 An email bulletin on national issues, exclusively for NAWB
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Appropriations UpdateSenate ActionsThere are 44 days left in the legislative session of the 109th Congress. The full Senate has yet to consider any FY'07 spending bills. GOP aides have indicated that Majority Leader Bill Frist (D-TN) would like to adjourn the Senate on September 29, a week earler than originally scheduled. Mr. Frist is hoping to finalize action on several contentious bills that the leadership is trying to steer toward final resolution before the November elections. These are likely to include immigration and judicial policies on suspected terrorists, as well as several appropriations bills. The Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill has historically been one of the last to be decided in years past, and there is no indication that it will be otherwise this year. With the calendar crunch and the push to end the legislative year on time, Senate leaders are considering attaching a continuing resolution to the FY '07 Defense Appropriations bill, which would result in a similar fate to the final passage of the Labor-HHS-Ed '06 budget. House ActionsOn the House side, 10 of the 11 spending bills have been passed, except for their Labor-HHS-Ed bill. That action may be possible if the leadership can find a way to dislodge the increase in the minimum wage amendment that is contained in the full Committee's mark-up bill that passed in mid-June. While the minimum wage poses an obstacle to getting to a final vote, there is still a need to find $3 billion more for education and health care programs promised to the Republican moderates by the House leadership. Between these two situations, the Labor-HHS-Ed bill looks like a prime candidate for a lame duck session after the elections. Prognosis for the DOL WIA BudgetRight now, it is looking more likely that there will be no WIA budget approved until after the November elections in a lame duck session. The outcome of the elections will add further challenges to completion of the process. If the Republicans hang onto the majority in both chambers, a lot of work would have to be undertaken in November and early December to finish all the spending bills before the 110th Congress is seated in January. This makes it more likely that one or more omnibus spending bills may materialize. If the Democrats move into the majority of either chamber, it would be more advantageous to them to have a short lame duck session before Christmas to postpone final budget actions until they assume leadership in January. WIA Reauthorization UpdateAs reported last week, the Senate passed the HELP Committee’s WIA reauthorization bill on Thursday, June 29th before the Senate recessed for the Fourth of July holiday. SB 9 had been on "hold", i.e., procedurally not able to be brought to the Senate floor for a vote, due to Sen. Richard Durbin’s (D-IL) request, since last November because of the faith-based hiring provision in the House WIA bill. While the provision was not, and currently is not in this just-passed Senate bill, it remains in the House reauthorization version, and has represented a deal-stopper for Democrats on both the House and Senate side. The next step is for the House and Senate to appoint their conferees for the conference committee, however, the Democrats will not agree to appoint theirs unless there is a pre-conference agreement to resolve the disagreement about the faith-based hiring provisions in the House WIA reauthorization bill.
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Vol VI Issue 13 IN THIS ISSUE:
 Upcoming Congressional Recess: Call to Action Task Have you invited your Congressional House Representatives to visit your One-Stop or meet with your WIB during the upcoming Congressional recess? It is crucial that every Member have personal contacts when they are home for the August Congressional break.
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