Key Democratic leadership officials met with USA Works! this past week and outlined their FY 09 agenda, which will be very limited agenda on the appropriations front this year. Appropriators have no intention to allow President Bush to veto their spending bills once again. The plan at this juncture is to only allow defense related bills to be passed before the election, with a continuing resolution through February for the rest of government. The remaining bills under this plan will be resolved under a new President, presumably a Democrat.
The remaining appropriations bills, including Labor – HHS, are expected to move through Committee, but are unlikely to receive floor time this year. While the bills will not be completed this calendar year, markups of the bill will occur in Committee and we will continue to press funding for WIA.
There are two ways in which you can be helpful. First, the Cantwell/Collins WIA Dear Colleague letter will be circulated shortly and we will send a copy to you. We will need your help to secure your state’s Senators signatures due by the first week of April.
USA Works has asked all local Workforce Board's to send the a letter to all House Members, requesting him or her include WIA funding in their FY 09 “program letter” to the Appropriations Committee. Each Member of Congress often submits a program letter to the Committee. Members letters are due to the Appropriations Committee by March 19th ... outlining their funding priorities for the upcoming year. The program letters are important tools that Committee Member use to judge the amount of support any program has in Congress. These letters can lead to increased funding if strongly supported. Up until this year, WIA has had few mentions in Members program letters and NWA and USA Works are seeking to increase this level of support. Please act today.
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