By Public Policy Chair

Marilyn Treiman

halamari1@juno.com
Text Box: Public Policy Text Box: Volume 29, Number 4 December, 2008 Page # Text Box: On November 7, two days after the presidential election, the Washington staff of AAUW held a post-election conference call with branch Public Policy leaders all over the US to discuss the outcome and probable impact on the AAUW legislative agenda. Some vast number of branches participated in this effort to get information to the branches quickly to start them thinking about how best to pursue AAUW goals in the 111th Congress. This one hour session was also recorded by the conference call company.*See the end of the article. The first speaker was Linda Hallman, AAUW Executive Director. She said that Obama’s victory depended on the fact that 56% of women voted for him, while fewer than 50% of men did. In general, women candidates did well in their bids for office. There was a “first” in New Hampshire: their State Senate now has more women than men (13 out of 24) making it the first state legislative body to have a female majority. Alas, that is not the case in the US Congress. In the Senate, there are 17 women members. And in the House of Representatives, there are 74 women out of 435 total. (Amazingly enough, that is also 17%) She was followed by three members of the Public Policy and Government Relations Team: Seth Chase, Field Director; Lisa Maatz, Director; and Tracy Sherman, Government Relations Manager. Chase talked about the pay equity issue, which is one that is a top priority for Barack Obama and that he campaigned on, encouraged by AAUW and other women’s organizations. Chase also stressed the importance of affirmative action, which has come under attack, to women in both education and jobs. Lisa Maatz pointed out that there will be many changes in the new Congress. Much of the leadership in the Senate will Text Box: remain the same, but we’ll need replacements for Obama and Biden, as well as for other Senators and Representatives who give up their seats to work for the new administration. As a result, there will probably be many new people for AAUW to get to know, build trust with and educate as to our interests. Terry Sherman described some AAUW goals in education and reproductive rights. She expects the No Child Left Behind Act to be reauthorized in 2010, but with some AAUW-recommended improvements. Title IX needs to be revived since it has been weakened in several ways by the Bush Administration. In reproductive rights, comprehensive sex education should be revived, not limiting the content to abstinence only. And funding should be restored for international family planning programs. Lisa Maatz explained that AAUW supports many issues, but under the current financial constraints, we have to be realistic and scale back some expectations. However, we firmly support women’s economic security by advocating pay equity and specifically two laws, “Paycheck Fairness Law” and the “Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Law”. To improve work-life balance, AAUW encourages expansion of the Family Medical Leave Act to include a few paid sick days, including some to care for sick children. In regard to retirement security, AAUW strongly favors this, but recognizes that there will probably not be any opportunities to enhance the Social Security System now. Also, health care reform will likely be too expensive to deal with at present, but there is a good possibility that children’s health care program, SCHIP, may be enacted.. In judicial nominations, AAUW generally supports nominees who are considered moderate, and expects there to be several resignations Text Box: soon by members of the Supreme Court whose health is poor. In the area of civil rights, AAUW supports the hate crime prevention legislation which was passed by Congress but never signed by President Bush. The last major legislation in this field was the Omnibus Civil Rights Law of 1964 which combined many relevant topics. However, over the years, many of its provisions have been changed or eroded away, so a new law should be considered. Also, a concept that is gaining many enthusiasts, including AAUW, is the idea that any new program that is proposed should include a method for funding it, rather than just relying on the expectation that money can be made available. That sounds like something that should have been done years ago! They all encourage members to actively support the AAUW program, and to do so by telling your legislators of your interest . *( It worked like this: a conference call company was in charge of the arrangements. Anyone who wanted to participate could call an “800” number and then enter a password which identified the caller and also gave access to the presentation. The incoming lines were blocked so no direct input was possible. This was listening only. Comments and questions could be submitted by e-mail. Four members of the AAUW staff, in Washington, spoke. The entire call took about an hour. I understand that there were some problems in putting things together at the beginning, so there was a delay in starting the message. Actually, I listened to a recording of the conference call which was made during the actual event and was available at any time during the following ten days. The recording began with profuse apologies for taking so much extra time.)