Distributed via Email: June 7, 2013
ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT (ESEA) REAUTHORIZATION
A few weeks ago we learned that both the House and Senate are expected to introduce an ESEA Reauthorization bill within their respective education committees and hold a markup this month. On Tuesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee released its version. No analysis is available yet of the Senate bill, but it is expected that both chambers’ bills will be similar to ESEA Reauthorization legislation they have already passed. An analysis of those previous bills is available in Federal Legislative Report 112-1 . Even though this is a step in the right direction, we do not expect ESEA Reauthorization to be completed before the end of the year. An additional delay to the process will be that the bills in both chambers are not bi-partisan, which means that minority parties in both chambers will introduce their own bills as well as many amendments to the majority party’s bills.
FISCAL YEAR 2014 (FY14) BUDGET UPDATE
As mentioned in the last Federal Legislative Report , both the House and Senate have passed budgets, but there is little momentum for a budget conference. At the end of May, the House Appropriations Committee released its 302b allocations—the amounts that are available to each subcommittee to fund their programs—and it appears their allocations would mean a significant cut to the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education pot of dollars. They are proposing an 18.7% cut below FY13 (post-sequester) levels or a $2.5 billion cut from Title I and a $2 billion cut from IDEA. The proposal is so severe that it’s highly unlikely the House could move the bills forward.
The Senate is planning to work under a budget of $1.058 trillion, significantly higher than the House level. In light of the huge differences between the House and Senate funding proposals, most experts expect a continuing resolution to occur. Even a continuing resolution will be difficult, however, since the final FY13 continuing resolution is above the FY14 budget cap, meaning that there would be an across-the-board cut in any new continuing resolution in addition to whatever cuts come from sequestration. The new fiscal year begins October 1.
MARKETPLACE FAIRNESS ACT
A Call to Action was sent out on May 3, urging you to contact Illinois’ Senators and ask them to support the Marketplace Fairness Act ( S. 743 ), which seeks to affirm states' sovereign rights to enforce state and local sales and use tax laws for remote transactions. The Act passed the Senate by a vote of 69 to 27, and is now pending in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Marketplace Fairness Act would not create a new tax, but would allow the collection of state and local option sales taxes on online sales that are already owed. As several local option sales taxes are for educational purposes, the bill would help states and local governments sustain resources for our school districts.
It would require online retailers to collect and remit sales and use taxes to states and local governments, commensurate to brick-and-mortar businesses. Overall, the bill seeks to level the playing field between online and mail-order retailers and local "Main Street" retailers, thereby establishing a level of parity and addressing erosion of local and state tax systems.
This Federal Legislative Report is used to forward information on federal issues from NSBA and other federal sources. Those interested in additional information or signing up for these free reports should contact Susan Hilton .