Federal Issues 2007

Federal Budget
The FY07 Department of Education budget is $54.4 billion, which is a $2.1 billion reduction, or 3.8 percent below the comparable FY06 level of $56.5 billion.

• The FY07 Department of Education budget freezes Title I grants to LEAs at $12.7 billion and, for the fifth year in a row, fails to fund NCLB at its promised levels, shortchanging NCLB by more than $55 billion since its enactment four years ago.
• The FY07 Department of Education budget provides only $10.7 billion for IDEA grants, or 17 percent as opposed to the 40 percent promised in the Act passed in 1975. This is below the FY06 level of 18 percent.
• The FY07 Department of Education budget eliminates 42 education programs, including Educational Technology, Arts in Education, Counseling, Mental Health Integration in Schools, and more.
• The FY07 Department of Education budget expands provisions of NCLB to high school, increasing math and science funding by eliminating important programs like Vocational Education, GEAR UP, TRIO and Educational Technology.
• The FY07 Department of Education budget freezes the maximum Pell Grant for the fifth year in a row at $4,050. Pell Grants are the foundation for federal student aid for low income students, and unlike a loan, do not have to be repaid.
• The FY07 Department of Education budget provides for a $100 million voucher program for private schools through the America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids program.

CSEA opposes these and other education cuts which severely undermine America’s competitiveness by shortchanging students, especially low income students, at all levels of education. While improving students’ high school math and science skills is important, it should not come at the expense of other needed resources like vocational education programs and safe and drug free schools. Despite record enrollment growth from pre-K to college, for the second year in a row, the President’s budget request proposes the largest education cuts in the 26-year history of the Federal Department of Education.

CSEA urges Congress to reverse the damaging decline in education investment and make increased funding a top budget priority for the success of America’s students in the global economy.  The increased investment in education will more than pay for itself by producing a highly competitive workforce, therefore reducing the incidence of costly social issues such as unemployment, poverty and crime.

Individual Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
The FY07 budget request proposes $28 billion a year for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) as the way to solve the health care crisis.

CSEA opposes unproven HSAs as a viable solution for health care insurance for the underinsured and the uninsured. HSAs require high, out-of-pocket expenses before coverage actually kicks in.  As a result, many workers and their families are likely to go without critical health care or delay seeking needed care. Further, HSAs encourage employers to abandon health benefits, so cost-shifting will grow. With more than 8.2 million children in the U.S. uninsured, HSAs are not the solution.

CSEA urges Congress to take a comprehensive national approach to the health care crisis facing our nation, including new strategies for universal health care and requiring better performance from health care providers.

The Employee Free Choice Act (S. 842 and H.R. 1696)
Although workers’ right to association is recognized in U.S. and international law, U.S. workers often face employer interference, coercion and intimidation when they seek to form a union. A recent study shows that over 57 million workers say they would join a union if they had a chance if it were not for such intimidation practices.

Senator Kennedy [D-MA] and Congressman George Miller [D-CA] have introduced the Employee Free Choice Act to curtail these abusive practices by employers. 

CSEA supports these measures that are currently before Congress.

CSEA urges Congress to move these measures forward in the legislative process, protecting the organizing rights of workers across America.

Pension Reform
Employment-based pensions are an essential component of a strong national retirement system. Defined-benefit plans remain the soundest vehicles for building and safeguarding retirement income security, as they provide a guaranteed monthly lifetime benefit. 

CSEA recognizes the current economic pressures facing many private sector defined-benefit plans.

CSEA urges Congress to ensure that pension reform measures before Congress do not allow Corporate America to break their social contract, but instead require them to participate in a retirement system in which they continue to share in the responsibility of delivering equitable, balanced retirement security to the employees who faithfully serve their industry.

Social Security Pension Offset (H.R. 147)
Spousal and survivor benefits are normally available to any person whose retired or deceased spouse worked at a job in which he or she earned Social Security benefits. The Social Security Government Pension Offset (GPO) reduces public employees’ Social Security spousal or survivor benefits by an amount equal to two-thirds of their public pension. 

Estimates indicate that nine out of 10 public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal benefit, even though their deceased spouse paid Social Security taxes for many years. The GPO has the harshest impact on those who can least afford the loss: lower-income women.

H.R. 147 by Representatives McKeon [R-CA] and Berman [D-CA] would repeal the GPO.

CSEA supports H.R. 147 to repeal the GPO.

CSEA urges Congress to pass legislation to repeal the GPO.