UNION LEADERS, OBAMA OFFICIALS
HAIL PASSAGE OF STATE AID BILL
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)--Union leaders and Obama administration officials, including the president and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, hailed congressional passage of a stripped-down state aid bill, channeling $26 billion nationwide to help save jobs of teachers, Fire Fighters and other workers while also helping states pay for Medicaid for poor and recession-hit residents.
The Democratic-run House gave the measure final approval on August 10 and Democratic President Barack Obama signed it immediately, while sharply criticizing Republicans who voted against it. The GOP called the measure special interest legislation and particularly slammed it as a giveaway to teachers’ unions.
“Today's vote means hundreds of thousands of teachers, Fire Fighters and public safety officers will keep their jobs. It will prevent layoffs and provide aid to struggling state and local governments so that critical services aren’t cut. Simply put, this vote keeps us on the path to economic recovery,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
As for the GOP, its vote “showed they value Wall Street and tax cuts for the rich over teachers, police and firefighters” and jobs, he added. Not only does the new law save jobs, Trumka noted, but it’s paid for “by closing tax loopholes that reward companies for sending American jobs overseas.”
Duncan said 160,000 teachers -- whose positions were first spared the ax by last year’s stimulus law -- will stay in schools. He called the new law “a tremendous victory for American schoolchildren” since 75% of schools nationwide, because of declining revenue, are cutting costs by increasing class sizes, shortening the school year and firing teachers.
“They’re in the worst crisis since the Great Depression,” Duncan told reporters in a telephone press conference. AFT President Randi Weingarten, whose union lobbied heavily for enough money to save 300,000 teachers’ jobs, agreed. “You can’t race to the top if the bottom is falling out,” she said.
All the union leaders, and Obama, pointed out the congressional GOP opposed aiding the states and the schools. Change To Win unions, notably SEIU, also lobbied for the bill, but did not issue statements after Obama signed it.
The party-line House and Senate votes “are the ultimate indication of who’s for kids and who isn’t,” Weingarten said. Added AFSCME President Gerald McEntee: “The
American people will remember that Democrats stood up to save our struggling economy, while Republicans – with a few courageous exceptions – chose to play politics with our lives and jobs.”
Weingarten noted the vote came too late to save summer school, but is just in time “to help reinstate laid-off educators, reverse cuts to Advanced Placement and other classes, reopen school libraries, and end furloughs.” Duncan pledged to speed up federal approval of the funding for the states, but admitted local school districts could spend the funds they get not just in the 2010-11 school year, but in the year after that.
“Everyone agrees that we aren’t creating jobs fast enough,” added AFSCME McEntee, whose union represents many of the state, county and city workers who will stay on the job to provide vital services, including the Medicaid money. “The last thing we needed was even more layoffs. AFSCME led the fight to pass this bill to save thou-sands of jobs that were on the chopping block without adding a penny to the deficit.”
Obama took a shot at the GOP before signing the bill. “We can’t stand by and do nothing while pink slips are given to the men and women who educate our children or keep our communities safe,” he said while standing in the Rose Garden with two laid-off AFT members. “That doesn’t make sense.” Last year’s stimulus law “provided relief for struggling states -- relief that has already prevented hundreds of thousands of layoffs.
The new law is designed to do the same thing, he said.
“It will help states avoid laying off police officers, firefighters, nurses and first responders...If we do nothing, these educators won’t be returning to the classroom this fall. And that won’t just deprive them of a paycheck, it will deprive the children who are counting on them to provide a decent education.
“It will deprive countless cities and towns of the law enforcement officials and first responders who risk their lives to keep us out of harm’s way. It will cost us jobs at a time when we need to be creating jobs. In other words, it will take us backwards at a time when we need to keep this country moving forward.
“It should not be a partisan issue. I heard the Republican leader in the House say the other day this is a special interest bill. And I suppose if America’s children and the safety of our communities are your special interests, then it is a special interest bill,” the president said.
The final House vote was almost strictly party-line, with 245 Democrats and two Republicans -- Mike Castle of Delaware, who is running for senator, and Anh “Joseph” Cao, who won a special election in heavily Democratic New Orleans -- voting for it. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who voiced the crack about the teachers’ unions, led 158 Republicans and three Southern Democrats in voting “no.” ###
