------------ Forwarded Message ------------ Date: Monday, February 09, 2009 3:47 PM -0500 From: Melina Luizaga < Melina at nationalrehab.org > To: Membership < membership at nationalrehab.org > Subject: NRA's Washington Wire: U.S. SENATE BEGINS DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE SENATE STIMULUS BILL To: The National Rehabilitation Association's Legislative Network From: Patricia Leahy, Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy Re: Debate on the Compromise Senate Stimulus Bill on the U.S. Senate Floor Now Date: Monday, February 9, 2009 This Washington Wires deals exclusively with the initiation of debate today on the Senate Floor on the Compromise Senate Stimulus bill (which is also being referred to as the Collins-Nelson Substitute bill). The Collins-Nelson Substitute compromise bill, which was agreed to on Friday of last week, DOES INCLUDE $500 million for VR, $110 million for Independent Living and $13.6 billion for Special Education. If the Collins- Nelson Substitute (bill) passes with 60 votes, which is needed for passage, then H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as amended (by the Collins-Nelson Substitute) will be voted on by 12 Noon tomorrow, Tuesday, February 10, 2009, which is the plan at this time. If a budget point of order is lodged against the Substitute, then another vote, waiving the budget point of order, will be taken and must garner 60 votes for passage. We are monitoring Senate Floor action carefully and will keep you advised of developments as they become known to us. Because the Collins-Nelson Substitute (also known as the Compromise Senate Stimulus bill) contains additional, deserving dollars for VR, IL and Special Education, among other worthy programs, we are going to ask you, once again, to contact your respective Senators and ask them to vote for the Collins-Nelson Substitute. We are attaching for your use the following link: www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm , which will directly access all 100 Senators telephone numbers here in Washington (area code 202) and their e-mail addresses. We counsel you, assuming you are in favor of the Collins-Nelson Substitute (which, as we have said several times, includes funding for VR, IL and Special Ed) to contact your respective Senators by phone and e-mail and advise them of your support. Please mention your appreciation of the additional funding for vocational rehabilitation, and the programs authorized under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. These programs are among the best in the country for securing and retaining quality employment for individuals with disabilities. If you are a constituent of the Senator, please identify yourself as such and, if by some chance you voted for the Senator(s) you are calling, please advise h/h staff of that, as well. Senator Arlen Specter (R.PA.) has an editorial in today's Washington Post entitled "WHY I SUPPORT THE STIMULUS," which we are embedding in this e-mail in its entirety. [Image: "washingtonpost.com"] Why I Support the Stimulus By Arlen Specter Monday, February 9, 2009; A17 I am supporting the economic stimulus package for one simple reason: The country cannot afford not to take action. The unemployment figures announced Friday, the latest earnings reports and the continuing crisis in banking make it clear that failure to act will leave the United States facing a far deeper crisis in three or six months. By then the cost of action will be much greater -- or it may be too late. Wave after wave of bad economic news has created its own psychology of fear and lowered expectations. As in the old Movietone News, the eyes and ears of the world are upon the United States. Failure to act would be devastating not just for Wall Street and Main Street but for much of the rest of the world, which is looking to our country for leadership in this crisis. The legislation known as the "moderates" bill, hammered out over two days by Sens. Susan Collins, Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman and myself, preserves the job-creating and tax relief goals of President Obama's stimulus plan while cutting less-essential provisions -- many of them worthy in themselves -- that are better left to the regular appropriations process. Our $780 billion bill would save or create up to 4 million jobs, helping to offset the loss of 3.6 million jobs since December 2007. The bill cuts some $110 billion from the $890 billion Senate version, which would actually be $940 billion if floor amendments for tax credits on home and car purchases and money for the National Institutes of Health are retained. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the proposed cuts "do violence to what we are trying to do for the future," especially on education. Her objections are a warning to conservatives that more cuts would be unlikely to win House approval. They are also an admission of the high price that moderates have been able to extract for their support of stimulus legislation. If a stimulus bill doesn't pass, there won't be any money for Title I education programs. The moderates' bill provides marginally less money for Title I than the House and Senate bills. But while it's less than supporters want, this proverbial half a loaf beats no loaf by a mile. In health funding, both the House and Senate bills contain billions of dollars for wellness and prevention programs, including for smoking cessation, prenatal screening and counseling, education, and immunization. The moderates' bill, regrettably but necessarily, cancels this funding on the grounds that such programs are better left to the regular appropriations process. "In politics," John Kennedy used to say, "nobody gets everything, nobody gets nothing and everybody gets something." My colleagues and I have tried to balance the concerns of both left and right with the need to act quickly for the sake of our country. The moderates' compromise, which faces a cloture vote today, is the only bill with a reasonable chance of passage in the Senate. The writer is a Republican senator from Pennsylvania. Thank you, Patricia Leahy Director of Governmental Affairs and Public Policy National Rehabilitation Association 633 South Washington Street Alexandria, VA 22314 1-888-258-4295 NRA Office - 703-836-0850 NRA Fax - 703-836-0848 E-mail - patricia at nationalrehab.org NRA Website - www.nationalrehab.org ---------- End Forwarded Message ---------- Mona Robinson, PhD, PC, CRC National Association of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns, President-Elect Rehabilitation Counseling/Chillicothe Program Coordinator Assistant Professor Ohio University 386 McCracken Hall Athens, Ohio 45701 (740)593-4461 (office) (740)593-0477 (fax) robinsoh at ohio.edu -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: "Melina Luizaga" < Melina at nationalrehab.org > Subject: NRA's Washington Wire: U.S. SENATE BEGINS DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE SENATE STIMULUS BILL Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 15:47:44 -0500 Size: 29540 Url: http://listserv.ohio.edu/pipermail/counselor_educ/attachments/20090210/50c43c4c/attachment-0001.mht
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