110th Congress off to a Busy Start
The 110th Congress convened on January 4th, 2007. With Democrats now holding a majority in both the House and Senate, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was sworn in as the new Speaker of the House, and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) was sworn in as the new Senate Majority Leader. Most of the first week of the new Congress was spent on organizational activities, but the House did adopt a new “pay-as-you-go” budget rule that will require offsets for any new entitlement spending or tax cuts. Also adopted was a rule to require significant new disclosures about the earmark process, including a requirement that sponsors of individual projects be identified in all spending, authorizing and tax legislation. The Senate has also been working on its own ethics legislation (S. 1) that will address the earmark process, but is still debating the bill.
Both the House and Senate are also busy appointing new Committee leaders and members. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is the new Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Rep. George Miller is the new Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee (formerly known as the Education and the Workforce Committee). Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. David Obey (D-WI) have assumed the leadership of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. While some new Committee members have been appointed, this process is still being finalized and complete Committee rosters will be available soon.
The beginning of the Congress has also resulted in a flurry of new legislation reflecting the priorities of new leaders and members of Congress. Of particular importance to CTE educators, the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R.82/S.206) has been reintroduced in Congress to repeal the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision – two offsets that cut or eliminate the Social Security benefits of hundreds of thousands of educators and other public employees. A bill (H.R.5) has also been introduced in the House to reduce interest rates on subsidized student loans. This bill is expected to be voted on by the House on January 17, but it is unclear when the Senate will follow.
For the more information and the latest information on all of the activities of the 110th Congress, visit the Public Policy page of ACTE’s web site at http://www.acteonline.org/policy/index.cfm.
Future Federal Funding Outlook Uncertain
Congress has been working to complete work on Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 appropriations legislation, which was due in October 2006. Progress stalled last fall due to the Congressional elections. Democrats, who are now in control of both the House and the Senate, are eager to move on to the FY 2008 appropriations cycle and other new business, and indicate there will be a Continuing Resolution to fund the FY 2007 programs at FY 2006 levels for the remainder of the year.
ACTE and other advocates are pushing to increase the education, labor, and health programs funding amount by as much as $2.3 billion above the appropriation levels reported by Congress last year in this Continuing Resolution. There is no clear indication of whether additional funding will become available, or if appropriated, whether any of the increase would be provided to CTE programs. Democrats have indicated that any education funding increase would be devoted to a small number of large programs such as No Child Left Behind and higher education Pell grants.
As work on FY 2007 draws to a close, the FY 2008 budget cycle is looming. President Bush is due to release his FY 2008 budget recommendations to the nation on February 5. As is the tradition, few details are known about what will be contained in the President’s budget. If previous budgets are an indication, CTE advocates have cause for concern. The President has eliminated funding for the Perkins Career and Technical Education program in his budget recommendations for the past 2 years.
ACTE predicts a particularly challenging budget fight for the coming year due to the rising federal budget deficit, commitments to national priorities such as the war in Iraq, and the steadily increasing costs of entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicaid.
For more information and the latest updates on federal funding, visit ACTE’s web site at http://www.acteonline.org/policy/legislative_issues/funding.cfm.
