March 6, 2000 Vol. 2, No. 7

This Week in Washington...

For more information, contact Reva Price, Washington Representative at rprice@thejcpa.org

Busy Week at the White House: Gun control legislation will be the topic of discussion as President Clinton meets with Congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday. At last week’s Plenum, delegates adopted a resolution calling for passage of meaningful gun safety legislation, which would include background checks for all gun purchase, limit hand gun purchases, penalize negligent gun owners if their weapons were used in violent acts, and require the sale of effective child proof safety locks. Contact gfsiegel@thejcpa.org or rprice@thejcpa.org for more information. JCPA Chair Len Cole will join other leaders of America’s religious community on Thursday as part if the White House’s "One America, A Call to Action" program.

Minimum Wage Debate Continues: The House of Representatives has scheduled debate on the minimum wage for Thursday, and two separate proposals are due to be discussed: one which would raise the minimum wage by $1 over three years, and a second which would provide for tax breaks for businesses. The expected result is that the merger of these two proposals will become the subject of House-Senate conference. The expected sticking point is the differing amount of tax breaks for business, with the Senate leadership wanting $18 billion, the House leadership wanting $30 billion and Democratic leadership wanting $8 billion. The JCPA will join coalition partners at a Washington press conference Wednesday Calling for a minimum wage increase. At its Plenum last week, the JCPA adopted a resolution on Living Wage and Low Income Workers, calling for enhanced government programs designed to enable workers to achieve economic well being with dignity. Contact ksenter@thejcpa.org or rprice@thejcpa.org for more information.

Senate Begins Work on ESEA: The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will continue work Tuesday to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education (S2) Act. At stake is the authorization of $19.7 billion for education programs, including Title I, which directs $8 billion a year to Disadvantaged children. As drafted by Committee Chairman Jim Jeffords (VT) the bill includes a proposal which would allow states to roll a number of aid programs such as teacher quality, enrichment activities and portions of Title I into block grants. This is similar to a proposed pilot project passed by the House, which would allow significant latitude for block grants, including creation of voucher programs. The JCPA and many of its member agencies have joined with more than 60 organizations, advising Senate in writing of their opposition to a proposed amendment by Sen. Jeff Session (AL) which would eliminate already existing authority for the Department of Education to develop and support anti-bias and hate crimes prevention programs.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill: Other issues on this week’s jam-packed calendar include: Kenneth W. Prewitt, Director of the Census Bureau, is scheduled to appear Wednesday to discuss the status of preparations for the 2000 Census; House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee is slated to mark-up the latest legislation on the so- called "partial birth abortion bill"; the House International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the State Department’s reports on human rights practices around the world; The National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women and the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues will be holding a briefing Thursday to showcase programs across America aimed at ending violence against women.

This Week in New York...

For more information, contact Benita Gayle-Almeleh, Senior Community Consultant at bga@thejcpa.org

John Paul II and You: A conference call to discuss issues likely to arise in communities during and after the upcoming papal visit to Israel is schedules for Thursday, March 9^th at 4:00pm ET. Contact lmallin@thejcpa.org for details of the call.

Mazel Tov: To new JCPA Chair Dr. Leonard Cole, new Vice-Chairs Judy Palkovitz and Judah Labovitz and new Treasurer Michael Bohnen. May you go from strength to strength. And hats off to 2 westerners, Andrea Weinstein and Sharon Bloome who will chair the 2001 Plenum, schedules to take place from February 24 – 28 in Washington, D.C. Mark your calendars!