Plotting the course in the federal legislative landscape is challenging when politics usurps sound policy 

AFT vice presidents received a lesson in political science 2001 from former Clinton White House chief of staff Harold Ickes during the February executive council meeting in Miami, when Ickes offered political and legislative insight.

He warned that redistricting will "have a profound effect on the Electoral College" in 2004--and it will shift in favor of the Republicans. But he observed: "[President Bush] has no mandate, but his great challenge is to get results." Ickes predicts: Bush will lean toward moderation on legislation but will be conservative on rules, regulations and judicial appointments.

Ickes' prediction may be right on the mark. Since taking office, President Bush has issued an executive order establishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, a move that causes concern among FPE/AFT locals over the potential for privatization. He revoked President Clinton's executive order establishing labor-management partnership councils between federal agencies and unions. Those partnerships gave labor a shared voice in workplace decisions. He also rescinded "project labor agreements," which require contractors in many federally financed projects to pay employees in accordance with union contracts.

At press time, the administration's latest anti-worker act was delivered by the Republican-led Congress, which moved swiftly to repeal the ergonomics regulation. Yet, the Bush administration's legislative agenda has focused on one issue--the proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut.

While the White House emphasizes the need for an across-the-board reduction in income tax rates, among other cuts, the FPE/AFT is focusing on the need for adequate funding of federal agencies, which will affect public employees at all levels of government. The union also will be monitoring White House initiatives to give states more autonomy in delivering public services and programs. How the federal government approaches devolution will be extremely important because it often results in lower funding over the longer term and creates greater opportunities for privatization.

During the February executive council meeting, AFT's director of federal legislation, Charlotte Fraas, outlined the union's agenda, which focuses on broad areas of concern to each of the AFT's constituency groups. The FPE/AFT's priorities include:
 

Federal Rights

The FPE/AFT will look to Congress to restore civil rights and labor protections for state employees that have been stripped by a string of U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the past five years. The latest decision was handed down in February, when a 5-4 majority ruled that state employees cannot sue their employers for damages under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Through a legislative remedy, "federal assistance would be contingent upon the state relinquishing its immunity from suit," Fraas says. "Only states willing to forego federal assistance would escape coverage."
 

Privatization

Privatization of public services is an ongoing threat, and the FPE/AFT stands prepared to fight it on all fronts.

Using the past as a barometer, the union will closely monitor "welfare reform" initiatives, watching for President Bush to revisit a waiver system that would allow states to contract out their welfare services. President Bush sought such a waiver from the Clinton administration as governor of Texas.

Prisons are another area where privatization remains a major threat, despite reports showing inherent problems with for-profit facilities. During the 107th Congress, the union will support legislation to require prisons to be operated by the government in accordance with adopted public policy. The union also has joined a national coalition to oppose prison privatization.
 

Health and Safety

The FPE/AFT will urge Congress to expand OSHA coverage to all public employees working in states that do not provide health and safety protections. Currently, 23 states run federally approved OSHA programs, and several other states provide health and safety protections similar to OSHA regulations. The remaining states leave more than 7 million public employees without OSHA health and safety coverage.
 

Retirees

Issues affecting older Americans, such as Social Security and Medicare, will be among the most controversial topics addressed by the 107th Congress. The FPE/AFT is committed to fighting conversion of all or part of the Social Security system into an individual investment program--an idea President Bush proposed during the campaign. The union also will oppose Social Security benefit cuts, including reductions to cost-of-living adjustments and efforts to raise the retirement age or increase the tax rate on current benefits.

"The AFT believes that the Social Security system is fundamentally fiscally and administratively sound and will require only manageable adjustments and changes to strengthen it according to social insurance principles," Fraas says.

The same, however, cannot be said about Medicare. Seniors who are paying a disproportionate amount of their monthly income for prescription drugs would likely say the nation's elderly are in a crisis situation. In response, the union "supports proposals to create a defined-benefit prescription drug program under Medicare that is voluntary, comprehensive, affordable and available to all beneficiaries," Fraas says.

The union also will fight against efforts to convert Medicare into a private-market voucher system in which seniors would receive "premium support" and be forced to choose among managed care plans, losing the guaranteed benefits and freedoms of fee-for-service Medicare.

"We will be moving this agenda at all levels of government, keeping the interests of public employees as our top priority," says Jim McGarvey, chair of the FPE/AFT program and policy council (PPC).

Luis Davila, president of the Illinois Federation of Public Employees and member of the FPE/AFT PPC, says legislative involvement is the key to success.

"If we don't get involved, we are not going to get anything [done]," Davila says, noting that union members must talk to their lawmakers, educate them about labor's position and explain how initiatives will affect America's core--working families.