CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
Congress In Recess
Delegation Circulating Criminal Alien Incarceration
Funding Letter
Bono & Lee Win; 13 of 55 Women in House
are Californians
Senate Approves House Child Support Enforcement
Measure
Forecast Predicts At Least 3 More Years of
California Prosperity
State Implements Welfare-to-Work Grant Program
AEA Report Finds Decline in High Tech Graduates
From ’85-’97
January Exports Mixed, Imports Up Through
California Customs
Aerospace Foreign Trade Set Record in 1997
Congress In Recess . . .
Congress will return from its two-week spring
recess the week of April 20th – 24th. The Senate plans to reconvene on
Monday, April 20th; the House of Representatives is scheduled to return
to Washington for legislative business on Tuesday, April 21st. There
are approximately 60 legislative days scheduled until Congress is scheduled
to adjourn for the year in October.
Delegation Circulating Criminal Alien Incarceration
Funding Letter
Reps. David Dreier (San Dimas), Gary Condit
(Ceres), Jerry Lewis (Redlands), and Lucille Roybal- Allard (Los Angeles)
are seeking signatures from other members of the California Congressional
delegation on a letter to Rep. Hal Rogers (KY), Chair of the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies.
The letter urges Chairman Rogers to fund the State Criminal Alien Assistance
Program (SCAAP) at its full authorization level of $650 million and his
assistance in ensuring the Department of Justice disburses SCAAP funds
in a timely manner. According to the letter, states had to wait 18
months to receive all of the FY95 SCAAP appropriations and the FY97 disbursement
is expected to be delayed 21 months from the date of appropriation.
As a result of a June 25, 1997 letter from
the California delegation signed by all 52 members, the House Commerce,
Justice, State Appropriations bill requested $600 million for FY98, although
the Senate appropriations contained only the $500 million. The final
figure agreed to was $585 million. The delegation’s letter says,
“the California Department of Finance estimates that the incarceration
of undocumented criminal aliens will cost the state $471 million in the
coming fiscal year, $184 million more than the state expects to receive
in FY98 SCAAP funds.”
Those members wishing to sign the letter should
contact Brian Faughan in Rep. Dreier’s office, 225-2305; Mike Dayton in
Rep. Condit’s office, 225-6131.
Bono & Lee Win; 13 of 55 Women in House
are Californians
On Tuesday, voters in the 44th and 9th congressional
districts elected Mary Bono and State Senator Barbara Lee, respectively,
to fill seats vacated earlier this year by the late Rep. Sonny Bono and
retired Rep. Ronald Dellums. Lee and Bono’s election increases the
total number of women serving in the House to 55, and the total number
of women serving in Congress to 62. Nearly one quarter (13) of those
55 are Californians. After Tuesday’s elections, the California congressional
delegation includes 23 Republicans and 29 Democrats the same ratio as
at the start of the 105th Congress.
In the 44th district, Mary Bono, a Republican,
won 64.1% of the vote, with voter turnout at 29%. The second-largest
vote-getter was Ralph Waite, a Democrat, with 28.7% of the vote. Bono will
succeed her husband, Sonny, who died in a skiing accident on January 5th.
Mary Bono graduated from the University of Southern California in 1984
with a B.F.A., and currently has two children and manages the family’s
restaurant. In her campaign, she pledged to continue many of her
late husband’s endeavors, including restoration of the Salton Sea..
State Senator Barbara Lee (Oakland), a Democrat,
won 66.8% of the vote, with voter turnout at 15%. Greg Harper, also
a Democrat, took 16.2% of the vote, and Claiborne Sanders, a Republican,
got 12.2%. Senator Lee will replace her mentor and former boss, Rep.
Dellums, who retired from Congress in February. Barbara Lee received
her B.A. from Mills College in 1973 and a master’s of social work (M.S.W.)
from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. Lee is married
to Michael Milben and has two children. She was elected to the California
State Assembly in 1991 and served in the Assembly until she was elected
to the State Senate in 1997.
Both women will serve out their predecessor’s
remaining term, but will face re-election this fall. A special election
to fill the 9th Senate District seat vacated by Senator Lee will be determined
by Governor Wilson in the near future. Depending on when Lee resigns
her Senate seat, the special election to fill her seat could be designated
to coincide with the state’s scheduled November general election.
Senate Approves House Child Support Enforcement
Measure
Before Congress adjourned for the April Recess,
the Senate approved H.R. 3130, the Child Support
Performance and Incentive Act of 1998. Last month, the House approved
the measure, by a 414-1 vote, that would provide for an alternative penalty
procedure for states that had failed to establish a statewide, computerized
system to track child-support payments. Senator Feinstein had also
introduced legislation to reduce the penalties faced by states. At
least 16 states, including California, missed the extended October 1997
deadline to have a system in place, and face penalties that cover 90% of
federal funds to administer the system and up to 100% of the state’s welfare
block grant.
H.R. 3130 would provide lower penalties for
non-complying states, if the state had adopted and the Secretary of Health
and Human Services approved of a corrective or alternative plan that meets
specified requirements. Under the penalty schedule in the bill, a
state would lose 4% of its funds in FY98, increase to 8% for the second
year, 16% for the third, and 30% for the fourth and every year thereafter.
The bill, among other things, also includes incentives for states with
high-performing and cost-effective systems, would deny entrance into the
U.S. if the person is in violation of a court order to pay child support
in excess of $5,000, and rebate a portion of a state’s penalty if compliance
is achieved within two years.
Last September, forty-six members of the California
congressional delegation, including both Senators, sent a letter to House
Ways and Means’ Subcommittee on Human Resources Chairman E. Clay Shaw Jr.
(FL), expressing their collective concern over the severity of the welfare
reform law’s financial penalties for failure to establish a statewide system.
About 2.4 million California families receive child-support payments; under
existing law the state could lose $3.7 billion this year alone in federal
funds. Now that the Senate has approved H.R. 3130, the House may
request a conference on the Senate’s changes to the bill or accept the
changes and send the measure to the President.
Forecast Predicts At Least 3 More Years
of California Prosperity
California can expect 1.2 million more jobs
by 2000 says a recent press release by the UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School
for Business’ on its updated state and national forecasts. Although
the Asian financial troubles will continue to impact the state’s export
sector and the El Niño storms may continue to cause wide-spread
property damage, the Anderson forecast says the state can expect continued
short-term growth. “It is evidence of the economy’s resilience that
the combined blows of the Asia economic crisis and El Niño have
thus far failed to produce visible damage to major economic indicators.
One must look at sector data to find any impact, and even that is far from
disastrous.”
Employment figures are also highlighted by
the UCLA Anderson report. The state’s unemployment rate is expected
to continue to fall, from 6.6% in 1997. to 5.8% in 1998, and down to 5.3%
in 2000. The report calls for the U.S. unemployment will dip to 4.9%
in 1998, but then rise to 5.5% in 1999. Overall, economic expansion
is called for by the forecast for the rest of the year, for 1998, a 3.2%
growth rate of real GDP is predicted.
For a copy of the complete forecast, call
Gayane Keshishyan at 310/206-7707 or visit the UCLA Anderson School’s web
site at <http//:www.anderson.ucla.edu/research/forecast/index.htm>
for other forecasts.
State Implements Welfare-to-Work Grant Program
Recently, the Legislature approved and Governor
Wilson signed into law legislation to carry out the federal Welfare-to-Work
Grant program.. The federal program was created last year as part
of the Balanced Budget deal to help states move the hardest to employ welfare
recipients into jobs. A “hard-to-employ” person is someone who has
been on welfare for 30 or more months, and lacks education, has a substance
abuse problem, or a poor employment history.
To implement the federal program, states had
to match 50% of the federal dollars and then develop an allocation formula,
within federal guidelines, to send 85% of the funds to local Private Industry
Councils (PICs). The remaining 15% of the funds can be used at the
state’s discretion.
California is scheduled to receive approximately
$363 million for the 1997-98 and 1998-99 fiscal years under the federal
program. The state legislation appropriated $161.8 million for the
current fiscal year and created annual reporting requirements. According
to the Governor’s Report (April, 1998 ed.), under the state law the state
Employment Development Department (EDD) will administer the distribution
of funds to local PICs and ensure they meet all reporting requirements.
AEA Report Finds Decline in Technology Graduates
From ’85-’97
In a report released on Thursday, April 9,
the American Electronics Association (AEA) found that the number of B.S.
engineering graduates in the U.S. fell 16% from 1985 to 1997. The
report also found that computer science and math degrees dropped 29% from
1985 to 1995.
The AEA report is being unveiled during a
time when Congress is considering raising the cap on skilled worker visas
— visas for workers from other countries who can help the burgeoning demand
for engineers and computer scientists — beyond the current 65,000 level
set for this calendar year. Industry sources estimate that that level
will be reached before the end of May.
The report notes that many of the foreign
nationals needing visas already are studying at U.S. colleges and universities.
For example, 48% of the 1997 Ph.D.s graduating in technical fields, such
as computer engineering, were awarded to non-U.S. citizens.
In 1996, the U.S. high tech industry swelled
to 4.3 million employees, with almost 300,000 added since 1990, despite
a recession early in the period. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
has estimated that computer and office equipment will be the fastest-growing
industry in the nation between 1996 and 2006, with an annual growth rate
of nearly 15%, and that software and data processing services will grow
at 9.3% annually. Demand for computer engineers, systems analysts and computer
scientists is expected to double by 2006.
Just as Congress was adjourning for their
current spring recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee adopted S. 1723,
by a vote of 12-6, which raises the cap on the number of H-1B visas that
can be issued for the admission of skilled immigrant workers from 65,000
to 95,000. The bill also sets the length of the visas at six years,
and will allow unused visas from other categories to be shifted to the
H-1B program. The bill responds to the plight of high technology
companies, many California-based, that argue they have thousands of unfilled
jobs available because they cannot find trained employees in the United
States. (For further information, see Bulletin,
Volume 5, Number 12 — 4/2/98.)
January Exports Mixed, Imports Up Through California
Customs
January saw declines in export activity through
two of California’s customs districts — a 3.4% decline for Los Angeles
and a 3.3% decline in San Francisco — yet exports shipped through San
Diego’s customs traffic was up by 11.3% over the level one year before.
At the same time, import activity for January moved forward strongly, with
the Los Angeles district up 7.2%, the San Francisco district up 6.5%, and
the San Diego district ahead a whopping 23%. Jack Kyser of the Los
Angeles Economic Development Corporation commented that “there is on-going
debate about the impact of the Asian crisis on the California and U.S.
economies, but it seems to be unfolding in what could be ‘slow motion’.”
Aerospace Foreign Trade Set Record in 1997
Both exports and imports of aerospace products
were up sharply in 1997, according to data released by the Aerospace Industries
Association’s Research Center. Exports rose from $40 billion in 1996
to $50 billion in 1997, according to the center, and imports climbed from
$13.5 billion to $18 billion. The majority of the export growth came
in commercial transport aircraft, which grew 54% to $21 billion.
Parts exports rose $3 billion, while military aerospace exports declined
$0.5 billion to $10 billion. The majority of aerospace imports came
in parts and turbine engines, which rose to $13.7 billion in 1997.
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