Bill will help small businesses grow and expand

Washington, DC - Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01) released the following statement today after voting to send a bill that will help small businesses expand and create jobs to the President's desk:

"Iowans can't afford any more gridlock or inaction from Congress on job creation.  Americans want to see politicians in Washington working together to get results.  They don't care about partisan labels.

"That's why I've voted twice to pass the JOBS Act.  It will reduce small business restrictions so they can get the capital they need to grow and expand.  I urge the President to sign this bill into law immediately."

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act would make it easier for small businesses to raise capital to grow and expand their businesses by making changes to federal business regulations.  For more information on the bill, visit: http://go.usa.gov/PB5

National conference coming to Chicago this summer 

WASHINGTON - March 20, 2012. Vice President Joe Biden will meet with Lt. Governor Sheila Simon and her peers Wednesday during a three-day National Lieutenant Governors Association (NLGA) meeting in Washington D.C., four months before the association celebrates its 50th anniversary in Chicago.

The NLGA meeting in Washington will focus on federal mortgage relief, energy efficiency, technology in schools and international trade. The association also will consider a resolution that aims to connect more veterans with their full range of benefits and find ways to provide the benefits faster, Simon said.

In July, the nation's "seconds-in-command" will convene in Chicago at a conference expected to generate more than a half-million dollars in economic activity for the state. Chicago was selected to commemorate the NLGA's 50th anniversary as it was the site of the inaugural annual meeting in 1962.

The NLGA is a nonprofit, bipartisan professional organization for elected officials who are first in line of succession to the governors in the United States and five territorial jurisdictions. Since 2000, at least 20 lieutenant governors have succeeded governors, including Illinois Governor Pat Quinn.

For more information on NLGA, contact 859-283-1400. To inquire about sponsorship of the Chicago meeting, contact 312-814-5240.

Statement by Chris Bern, President of the Iowa State Education Association

on Iowa's Application for a Waiver to the No Child Left Behind Law

DES MOINES, IA (02/28/2012)(readMedia)-- At this time, the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA) is not signing on in support of Iowa's application for a waiver to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. While we understand the need to move away from the one-size-fits-all approach to testing and school accountability under NCLB, the ISEA still has questions about the specifics of this application that need to be addressed.

One area of concern for educators is tying student achievement data to teacher evaluations. As frontline professionals, our members need to be at the table when those decisions are made and the state should be cautious when proceeding with this large policy shift.

In addition, we are concerned that implementation of the waiver application will require resources and education funding decisions are still a long way off in the legislative session. From its inception the education community has realized that NCLB did not provide states the resources to meet the demands of the law. As Iowa applies for the waiver, we do not need to trade in one unfunded mandate (NCLB) for another.

The ISEA remains deeply committed to the success of every child and is ready and willing to work with all of the partners in the education community; teachers, administrators, parents, and policymakers, to ensure our education policies place students at the center. Until our members have had adequate time to review and contribute to the NCLB waiver discussion, the ISEA will not be lending its support to Iowa's application at this time.

The ISEA is a private, professional organization made up of over 34,000 educators who are dedicated to promoting and preserving public education for all Iowa students. Great Education. It's an Iowa Basic.

Prepared Opening Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley

Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Executive Business Meeting

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Mr. Chairman,

We have a request to hold over the Hurwitz nomination.  We can voice vote out the remaining nominees - Baker, Lee, Tharp and Russell.

Before we vote on the nominations, I'd like to say a few words about the release of the President's fiscal 2013 budget that was released earlier this week.  Specifically, I want to talk about the Department of Justice budget which this committee has a distinct interest in reviewing.

The Justice Department budget, like the rest of the President's fiscal 2013 budget, is loaded full of budgetary gimmicks and sleight of hand.

While the budget claims to be nearly $1.8 billion below the fiscal 2012 appropriations, many of the savings achieved in this budget are one-time recessions from existing balances that remain in Justice Department accounts.  These one-time recessions are more than just deceiving, they are actually harmful to the long-term viability of the federal government's budget.

For example, those who attended yesterday's hearing heard from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) about how the Justice Department has been carrying over a balance in the Bulletproof Vest Partnership program dating back as far as fiscal 1999.  According to GAO, those funds include $27 million sitting in an account that could be deobligated and used to offset future appropriations.  This is the same tactic being used by the department throughout the rest of its budget.

Now, using unspent or unallocated funds is a good thing?and the department shouldn't be carrying over significant balances?otherwise, we'll need to cut down future appropriations.  However, this becomes a problem when these one-time recessions are used to offset base-line spending increases?as the department's fiscal 2013 budget does.

These one-time recessions are used to mask spending increases for a variety of Justice Department accounts.  For instance, the Marshals Service has a net increase of $29 million, but it only appears to be a $12 million increase to the baseline when offset with $17 million in one-time recessions from construction and salary funds.  The FBI appears to be reduced by $48 million, but in reality the FBI sees a net budget increase of $114 million, offset by a one-time recession of $162 million.

Same story with the Drug Enforcement Administration budget where they show a net increase of only $10 million, when in fact the baseline increase is $25 million offset by $15 million in recessions.  The list goes on and on throughout the rest of the budget.

Perhaps the most concerning part of the department's budget is the fact that many of the spending increases will be paid for out of the Crime Victims Fund.  This fund was created in 1984 by the Victims of Crime Act.  It is financed by fines and penalties paid by convicted federal offenders, not from tax dollars.  The funds in the account are to be used for victim's services and assistance.

For years, the fund has had an administrative cap placed on it by the Appropriations Committee.  This arbitrary cap limits the amount of funds that go to help victims, creating an additional funding stream for appropriators to pay for programs they want to fund.

The fiscal 2013 budget does manage to increase this cap from $705 million, to just over $1 billion.  This should be good news for victims, but it is not.

Instead of providing this money to victims, the department's budget, in the department's own words, "proposes to preserve important OVW and OJP grant programs that directly or indirectly assist victims of crime by funding them through [Crime Victims Fund] receipts...rather than with discretionary budget authority."  So, instead of asking Congress to fund grant programs, the department is asking to use Crime Victims Fund money to pay for programs that "indirectly assist victims".

This is a significant change and one that allows the Justice Department to continue to increase funding for bureaucratic components like the Criminal Division, Civil Division, Tax Division, and law enforcement components like the FBI, DEA, and Marshals, while decreasing net expenditures.

What this does is essentially allow the Justice Department to increase the size of the bureaucracy, without looking like they're spending more money.  Instead, the crime victims fund takes the hit.

This is not a budget that seeks to lead for the future.  It is not a budget that faces the reality that the federal government is too big already.  It is an election year ploy to say they are cutting the budget while using gimmicks to pay for it.

The only solace is that Majority Leader Reid has already signaled that he has no intention of bringing such a dead on arrival budget to the Senate floor.

So, keeping with the practice that the Senate Majority has followed for more than 1,000 days, we don't really need to worry about voting for the gimmicks in the department's budget.  However, we'll need to keep an eye out so that these gimmicks don't find their way into an appropriations bill.