AFT Launches ACE Lobbying Program

The AFT has activated a new congressional lobbying and education program designed to forge relationships between AFT affiliates and members of Congress. The Activists for Congressional Education (ACE) program establishes a group of AFT members in each congressional district who meet with their member of Congress twice a year in their home districts. At these meetings, the AFT activists will focus on educating that legislator on one or two AFT issues.

The program, authorized by the AFT executive council at its February 2005 meeting, is aimed at fostering more political involvement and advancing the union’s legislative agenda.

Several dozen meetings were held with members of Congress in late May. Most of the sessions focused on the union’s concerns about the No Child Left Behind Act, Social Security and the federal budget process. The program provides the ACE participants with resources such as talking points, tips on meeting with members of Congress, access to information on key votes and more.

N.Y. Nurse Activists Call for Safe Staffing, End to Mandatory Overtime

Nurse activists in New York traveled to the state Capitol in Albany this May to lobby for legislation to improve patient safety. For the second time, nurse members of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) Healthcare Professionals, Public Employees Federation (PEF) and the Nurse Alliance of New York State/SEIU 1199 came together to address the need for safe staffing in their state healthcare facilities.

“Mandatory overtime must end, and safe staffing must begin,” Anne Goldman, special representative for the Federation of Nurses/United Federation of Teachers, which is an affiliate of NYSUT, told rally participants. “This is the year, and shame on us if we don’t get it done.”

“PEF nurses are dedicated, caring individuals who want to deliver the quality care that patients need,” said PEF president Roger Benson. “That level of care is jeopardized when you don’t have required safe staffing.”

The nurses used the day to voice concern for the safety of their patients and called on state lawmakers to pass legislation to end mandatory overtime and require safe staffing levels in New York hospitals.

“There is growing evidence that forced overtime for nurses endangers their patients,” said NYSUT executive vice president and AFT vice president Alan Lubin. “When hospitals rely on overworked, exhausted nurses, patients suffer.”

After rallying at the statehouse, the nurses met with their legislators to continue lobbying for changes to the state healthcare system, sharing personal stories on the effect that mandatory overtime and unsafe staffing levels have on patients and their families alike.

Congress Approves Budget Without Kennedy and Smith Amendments

Congress passed the fiscal year 2006 budget resolution in April without a Senate-passed (and AFT-endorsed) amendment offered by Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) that would have restored $10 billion in Bush administration cuts to the Medicaid program.

The budget resolution also did not include the AFT-supported increases for higher education and job training programs outlined in the Senate-passed amendment offered by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

The House vote to approve the budget resolution was 214-211, with 15 Republicans voting against final passage and thus supporting the AFT position. The Senate vote was 52-47, with three Republicans voting no.

The AFT had launched a call-in and e-activist campaign among members, urging them to contact their representatives in Congress to request support for including the Kennedy and Smith amendments in the final budget resolution.

Sen. Smith’s amendment stripped the Medicaid cuts from the Senate bill that was brought to the floor by the Republican leadership. Despite a barrage of calls and letters from AFT Healthcare members, however, the amendment was not included. The final version includes $10 billion in cuts to this vital program.

“Congress missed a unique opportunity to improve the budget by including these two important amendments in the final package,” says Tor Cowan, AFT’s director of legislation. It’s also disappointing that the budget continues the trend of underfunding No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act despite Congress’ original commitments to properly fund these laws, Cowan adds.

“However, we are heartened by our many members who reached out to Congress during the budget debate and made sure their voices were heard on Capitol Hill,” notes Cowan. “During the upcoming appropriations process, we will continue to fight for our funding priorities and to push Congress to abandon this reckless path.”