Week Ending April 27, 2018

  

  • Farm Bill Moving to House Floor
  • House Moves Long-Term FAA Renewal Without ATC Privatization
  • Congress Begins Action on Opioid Crisis
  • Federal Court Places Speed Bump in Trump's DACA Rescission
  • Duncan Confirmed for the Fifth Circuit

Farm Bill Moving to House Floor

An extremely punitive Farm Bill (H.R. 2), which weakens nutrition programs for millions of Americans, is expected to be voted on the House floor in earlyMay,when Congress returns from a one-week district work period.

The bill cuts $17 billion in food assistance from SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), taking this basic need away from 1 million families and 2 million individuals, and replaces it with harsh mandates imposing unrealistic employment requirements on recipients. It also diverts resources for food to underfunded and untested training programs and removes state flexibility. The bill would add pressure on states to privatize job training and employment services in addition to SNAP eligibility. SNAP helps not only its recipients but also the broader economy. It works as a "multiplier" locally, yielding $9 of spending in local communities from every $5 spent through SNAP.

What You Need to Know: AFSCME is very concerned about these extreme changes to the SNAP as well as efforts to impose new unrealistic work requirements. AFSCME strongly opposes H.R. 2.

Please call your member of the House of Representatives at 1-877-960-3726 and urge them to vote NO on H.R. 2, the Farm Bill.

H.R. 2 makes harmful changes to the SNAP program that will likely lead to privatization and displacement of public workers and cut food assistance for vulnerable Americans and working families most in need.

House Moves Long-Term FAA Renewal Without ATC Privatization 

The House advanced a five-year renewal of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs after considering more than 100 amendments. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) tried for three years to turn Air Traffic Control operations (ATC) over to a private, for-profit entity. His latest effort came when he and aviation industry lobbyists tried to slip a new privatization panel into the FAA bill, but he was met with bipartisan opposition and was forced to abandon the plan. Congress has until September 30 to reauthorize FAA programs and reachagreement with the Senate, which is working on its own bill, S. 1405. 

The bipartisan FAA bill will improve aviation safety and capacity and provide a framework for integrating newtechnology,while providing multi-year, stable funding to advance the implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (Next Gen). 

What You Need to Know: AFSCME successfully fought the wholesale privatization of ATC at every step of the way. AFSCME also successfully fought to protect public safety and the jobs of AFSCME-represented contract weather observers who provide critical weather reports for control towers across the country. FAA has proposed doing away with these positions as a cost-saving measure. Fortunately, language added to H.R. 4 prevents Congress from doing so. And, while the House bill lifts the cap on the Airport Privatization Pilot Program and makes it permanent, a move AFSCME strongly opposed, it’s not expected to be widely utilized. Expansion of the program is unnecessary since there is little demand for it, and thus far only one airport has been privatized. Expanding airport privatization potentially weakens a city or region’s financial future and limits the ability to pursue transportation alternatives. It could also increase passenger costs and potentially reduce quality services at the airport.

Congress Begins Action on Opioid Crisis 

Under intense public pressure to do something about the growing opioid crisis, committees in the House and Senate voted on a package of more than 70 bills. Most of the bills are small in scope, creating new centers for excellence, reportsandinformation about best practices. Congress has yet to develop a comprehensive solution. 

What You Need to Know: One bipartisan bill, H.R. 5102, which would establish a new federal loan repayment program for full-time social workers, recovery coaches, mental health counselors and other behavioral health professionals who work in addiction treatment, should be of interest to AFSCME behavioral health care workers. Investing in treatment and the workforce, however, could be undermined by efforts to cut Medicaid, which finances 21 percent of all addiction treatment and covers two out of five nonelderly adults with opioid addiction. Also, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) established mental health and substance abuse treatment as an essential health benefit, although the Trump administration has taken recent steps to roll back these very requirements.  

The opioid crisis bills will be considered by the full House Energy and Commerce Committee in the coming weeks, and by the full House and Senate by the end of May. AFSCME will continue to fight to protect the Medicaid programs, as well asACA,while addressing the opioid crisis. 

Federal Court Places Speed Bump in Trump’s DACA Rescission

A Federal District Court for the District of Columbia said the Trump administration must explain why it decided to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  Judge Bates has given the Department of Homeland Security 90 days to do so, otherwise it “must accept and process new as well as renewal DACA applications.” Further, the judge described the administration’s decision to end DACA as “arbitrary and capricious because the department failed to explain adequately its conclusion that the program was unlawful.” This is the third ruling against the Trump administration’s rollback of DACA. 

What You Need to Know: Many unions, including AFSCME, have members impacted by DACA. America is the only country these individuals have ever known, and they fight alongside their union sisters and brothers every day for fair wages, affordable health care and fair labor and safety standards for all. The attack on DACA and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is yet another attack on these working families. Casting these immigrants back into the shadows serves to suppress wages for all workers and undermine labor protections.

Duncan Confirmed for the Fifth Circuit 

The Senate voted 50 to 47 to confirm Kyle Duncan of Louisiana for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Fifth Circuit is known for rendering several court decisions that have impacted the civil rights of many historically marginalized individuals. Groups opposed to Duncan emphasized that much of his time as a private attorney was spent advocating for limiting protections for women, LGBTQ persons, immigrants, and citizens wanting to exercise their voting rights.

What You Need to Know: Ourcourts matter. Judges serving in lifetime seats have the power to shape the implementation of laws of our country on issues of fairness and equitable treatment for all. Appeals court judges have the added responsibility to rule on uniquely complex and significant federal cases. Any lifetime appointee should demonstrate the ability to be open-minded, fair and impartial when interpreting the laws of our nation.

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