Arlen Specter made quite a splash yesterday with his declaration that a new version of the Employee Free Choice Act had garnered the 60 votes needed for passage in the Senate. Yesterday, the newly Democratic lawmaker appeared before the AFL-CIO convention. He announced that a compromise on EFCA has been “pounded out” and would pass by year’s end – to great applause. After his speech, Specter offer... Read more »
Government takeover. We’ve seen and heard a lot of those two words lately – in the credit markets, the banking sector, the automotive industry, and even the building of our schools. Then there’s health care, an industry that assumes one-sixth of America’s gross domestic product. We’re not talking about health care today, but perhaps we should be. The vote we’ll take on student lending is the culmi... Read more »
Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, issued the following statement this afternoon in response to reports that compromise proposals are being developed to engineer passage of the Employee Free Choice Act: “The so-called Employee Free Choice Act was a bad bill when it was introduced in March, and it’s still a bad bill today. Proposals that rest... Read more »
More than seven out of 10 Quebecers want to amend their “card check” labor laws to protect the secret ballot in the workplace. That’s the finding of a poll of 1,000 Quebec citizens released last week and commissioned by the Montreal Economic Institute. Interestingly, the poll also found support for such a change is even higher among union workers at 80 percent. The institute provides more details ... Read more »
Mike Weaver doesn’t oppose unions. He opposes unemployment – and that’s why he’s against the Employee Free Choice Act. In a Sunday essay for The Indianapolis Star, Weaver – president of Weaver Popcorn Co. in Noblesville, Ind.– criticized the act’s ability to set aside the secret ballot for workers and instead use a “card check” system. But he mainly opposes EFCA for this reason: “It’s all about jo... Read more »
Supporters of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act are having a hard time getting their stories straight. Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who has been leading negotiations for the bill, is the latest EFCA supporter to offer varying reasons for why the anti-worker plan hasn’t received a vote in the Senate. The Hill tries to sort it all out here: “Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Thursday that he ... Read more »
In the Golden State, card check bills have been sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger four times. And four times, the “Govern-ator” has terminated them. The latest veto came last week as Schwarzenegger said “hasta la vista, baby” to a proposal that targeted farm workers – and was very similar to the Employee Free Choice Act that’s sitting in Congress. The San Francisco Chronicle has the details here:... Read more »
A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office adds to mounting evidence that pending legislation to overhaul college lending will cost taxpayers billions more than Democrats have acknowledged. At the request of Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the Education and Labor Committee’s top Republican, CBO re-examined the cost of reforms to the Pell Grant program included in H.R. 3221. Its findin... Read more »
The following op-ed was published online by Education Week on September 10, 2009. These last few weeks, America’s classrooms have come to life. Schoolchildren from coast to coast have completed an annual rite of passage: the first day of school. For many students, this year’s first day was unusual. The rituals of meeting new classmates and teachers and reminiscing about summer vacations were overs... Read more »
Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee’s Senior Republican, responded this evening to President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on health care reform. Kline, whose panel is one of three House committees with jurisdiction over health care legislation, issued the following statement: “The President’s outreach to Congress and the American people is welcome... Read more »
