American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009- MMA's Resource Area

Maine’s Federal Delegates Contact Information

1/28/09 - Update re: passage of economic recovery package in House

1/27/09 – Stimulus package memo re: energy & environment

1/23/09 – Stimulus package memo re: transportation

1/16/09 – Stimulus package memo re: transportation

 

 

To:       Municipal Officials Interested in Federal Issues

Fr:        Geoff Herman

Re:       Updates from the National League of Cities

Date:   January 20, 2009

           
The Maine Municipal Association regularly receives correspondence from the National League of Cities (NLC) that is provided for the purpose of updating us on activities in Washington.

            We are going to start posting all of that information on our website (www.memun.org) under the Federal Issues Center link .

            Because some of that information is not entirely pertinent to Maine, we will make some efforts to highlight the information that is most particularly relevant to this state.

            For example, last Friday we received an e-mail detailing the language that is being drafted to govern the allocation of the transportation-related resources in the stimulus bill being developed by Congress. The language that was forwarded to us would govern how each state must “sub-allocate” a certain percentage of those resources to the local governments.

            If you would be interested in reviewing that language, the link to that NLC memo is http://www.memun.org/public/MMA/svc/SFR/FedIssue/default.htm.  

            In another example, a recent NLC newsletter informed us that a mandatory collective bargaining bill has just been re-introduced in the House as H.R. 413. The bill, entitled the “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2009”, would establish a federal oversight commission that would evaluate each state’s laws governing the collective bargaining rights of public safety personnel, including police officers, fire fighters and emergency medical services personnel. A Federal Labor Relations Authority would take over as the authority to oversee public safety labor-management relations in any state that was found to not to meet the new federal commission’s standards.  The bill has been submitted in previous congressional sessions. For a variety of reasons, (most particularly the fundamental principle of states’ rights),  MMA has consistently opposed this legislation. Here is a link to the language in H.R. 413 http://www.memun.org/public/MMA/svc/SFR/FedIssue/HR413.pdf.  

            Again, if you would like to review these NLC updates in more detail, please visit the Federal Issues Center section at our website www.memun.org.

Mandatory Collective Bargaining Bill Reintroduced in House

Last week, Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI) introduced H.R. 413, a bill that would force states and localities to enter into collective bargaining agreements with their public safety officers regardless of state or local laws.  NLC continues to oppose the legislation on the grounds that it interferes with state laws, violates federalism principles, and may be unconstitutional and continues to lobby against its enactment.  (Neil Bomberg, bomberg@nlc.org, 202.626.3042)   

111th CONGRESS, 1st Session

H. R. 413
To provide collective bargaining rights for public safety officers employed by States or their political subdivisions.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 9, 2009
Mr. KILDEE (for himself and Mr. DUNCAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor

Text of HR 413