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AFL – CIO

A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when shared with others. That’s why we wanted you to be the first to see and share this new image about devastating policies that reward corporations for shipping good jobs offshore.

Click here now to share this picture with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

50,000 manufacturing facilities gone. 6 million jobs lost. Chronic trade deficits. Record cash hoarding by the largest U.S. non-financial companies. These are all results of the troubling economic policies some of our lawmakers have passed and defended.

These policies have outsourced jobs and rewarded corporations with taxpayers’ money while they ship production, jobs and innovation overseas. Wall Street bankers and CEOs have filled their pockets while the rest of us have picked up the pieces.

This month and beyond, working families across the country will call on lawmakers and corporations to bring good jobs home and invest in America again, instead of shipping away our future.

We will tell you about events and actions during the weeks ahead. But right now, you can help by sharing the above graphic on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

It’s time we brought good jobs home and made new our commitment to Made in America. Do your part by sharing this image at the link below:

http://bit.ly/KYaSUt

In Solidarity,
Nicole Aro
AFL-CIO Digital Strategies

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CONGRESS : the Republican led House – the Senate debates S.3240,Farm bill & 3.5yrs later, Judicial nominees


the Senate Convenes: 3:00pmET June 18, 2012

5:30pm The Senate began a roll call vote on confirmation of Executive Calendar #612, the nomination of Mary Geiger Lewis, of South Carolina, to be United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina; Confirmed: 64-27

WRAP UP

The Senate has locked an agreement to limit amendments and bring the Farm bill to passage. Under the agreement, we will begin voting on amendments at 2:15pm tomorrow. There will be a break in consideration of the amendments to debate and vote in relation to S.J.Res.37, Boiler MACT/EPA, Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. I will send the agreement on the joint resolution of disapproval in a separate email message once it is locked in. Please note that we will consider amendments in an alternating fashion between Democrats and Republicans.

The agreement is as follows:

Leader: I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate resumes consideration of S.3240, the pending motion to recommit be withdrawn; that amendment #2390 be withdrawn; that the Stabenow-Roberts amendment #2389 be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be considered original text for the purposes of further amendment; that the following amendments and motions be the only first degree amendments and motions in order to the bill:

– Akaka #2440 (highly fractionated tribal lands);

– Akaka #2396 (tribal relations office);

– Baucus #2429 (Livestock);

– Bingaman #2364 (multi-state aquifers);

– Brown (OH) #2445 (rural development);

– Cantwell #2370 (pulse pilot);

– Casey #2238 (technical/study -federal milk marketing)

– Coons #2426 (poultry insurance study);

– Feinstein #2422 (conservation innovation grants);

– Feinstein #2309 (insurance recall);

– Gillibrand #2156 (SNAP);

– Hagan #2366 (crop insurance – plain language);

– Kerry #2187 (commercial fishermen);

– Landrieu #2321 (rural development loans);

– Manchin #2345 (dietary study);

– Merkley #2382 (organic crop insurance);

– Schumer #2427 (acer);
– Stabenow #2453 (NAP);

– Udall(CO) #2295 (bark beetle);

– Warner #2457 (rural broadband);

– Wyden #2442 (microloans);

– Wyden #2388 (farm to school);

– Leahy #2204 (rural development);

– Nelson(NE) #2242 (rural housing);

– Klobuchar #2299 (transportation study);

– Carper #2287 (poultry feed research);

– Sanders #2254 (biomass);

– Thune #2437 (crop insurance);

– Durbin-Coburn #2439 (crop insurance);

– Snowe #2190 (milk marketing order reform);

– Ayotte #2192 (value added grants);

– Collins #2444 (dairy);

– Grassley #2167 (pay cap marketing loans);

– Sessions #2174 (SNAP);

– Nelson(NE) #2243 (SNAP);

– Sessions #2172 (SNAP);

– Paul #2181 ($250,000 income limit);

– Alexander #2191 (wind loans);

– McCain #2199 (catfish);

– Toomey #2217 (organic/AMA);

– DeMint #2263 (broadband funding);

– DeMint #2262 (SoS Free MKT);

– DeMint #2268 (Loan guarantees);

– DeMint #2276 (checkoffs);

– DeMint #2273 (broadband);

– Coburn #2289 (MAP);

– Coburn #2293 (Limit Millionaires);

– Kerry #2454 (North Korea);

– Kyl #2354 (North Korea);

– Lee #2313 (Forest Legacy);

– Lee #2314 (CSP/CRP cut);

– Boozman #2355 (Ag research, law info);

– Boozman #2360 (TEFAP);

– Toomey #2226 (energy title);

– Toomey #2433 (sugar);

– Lee Motion to Recommit (FY 2008 levels);

– Johnson(WI) Motion to Recommit;

– Chambliss #2438 (conservation crop insurance);

– Chambliss #2340 (sugar);

– Chambliss #2432 (FMPP);

– Ayotte #2195 (GAO crop insurance fraud report);

– Blunt #2246 (veterans);

– Moran #2403 (food aid);

– Moran #2443 (beginning farmers)

– Vitter #2363 (pets);

– Toomey #2247 (paperwork);

– Sanders #2310 (genetically engineered food);

– Coburn #2214 (convention funding);

– Boxer #2456 (aerial inspections);

– Johanns #2372 (aerial inspections);

– Murray # 2455(sequestration);

– McCain #2162 (Sequestration report – DoD); and

– Rubio #2166 (RAISE Act).

That at 2:15pm, Tuesday, June 19th, the Senate proceed to votes in relation to the amendments in the order listed alternating between Republican and Democratic sponsored amendments; that there be no amendments or motions in order to the amendments prior to the votes other than motions to waive points of order and motions to table; that there be two minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form in between the votes and all after the first vote be ten minute votes; that the Toomey #2247; Sanders #2256; Coburn #2214; Boxer #2456; Johanns #2372; Murray #2455; McCain #2162 and the Rubio amendment #2166 be subject to a 60 affirmative vote threshold; that the clerks be authorized to modify the instruction lines on amendments so the page and line numbers match up correctly; that upon disposition of the amendments, the bill, as amended, be read a third time; that there be up to ten minutes equally divided in the usual form prior to a vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended; finally, the vote on passage of the bill be subject to a 60 affirmative vote threshold.

ROLL CALL VOTE

1) Confirmation of Executive Calendar #612, the nomination of Mary Geiger Lewis, of SC, to be United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina; Confirmed: 64-27

LEGISLATIVE ITEMS

Agreed to a Snowe amendment to the preamble of S.Res.488, a resolution commending the efforts of the firefighters and emergency response personnel of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, who came together to extinguish the May 23, 2012, fire at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine., notwithstanding adoption of the resolution.

Discharged Judiciary and adopted S.Res.470, a resolution designating July 28, 2012, as “National Day of the American Cowboy”.

Adopted S.Res.495, designating the period beginning on June 17, 2012, and ending on June 23, 2012, as “Polycystic Kidney Disease Awareness Week”, and raising awareness and understanding of polycystic kidney disease and the impact such disease has on patients.

No EXECUTIVE ITEMS

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

House Floor Activities
Legislative Day of June 18, 2012

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How You Can Tell When the Deficit is a Problem



A Lot More Important Than the Federal Deficit.

A few days ago, I was stuck in the car for a long drive. Because of the complete absence of progressive talk from Orlando’s airwaves, I had no real choice but to listen to the nasal maundering of Mark Levin on the radio. Levin was very upset about the federal deficit.

Interestingly, Levin was a high-level appointee in the Reagan Administration. Dick Cheney, who was Reagan’s Defense Secretary and later the Vice President, said 10 years ago that “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”

I must concede that it is rather difficult to reconcile the conflicting statements of these two gentlemen, Messrs. Levin and Cheney. Evidently, they believe deficits are a terrible tragedy when a Democrat is President, and a wonderful gift when a Republican is President.

There has got to be a more objective standard than that.

Here’s one: the federal deficit is a problem when long-term interest rates are high, and not much of a problem when long-term interest rates are low. The Federal Reserve dictates short-term interest rates, but long-term rates still are, pretty much, set by the market, in its usual ruthless fashion. (Which is why James Carville said that after he dies, he “want[s] to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”)

When long-term interest rates are high, a federal deficit competes against and “crowds out” private borrowing and investment. When long-term interest rates are low, the federal deficit is not taking away from borrowing by the private sector. On the contrary, the federal deficit is acting as a needed boost to aggregate demand in the economy, an action also known as “fiscal policy.” When the economy is slack, every dollar of reduction in federal spending takes three or four dollars off of our gross national product.

So, by that test, where are we? Well, as I explained last week, long-term U.S. interest rates are at their lowest in history. So what does that tell you about the deficit?

Sorry – I didn’t mention that there was going to be a quiz.

When Ronald Reagan was President, long-term interest rates sometimes exceeded 15% – ten times as high as long-term interest rates today. The market was screaming at the top of its lungs that the Reagan deficit was too high. And today? Silence.

Look around the world. The ten-year note in Greece yields a little less than 30%. Pakistan, 13%. Portugal and Venezuela, 12%. In those countries, the bond market is shouting, “Cut that out!”

Not here.

Thanks to all the deficit-mongering by Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Fox “News,” etc., a lot of Americans are scared by the federal deficit. The advice from Democratic pollsters is to go along with this hand-wringing. But there is an alternative: Explain to the American people when a federal deficit is bad, and when it is not.

Like I just did.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

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AFL – CIO … Beyond Wisconsin


A year and a half ago, Gov. Scott Walker and his friends in the Senate forced through an extremist anti-worker agenda that divided the state.

Last night, Wisconsin took back its Senate. While Gov. Walker remains in office after being only the third governor in American history subjected to the humiliation of a recall, his divisive agenda has been stopped cold.

Though Walker was shielded with a flood of secret corporate cash, Wisconsin made its voice heard. While we came closer to recalling Walker than many expected, we ended up coming just short.

The work we did together was about much more than just this one election.

We laid the groundwork for a powerful movement to push back against Walker-style anti-working family policies everywhere. The energy and momentum in Wisconsin have inspired working people from all walks of life to stand together in solidarity in unprecedented ways.

We cannot stop now. Click here to sign our solidarity pledge to commit to building on the momentum working people created in Wisconsin and beyond to protect good jobs, working families and workplace rights.

Wisconsin is a small piece of a broader global movement of people pushing back on the corporate-driven policies that have favored the super-rich at the expense of good jobs, education and the health of our communities.

And we are winning. We’ve seen it in Tunisia, Yemen and other countries where the Arab Spring has taken hold; in Greece and France, where voters rejected the failed, Draconian policies of austerity; and here in the United States, where members of the Occupy movement continue to shine a much-needed light on Wall Street greed and ballooning economic inequality.

Working people are making history every day through their courage and resolve to work together for a better world. For you, it may have begun with Wisconsin, but it should not stop there.

Click here to sign our pledge of solidarity to say you will continue to stand with other working people to protect good jobs, working families and workplace rights.

Thank you for everything you have done and will continue to do for working families.

In Solidarity,

Richard Trumka
President, AFL-CIO

P.S. Want to be the first to hear about our exciting new campaigns planned for the summer? Sign our solidarity pledge now so you can be one of the first to receive updates.
Black History, ~ Culture & History, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture, ~ Recent Post

FYI: laws are created and passed … by Congress


Schoolhouse Rock- How a Bill Becomes a Law