Washington Update (Oct. 21, 2011)
NEWS
Social Security Recipients to Receive First Raise since 2009
Unpaid Student Loans Will Exceed $1 Trillion
FBI Moves to Broaden the Definition of Rape
Payroll Data Reveal Fewer Jobs, Less Pay
Stimulus Funds Helped Higher Education Survive Recession
School Board in Louisiana Halts Single-Sex Classes
Report: Policymakers Must Consider Needs of Diverse Workforce
Late Congresswoman Patsy Mink Honored by Hawaii University
IT’S MY VOTE: I WILL BE HEARD – VOTER EDUCATION AND ELECTIONS NEWS
Romney Legal Advisor Declares Gender Discrimination Nonexistent
LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY UPDATES
ESEA Passes through Committee with New Language
Teachers and First Responders Bill Halted
Justice Department Says Supreme Court Cannot Strike Down Mandate Alone
RESOURCES FOR ADVOCATES
Work-Sharing Fact Sheet Available
National Academy of Social Insurance Offers Scholarships to Conference
Feature Your Activities on the AAUW Member Showcase
Sign Up Your Friends and Family for Action Network!
UNIQUELY AAUW
Connect2AAUW
AAUW Public Policy Fund Pins — and a Bonus
Social Security Recipients to Receive First Raise since 2009
Social Security recipients will see a 3.5 percent raise in their benefits this January – the first increase since 2009. An inflation measure adopted by Congress in the 1970s adjusts benefits to meet the increases in cost of living every year, but inflation was too low to cause an adjustment in 2010 and 2011. The projected 3.5 percent increase in January will amount to an average $455 of extra income a year.
AAUW is committed to strengthening retirement benefits and to protecting Social Security. The current Social Security system is more than just a retirement program; it is one of the most successful anti-poverty programs in our nation’s history, providing benefits to many children, disabled workers, surviving spouses, and retirees. More than half of older women would fall into poverty without Social Security benefits.
Take Action! Ask your senator to cosponsor the Keeping Our Social Security Promises Act (S. 1558), which makes all individual income over $250,000 subject to the Social Security payroll tax. This bill would help to protect the long-term solvency of Social Security.
Unpaid Student Loans Will Exceed $1 Trillion
A new report indicates that the amount of outstanding student loans will exceed $1 trillion for the first time ever this year. The average full-time undergraduate student borrowed $4,963 in 2010, up 63 percent from a decade earlier even after adjusting for inflation. With a greater loan burden, and a poor economy, the percentage of borrowers who defaulted on their student debts also rose, from 6.7 percent in 2007 to 8.8 percent in 2009.
AAUW advocates for increased support for and access to higher education. As higher education costs increase and students take on more debt to attend, Congress must ensure that students can attend college, complete a degree, and improve their long-term economic security.
Take Action! Tell your member of Congress to protect Pell Grants. Tell them why higher education matters and why denying it to millions of women and minority students will undermine the economic recovery.
FBI Moves to Broaden the Definition of Rape
A Federal Bureau of Investigation subcommittee announced this week that the definition of rape used by the agency should be revised and replaced with a broader, more accurate, definition. The subcommittee recommends the new definition include anal and oral rape, as well as rapes involving male victims. The current definition, which was written 80 years ago, only includes sexual assaults that involve force and vaginal penetration and has been criticized as being too narrow, resulting in the exclusion of thousands of rapes from the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report. The proposal is subject to approval of the full advisory board in December.
AAUW advocates freedom from violence and fear of violence in homes, schools, workplaces, and communities, and supports the FBI’s proposal to update the definition of rape.
Payroll Data Reveal Fewer Jobs, Less Pay
Data from 2010 payroll taxes reported to the Social Security Administration showed that there were fewer jobs and the existing jobs paid less last year, except at the very top where the number of people making more than $1 million increased by 20 percent over 2009. The number of Americans with any work fell by more than a half-million from 2009 to less than 150.4 million people. The median paycheck fell 1.2 percent, down to $26,364. That works out to $507 a week, the lowest level since 1999 after adjusting for inflation.
While the recession may have led to more lost jobs among men, women have borne the brunt of a slow recovery. AAUW believes that job creation and economic opportunity are critical issues for women, many of whom continue to struggle with economic insecurity and wage discrimination.
Stimulus Funds Helped Higher Education Survive Recession
A report released Wednesday by the Federal Education Budget Project showed that state governments used higher education funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support salaries and benefits and infrastructure improvements. The report found that in 2009-2011, the funds played a critical role in delaying or lessening the impact of the recession on state higher education institutions. The funds expire in 2012.
AAUW advocates a strong system of public education that promotes gender fairness, equity, and diversity and advocates increased support for, and access to, higher education for women and other disadvantaged populations.
School Board in Louisiana Halts Single-Sex Classes
The school board in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, agreed to stop a middle school program that segregated core curricular classes by sex. The decision is part of a settlement between the Vermilion Parish School Board and clients represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Louisiana and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Additionally, the school board agreed not to institute sex-segregated programs at any of the 19 schools in Vermilion Parish through the 2016-2017 school year. The lawsuit said that the program at Rene A. Rost Middle School in Kaplan, Louisiana, violated federal laws including Title IX and the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution.
AAUW believes single-sex education without proper attention to civil rights protections can reinforce problematic gender stereotypes, increase discrimination, and restrict the educational opportunities open to both girls and boys. Even where programs are established for both boys and girls separately, they have tended to be distinctly unequal, with fewer resources allocated for girls programs. As a result, both the Constitution and Title IX have placed strict limits on the availability of single-sex education, while at the same time explicitly allowing for single-sex programs that are carefully constructed to remedy existing or past discrimination. AAUW is proud of women and girls' achievements and believes policies and reforms that allow women and men to excel are beneficial for society as a whole.
Report: Policymakers Must Consider Needs of Diverse Workforce
The Commission to Modernize Social Security released a report last week that said Social Security must be modernized to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse and economically insecure workforce. The report, Plan for a New Future: The Impact of Social Security Reform on People of Color, argues that changes to Social Security must consider the impact on workers and families of color who are more vulnerable to economic instability and far less likely to have generational wealth than white families. The commission is made up of national policy experts representing African-American, Asian-American, Latino, and Native American communities. The report showed that the majority of babies born in this country are now from minority racial groups. If this trend continues, the overall U.S. population is expected to become “majority-minority” by 2042.
Late Congresswoman Patsy Mink Honored by Hawaii University
The University of Hawaii honored the late Congresswoman Patsy Mink today for her role in creating Title IX of the Education Act. Mink, a University of Hawaii graduate, was an AAUW member. Mink and two other women were inducted into the UH Sports Circle of Honor in celebration of the 40th anniversary of women's athletics at the university.
AAUW strongly supports Title IX and opposes any efforts that would weaken its effectiveness. AAUW advocates vigorous enforcement of Title IX and all other civil rights laws pertaining to education. Since the law’s enactment, girls’ and women’s participation, scholarships, and share of athletics budgets have grown substantially. Title IX’s impact on women’s athletic participation is one of the country’s greatest civil rights success stories.
IT’S MY VOTE: I WILL BE HEARD – VOTER EDUCATION AND ELECTIONS NEWS
Romney Legal Advisor Declares Gender Discrimination Nonexistent
An advisor to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told Newsweek that gender discrimination no longer exists. Former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, the co-chairman of Romney’s Justice Advisory Committee, said he believes that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment should not apply to women because they are not discriminated against anymore. He also said married couples do not have a constitutional right to use contraception. Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, but failed to pass his Senate confirmation.
AAUW’s The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap illustrates that gender discrimination still exists. Women earn only 80 percent of what their male counterparts make on average one year after graduation. Five percent of that difference cannot be “explained away” by men’s and women’s life choices.
LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY UPDATES
ESEA Passes through Committee with New Language
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee voted 15 to 7 Thursday on legislation that would reduce the role of the federal government in overseeing the nation’s 100,000 public schools. The legislation would reauthorize and revamp the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, commonly referred to as No Child Left Behind. The bill, sponsored by the committee’s chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), and ranking Republican, Sen. Mike Enzi (WY), had support from all of the committee's Democrats and three Republicans. The bill would change several aspects of the current ESEA. For example, the bill would implement federal accountability for the lowest-performing schools, including high schools with high student dropout rates. Another change, proposed by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), would be the expansion and cross-tabulation of data collected on student achievement, including disaggregation of graduation rates by gender. Murray explained, “The amendment will make sure that school improvements and community efforts are driven by data and not by stereotypes.” The committee’s goal is to have the bill passed by the Senate this year, before the Department of Education begins issuing No Child Left Behind waivers to states for next year.
AAUW believes that quality public education is the foundation of a democratic society and advocates for bias-free education as well as adequate and equitable funding for its implementation. AAUW remains committed to ensuring strong academic principles and closing the achievement gap for all children. AAUW also believes that the federal government has a critical role to play in attaining these goals and endorses the use of a reasonable accountability system that helps ensure all children are prepared to be successful, participating members of our democracy. Furthermore, Sen. Murray’s amendment is a huge win for AAUW. AAUW’s Lobby Corps took to the Senate last week and delivered a letter to all HELP committee members that included support for Murray’s disaggregated data amendment. AAUW wants to send a special thanks to our Lobby Corps!
Teachers and First Responders Bill Halted
The U.S. Senate voted Thursday evening to block a bill that would provide $35 billion to states and local governments to hire teachers and first responders. The Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act was a part of President Barack Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs Act, which was also stopped in the Senate. All 47 Republicans voted against allowing the teachers’ bill to proceed to a full debate, arguing that temporary stimulus dollars for state and local governments would do little to bolster the private sector. Two Democrats, Sen. Ben Nelson (NE) and Sen. Mark Pryor (AR), also opposed proceeding with the measure, as did Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-CT).
AAUW strongly supports the Teachers and First Respondents Back to Work Act because it would protect the jobs of up to 400,000 teachers across the nation. Job creation and economic opportunity are critical issues for women. On Thursday morning, AAUW’s Lobby Corps went to 40 Senate offices to express our support for and the urgency of the bill. We are gravely disappointed in the outcome of the vote.
Take Action! Write your senators about their vote on the Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act.
Justice Department Says Supreme Court Cannot Strike Down Mandate Alone
The Department of Justice (DOJ) argued this week that if the Supreme Court strikes down the health care law’s individual mandate when it decides on its constitutionality, it also has to strike down other parts of the law. Lower courts have reached different conclusions about the mandate and whether it can be “severed” from the rest of the law. DOJ said the Supreme Court, if it struck down the mandate, would also have to invalidate policies that require insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions and prohibit insurers from charging those people higher premiums, arguing that Congress’s intent in passing the legislation was to bind all three requirements together to ensure the reform’s affordability. Both sides have asked the high court to take the case as soon as possible.
AAUW believes that everyone is entitled to health care that is high-quality, affordable, and easily accessible. AAUW believes that, although not perfect by any stretch, many of the reforms included in the Affordable Care Act will improve the collective health of the American people.
Work-Sharing Fact Sheet Available
The Center for Law and Social Policy released a new fact sheet that answers some of the most frequently asked questions about a provision in federal unemployment insurance that allows states to enact work-sharing programs. The programs, especially key during tough economic times, allow businesses to retain skilled workers, employees to retain their jobs and benefits, and communities to minimize the number of unemployed workers. Colorado, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia have adopted work-sharing legislation since 2009, for a total of 23 programs nationwide.
National Academy of Social Insurance Offers Scholarships to Conference
The National Academy of Social Insurance will offer scholarships to six young professionals to attend the group’s annual policy research conference this January in Washington, D.C. The conference, “Social Insurance in a Market Economy: Obstacles and Opportunities,” will bring together policy analysts, researchers, congressional staff, labor union representatives, advocates, industry leaders, and federal employees to discuss the positive relationship between a strong economy and strong social programs. Young professionals and students older than 18 can apply.
Feature Your Activities on the AAUW Member Showcase
Want to share your latest program with others or get ideas for an upcoming event? Check out AAUW’s Member Showcase! The Member Showcase is a great way to let other AAUW members know what your branch or state is up to. From book sales to Equal Pay Day events, and discussion groups to garden tours, the Member Showcase is here as a resource for you!
To publicize your events, email aauwcalendar@aauw.org, or for more information, read the Member Showcase FAQ.
Sign Up Your Friends and Family for Action Network!
Visit AAUW’s Take Action page of our website, where AAUW members and nonmembers alike can sign up for Action Network. It is an excellent way to introduce potential members to AAUW’s advocacy. You can also print out flyers online. Use flyers to sign up friends, family and coworkers to AAUW Action Network. These flyers are great to use at branch events, community events, etc.
Connect2AAUW
General AAUW questions? Please contact connect@aauw.org or call 800/326-2289 between 10 am and 5 pm Eastern, Monday through Friday.
AAUW Public Policy Fund Pins — and a Bonus
Show your support for advocacy for women and girls — and get a tax deduction. Contribute $100 or more to the AAUW Public Policy Fund and receive the fund's annual pin. Please support this crucial work with a tax-deductible contribution through our secure website.
Crossing the Line
AAUW's latest research report presents new data on sexual harassment in grades 7-12.