Domestic Weekly Update December 22, 2009
New and Urgent in This Week’s UpdateSixty Senators Cast Critical Vote to Move Forward on Health Care Reform — Final Passage Expected by Christmas Sanders Single-Payer Amendment Withdrawn Prior to Vote Latest from Washington, DC, and BeyondCampaign Planning for 2010 Fundraising Update: Heading into the Home Stretch Quick NewsOrganizational Reminders and Updates Announcements Upcoming Events RESULTS Contact Information Sixty Senators Cast Critical Vote to Move Forward on Health Care Reform — Final Passage Expected by ChristmasAfter sacrificing the public option to win Independent Senator Lieberman’s vote, Senate Democrats overcame an important procedural hurdle in their push to reshape the health system. Early Monday the Senate voted 60-40 to to limit debate on a wide-ranging Manager’s amendment to their health care bill. The vote to invoke cloture eliminated the possibility of a Republican filibuster and left the GOP all but helpless to stop the Senate from passing, later this week, a measure that can be reconciled with House legislation and sent to President Obama early next year. Nevada Senator Harry Reid introduced the final Senate version of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Saturday. The bill would reduce the deficit by $132 billion the first ten years and over $800 billion in the second decade. In addition, the bill expands coverage to more than 94% of Americans under 65 years of age, including over 31 million uninsured. Medicaid expansion would only rise to 133% of the federal poverty line (FPL) as compared to the better House provision of 150%. But Senate funding for the expansion of community health centers moved closer to the more generous House bill. The bill also includes a “patient’s bill of rights” that provides consumer protections like prohibiting insurers from denying coverage for preexisting conditions and from rescinding coverage when policyholders become ill. Both the House measure and the newly recast Senate bill would force insurers to spend the vast majority of premium revenue on medical care for their customers, reducing the amount available for profits, executive salaries, sales and administration. The Senate bill would require insurers to spend at least 80 percent on medical care and quality improvements, while the House bill specified 85 percent. Insurers that don’t comply would owe rebates to customers. The vote to shut down the Republican filibuster came at 1 a.m. Monday morning and limited debate on Reid’s Manager’s amendment which includes the compromises and special favors to states required to unite the Democratic caucus including most significantly the jettison of any form of public option. Two more procedural votes will be needed before the bill comes to a final vote — on Tuesday to close debate over whether to insert the compromise language into the healthcare bill, and on Wednesday to close debate on the bill itself. Despite loss of a public option in the Senate bill, Families USA and others say the Senate bill is still worth supporting. Families President Ron Pollock wrote Friday, “Families across America will benefit enormously from the bill’s extensive improvements to our nation’s health care system. By contrast, the failure to enact health reform would have disastrous consequences.” When the Senate and House passed bills move to conference committee in January, conferees will be wrestling with these key differences:
As the health reform debate will continue in January over the conference committee bill, we want to keep the pressure on both representatives and senators to adopt the House provisions for Medicaid expansion and for funding Community Health Centers in the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R.3962). Our December Action urges you to generate media in support of Congress passing a strong bill.This includes the traditional RESULTS work of generating op-eds and letters to the editor, as well as using new media like blog commenting and Facebook to generate support. Voice your support for getting real health care reform passed as soon as possible. Members of Congress need to know that their constituents want a health bill that helps the people who most need it and expanding Medicaid and CHCs is the most effective way to see that those living in poverty get coverage and access to quality, affordable health care. TAKE ACTION: Use traditional and new media calling on your members of Congress by name to support strong health reform and urge them to strengthen and expand both the Medicaid program and America’s investment in community health centers. In addition to sending letters to the editor and submitting op-eds, also use Facebook and other social networking sites to get the word out. Add RESULTS to your Facebook friends list and “donate your status” to RESULTS. See the action sheet for information on how to donate your status on Facebook. See our updated health care reform grid on our Recent Developments in Health Care Reform page. Sanders Single-Payer Amendment Withdrawn Prior to VoteOn Wednesday, the Senate considered Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) single-payer amendment. The amendment, number 2837, would have replaced the current Senate health care bill with a single-payer, national health program as set for in the American Health Security Act, S.703. Senators Roland Burris (D-IL) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) cosponsored the amendment. This was to have been an historic vote — the first-ever floor vote in Congress on single-payer legislation. However, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) invoked his right to require that the entire 700-plus page amendment be read out loud (an 8–10 hour process), a step that is usually waived. After about two hours, Senator Sanders withdrew his amendment to allow Senate business to continue but not before making a fiery speech chastising these tactics and their intent. Senator Sanders stated when introducing his amendment, “At the end of the day — not this year, not next year, but sometime in the future — this country will come to understand that if we are going to provide comprehensive quality care to all of our people, the only way we will do that is through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system….” RESULTS continues to support a national health program as the long-term solution for our health crisis. It is unknown if the amendment will be brought up again. Considering there is nothing stopping the same thing from happening again, it is doubtful it will. RESULTS is very disappointed at this turn of events and thanks Senator Sanders and all those who would have supported his amendment for making a strong stand for a national health program. Campaign Planning for 2010Last Tuesday evening, RESULTS volunteers and staff participated in a conference call about the 2010 RESULTS Domestic legislative campaigns. While these plans are not finalized yet, here is what RESULTS is looking to do next year in the fight against U.S. poverty. First, no new campaign will begin until health reform is done, likely in January or February. We have invested months of preparation and action this year and we intend to see this campaign through to its conclusion. Once health reform is complete, we will begin our 2010 major campaign — Low-Income Tax Credits: Creating Economic Opportunity. Tax reform is expected to be a major issue in Congress next year as2010 is when most of the tax cuts enacted during the Bush Administration are set to expire. Both Republicans and Democrats will use this opportunity to propose broad changes in the tax code. RESULTS will focus our efforts on seeing that tax policy that benefits low-income populations and reduces poverty is enacted a as part of any reform passed. Primarily, this will include extending and expanding recent improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). The EITC is the largest poverty reduction program in the U.S.; it lifted 6.6 million people out of poverty this year, half of them children. In fact, without the EITC, the child poverty rate in the U.S. would have been one-third higher. In 2009, the EITC was improved so that more low-income married couples and families with large families could benefit. Also, the CTC was expanded, benefitting 26 million low-income children and their families. This has put much needed income into the pockets of some of America’s poorest families. RESULTS worked in 2008 and early 2009 to pass these expansions. However, they are only temporary; if nothing is done to make these changes permanent, they will disappear in 2011. Not only will RESULTS work to make these recent changes permanent, we will also work to expand the EITC to workers without children and the CTC to America’s poorest families. RESULTS will also be looking to promote legislation that helps low-income individuals and families create wealth. In the past, we have promoted Individual Development Accounts (IDA), which are matched savings accounts for low-income people. Next year, we’ll work on the Saver’s Bonus, which allows people to put their tax refunds directly into savings products (savings account, Treasury bonds), with a portion of it matched by the government. The Saver’s Bonus achieves the same savings goal as the IDA in a streamlined and more widely distributed process. We will also monitor other asset building proposals as they come up. We will also have the help of old friends in partnering in this work. The National Community Tax Coalition, the Coalition on Human Needs, and Bread for the World are all looking to work on low-income tax credit policy in 2010. We look forward to collaborating with them in this work. Finally, of course RESULTS will still monitor familiar issues and initiate action in a targeted way, when necessary. Reauthorizing child nutrition programs and increasing funding for Head Start and child care assistance, areas where we have worked in the past, will come up and when RESULTS can make a significant impact in those areas, we will take action. The volunteers on the conference call expressed enthusiasm for our 2010 outlook. We know there will be a lot of education needed to prepare volunteers and our communities on these issues and we will work hard to see that you have the background and resources needed to be effective. In fact, you can get started now. TAKE ACTION: Visit our Economic Opportunity for All pages on the RESULTS website to familiarize yourself with the issues. You can also download our updated Economic Opportunity PowerPoint presentation, which provides a quick and easy overview of these issues. We also welcome your input on ways we can better message our issues and take effective action. Please feel free to e-mail Meredith Dodson (Dodson@results.org) or Jos Linn (jlinn@results.org) after the holidays with any questions or comments. Fundraising Update: Heading into the Home StretchBe sure to get those challenge grant donations in this month! We are heading into the final stretch of our $30,000 challenge grant. We only have a little over two weeks left to maximize this great opportunity. Remember, this is a dollar-for-dollar match for any new donations made in November and December 2009. “New donations” means amounts in excess of what you gave last year or donations from new donors. Let’s make sure we meet this goal by making sure donations are received by December 31. It is not too late to send out donation request letters, but the time to do so is now. If you have not sent our your request letters, send them out this week and plan to follow up with a phone call or e-mail to see if they were received. If you do not get them out before Christmas, please consider making a personal request via phone or e-mail urging donors to donate online using our online donation form. PLEASE REMEMBER: The deadline to give is December 31 so your Friends and Family letters must be mailed asap. Also, if you make a donation for the challenge or ask your friends and family, please write or ask them to write “Matching Challenge Donation” in the memo line of the check or in the comments box on our online donation form. Quick NewsRoadmap to End Childhood Hunger Released. On Thursday, the National Anti-Hunger Organizations (NAHO), of which RESULTS is a member, released Roadmap to End Childhood Hunger in America by 2015. At the launch event, David Beckman, president of Bread for the World, called upon President Obama to speak out forcefully on steps to reduce poverty as well as to improve food programs. He said that ending hunger could be the organizing principle behind many of the things the administration is doing. Several speakers pointed out that the solution to hunger is not just more and better food programs. The society needs job opportunities and an array of supports to raise real incomes. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), author of the Hunger Free Schools Act, said that the Roadmap shows the value of NAHO member groups acting together. For more on the launch, see RESULTS blog: http://www.results.org/results_blog/ Child Care Funding News Not as Bad as It Seemed. The $1.1 trillion omnibus fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill includes $7.2 billion for Head Start, an increase of $122 million over 2009, but the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) was funded at the FY2009 level. Helen Blank of National Women’s Law Center said that CCBDBG was flat funded in the knowledge that funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will support child care the rest of FY2010. Senate Likely to Allow Estate Tax to Expire. Various media report that the Senate will adjourn for the year without passing an extension of the estate tax. Under current law, there will be no estate tax in 2010. However, reports also say that Congress is likely to act early in 2010 to reinstate the estate tax, retroactive to January 1. A New York Times article said, “Democrats are vowing to resurrect it as soon as Congress returns in 2010. Even its most ardent foes acknowledge that some accommodation will have to be reached because the tax is now scheduled to rise from the grave, zombielike, with even more reach in 2011.” The House passed H.R.4154 on December 3, which would make 2009 estate tax levels permanent. A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that, contrary to common belief, allowing the estate tax to expire would leave many family farms and small businesses worse off. For more information, see our Recent Developments in Economic Opportunity Legislation page. AnnouncementsNo Domestic Update on December 29. All RESULTS offices will be closing at noon on December 24 and reopening on Monday, January 4. The next weekly update will be sent out on January 5. Group Planning Materials Coming Soon. In January, we will again urge you and your groups to begin the annual group planning process. Group planning allows your group to plan your goals and means to achieving them over the next year. To help you, we will provide you will materials to facilitate the process so you can articulate your goals and report them back to the RESULTS office in an easy and efficient manner. Keep an eye out for these materials in the coming weeks. We will also discuss group planning on the January 9 national conference call. Listen to the December Conference Call. If you were not able to be on the RESULTS December National Conference Call, you missed a good one. We heard from RESULTS Executive Director Joanne Carter on the progress we have made this year on both our domestic and global campaigns. We also heard from volunteers about actions they have been taking in creating the political will to end poverty, as well as legislative updates on our domestic and global campaigns. If you were not on the call, we should have a recording of the call available later this week at: http://resultsmusings.blogspot.com/. Upcoming Events(Click to see a complete calendar) December 24–January 3: RESULTS offices closed. No Domestic Update on December 29. Happy Holidays! January 9: RESULTS Domestic National Conference Call, 12:30 pm ET. June 20–22, 2010: RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund International Conference, Washington Marriott Hotel, Washington, DC. RESULTS Contact InformationMain Office: (p) (202) 783-7100, (f) (202) 783-2818, 750 First Street NE, Suite 1040, Washington DC 20002. Domestic Legislative and Grassroots Support Staff: Meredith Dodson, x116 (dodson@results.org); Alan Gold, x106 (gold@results.org); Jos Linn, (515) 288-3622 (jlinn@results.org). The RESULTS Domestic Update is sent out every Tuesday over e-mail to RESULTS volunteers and allies all over the country. The purpose of these updates is to inform and activate RESULTS activists to take action on our domestic campaigns. |