Progress Illinois

Over the past couple of day, we've highlighted statements of disgust from Illinois congressmen and candidates about the restrictive anti-choice amendment added to the House health care bill that passed last weekend. But abortion isn't the only hot-button issue that could complicate the Democrats' reform effort. Immigration is emerging as a potential sticking point, as well.

Lawmakers in both chambers have decided that insuring undocumented immigrants is not politically feasible. But as the final details are ironed out, Republicans and some Democrats are working to limit the assistance and consumer protections available to undocumented and legal immigrants alike. Legal immigrants who have been in the country for less than five years would not be eligible for Medicaid and Medicare, following current law, even though they are eligible for government subsidies on the exchange. And while the House bill allows those in the country illegally to purchase insurance on the health insurance exchange with their own money, the Senate is likely to bar them entirely.

Immigrant rights advocates aren't too pleased that protections for immigrants, who face mounting disparities in health care access and outcomes, are eroding. If the conference committee bill tracks more closely to the Senate version, Rep. Luis Gutierrez says the White House won't be able to count on his vote.

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The last time a local congressperson tried to amend a bill creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), the intent was to protect lenders against stricter regulations. Illinois' Luis Gutierrez is taking a different approach. According to Politico, Gutierrez may soon introduce a bill to help protect borrowers from some of the worst abuses of the payday loan industry. From an article today:

Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a longtime foe of the payday industry, is considering offering a payday-specific amendment to CFPA legislation when it reaches the House floor that would cap interest rates on payday loans at 48 percent — and also force lenders to provide a 90-day fee-free repayment plan if a borrower couldn’t meet the original terms.

“We think it’s important that we give the clearest, most specific guidelines and instructions to our new consumer protection agency as possible. And we think that if there is an actor in the nonbanking financial institutions arena ... it is the payday lenders. Some of the most egregious violations in the consumer section occur under their watch,” Gutierrez said.

We might quibble with calling Gutierrez a "longtime foe" of payday lenders. But regardless, this proposed amendment represents a dramatic -- and welcome -- shift for the congressman.

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Illinois' own Rep. Luis Gutierrez is growing impatient over his colleagues' unwillingness to put immigration reform at the top of the congressional agenda this year. Calling "justice for immigrants today's civil rights struggle,"  the Chicago Democrat is preparing to push the issue by introducing a set of comprehensive reforms in Washington next month. Standing alongside immigrants rights advocates from 26 states, Gutierrez led a rally on Capitol Hill yesterday in which he outlined his plan. "We are here to say that we will not rest until the raids stop and our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers are no longer torn apart by the government of the United States of America," Gutierrez said.  Watch (more video available here):

There are ten points that form the core of Gutierrez' proposal. First, it calls for the creation of an honest and strategic plan for defining the role immigrants play in the nation's workforce. Under a new a commission, visa quotas would be determined based on labor market demands, not political priorities. And Sen. Dick Durbin's DREAM Act would be rolled in to put undocumented college students and military enlistees on the path to citizenship and high-skilled jobs. Also, for current workers, a number of protections would be included in the reforms, such as the right to fair immigration proceedings (intended to outlaw the sort of abusive treatment that workers suffered in the aftermath of the notorious raid in Postville last year).

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We gave Chicago Rep. Luis Gutierrez a hard time about his role in negotiations over credit card reforms last spring. By adding an amendment to the House bill allowing the industry one year to change its practices before the new laws would be enforced (which was later bargained down to nine months), Gutierrez gave credit card companies leeway to jack up interest rates and fees on existing customers for no reason other than sheer greed. At a hearing in Washington yesterday, Gutierrez clapped back, accusing the financial services industry of exploiting his legislative goodwill:

"We were reasonable; we were fair. The banks were not," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.), during a House Financial Services Committee hearing, adding that so-called "swipe fees" were "outrageous."

Gutierrez and a group of House Democrats don't seem willing to appease the banks any longer.

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Chicago's City Hall isn't the most hospitable place for progressives seeking transparency or inclusive public policy. But that didn't deter activists of all stripes -- from labor organizers and abortion-rights supporters to homeless advocates and public interest researchers -- from making their presence felt in the chambers this morning. Here's our roundup of today's City Council meeting:

"RIGHT TO KNOW"

With Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd Ward) projecting that he had 28 or 29 votes lined up to pass his "Right To Know" ordinance, UNITE-HERE Local 1 members entered the council chambers confident that hotels, including the infamous Congress, would finally be forced to publicize work stoppages to potential customers. Typically, if a measure is passed out of the Finance Committee -- as this one was last month -- it receives easy council approval. But as we've noted before, the business groups who have been lobbying hard against the notification law had a key ally on their side: Mayor Daley. Today, Ald. Ike Carothers (29th Ward) did the mayor's bidding by introducing a motion to refer Munoz' bill back to committee. Munoz attempted to block Carother's action and hold a vote today, but could not garner the majority necessary.

"The only tactic left at their disposal was defer and delay," UNITE-Here's Annemarie Strassel tells us. "We'll wait it out as long as it takes."

UNITED SNAGS $34.5 MILLION

Today, the full council voted on the $34.5 million incentive package being offered to United Airlines for agreeing to move its operational headlines to the Loop.   With no substantive discussion -- aside from Ald. Ed Burke's (14th Ward) assurance that the plan is "a good deal for United and a good deal for Chicago" -- the assembled aldermen agreed to fork over the taxpayer funds.  As we noted yesterday, there is no indication that the projected benefits will ever be tracked or the agreement enforced.

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When the House and Senate passed the Credit Card Holders’ Bill of Rights Act this past spring and President Obama signed it into law, it was widely seen as a signal that Congress was prepared to buck the financial services industry and support consumers across America. But an amendment added to the bill by Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez made the reforms much more palatable for the credit card companies. Gutierrez ensured that the banks -- whose business models are designed to exploit average Americans -- would not be forced to change their practices until one full year after passage. (In the Senate, this was bargained down to nine months.) On its surface, this provision seemed innocuous enough; the industry claimed they needed the delay to adjust their systems to the new rules. But since the bill's passage, they've actually used the grace period to raise interest rates and fees on existing customers in an attempt to turn a quick profit before regulators clamp down.

Some of the Democrats who originally opposed the timeline have now had enough. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Barney Frank (D-MA) have introduced legislation (H.R. 3639) to speed up implementation for most of the reforms by three months. This change would be hugely important for consumers stretching their budgets to cover holiday gifts and family travel. On Thursday, Frank's House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on the proposal. We'll be doubling back to see what Gutierrez and his Illinois colleagues Reps. Melissa Bean, Bill Foster, Donald Manzullo, and Judy Biggert make of the change.

(H/T Mike Lillis)

Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr user pladys.

BaucusCare is here! That, and the latest local news in today's health care round-up.

Health Care Professionals Demand Real Reform

Before we get to the Senate Finance Committee, be sure to watch the latest video courtesy of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and United Action for Power and Justice. In it, we hear from three health care professionals who are on the ground in Illinois helping people navigate through the treacherous health insurance industry:

BaucusCare Introduced ... Finally

After months of anticipation and fractured bipartisan negotiations, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) finally released his committee's proposal (PDF) to remake the nation's health care system yesterday.

On policy, it's a mixed bag. (I'll rely a good deal on Ezra Klein's blogging from yesterday, as it's the most substantive I've seen. Be sure to check out his Washington Post site for the nitty gritty.)

To be clear, there are some glaring problems with this bill. For starters, no public option is included, as was expected. Instead, a co-op proposal, described by Klein as "neutered," has emerged. No employer mandate exists, either. Also, rather than require employers to cover their workers, the bill relies on something called "free rider" requirement, which would merely slap a fee on those who refuse to provide coverage to workers if those workers qualify for federal subsides.  The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities points out this provision's massive flaw: it discriminates against low-income workers, specifically single parents.  Dana Goldstein has more.

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Progressives have made it clear that they will fight to include a public option in whatever health care reform package emerges on Capitol Hill. Now they're putting their money where their mouths are. In a show of support for those members of Congress who have pledged to reject any bill that lacks a public plan, activists have raised nearly $400,000 from over 6,500 supporters through ActBlue during the past week. Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher -- who is steering the fundraising campaign along with various other bloggers (under the umbrella organization Blue America) -- describes the financial support as "rewarding good behavior."  The money also applies some pressure to the Progressive Caucus to stand by their pledge if push comes to shove. Blue America explains:

They stood with the American people and ordinary working families when push came to shove and both political parties decided propping up a disastrous health care system and a corrupt Insurance Industry was more important than keeping the promise made over and over to working families [...]

That takes courage, and we need to show them how much we appreciate them for doing so.

Also of note: The list of benificiaries includes three members of Illinois' congressional delegation -- Reps. Luis Gutierrez,  Jesse Jackson Jr., and Phil Hare -- who've pulled in nearly $13,000 combined.

When the summer recess is over and Congress returns to Capitol Hill, will immigration reform remain a top priority for Democrats? While members of Congress have been sending mixed messages about exactly how hard they'll push for reform, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has pledged to introduce legislation before Labor Day.  And just this morning, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that she sees drafting such legislation as the most pressing issue on her department's agenda. Still, the White House itself has been somewhat slow to commit.

Today, seven Democratic members of Illinois' congressional delegation -- Reps. Mike Quigley, Danny Davis, Luis Gutierrez, Jan Schakowsky, Phil Hare, Jesse Jackson Jr., and Bobby Rush -- sent an open letter to President Obama urging him to add his political muscle to the immigration fight. "Letters like this push the agenda," Rep. Quigley said at a press conference today. "Our role as a congressmen is to help set the priorities." Watch:

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Rep. Judy Biggert has made it crystal clear that she'd rather protect the interests of the banking sector than those of Illinois consumers. The Hinsdale Republican's alternative to the the creation of the Consumer Financial Product Agency (CFPA) is to keep consumer protection under the jurisdiction of the current regulatory bodies. But Rep. Luis Gutierrez thinks that's exactly the problem. Talking to Politico, the chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services says existing regulators did little to stop the lending abuses that precipitated the current economic crisis and will continue their current behavior unless a new independent agency to safeguard borrowers from harmful financial products is established:

The seven banking regulators that have consumer protection power have “fallen asleep at the wheel,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who chairs the financial services subcommittee with jurisdiction over the issue.

Under the status quo the banks are fighting for, “it takes the Fed 14 years to use its legislative powers to stop predatory mortgage practices that have already destroyed our economy. That’s how long it took.”

As of yesterday, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is pushing back the mark-up of the House bill that houses the CPFA proposal. But members of his party aren't letting the issue die.

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