Yesterday, the House passed legislation authorizing the creation of "personal re-employment accounts" for jobless workers. The bill (HR 444), sponsored by Jon Porter (R-Nevada) was passed, 213-203 on party lines. This was done after rejecting a Democratic attempt to offer supplemental unemployment benefits.

The accounts would give unemployed workers at risk of exhausting their state unemployment benefits up to a $3,000 stipend to spend on such expenses as education, childcare, health care or transportation. If workers were to find jobs within 13 weeks, they could take the balance of the account as a balance. Many Democrats are concerned that workers who accept re-employment accounts would be ineligible for some traditional unemployment benefits such as job training.

The legislation is unlikely to be considered in the Senate, however many Senate Democrats would be interested in reviving a a counterproposal to offer supplemental federal unemployment insurance to individuals who go through their traditional state benefits.

We've just posted the full list of House and Senate conferees for the TEA-21 reauthorization conference. Head over to the analysis side for all the details.

We've got the list of House conferees for TEA-21:

• Transportation and Infrastructure: Don Young (R-Alaska), Tom Petri (R-Wisconsin), Sherry Boehlert (R-New York), Howard Coble (R-North Carolina), John Duncan (R-Tennessee), John Mica (R-Florida), Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan), Vernon Ehlers (R-Michigan), Spencer Bachus (R-Arizona), Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), Gary Miller (R-California), Dennis Rehberg (R-Montana), Bob Beauprez (R-Colorado), Tom DeLay (R-Texas), James Oberstar (D-Minnesota), Nick Rahall(D-West Virginia), Bill Lipinski(D-Illinois), Peter DeFazio(D-Oregon), Jerry Costello (D-Illinois), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Jerrold Nadler(D-New York), Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), Corrine Brown (D-Florida), Bob Filner (D-California), and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas).
• Ways and Means: Bill Thomas (R-California), Jim McCrery (R-Louisiana), and Charles Rangel (D-New York).
• Science: Wayne Gilchrest (R-Maryland), Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), and Bart Gordon (D-Tennessee).
• Rules: David Dreier (R-California), Pete Sessions (R-Texas), and Martin Frost (D-Texas).
• Resources: Richard Pombo (R-California), James Gibbons (R-Nevada), and Ron Kind (D-Wisconsin).
• Judiciary: James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and John Conyers (D-Michigan).
• Government Reform: Tom Davis (R-Virginia), Edward Schrock (R-Virginia), and Henry Waxman (D-California).
• Energy and Commerce: Joe Barton (R-Texas), Chip Pickering (R-Mississippi), and John Dingell (D-Michigan).
• Committee on Education and the Workforce: Cass Ballenger (R-North Carolina), Judy Biggert(R-Illinois), and George Miller (D-California).
• Budget: Jim Nussle (R-Iowa), Christopher Shays (R-Connecticut), and John Spratt (D-South Carolina).

Over on the analysis side of the website, we've just posted a list of the subcommittee allocations that House Appropriations Chairman Bill Young (R-Florida) has just released. For all the details, head over there now.

A House subcommittee has rejected the new funding formula for first responders approved earlier this year by the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. Before approving H.R. 3266, the Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act, the subcommittee adopted an amendment to retain current practices for distributing grants.

The existing State Homeland Security grant program distributes three-quarters of one percent of the amount appropriated to each state. Remaining funds are distributed according to state population. The Urban Area Security Initiative program provides grants to high threat areas of the country, initially seven municipalities, now expanding to 50. H.R. 3266 originally proposed that these two programs would be consolidated and funds would be distributed based on threats, vulnerabilities, and risk assessments. States would be required to disburse 80 percent of the grant money to local governments within 45 days of receiving funds from the federal government or face penalties as well as pay 25 percent of the grant activities. Federal funds could be provided directly to local recipients if states fail to perform.

The revised bill is expected to be approved by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Two other House Committees are expected to also consider the bill before a June 7 deadline. This major change in the legislation could complicate further consideration of the bill.

A similar Senate bill, S. 930, the Emergency Preparedness and Response Act, was reported out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in February. The Senate bill guarantees the same basic level of funding as existing law and sets aside at least 10 percent of the appropriated funds for direct assistance to local governments recommended by the Governor. The 28 existing Urban Search and Rescue teams are guaranteed $1.5 million annually, and no additional teams may be established until all existing teams are trained and equipped for two teams to be deployed simultaneously. The bill is ready for floor consideration in the Senate.

The House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Homeland Security have rejected a Bush administration request to use $40 million from the FY 2004 budget for the Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) to buy anthrax vaccines and antiviral pharmaceuticals for the National Strategic Stockpile.

The MMRS was established to help cities prepare to respond to terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction. The Department of Homeland Security told Congress it planned to reprogram 80% of the program’s $50 million budget to buy the medicines.

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee said he did not approve of the reprogramming because of concerns over the proposed offset for increased funding for augmenting the anthrax and other antiviral medicines. Sen. Cochran recommended that Homeland Security resubmit a revised request and work with the committee on an appropriate offset for the additional funding. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee concurred with the Chairman’s recommendation.

This decision means that 125 municipal areas in 43 states can continue for at least this year to maintain a high level of coordinated preparedness should terrorists strike.

House and Senate transportation staffs will meet on May 26 and possibly May 27 for their first meetings since an agreement in the Senate allowing the start of the reauthorization of TEA-21 conference. House conferees will not be named until at least June 2 when lawmakers return from the Memorial Day recess. But if history is an indicator, the conferees in the House delegation are all but pre-determined by those transportation, tax, and budget writers who shaped the House-passed six-year reauthorization (H.R. 3550). Staff meetings are not expected to finalize the biggest issue, the monetary size of the bill; which varies from the $256 billion figure proposed by the administration, to the $284 billion number passed by the House, to the $318 billion passed by the Senate (S. 1072). These first meetings are expected to resolve only the “low hanging fruit” issues and to identify all outstanding issues.

Another issue not likely to be decided at these first meetings is the fate of "re-opener" language in the House bill that would shut down major portions of the highway program within two years unless additional money was found to pay for the program. Some key Senators have objected to the language, stating that at the Senate-passed-$318 billion-level the re-opener language is not necessary. The administration opposes the language too stating that it amounts to a two-year bill, not a long-term bill that will provide stability to state transportation programs.

We do not expect this to be a quick process. In 1998 the conference for TEA-21 took 10 weeks to finalize.