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Posted by Grassroots Legislative Network on 6/6/2008, 1:36 pm The House and Senate returned to session this week. Action in the Senate For the complete list of cosponsors for all of our top legislative priorities, or to find out if your Representative and Senators are cosponsors of specific bills, check out http://thomas.loc.gov . This issue was discussed in both hearings mentioned above. While no legislation has been introduced with a provision that would mandate the inclusion in Social Security of public employees currently not in the system, the FOP included in its testimony to the Subcommittee our strong opposition to such a scheme. Senator Harry M. Reid (D-NV), the Majority Leader in the Senate, continues to keep our legislation as a pending item for the Senate floor. At this writing, the staff of Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH), the bill sponsor, and Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) and lead cosponsor of H.R. 980, are working with the staff of Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Minority Leader, and Mike Enzi (R-WY), the Ranking Member on the HELP Committee to get an agreement to resume debate on the measure. All F.O.P. members should call their Senators (ESPECIALLY those listed above) at their Washington offices, or through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, and thank them for their vote in favor of cloture and ask that they continue to work to get this bill passed on the Senate floor."
FOP Grassroots Legislative Network
I. THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS
House and Senate negotiators continued to work behind the scenes on H.R. 2642, the "Supplemental Appropriations Act." The Senate-amended version of the bill contains $490 million of Federal funding for law enforcement. The FOP strongly supports the Senate language.
Action in the House
The House considered and passed, H.R. 5972, the "United States Capitol Police Administrative Technical Corrections Act," by voice vote. The bill makes technical amendments to the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2001 with respect to the Chief Administrative Officer of the Capitol Police and establishes a General Counsel to the Chief of Police and the U.S. Capitol Police. The bill would also prohibit lump sum payments to terminated U.S Capitol Police officers or employees for unused compensatory time and authorize the Chief of Police to suspend Capitol Police employees with or without pay.
The House considered and adopted the conference report on S. Con. Res. 70, the 2009 Congressional Budget, on a 214-210 vote.
The Senate considered and passed H.R. 6124, the "Food, Conservation, and Energy Act," also known as the "farm bill" on a 77-15 vote. The House passed the bill before the Memorial Day recess, so the measure is now cleared for the President, who is expected to veto it.
The Senate spent much of the week debating S. 3036, the "Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act," which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Senate has a vote on a motion to invoke cloture on a substitute amendment to the bill, which is not expected to pass.
The Senate considered and adopted the conference report on S. Con. Res. 70, the 2009 Congressional Budget, on a 48-45 vote.II. UPDATE ON FOP TOP LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
A. SOCIAL SECURITY ISSUES:
(1) Support H.R. 82/S. 206, the "Social Security Fairness Act"
We added three (3) new cosponsors to H.R. 82, bringing our current total to three hundred thirty-seven (337) cosponsors--more than seventy-five percent (75%) of the House--on H.R. 82. Please note that this total differs slightly from THOMAS, as we are not including in our count Delegates Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam), Donna M. Christensen (D-VI), Luis Fortuno (R-PR), and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who have limited voting rights on the floor. We are also not including Representatives Julia Carson (D-IN), Paul Gillmor (R-OH), Tom Lantos (D-CA), Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA), or Charlie Norwood (R-GA), all of whom have died this year. Similarly, Representatives Bobby Jindal (R-LA) and Martin Meehan (D-MA), who resigned their seats, are also not included in our count.
In January, National President Chuck Canterbury sent a letter to the Chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee, Representative Michael R. McNulty (D-NY), urging him to take action on the bill. Chairman McNulty has not yet replied.
That letter can be found HERE.
We currently have thirty-six (36) cosponsors on the Senate companion bill, S. 206.
The National Legislative Office has identified thirteen (13) Members from ten (10) States which had previously cosponsored this bill in the 109th Congress. A list of these Members has been forwarded to the National Legislative Committee, who will in turn distribute it to the State Legislative Contacts and leaders in the appropriate States.(2) Opposing any legislation that would require the participation of public employees in Social Security
B. Support H.R. 980/S. 2123, the "Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act"
Senator Enzi is a staunch opponent of the bill, and, in the absence of Senator Kennedy, negotiations have gone slowly. It is important that our members stay in contact with their Senators on the issue--especially the cosponsors and the those who voted for cloture on 13 May! All Senate Democrats, as well as independent Senators Lieberman (ID-CT) and Sanders (I-VT) voted in favor of the cloture motion, as did the following Republicans (cosponsors of the Senate companion bill, S. 2123, are marked with an asterisk): Chambliss (GA) McConnell (KY) Coleman (MN)* Murkowski (AK)* Collins (ME)* Smith (OR)* Domenici (NM)* Snowe (ME)* Grassley (IA) Specter (PA)* Gregg (NH)* Stevens (AK)* Hagel (NE) Sununu (NH)* Hatch (UT) Thune (SD) Martinez (FL)* Voinovich (OH)
When contacting your Senators, we encourage you to refer to the FOP's http://www.fop.net/legislative/issues/bargain/hr980faq.pdf” TARGET=”_blank”>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document.
Our members should know that the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA), remain very active in working to build and maintain opposition to this bill. Administration officials have now issued two separate veto threats. National President Canterbury sent a letter to Senate leadership in which he addressed some of the arguments being made by these and other opponents to the bill, which can be found http://www.fop.net/publications/archives/letters/2008_0509.pdf” TARGET=”_blank”>HERE.
The U.S. House of Representatives has already considered and passed H.R. 980 under a suspension of the rules on a 314-97 vote in July of last year. The result of that vote, Roll Call #633, can be viewed HERE.
In addition, we added one (1) cosponsor, Senator Whitehouse (D-RI), to the Senate companion bill, S. 2123. This brings our total to thirty-six (36) cosponsors.
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