G.I.V.E. for Volunteerism

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

The legislative stars were out for H.R. 1388 – Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act, which supports volunteerism, partially with a stipend or grant toward higher education.

Backed by phalanx of representatives from Be the Change, AmeriCorps alums, Experience Corps, Serve Next, Survivor Corps, DC Central Kitchen, the court-appointed special advocates of DC, and the Young Marines, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) thanked everyone who worked on the bill and compared Obama’s effect on this generation with the way John Kennedy had inspired her and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

Hoyer said, “In one year, the millions of Americans (who volunteered) generated in excess of $150 billion. Every dollar we invest in AmeriCorps gives anywhere from $1.50 to $3.90 in return. Boy, oh boy, wouldn’t we like to have a lot of companies who did as well as that.” He cited several volunteer home-weatherizing projects around the country.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) said volunteerism is for everyone: young, retired, and those displaced from their jobs.

Perriello, who has spent his entire career working for non-profits in Africa and the U.S., said, “What we’ve all found is that service isn’t just a matter of giving back to our community, it was a matter of forming our very character. Every American feels a call to service, this cannot be something that only rich young people can afford. This is a bill that is not about anything other than enabling young people to answer that call.” He also pointed out the expertise that volunteers gain doing this work, and the need to bank those skills against emergencies and disasters. “We’ve found that once people have volunteered a little bit, they become a volunteer for life.“Volunteerism is addictive,” he finished.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) introduced Survivor Corps US Program Manager Capt. Scott Quilty. While leading a patrol in the Sunni Triangle in Oct. ’06, he was a victim of a roadside bomb,losing his right arm and leg.

“Service saved my life twice. Veterans and their families will be given the chance to continue serving their community, by this legislation,” Quilty said. “ Service doesn’t have to end when we take of the uniform, and it shouldn’t end.”

Miller predicted strong bipartisan support in Congress today and tomorrow.

Addendum: H.R. 1388 passed the House 03/18/09

Pelosi: Stimulus creates jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs and jobs

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Following a Democratic Steering and Policy Committee listening session on the economy, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that, “we just had a very productive session with some leading economists who for over a year now have been giving us advice and guidance and an assessment of the state of our economy and some judgments about how we should go forward.” She went on to state that, “it is very clear that as we implement our recovery package, we must make sure that it works. And again, confidence is a big part of that investment that we have made. And we also must make sure the public understands this is a very fiscally sound package. The choices that were made in it were to create jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs and jobs as soon as possible and jobs over a period of time to stabilize the economy.” Pelosi emphasized that the baseline for spending has not been raised, but rather the stimulus is targeted in a timeframe to make the difference.

Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said that this is not some effort to supplant the private market, and he believes that what we are doing is actually very pro market. “We are halting the erosion and laying the foundation for things to get better,” stated Frank.
He expressed that one of the things the market suffers from today is a lack of investor confidence, “I think there is this danger that people will look at the mistakes that were made in the administration of the TARP funds in the past administration inpute them to the current administration,” said Frank.

Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.) said that we cannot discount the amount of time that was lost during the previous administration. “What we now see is a concentrated effort to refine those programs, to make sure that they are accountable, to make sure that in fact there is a response to the actions we are taking,” said Miller. He stated that the first release of the TARP money really discouraged the public because they saw billions of dollars flow to the money center banks and nothing loosening up.

The Speaker and members of Congress will continue to call on economists to provide expertise on the best way to move forward during this long term process of restoring the economy.

It's a "no" for the Employee Free Choice Act

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service


Today in a discussion titled "Consequences of the Employee Free Choice Act: Union and Management Perspectives" experts expressed why the act would not be beneficial to employees but harmful.

James Sherk, a Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation said, "The act replaces secret ballot organizing elections with card checks. It would also take the free collective bargaining out of the hands of the unions and employers."

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was proposed on February 5, 2007, in the House by Chairman George Miller of the Education and Labor Committee. EFCA passed the House in March 2007 by a vote of 241-185 but then died in the Senate in June 2007. Since then, organized labor has made the EFCA its top legislative target.

Homer L. Deakins, Jr., Managing Shareholder at Ogletree Deakins, said that the bill is basically made up of two goals. "Its major objective is to deny employees a free choice and to substitute what has been a free choice by a secret ballot of election." He went on to say that the second objective and purpose to this bill is to neutralize employers. "The only group that is a beneficiary of this law is organized labor. Everyone else gives up rights. The employer loses the right to basically make their case to the employees and it also says to employers that they will be penalized for misconduct during an organizing campaign in an effort to keep them neutral."

Financial crisis leaves millions jobless

The Education and Labor Committee hearing on "Building an Economic Recovery Package: Creating and Preserving Jobs in America" began with a statement by Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) that characterized the recession as "long, deep, and global". Two panels addressed the committee. The hearing started with an unemployed worker from New Jersey, Dana Stevens, who pleaded for relief as a hard-working and frustrated American. Next was Ron Blackwell, the chief economist for the AFL-CIO, who called for "appropriate urgency" to end the economic crisis with an aggressive package that would "target the underlying fundamental economic imbalances to avoid repeating them in the future."

Additional panelists included Dr. Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute who recommended a "one-year recovery package in the neighborhood of 1-2% GDP, about $150-300 billion, targeted at infrastructure, state fiscal relief, unemployment insurance, and food stamps." Chris Hansen, President and CEO of AeA, elaborated on the expansion of infrastructure to include a "greater deployment of high-speed broadband networks" for the United States. Hansen also encouraged continued investment by the government in the area of research in the physical sciences.

Professor Robert Pollin from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst extended the idea of green investments to the economic recovery package as one of the "most efficient ways of creating jobs". The last speaker was William Beach, Director of the Center for Data Analysis for the Heritage Foundation. He advocated tax and energy policy changes by making the tax reductions of 2001 and 2003 permanent, lowering the corporate profits tax, and increasing the domestic production of petroleum.

The second panel included only Charles Millard, Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), who spoke about the effects the negative turn of the economy has had on American pensions. He said, "The steps PBGC has taken to protect pensions could be adversely affected by corporate transactions or bankruptcy."

The committee was informed about various statistics including the fact that the unemployment rate has increased 1.2 percentage points since January and now stands at 6.1 percent. Nearly ten million workers are now unemployed and seeking work, over two million of whom have been unemployed for over 27 weeks.

Retirement plans don't work

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) said that the current "go-go, wild west style approach to governing" is severely affecting citizens' retirement security.

In a hearing held by the House Education and Labor Committee, Miller said, "63 percent of Americans are worried that they will not have enough savings for retirement." He continued, "one in five middle-aged workers stopped giving funds to their retirement plans in the last year." In addition, he said $500 billion has been lost from current 401(k) plans in the last year.

Director of the Congressional Budget Office Dr. Peter Orszag said that the current economic crisis is affecting state and local pensions as well. He said $300 billion were lost from those pension between the second quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2008. He said workers are taking "unnecessary risk" in that 90 percent have 401(k) plans in their own company's stock. He said workers need to be given "a strategy of diversification."

Research Director of the Employee Benefit Research Institute Jack VanDerhei said there are "fundamental flaws" in our current retirement plans. He said that the last few weeks have proven that even large companies can go bankrupt and retirement plans are always at risk. He added that he hopes workers don't "overreact" to the economic downturn and continue to contribute money to their retirement plan.

Rep. Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.) said that the public is "in a state of shock." "We're in the midst of a reorganization of the financial system," said Clarke in reaction to the failing economic system.