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110th Congress: Time is Tight and They Are Prepared to FightNovember 1, 2007—The first Democratic majority since1993 attempts to wrap up the session with a number of major unresolved bills and issues. An abbreviated list would include appropriations, then SCHIP, followed by NCLB and other issues such as tax relief. Facing vetoes and threatened vetoes the leadership is moving forward. Appropriations currently top the list as funding for the government is going to end again on November 16. The House managed to pass all of the 12 departmental budgets, but the Senate did not. Even so, conference committee members are preparing to meet and put together some kind of package to send to the President. In an attempt to pressure the President earlier this week Democratic leaders threatened to send the domestic spending bills that include health care and education attached to the defense and veterans bills for a total of over $700 billion. Today, the House Appropriations Chair David Obey announced that deal was off. In order for the deal to work, leaders needed to secure a veto proof majority, and they were several votes shy. Democrats opposed to the war were planning to vote against the bill. The HHS/Labor Bill is the subject of a veto threat by the President for the $22 billion in spending that exceeded the President’s request. Now, the plan is for the bill to include only the Veterans and Labor/HHS budgets. There are increases for Special Education and Title I in the education budget. Other specific increases are $10 million for STEM teacher preparation and $25 million for Community Based Job Training Grants. Reports state that Reading First Grants will be cut, and states will likely get more Title I funds in exchange. Other items of interest are that the indemnification for NIMAC made it into the final Senate Education bill as well. This in an of itself may catalyze a round of requested files from SEAs and or LEAs. NCLB – More NCLB draft bills were recently introduced by the Senate HELP committee. How much of the draft will end up in an actual bill is unclear. Some rumors believe the release of the draft bills was timed in an attempt to leverage the proposed increases in the Education Budget. Others report “there are a lot of problems with that draft.” Today, Congress Daily stated that Senator Kennedy will introduce a real bill before the end of the year. At the same time there is no movement on the
House side as of yet. Miller and McKeon are still at a standoff, and many democrats
are unhappy with the draft. “People have a very strong sense that the No
Child Left Behind Act is not fair, that it is not flexible and that it is not
funded. And they are not wrong. The question is what we are going to do next,”
Miller stated in a Los Angeles Times interview published this week. | ||||
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