Legislative update for 2/9/09 from nwyc.com

First, a comment on the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids meeting and Linda Langston's comments today.

There were 70 disasters in 33 states in 2008. Of those disasters, eighty-one percent (81%) of the money from the Federal Government went to two states (Louisiana and Texas). Back when Grand Forks, ND and Hurricane Katrina occurred, there were not many natural disasters in comparison, in numbers, to the disasters of 2008, including the Flood of 2008 in Cedar Rapids.

With 81% of the Federal recovery relief going to only two states, help for Cedar Rapids is coming very slow at the Federal level. The economic impact of the flood is large and will likely take the next 10 years of consistent hard work to fully recover.

Please ask your Federal Representative or Senator, what are they doing to aid those impacted by the Midwest flooding of 2008?

Thank you

We received the following e-mail from National Write Your Congressman today:

REVIEW:

President Signs SCHIP

The House passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by an overwhelming majority. The program calls for $32.8 billion to be spent to insure children from lower-income homes through 2013. An estimated 2.4 million children who would have access to private insurance are also expected to join the rolls. The House approved the measure on a 290-135 vote with the backing of most Democrats and 40 Republicans. The plan sailed through the Senate and the President has signed it into law.Over the next four years, up to 13 million children could be covered by the plan, which will be funded by a 62-cent increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes, bringing the total federal excise tax to $1.01 a pack.(H.R.2)

Stimulus Package Continues to Take Shape

Senate moderates searched for a compromise that would reduce the size toward $800 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which lawmakers are calling the economic stimulus package. Key Democratic moderates said that they were close to a deal that would win support from a small group of Republican centrists and perhaps give the package enough votes to pass.With lawmakers expressing a desire to complete this legislation, the talk of broad bipartisanship that surrounded early stimulus discussions has vanished as Senate Democratic leaders attempt to secure a bare minimum of Republican support. Sixty votes are needed to pass the bill and send it to conference with the House. (H.R.1)

Stimulus Package — Mortgage Aid Republican leaders have called for mortgage aid for homeowners to be included in the stimulus package. According to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the suggested proposals for subsidized mortgage refinancing at rates of 4.5 percent or lower would cost between $300 million and $1 trillion. (H.R.1)

Buy American Lawmakers have agreed that provisions should be stripped from the House
and Senate stimulus bills requiring the use of made-in-the U.S.A. steel, iron or other goods in these financed projects. Reports showed that more Americans would lose jobs than gain them under these stipulations. (H.R.1)

Pell Grants in Stimulus

Boosts in Pell grant funding have emerged as a key point in the debate among Republicans and Democrats over whether certain spending provisions belong in the economic stimulus bill.Both the Senate and House stimulus proposals include more than $140 billion in education spending, but Republicans have zeroed in on Pell grant funding as an example of what they say is non-stimulative spending in the legislation. (H.R.1)

Trade Adjustment Assistance in Stimulus

Lawmakers reached a bipartisan compromise that is expected to open the door to the reauthorization and expansion of a long-stalled program that helps workers who are put at a disadvantage by foreign trade. The agreement on the Trade Adjustment Assistance program provides training, wage protections and unemployment assistance to workers struggling with competition from international business.The reauthorization was expected to be attached to the economic stimulus legislation but that became uncertain when Republicans objected. (H.R.1)

Congress Told “Treasury Paid Too Much” A valuation study by the Congressional Oversight Panel — a watchdog created by the bailout law (P.L. 110-343) — found that the Treasury Department “paid substantially more for the assets it purchased under the Troubled Asset Relief Program than their then-current market value.” (H.R.384)

PREVIEW

The Senate will continue to consider details of the economic stimulus package. Lawmakers will consider food safety loopholes and examine the recent outbreak of salmonella-contaminated peanut butter. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised more proposals from minority members would be considered after the stimulus package is completed.

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