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BUDGET UPDATE
Budget Resolutions Pass in House and Senate; Move to Conference Committee
On Thursday, April 2, the House and Senate passed their FY 2010 budget resolutions, largely along party lines. The House resolution (H Con Res 85) passed on a 233-196 vote with all but 20 Democrats voting in favor. The House proposal provides an overall budget of $3.55 trillion for the new fiscal year, including $1.089 trillion in discretionary spending, which is $ 7 billion less than the $540 billion requested by the President. The Senate Resolution (S Con Res 13) passed on a 55-43 vote with only 2 Democrats voting against it. The $3.53 trillion Senate plan cuts $15 billion from the President’s proposal.
The non-binding resolution sets the parameters for spending and tax bills throughout the year and caps the total allocation for annual Appropriations measures. Before it passed the budget blueprint, the Senate rejected a number of alternative budgets including the GOP’s counterproposal, and that of the Republican Study Committee. Both the House and Senate proposals scale back President Obama’s budget plan by reducing the alternative minimum tax protecting millions of families, dropping his suggestion for an $800 tax credit for working families and choosing not to allocate funding for future bailout bills.
A House-Senate conference committee will be appointed to work out the differences in the two budget proposals when Congress returns from its spring recess on April 20. The key differences to be reconciled include deficit reduction and whether or not to include reconciliation instructions for health care reform.
House Democrats said their plan lowers the deficit from $1.7 trillion in 2009 to $598 billion in 2014, while Senate Democrats say their plan would reduce the deficit an additional $80 billion. The House version currently includes reconciliation instructions for health care reform while the Senate version does not. Proponents of the reconciliation process say it is necessary in order to carry out the President’s instructions; opponents claim it creates strongly partisan legislation by alienating the minority party. While Senate leaders have voiced their desire to avoid reconciliation instructions in the Conference Report, they have not “taken it off the table.”
Senators Brown, Murray, Snowe; Representatives Loebsack and Platts Introduce SECTORS ACT
On Wednesday, April 3, Senators Olympia Snowe (ME), Patty Murray (WA), and Sherrod Brown (OH) introduced the Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act (S777) to promote local industries and improve employment opportunities for America’s workers.
Congressmen Todd Platts (PA) and Dave Loebsack (IA) announced companion legislation in the House. The bill supports partnerships among business, unions, educators and the public workforce system to facilitate worker training and advancement in high-demand and emerging industries. The measure will address the economy’s demand for skilled workers in growing fields such as health care, clean energy and technology; emphasizing jobs that require less than a four-year college degree but more than a high school diploma.
Almost half of America’s labor market is comprised of these jobs, and recent passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is expected to create even more. The partnership model was chosen to replicate successful state programs which connect industries with skilled worker shortages to local residents in need of job training such as partnership efforts by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Chicago’s Jane Addams Resource Corporation.
Department or Labor Releases March Unemployment Data
On Friday, April 4, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the March unemployment rate was 8.5 percent, the highest level since 1983. The rate is 15.6 percent when part-time workers and those who have given up looking for work are taken into account. The economy has shed 5.1 million jobs since the beginning of the recession in December, 2007.
Congress Passes National Service Act
On Tuesday, March 31, the House passed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act (HR 1388) by a vote of 275-149. The bill would expand the 1990 National and Community Service Act (PL 101-610) to further the mission of the Corporation for National and Community Service with an estimated cost of $5.7 billion over five years. The Senate had passed the bill by a vote of 79-19 on Thursday, March, 26. The bill was renamed in the Senate after Senator Edward M. Kennedy (MA)
and could triple participation in national service programs. Obama has expressed his desire to sign the bill when he returns from the G-20 summit in London.
STIMULUS UPDATE
OMB Requiring Stricter Reporting on Stimulus Funds
The OMB will issue guidelines today, April 3, requiring more in-depth and frequent reporting of contract and subcontract details for stimulus fund recipients. Preliminary rules delivered in February mandated disclosure of primary contract and grant recipients, but did not follow the funding to local contractors, school districts, or other recipients.
Agencies now must submit information on prime recipients of funds and any sub-recipients who work on stimulus funded projects. These guidelines address concerns about whether or not government watchdogs can effectively track stimulus funds while striking a balance between the transparency promised as part of the Recovery Act with the burden of reporting imposed on recipients.
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