By Leonardo Blair Democrats, Labor Unions and Republican legislators are now at loggerheads over a bill passed in the House of Representatives last Wednesday that seeks to allow private employers to offer hourly-paid workers compensatory time off instead of time-and-a-half pay for overtime. The bill, Working Families Flexibility Act, passed overwhelmingly with 220… Read more »
A bill that would remove over time pay and replace it with "comp" time passed the House yesterday in a vote along party lines of 223 to 204. The Working Families Flexibility Act, dubbed the "More Work, Less Pay Act" by Democrats, would replace overtime pay at the hour-and-a-half rate with comp time that workers would use at a later time at the… Read more »
By Rep. Gwen Moore and Arlene Holt BakerIn a perfect gift for mothers just short of Mother's Day, House Republicans have once again introduced legislation with a charming title and a potentially devastating impact for working women and families. According to the bill's sponsors, the "Working Families Flexibility Act," or H.R. 1406, would give employees the… Read more »
Milwaukee’s May Day march for immigration reform was smaller than in recent years, but organizers said they were happy with the turnout. Several thousand people marched to a downtown Milwaukee park, where Congresswoman Gwen Moore called for changes in the immigration bill that’s pending in the Senate. She said the bill needs a path to citizenship for the nation’s… Read more »
By Georgia Pabst This year's May Day march for comprehensive immigration reform was smaller and shorter Wednesday than in previous years, when Milwaukee had among the largest turnouts in the nation. But with a proposed immigration reform bill on the table in Washington, the prospect for immigration reform appears closer than ever, and many of those who marched… Read more »
By Chuck Quirmbach More than 10,000 people marched in Milwaukee today to support immigration reform. One of the goals of the march was to show support for a bill pending in the U.S. Senate that would create a path to citizenship for about 11 million undocumented people that live in the United States. Milwaukee high school student Jasmine Vasquez says it's time to help… Read more »
By John Nichols What brings the most seriously libertarian Republican in the U.S. House, Michigan’s Justin Amash, together with Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-chair Keith Ellison, D-Minn.? What unites longtime Ronald Reagan aide Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., with liberal firebrand Alan Grayson, D-Fla.? What gets steadily conservative Wisconsin… Read more »
By Rep. Gwen Moore Last week, Representative Devin Nunes, along with Reps. Paul Ryan and Darrell Issa, introduced HR 1628, the Public Pension Transparency Act. The bill would provide that a state or local government would lose certain "federal tax benefits," including the federal tax exemption on interest on the government's bonds, unless certain specified… Read more »
By Gwen Moore and Stephanie Meeks Just west of Miller Park, on the grounds of the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center, lies a series of historic, ornate buildings known as the Milwaukee Soldiers Home. These buildings once welcomed home veterans of the Civil War and, in the ensuing decades, have allowed generations of our soldiers to heal and adjust as they returned… Read more »
By Lauren Victoria Burke And the winner is: Chained CPI — or a “cut to Social Security” as Democrats in the House refer to it. They don’t care that it means that Social Security benefits will increase at a slower rate. CPI stands for “Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers” but so what? It may as well translate into… Read more »