House approves $26 billion jobs bill

House approves $26 billion jobs bill
By Lori Montgomery and Nick Anderson
Copyright by The Washington Post
Tuesday, August 10, 2010; 3:39 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/10/AR2010081004201.html?hpid=topnews


Congress approved a final spurt of spending Tuesday to shore up the sluggish recovery, sending to the White House a $26 billion plan to save the jobs of thousands of teachers and other government workers.

The measure brings total direct federal spending on the economy to just over $1 trillion since the Great Recession began in late 2007.

With economic growth faltering and unemployment stuck at 9.5 percent, some economists are urging additional action. But senior Democrats and administration officials said the package of state aid approved Tuesday is likely to be the last significant effort at economic stimulus at least until after the November congressional elections.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), determined to show angry voters a commitment to improving the economy, summoned lawmakers back from their August break for an unusual one-day session to vote on the package, saying it would help governors facing their own budget problems avoid laying off more than 300,000 workers.

Republicans derided the measure as a transparent handout to teachers' unions, a key Democratic political constituency, and argued that it would be no more successful at restoring the nation's economic health than was the massive stimulus package President Obama signed soon after taking office last January.

"This is a bailout. This is another bailout... Let's not do this!" yelled Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.). "We're facing almost a $1.5 trillion budget deficit. America, please, please wake up. And remember in November."

In a mid-afternoon vote, the House approved the measure 247 to 161, with most Republicans voting no. The Senate has already signed off on the package, and Obama plans to sign the bill into law as soon as Tuesday, administration officials said, speeding the cash into state coffers.

The measure would provide governors with an additional six months of federal assistance: $10 billion in education aid and about $16 billion to fill gaps opened in state Medicaid budgets by increasing demand on the health program for the poor. The sum is only about half what Obama requested. Faced with bipartisan anxiety about soaring budget deficits, Democrats leaders were forced not only to scale back the package, but also to cover its cost by increasing taxes on multinational corporations and rescinding an increase in the food stamp program that was enacted in the 2009 stimulus package. The cut would not take effect, however, until 2014.

Obama on Tuesday urged lawmakers to approve the package, calling it essential to avoiding a new round of layoffs.

"We can't stand by and do nothing while pink slips are given to the men and women who educate our children and keep our communities safe," Obama said at a Rose Garden news conference, where he was flanked by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and two public school teachers.

Despite the fresh aid, many states will still face fiscal troubles. The package represents less than a quarter of what the National Governors Association estimates will be a cumulative shortfall of $116 billion in state budgets over the next two years.

"This isn't plugging the hole," said David Quam, NGA director of federal relations. "This is helping to transition."

Locally, the bill would provide about $70 million for the District, $450 million for Maryland and $540 million for Virginia, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D), who lobbied hard for the money, said his state's share of about $1 billion would prevent as many as 10,000 layoffs and bolster efforts to improve public schools. Failure to pass the bill, he said, would have undercut his state's nascent economic recovery.

"That would have been a body blow," he said. "It would have cut our momentum off at the pass."

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), whose state would receive more than $280 million, called such arguments "mistaken." He said federal and state governments alike should learn to live within their means, much as families and businesses have done. In South Carolina, he said, "we'll have to deal with some cutbacks, but they're relatively mild in the grand scheme of things. The danger of the stimulus and other things like it, is that we're hurting the engine that creates the revenue for the rest of the government."

Sanford also said that new federal relief would choke off efforts to overhaul schools and other public services. "All the air gets sucked out of the chance to make any reform," he said, "because nobody wants to make changes if they don't have to in politics."

Many states had been counting on the $16 billion in additional federal Medicaid support, but the $10 billion targeted for education jobs came as something of a surprise when the Senate voted to approve it last week. In the spring, estimates of the layoff threat in schools ranged from 100,000 to 300,000, but as of this month it remained unclear exactly how many personnel have been let go.

With the start of school just a few weeks away, most school systems were not counting on increased federal aid this summer as they set their staffing plans in motion. Across the country, class sizes have been on the rise, school bus routes have been cut and a plethora of programs, including summer school, arts and physical education and health and counseling services, have been cut back. Some school systems even trimmed the length of the school year to make ends meet.

Now, the budget calculus changes. In California, for instance, where an estimated 15,000 educators were laid off, teachers union officials hope many will be rehired.

Dennis Van Roekel, president of the 3.2-million-member National Education Association, said teachers sent more than 300,000 emails, made 100,000 phone calls and mailed 42,000 postcards urging Congress to approve the measure.

"The people on the outside can say they're doing it in their self interest -- and they're wrong," Van Roekel said. "They're doing it because of the impact on their students."

In addition to the state aid package, House members addressed another issue that ranks high in voters' minds, passing by voice vote a $600 million bill to shore up surveillance and security along the troubled U.S.-Mexican border.