From January 2002 NASW NEWS
Copyright ©2002, National Association of Social Workers, Inc.

NASW Presses On Despite Hill Climate

Although the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, the anthrax scare, airline security and the war in Afghanistan have preoccupied Congress since Sept. 11, NASW's government relations staff have continued their advocacy of the association's legislative priorities, all the while recognizing that this legislative season is quite unlike any other.

"There is so much uncertainty," said NASW Senior Government Relations Associate Cynthia Woodside. "It's totally chaotic, like nothing we've ever seen before."

Elementary School Counseling. The appropriations process, through which legislation receives its funding, is continuing, and Woodside has been working with key congressional allies, including Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), to push for increased funding for the Elementary School Counseling Program.

The program, contained in the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, has been passed separately by the House of Representatives (H.R. 3061) and the Senate (S. 1536) and at press time was before a House-Senate conference committee to reconcile the differences.

According to Woodside, both bills contain funding for the program, but only the Senate bill provides an increase from $30 to $35 million, which would allow all current grantees to receive another year of funding and approximately 15 new grants to be awarded. The House bill holds the funding level steady at $30 million, which would provide all current grantees another year of funding, but not provide for any new grants.

The Elementary School Counseling Program is a discretionary grant program that assists local school districts in creating or expanding counseling programs by hiring school social workers, school counselors and school psychologists. While the U.S. Department of Education has awarded special grants for crisis counseling to school districts directly affected by the terrorist attacks (in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Maryland), additional funding for the school counseling program is required to provide long-term support to more than the current 89 of nearly 16,000 school districts, Woodside said.

Child Welfare. Woodside is also working on the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) Program, an initiative that provides funds for family preservation services for families in crisis, family support services to promote child and family well-being, time-limited family reunification services, and adoption promotion and support services.

At press time, the House had passed a bill (H.R. 2873) to continue the program for five years, but instead of guaranteeing annual funding increases as President Bush had proposed, the bill subjects the program to the uncertainty of the yearly appropriations process. There was no action in the Senate.

Additionally, Woodside worked with Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) on the Child Protection Services Improvement Act (H.R. 1371), which would provide grants to states to improve the child welfare work force and provide loan forgiveness for child welfare staff. NASW endorsed the bill, stating, "In order to deliver high-quality services to children and their families, child welfare staff need training and experience, reasonable caseloads, safe working conditions and access to highly qualified supervision."

At press time, no further action on the bill was expected during the current legislative session. The Senate bill (S. 1503), which maintains guaranteed funding increases for the program, was awaiting action.

Mental Health Parity. Mental health parity gained substantial ground in late October, when the House passed H.R. 3090, the Economic Security and Recovery Act of 2001, with a provision that would re-implement the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 and extend it until Sept. 30, 2003 — an action made necessary by the law's Sept. 30, 2001, expiration [November News].

The Senate also passed by voice vote a mental health parity amendment, offered by Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), to the fiscal year 2002 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill (S. 1536). The amendment consists of the entire Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001 (S. 543), which the senators sponsored, with the exception of the date effective: S. 543 would take effect on Jan. 1, 2002, and the Domenici-Wellstone amendment would take effect a year later, on Jan. 1, 2003. At press time, the Senate had not completed action on S. 1536.

According to NASW Senior Government Relations Associate Francesca Fierro O'Reilly, once both chambers act on H.R. 3090 and S. 1536, a conference committee will be convened to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation. After the conference committee completes its negotiations, a final version will be sent back to the House and Senate for a vote, and only then, when both chambers pass identical pieces of legislation, is the bill sent to the president, who can either sign or veto it.

"NASW strongly advocates the quick passage of both the reauthorization of the 1996 act and the expansion of mental health parity as embodied by either S. 543, H.R. 162 (sponsored by Republican Rep. Marge Roukema of New Jersey) or the Domenici-Wellstone amendment to S. 1536," O'Reilly said.

Medicare Equity. O'Reilly continues work on the Clinical Social Work Medicare Equity Act (CSWMEA) — S. 1083 and H.R. 2294 — reintroduced in the 107th Congress on June 21, 2001. The legislation is intended to address the denial of Medicare Part B reimbursement to some clinical social workers for psychotherapy services furnished to skilled nursing facilities.

CSWMEA was sponsored in the Senate by social worker Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and in the House by Reps. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) and Stark. It has gained six cosponsors in the Senate and 25 in the House.

Patients' Bill of Rights. The Senate passed its version of the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act of 2001, S. 1052, on June 29, 2001. It was sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), John Edwards (D-N.C.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). The House passed its version (H.R. 2563), sponsored by Reps. Greg Ganske (R-Iowa), John Dingell (D-Mich.), Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.) and Marion Berry (D-Ark.), on Aug. 2.

According to O'Reilly, because the version of the bills passed by both houses were not identical, a conference committee must be convened to reconcile the differences. At press time, the conference committee had not begun to meet.

O'Reilly said NASW supports the bill passed by the Senate as providing stronger protective measures for patients and will be "working throughout the conference process to see that the Senate provisions prevail in the final compromise."

Economic Equity. NASW Senior Government Relations Associate Lawrence Moore continues work on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) — S. 284 and H.R. 1284 — which was introduced in both the Senate and the House on July 31, 2001. At press time, ENDA, which seeks to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, had 43 cosponsors in the Senate and 181 in the House.

Moore sent a letter to the Senate conveying NASW's "unyielding support" for ENDA and continues to lobby Senate and House members for ENDA's enactment.

Moore is also working on the Fair Pay Act (S. 684), introduced in March 2001 by Sen. Harkin, which would amend the Fair Labor Act of 1938 to prohibit wage discrimination on the basis of gender, race and national origin. The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

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