PEF moves to defend members, services from federal budget cuts

By JOHN MURPHY and SHERRY HALBROOK
When the president and Congress cut federal funding for state and local programs, it’s your jobs, services, clients and communities who bleed.

With the help of its affiliates — the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — PEF is analyzing and fighting the most dangerous of these cuts proposed by Bush in his budget for federal fiscal year 2007, which begins October 1, 2006.

PEF is particularly concerned about federal funding for the state Labor Department, consolidation of block grants to states and aid for community services.

DOL funding threatened
The president and the House of Representatives have proposed to eliminate or drastically reduce funding for Workforce Investment Act (WIA) programs designed to help unemployed workers, disadvantaged adults, and at-risk young people.

“We find these cuts to needy Americans all the more offensive because they are proposed and supported by the same leaders in Washington who are advocating and passing more huge tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans,” said PEF President Ken Brynien.

Key features of Bush’s cut-and-consolidation plan for job training and employment programs include:
• Cutting total inflation-adjusted funding for job training and placement programs for adults, dislocated workers and youths;

• Dismantling America’s Job Bank that connects workers with jobs;

• Eliminating funding for WIA programs that help unemployed workers, disadvantaged adults, and at-risk young people;

• Diverting the $3.4 billion for the eliminated Job Bank and WIA programs to pay for unproven individual career advancement accounts that would provide less help to workers in need;

• Contracting out Unemployment Insurance (UI) program functions and undercutting the safety net for unemployed workers; and

• Cutting funds for programs that benefit workers who have lost their jobs due to global trade.

The elimination or privatization of America’s Job Bank could reduce funding to the NYS Labor Department and threatens some PEF members’ jobs.

Community services
Bush’s budget would totally eliminate funding ($630 million in fiscal 2006) for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program that funnels that federal aid through state governments to local community action agencies (CAAs) to pay for social services.

More than half of these agencies are in rural areas and provide a variety of local anti-poverty programs such as Meals on Wheels, emergency food pantries, transportation for the elderly, and in some cases Head Start.

The jobs of PEF members at the NYS Department of State and at the Albany Housing Authority (AHA) are among those directly threatened by this proposed loss of federal funding.

PEF’s fighting back
PEF’s letters to New York state’s representatives in the U.S. House and Senate, urging them to vote against these proposed federal budget cuts and consolidations for labor programs, have produced some results.

The Senate passed a version of H.R. 27 that would reauthorize the WIA funding and programs. This bill passed unanimously after Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) agreed to move the bill out of committee in a form that would not combine the Job Bank with WIA programs into block grants, and would continue to restrict religious discrimination.

PEF is trying to get the House to accept the Senate position on the block-grant and faith-based issues.

AFT and SEIU are working to get the senate to continue funding for the WIA and Wagner-Peyser Act.

PEF also urged New York’s representatives in the House and Senate to restore funding for the CSBG Program. On July 18, a Senate subcommittee approved a spending bill to restore the $630 million for the CSBG.

This is a hopeful sign for PEF members at the DOS and AHA, which narrowly escaped a 33 percent loss of federal aid for fiscal 2006. Thanks to the combined vigorous efforts of PEF, AFT and SEIU, AHA and the entire NYS congressional delegation and senators, all but 6 percent was restored for 2006.