |
|
Early this month the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that greenhouse gas emissions are pollutants that the EPA can regulate under the Clean Air Act. That opens the door for a long list of congressional players who are anxious to rein in U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases. In the Senate, the Environment and Public Works and the Energy and Natural Resources Committees are moving ahead; in the House, it's the Energy and Commerce and the Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committees. One sign of the changed atmosphere: Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell (D-MI), for decades the Big Three's strongest supporter on Capitol Hill, now supports mandatory controls. Many states are moving even faster. California has gotten the most attention; state law there requires that greenhouse gas emissions be cut to 1990 levels by 2020. The state has filed with the EPA for a waiver to impose controls that exceed federal standards. Several auto companies have sued the state to block the program, claiming that it's an illegal, back-door attempt to set fuel economy standards. Other states seeking waivers to impose stricter rules include Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington |