Press Releases

House Comes Back into Session to Pass Fully Paid-For Emergency Legislation

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) supported emergency legislation that will keep more than 160,000 teachers in classrooms throughout the country and help ease state budget shortfalls and keep essential services, including Medicaid.

Congresswoman Moore said, “We’re in a dire situation and states and cities continue laying off teachers.  This bill not only prevents massive layoffs in our already struggling economy – it also recognizes that larger classes deny our kids a quality education.”

Wisconsin stands to keep an estimated 3,000 teachers from losing their jobs under this legislation.  And according to the National Education Association, more than 1,000 of these jobs will be in Wisconsin’s 4th Congressional District, which Moore represents. 

Additionally, more than 40 governors, including 16 Republicans, support extending Medicaid assistance to states, as is done in this bill.  Last month, Congresswoman Moore led 116 of her colleagues in asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner to bring this funding up for a vote.  The full letter can be read here .  Wisconsin will receive $229 million to help provide health care services through Medicaid.

The legislation is fully paid for by closing tax loopholes that encourage companies to ship jobs overseas as well as rescinding already appropriated funding that is no longer needed.  It also reduces the deficit by $1.4 billion over the next 10 years

The bill also ends increased food stamp benefits in 2014, a few years earlier than would have happened otherwise.  Congresswoman Moore offered an amendment, which would have kept these increased levels in place until 2015 and would have offset additional funding by cutting nearly $3 billion from the Education Department’s Race to the Top competition, which was the offset used by the House earlier this year to pass funding for teachers’ jobs.  The House Rules Committee prevented her amendment from being considered.

The legislation now goes to President Obama for his signature.