Be ready to act fast when call goes out
PEF gaining ground in battle for federal funding to NYS

By SHERRY HALBROOK
When Congress returns from its summer recess on September 2, hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for state programs will hang in the balance, and PEF members should be on the alert and ready to spring into action.
“We must act very quickly if we want to affect these bills when they come up for a vote,” says PEF Staff Director Steve Chamberlain.

“Members should check the PEF Information Line (1-800-553-2445), and the PEF Web site (www.pef.org
) frequently and watch for Call to Action e-mail alerts through PEF Online and our Active Informed Member mobilizing network, because we may have only hours or a couple of days to contact our U.S. senators and representatives in Congress.”

The U.S. Senate Health, Education and Pensions Committee has already stripped away “some of the more onerous provisions” in HR 1261 that passed the House of Representatives a few months ago, he says. The House bill would combine several federal funding streams into a block grant and open the door to privatizing state unemployment services.

“The Senate committee is drastically redesigning that legislation, and we expect to support most or all of the bill that goes before the Senate. A joint committee of both houses will then try to hammer out compromise legislation which would go back to the House and Senate for a vote and we must be ready to lobby hard and fast when that happens.”

A second bill that PEF and its international affiliates in Washington are watching closely is HR 2208. It would seriously shortchange New York’s share of federal highway funding.

“If that bill passed, we could lose $300 million for highway and bridge work in this state,” says PEF Vice President Ken Brynien. “Washington generally returns only 85 cents for every tax dollar it collects in New York. Because federal transportation aid is funded by the gasoline tax, it has been one of the few areas where this state has been able to catch up on that deficit.”

PEF has been working hard to defeat the HR 2208 funding cuts, and it appears increasingly likely Congress will simply pass extensions of the 2002-03 funding levels for the 2004-05 federal budget year which starts October 1.

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