Justin's Political Corner

WASHINGTON (AP) — It seems like a simple proposition: give employees who work more than 40 hours a week the option of taking paid time off instead of overtime pay.

The choice already exists in the public sector. Federal and state workers can save earned time off and use it weeks or even months later to attend a parent-teacher conference, care for an elderly parent or deal with home repairs.

Republicans in Congress are pushing legislation that would extend that option to the private sector. They say that would bring more flexibility to the workplace and help workers better balance family and career.

The push is part of a broader Republican agenda undertaken by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to expand the party’s political appeal to working families. The House is expected to vote on the measure this week, but the Democratic-controlled Senate isn’t likely to take it up.

“For some people, time is more valuable than the cash that would be accrued in overtime,” said Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., the bill’s chief sponsor. “Why should public-sector employees be given a benefit and the private sector be left out?”

But the idea Republicans promote as “pro-worker” is vigorously opposed by worker advocacy groups, labor unions and most Democrats. These opponents claim it’s really a backdoor way for businesses to skimp on overtime pay.

Judith Lichtman, senior adviser to the National Partnership for Women and Families, contends the measure would open the door for employers to pressure workers into taking compensatory time off instead of overtime pay.

The program was created in the public sector in 1985 to save federal, state and local governments money, not to give workers greater flexibility, Lichtman said. Many workers in federal and state government are unionized or have civil service protections that give them more leverage in dealing with supervisors, she added. Those safeguards don’t always exist in the private sector, where only about 6.6 percent of employees are union members.

Republicans and business groups have tried to pass the plan in some form since the 1990s.

Democrats say the bill provides no guarantee that workers would be able to take the time off when they want. The bill gives employers discretion over whether to grant a specific request to use comp time. Opponents also complain that banking leave time essentially gives employers an interest-free loan from workers.

h/t: TPM

Steve Cookson (R-Poplar Bluff) , the state House elementary and secondary education committee chairman, filed legislation Wednesday that would mandate school-age children of welfare recipients attend public school 90 percent of the time, unless the children are physically disabled, “in order to receive benefits.” The one-sentence bill does not specify if medical absences would be counted or if students from private, parochial or charter schools would face a similar mandate.

The legislation is similar to a 2011 law passed in Michigan and to a bill pending in Tennessee.

“This thing is so crazy that it would have devastating effects on the families already in a precarious situation,” state Rep. Kevin McManus (D-Kansas City) told The Huffington Post. “If you had a child suffering from mono or leukemia, you would take away food stamps and assistance and possibly have them lose their home. It is misguided.”

Cookson did not return a message left at his Jefferson City office. The bill has not been referred to a House committee.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed a similar welfare attendance law last year,saying it was needed to make sure children receive education and end generational poverty. Opponents said that truancy affects all socioeconomic groups, not just the poor.

Tennessee legislators are debating a bill that would tie welfare benefits to school attendance and performance. “We have such a problem with generational poverty here,” Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) told current.com in January. “I have always said the golden ticket out of poverty is education. And education, to me, is a three-part stool — schools, teachers and the family. We have already put a huge burden on our schools and our teachers. What we have not done is put a burden on the family to make sure they are stepping up to the plate.”

H/T: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican National Committee formally endorsed immigration reform on Monday and outlined plans for a $10 million outreach to minority groups — gay voters among them — as part of a strategy to make the GOP more “welcoming and inclusive” for voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012.

In a report released Monday, the RNC says that the way the party communicates its principles isn’t resonating widely enough and that focus groups perceive the party as “narrow minded,” ”out of touch” and “stuffy old men.”

“The perception that we’re the party of the rich unfortunately continues to grow,” Reince Priebus, the RNC chair, said in a Monday morning speech.

To broaden its appeal, the party must reach out to minority voters and others, according to one recommendation in the report: “We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our party’s appeal will continue to shrink,” it said.

Party leaders have crafted dozens of recommendations following a months-long self-examination prompted by last year’s painful election losses. The report also calls on Republicans to take a harder line with corporate America, loosen political fundraising laws in Washington and in state capitals, and cut in half the number of candidate debates in a shortened 2016 presidential primary calendar.

“When Republicans lost in November, it was a wakeup call,” Priebus said.

The Republican National Committee’s shift on minority outreach may be the most visible change in the coming months.

Priebus plans to dispatch hundreds of paid workers into Hispanic, black and Asian communities across the nation by the end of the summer, a $10 million effort meant to rival President Barack Obama’s national political machine.

The RNC will also push for a tone of “tolerance and respect” in the immigration debate, create “senior level advisory councils” focused on minority groups, and establish “swearing in citizenship teams” to connect with new voters immediately after swearing-in ceremonies.

“We need to go to communities where Republicans do not normally go to listen and make our case,” the report says. “We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian and gay Americans and demonstrate that we care about them, too.”

The recommendations will not be well received in all corners of the Republican Party.

“If amnesty goes through, America becomes California and no Republican will ever win another national election,” Coulter said.

A veteran Republican strategist and one of the report’s authors, Sally Bradshaw, acknowledged Monday that there would be opposition within the party, but said “other Republicans are starting to step up.”

“There is not an easy path for this,” she said. “These are difficult recommendations.”

The RNC’s recommendations follow an extensive look at what went wrong in 2012.

The report also calls for the GOP to take a harder line with corporations.

“We have to blow the whistle at corporate malfeasance and attack corporate welfare,” it says. “We should speak out when CEOs receive tens of millions of dollars in retirement packages but middle-class workers have not had a meaningful raise in years.”

h/t: Talking Points Memo

When things get bad during the spring tornado season, what organization is at the forefront of the situation, issuing forecasts and crucial tornado warnings that even the private weather companies like AccuWeather and The Weather Channel follow religiously?

The National Weather Service. A government organization.

If the sequester hits on March 1, all 4,600 National Weather Service employees would need to be furloughed for 4 weeks to make up for the 8.2% cut:

Government managers could also face wrenching decisions on which missions and employees are most needed. For the National Weather Service to handle an 8.2 percent cut, all of its approximately 4,600 employees would have to be furloughed for four weeks, said Richard Hirn, general counsel for the National Weather Service Employees Organization. Under that scenario, Hirn saw no way for the agency to maintain around-the-clock operations at its 122 forecasting offices.

“It’s just not going to work,” he said.

Heading into an active severe weather season with severely understaffed (or flat out closed) National Weather Service offices is exactly what we DON’T need. NWS offices already get stretched thin when there’s a large tornado outbreak. Cutting them down to bare bones or shutting them down altogether will mean lives lost. All those tornado warnings the much-vaunted private industry takes for granted will disappear.

h/t: Weatherdude at Daily Kos