Masonry Magazine February 1988 Page. 25
Washington Wire
first hinting at compromise and then calling for a rejection of the measure. The latest salvo predicts a panic in financial markets if the bill is voted. An Administration official has urged dropping the bill to avoid this result.
The trade bill has won approval from both houses of Congress, but is locked in a House-Senate conference committee to work out differences. Hope for the measure's passage rests with compromise on several key provisions-provisions that would guarantee that the legislation avoids all-out protectionism.
WELFARE-REFORM LEGISLATION FACES AN UNCERTAIN ROAD to final passage. The House approved its version of the reform bill late in the last session. It calls for $5.3 billion more in spending for Medicare and Aid to Families With Dependent Children over five years, while pushing states to establish remedial education, job-training, and work programs for welfare recipients.
But the legislation will meet big obstacles when it gets to the Senate. Opponents argue that the bill is too costly in an era of deficit reduction. They are backing a substitute bill, which calls for total expenditure of only $1 billion.
CATASTROPHIC ILLNESS LEGISLATION IS DUE TO BECOME LAW early this year. The Administration now supports the Senate version of the key health change, which is expected to become a focus of agreement in a conference committee. Under the Senate plan, 31 million elderly Medicare recipients would benefit by paying no more than $1,850 a year for Medicare-supplied health services. There would be unlimited hospital coverage, once a yearly deductible is met.
A BIG BATTLE IS EXPECTED THIS YEAR ON A BILL mandating unpaid leave. Pending in the House, the bill requires employers to give workers the leave to care for newborn babies or to deal with serious illnesses in the family. Employers would have to maintain a worker's health benefits in such periods, and give the employee the same or a similar position when he or she returns. The measure is strongly opposed by the Administration and business groups. They argue employers and workers should negotiate these working conditions, rather than have Congress and the Federal government require such benefits.
The bill would apply initially to employers with 50 or more workers. After three years, firms with 35 would be covered.
AN OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE NOTIFICATION BILL FACES HURDLES in Congress. The bill would set up a new program to identify, monitor and counsel workers exposed to work-place hazards. It authorizes expenditures of $125 million. The House approved the key legislation late last year on a very close vote. However, President Reagan opposes the measure and is threatening to veto it.
LEGISLATION TO DEFINE ILLEGAL SECURITIES-TRADING MAY PASS this year. The Securities and Exchange Commission backs enactment of such a statute, to plug loopholes in existing law in the wake of insider-trading scandals. The bill, for the first time, would define insider-trading in the statutes. The SEC wouldn't have to use the broad fraud provisions of securities law.
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MASONRY-JANUARY/FEBRUARY, 1988 25