By a vote of 217 to 215, House Republicans whipped their base into line and passed a $50 billion budget reconciliation bill in the early morning hours of Nov. 18. All Democrats—and notably 14 Republicans defying their leadership—voted against the bill that House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi characterized as "a shame and a sham."

"Today, Republicans are launching an attack on America's children, America's families, and America's middle class," she said on the House floor.

The bill makes cuts to mandatory spending programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and student loan subsidies, with the goal of reducing the federal deficit by $50 billion by 2010.  However, before the dust even settles on this vote, the House is expected to steam through a $70 billion tax bill benefiting the wealthiest Americans.  "Not only does this tax giveaway engulf the 'savings' generated by the spending cuts," says AFT legislative director Kristor Cowan, "it highlights the Republicans' determination to enact tax cuts at the expense of America's most vulnerable citizens."

The AFT waged a vigorous campaign at the national and local levels to defeat this legislation.  In the weeks before the vote, the union contacted member activists to visit the AFT's online legislative action center and register their opposition. This generated almost 9,000 letters and hundreds of phone calls to more than 300 Capitol Hill offices. In the days before the House vote, AFT legislative staff personally visited more than 110 Republican member offices to lobby against the bill. Also, state presidents and political activists in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Texas mobilized members to fight the bill.

To get the critical mass to pass the bill, lawmakers reduced the proposed cuts from $54 billion to $49.5 billion.  Some of this was done by tweaking some of the proposed cuts in food stamps and the Low-Income Heating Emergency Assistance Program. However, the cuts still deliver a harsh blow to low- and middle-income Americans. And despite the tweaks, the bill made no improvements to the proposed student loan cuts of $14.3 billion.  According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), this reconciliation bill will create $7.8 billion in new charges on students and parents borrowing to pay for college. These cuts would result in an average increase of $5,800 in the interest students pay on their loans.

The House bill made $15 billion in cuts beyond those passed in the Senate budget reconciliation bill a week earlier. The wide differences in the two bills must be settled in conference, expected to begin in the near future, but it remains to be seen whether negotiators will be able to muster the support needed to craft and pass a bill in both houses. The AFT is already working on a conference strategy to defeat this bill if it is reported out of the conference committee and put on the House and Senate calendar for a vote.

GOP Rebuffed as House Rejects Appropriations Bill

Earlier in the day, the House rejected a Labor-HHS appropriations bill that shortchanges a number of important education programs, including the No Child Left Behind Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Pell Grant program.  This marks the first time in a decade that a GOP priority spending bill has been brought to the floor and rejected by a bipartisan majority of the House.

The 224-209 defeat of the bill should "serve as a wake-up call for Congress to redraft a better appropriations bill," said AFT president Edward J. McElory. With 22 GOP members voting against the bill, the House "sent a strong message that the agenda being pursued by the Republican leadership is out of step with the American public," he added.

AFT legislative director Kristor Cowan warned that the fight continues as Congress still needs to approve some level of spending for the Department of Education for the upcoming fiscal year before it adjourns in December.  "The AFT is already working with our allies on the hill to make sure that final amount better reflects the tremendous challenges faced by student and teachers at levels of our nation's education system," he said. [Barbara McKenna, Trish Gorman, Kristor Cowan]

November 18, 2005