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In Congress: Red Meat for the Right, Not Much for Working Families |
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Congress returns to work this week. But not to tackle key working family issues such as the continuing slow down in job growth or raising the minimum wage that’s been stuck at $5.15 an hour since 1997.
No. The Republican congressional leaders have other priorities—red meat, right-wing priorities, such as repealing the estate tax, which only multimillionaires pay, and changing the U.S. Constitution to say who can marry whom.
Last week, we told you the more than 80,000 still-jobless survivors of last year’s deadly Gulf Coast hurricanes would lose their unemployment benefits unless Congress acted to extend the benefits.
Well, the special disaster unemployment assistance program expired yesterday and even though Congress is rested from the Memorial Day vacation, Republican leaders haven’t scheduled any action on pending legislation (H.R. 5392 and S. 3030) to extend the benefits for another 13 weeks.
You can click here to tell your lawmakers they should help the families still struggling to recover from the hurricanes’ widespread economic devastation.
While Republican leaders are turning their backs on hurricane survivors, they are offering a helping hand to millionaires. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has scheduled a vote this week on repealing the estate tax.
Who faces this tax, which the Bush White House and congressional Republican leaders say is so hugely unfair? People with estates of more than $2 million (or $4 million for couples). That amounts to just .27 percent (about one-quarter of 1 percent) of all taxpayers).
By the way, guess who’s financing the campaign to repeal the multimillionaire estate tax? Multimillionaires! Eighteen super-rich families—including the Wal-Mart clan—have spent more than $500 million in lobbying expenses and advertising in their anti-estate tax campaign, according to a report by Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy—and it might be a pretty good investment. The 18 families could save $71.6 billion.
Government figures show repealing the estate tax would drain the U.S. Treasury of more than $1 trillion in the first 10 years. If repeal fails, Republican leaders are expected to craft a so-called “compromise” that would still shield most multimillion-dollar estates. The U.S. House already has approved an estate tax repeal.
On the House side, votes on two bills that will have an impact on working families are possible.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has threatened to impose a new contract on the nation’s air traffic controllers that includes unfair work rules and pay cuts on more than 14,000 controllers. The FAA declared an impasse in contract talks with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) in April. The unfair contract could make the shortage of air traffic controllers even worse, prompting many to retire.
To keep our skies safe and protect controllers, NATCA is supporting H.R. 5449 by Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio), which has bipartisan support. The bill would allow the normal resolution of the contract dispute available to other federal employees and prevent FAA from imposing the contract. Click here to urge your U.S. representative to vote “yes” on the bill.
Mine safety legislation passed by the U.S. Senate last month may come up for a vote. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) wants to offer three amendments to strengthen the Senate bill, but leadership may not allow the changes. The AFL-CIO has urged lawmakers to act on the bill and to allow Miller to offer the strengthening amendments.
No action is scheduled on the very contentious immigration reform legislation. The House and Senate are expected in the next few weeks to name the members who will take part in a conference to try to merge two very different bills—a draconian House bill that could make felons of all undocumented immigrants and criminalize the people who help them and a Senate version that addresses jobs, possible paths to citizenship and other issues. The conference is expected to last through the summer.
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