[Counselor_Educ] NRA's Washington Wire: U.S. SENATE BEGINS DEBATE ON THE COMPROMISE SENATE STIMULUS BILL (fwd)

[Mona Robinson]

------------ 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