Jim Riley, Director, Government Affairs
John Boling, Director, Government Affairs
Joe Colaneri, Director, Government Affairs
Patricia Maeder, Division Coordinator
www.nssga.org
Action Center
e-Digest
- TCC FLY-IN IS HERE!
- SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE PLANS MINE SAFETY LEGISLATION MARK UP
- INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS BILL HEADS TO HOUSE FLOOR
- INTERIOR DEPARTMENT NOMINEE FACES THORNY ROAD
- SMALL BUSINESS HEALTH PLANS BILL FALLS TO FILIBUSTER
- DEATH TAX REPEAL VOTE GETS PUSHED BACK -- AGAIN
TCC FLY-IN IS HERE!
The TCC Fly-In takes place this week. If you haven't registered yet, but still want to attend, there is on-site registration. It is not too late to come and help NSSGA build the case for increased investment in our nation's highway system and register opposition to proposals to suspend or repeal the gasoline user fee.
Prior to the opening of the fly-in, on Wed., May 17, NSSGA is holding a Government Affairs Committee meeting in B-354 of the Rayburn House Office Building from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Special congressional staff guests will join us and lunch will be served. Plan on attending and receiving the latest update on issues of importance to the aggregates industry.
The fly-in officially begins at 2:30 p.m. at the J.W. Marriott Hotel. There will be a TCC congressional reception on Wed. evening from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building foyer. The morning of May 18 will begin with a breakfast speaker followed by a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill. The featured fly-in guest speaker is political analyst, author and pundit Larry Sabato, who wrote Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election. Sabato is director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
NSSGA will hold a ROCKPAC Major Donors ($500 - $5,000 contributors) dinner beginning at 7:00 p.m. on May 17 in the Bolton Room of the Capitol Hill Club. U.S. Rep. John "Jimmy" Duncan (R-Tenn.), a leading candidate for chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will speak.
Please RSVP your attendance to Patricia Maeder for both the Government Affairs Committee Meeting and the ROCKPAC dinner.
Come to Washington and help us deliver our message to Congress!
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee is moving forward with plans to mark up mine safety legislation circulated by Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) The mark up is scheduled for Wed., May 17, at 10:00 a.m.
NSSGA and other non-metal mining organizations met with Chairman Enzi's staff on May 6 to discuss our concerns regarding the draft legislation. A new draft was received on May 12 and reflects some of the changes recommended by the non-metal sector. The bulk of the bill applies to coal mines. It does not clarify "flagrant" violations as we had sought, but it does change "oxygen" to "breathable air". The 15-minute notification, while still included, applies to a very limited set of accidents where a death occurs or there is a reasonable potential of death occurring rather than the entire 12 contained in the current MSHA regulation. The drug and alcohol testing program remains, but follows the Department of Transportation model on which NSSGA submitted comments last fall.
Late May 15, a final Enzi-Kennedy draft bill was being circulated. If the mark-up goes forward as planned, Chairman Enzi wants to move the bill thru the Senate by unanimous consent as early as possible.
Meanwhile House Democratic Reps. George Miller (Calif.), Nick Rahall (W. Va.), and Major Owens (N.Y.) are holding a press conference today and will unveil a Democratic House bill.
NSSGA is reviewing the Enzi-Kennedy bill and will circulate it. We also will circulate the House Democratic bill as soon as it becomes available.
We will keep you informed of developments as the Senate considers mine safety legislation.
SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE PLANS MINE SAFETY LEGISLATION MARK UP
INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS BILL HEADS TO HOUSE FLOOR
NSSGA scores victory when minerals information funds are restoredThe first spending bill to the reach the House floor is loaded with provisions that are sure to elicit an emotionally charged debate as Congress makes some tough choices on how to allocate scarce funds. The $25.9 billion Interior and Environment Appropriations bill funds the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with a number of smaller entities like the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution. The Interior Department would get $9.65 billion, $211 million below last year and $40 million above the president's request. The EPA would receive $7.56 billion, $55 million below last year and $254 million above the request.
NSSGA scored a victory in the spending bill when the committee restored $4.5 million in funding for the reporting of foreign mineral production by the U.S. Geological Survey's Minerals Information Team . Included with the bill was a committee report which stated:
'…The Committee strongly disagrees with the proposed reduction in the Survey's mineral resource program. Minerals and mineral products are important to the U.S. economy with processed minerals adding billions of dollars to the economy. Mineral commodities are essential to both national security and infrastructure development. Mineral resources research and assessments are a core responsibility of the Survey. The Committee does not agree that objective data on mineral commodities can be generated in the private sector and the Committee importunes the Administration to not propose this program elimination again'.
Also, of interest to the aggregate industry is the cut to EPA revolving water funds, with the clean water fund taking a $209 million cut to $687.6 million and the drinking water funds seeing a nominal increase of $4 million to $841.5 million. Both of these funds allocate money to the 50 states which in turn give out low-cost loans to communities for water or wastewater projects.
NSSGA will continue to fight for full funding of these important Interior Department programs and will keep members updated to the latest developments.
The Senate Energy Committee on a voice vote approved the nomination of Idaho Governor and former Sen. Dirk Kempthorne (R) to be Interior Secretary. Although generally well received by his former Senate colleagues during his confirmation hearing on May 4, Kempthorne faces the prospect of having to overcome several holds on his nomination. Sen. Mary Landrieu, (D-La.) has put a procedural hold on the nomination while she presses for the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to receive 50 percent of revenues from offshore gas drilling. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) may choose to block the nomination over the Bush administration's plans to open coastal areas to more energy drilling. There is no firm schedule as yet for consideration of Kempthorne's nomination on the Senate floor.
In his prepared remarks, Kempthorne noted his preference for a bipartisan approach to the reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act, a top priority of NSSGA. Should he be confirmed, NSSGA will look forward to a productive dialogue with the Secretary and other key department officials on balanced reform of the Endangered Species Act.
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT NOMINEE FACES THORNY ROAD
Supporters in the U.S. Senate of "Small Business Health Plans" (formerly known as "Association Health Plans") failed to garner the 60 votes needed to cut-off debate on S. 1955, the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act. The effort fell five votes shy on a mostly party-line vote of 55-43. Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (R-R.I.) was the only Republican to vote against ending debate while Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who is a cosponsor of the bill, were the only Democrats to break ranks and support the legislation.
In an attempt to save the legislation, Sen. Nelson offered a compromise amendment on state mandated coverage to counter charges from critics that S. 1955 would eliminate coverage for certain procedures and screenings. The amendment would have expanded mandated coverage to include any mandate that has been adopted in at least 25 states, addressing concerns that small business health plans created by S. 1955 would not cover cancer screening and diabetes treatments.
This bill, and others like it, provide for the establishment and governance of small business health plans, which are group health plans sponsored by trade, industry, professional, chamber of commerce or similar business associations that meet certification requirements found in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). NSSGA supports the creation of small business health plans as a means to provide greater health care coverage for the employees of small businesses.
SMALL BUSINESS HEALTH PLANS BILL FALLS TO FILIBUSTER
While an outside chance still exists that legislation to permanently repeal the death tax could come up on the Senate schedule this week, it will most likely be brought up following the Memorial Day recess sometime in early June. As with many bills before the Senate, the problem is not getting a majority of senators to support it, but getting a supermajority of 60 votes to cut off debate or over-ride a budgetary point of order. The Death Tax Working Group, of which NSSGA is a member, estimates that there are currently 58 senators who would vote to end debate and over-ride any points of order brought against the bill.
Should supporters of permanent complete repeal fail to reach 60 votes, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has been crafting a compromise bill that would exempt anywhere from the first $5 million to $15 million and tax the amount in excess of the exemption at 15 percent, similar to the current capital gains tax rate. NSSGA supports permanent complete repeal of the death tax and has an "Aggregates in Action" grassroots alert posted in the Legislative Action Center in support of this position.
DEATH TAX REPEAL VOTE GETS PUSHED BACK -- AGAIN
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