June 19, 2000 Vol. 2, No. 21

This Week in Washington...

For more information, contact Reva Price, Washington Representative at rprice@thejcpa.org or Guila Franklin Siegel, Associate Director, Domestic Concerns at gfsiegel@thejcpa.org

BREAKING NEWS: In a major victory for advocates of church-state separation, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that student-led, student-initiated prayer at public school sporting events is unconstitutional. The case, Sante Fe ISD. V. Doe, involved a Texas school district that allowed an elected student representative to deliver "invocations" at public high school football games. In a 6-3 written opinion written by Justice Stevens, the Court held that, "[T]he policy is invalid on its face because it establishes an improper majoritarian election on religion and unquestionably has the purpose and creates the perception of encouraging the delivery of prayer at a series of important school events." A dissenting opinion was filed by Chief Justice Rehnquist, who was joined by Justices Scalia and Thomas. The JCPA, along with many of its national member agencies, had filed an amicus brief with the Court urging it to hold the school district’s policies and practices unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruling can be found at http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-62.ZS.html.

Hate Crimes Legislation on the Calendar: Senator Edward Kennedy (MA) is scheduled to introduce the Hate Crimes Prevention Act later today as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill. A full Senate vote has been scheduled for late Tuesday afternoon. If you have not contacted your Senators recently on this important piece of legislation, this would be the time to do so. Today’s Washington Post features an op-ed piece written by Senator Gordon Smith (OR) in support of HCPA. http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17945-2000Jun18.html.

Efforts to End Genetic Discrimination To Gain Momentum this Week: Congresswoman Slaughter (NY), House Minority Leader Gephart, and Senators Daschle and Kennedy have scheduled a press conference for Wednesday morning to announce the newest developments in an effort to bring legislation to prohibit genetic discrimination to the House floor. The legislators will use a vehicle called a discharge petition to force the legislation, HR 2457 the Slaughter-Daschle Genetic Nondiscrimination in Health Insurance and Employment Act, to the House floor. The bill would prohibit insurance providers from denying or canceling health insurance coverage, or varying the conditions of coverage on the basis of genetic information. It would also prohibit employers, employment agencies, labor organizations and training programs from discriminating in employment practices on the basis of genetic information. The JCPA’s policy in favor of this legislation stems not only from broad civil liberty concerns but from reports that mutations in certain genes which may increase the likelihood of developing certain cancers are potentially more prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews.

Work on Foreign Aid Bill Continues: The House Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee will once again try to finish work on this important spending bill. Action was postponed three times last week over several issues including aid to Israel. Subcommittee Chairman Callahan wants to show opposition to Israel’s proposed sale of sophisticated radar equipped airplanes to China. At first the Chairman suggested withholding funds for Israel. Now the Chairman is suggesting efforts to prohibit $250 million in military assistance from being disbursed all at once at the beginning of the fiscal year as is normally done for Israel. The $13.3 billion bill provides $2.8 billion in aid to Israel, including $1.98 billion in military aid. The full Senate is scheduled to consider its version of this bill later this week. The Senate bill contains full funding for Israel but falls short on its funding for the Refugee Assistance Account. The Senate bill only provides for $615 million for this account which covers overseas refugee assistance. The House bill currently would provide $645 million for this account. The Administration requested $658 million however advocates had suggested that $700 million is needed to meet the needs of refugees.

VAWA Reauthorization Moving in Both Houses: The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act later this week. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to do the same on June 29^th. The legislation would authorize money for law enforcement and prosecution grants as well as family violence prevention programs.

One Step Closer to Final Agreement on Slave Labor: The U.S. and Germany reached agreement last week on the major sticking point in negotiations to secure restitution for Holocaust-era forced and slave laborers, bringing the parties one step closer to finalizing a plan to compensate over one million victims of the Nazi regime. Talks had broken down over the exact terms of "legal closure" to be provided to German companies who contribute money to the fund, which will provide payments not only for forced or slave labor, but also for insurance claims, bank accounts, and other property. The German Bundestag, or parliament, must now enact legislation to authorize the foundation, before its session ends in several weeks. If that occurs, payments to survivors could begin by the end of this year.