NTU urges all Representatives to vote "NO" on the Senate's amendments to H.R. 1586, the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. This legislation would authorize $26.1 billion for an "education jobs fund" and to extend Federal Medical Assistance Percentages funding.
The $10 billion slush fund to bail out states with budget shortfalls is being offered on top of the $100 billion in “stimulus” resources provided to education in 2009 – 33 percent of which has yet to be spent. Moreover, this amendment prohibits a Governor from “opting out” of the bailout fund. The Secretary of Education would instead be required to distribute the funds to another entity within the state. Most troubling is the amendment’s “pay-for”: a $9.6 billion permanent tax increase. Even the spending reductions that would supposedly offset some of the bill’s costs are a source of controversy. Roughly $14 billion of the cuts come from emergency funding which is not subject to PAYGO statutes. While these actions may have merit on their own, the result, according to Congressional Budget Office’s scorekeeping, is that H.R. 1586 would still add nearly $12.6 billion in deficits to the nation’s balance sheet.
A “NO” vote on the amended H.R. 1586 will be significantly weighted in our annual Rating of Congress.
If you have any questions, please contact:
NTU Federal Government Affairs Manager Jordan Forbes at (703) 683-5700