When Congress reconvenes in mid-November, legislators will still have to deal with 10 spending bills, and the AFT will be monitoring events carefully to ensure that our members' interested are represented during this lame-duck session.

"We have to be careful about what items make their way into omnibus spending bills, since they usually become the last train out of the station before adjournment," Tor Cowan, acting director of the AFT's department of legislation, told members of the AFT executive council last month. The practice of bundling controversial items into these huge bills makes it difficult for members of Congress to oppose an entire measure based on a single issue, he said. One bitter example of that tactic was the private school voucher bill for Washington, D.C., which Congress folded into an omnibus spending package and passed nearly a year ago.

This year, the danger may lie in what Congress decides to jettison. While both the House and Senate have voted to restore overtime pay rights for workers, getting this provision into the final spending bill remains in question (Take action through our special Contact Congress area of the Web site. Other unfinished business that may come up is reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

In preparation for the 109th Congress, the AFT department of legislation is assembling an agenda for the next Congress to support our members in a number of important areas. Highlights include: possible No Child Left Behind Act and secondary school reform; passage of Kindergarten-Plus; reimportation of prescription drugs and other changes to the new Medicare law; reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the Perkins Vocational Education Act, the Workforce Investment Act and Head Start; possible Social Security and Medicaid reform; protecting the rights of workers to collectively bargain in their workplaces; and nurse retention and staff safety.

Nov. 4, 2004