NEVADA FIRE UPDATE
Last week more than 700 square miles (455,000 acres) across northern Nevada was burned as the result of 20 wildfires. The majority of fires were caused by lightening in Elko, County where residents near the Idaho border remain under an evacuation order.
It's reported that 90 percent of the fire is in Idaho while the most active part of it is in Nevada. In Elko County, local officials reported that major progress has been made against the 87,000 acre Red House complex west and south of Elko as of Monday, July 23.
Three northeastern Nevada communities are currently without power due to fires in southern Idaho. The Nevada Division of Emergency Management is working to meet the current and short-term needs of the community, and is coordinating its efforts with the State of Idaho, local power companies and Senators Reid and Crapo.
SCHIP NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE IN HOUSE AFTER APPROVAL IN SENATE COMMITTEE
The $35 billion compromise to reauthorize the States Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) passed out of the Senate Finance Committee last week by a vote of 17-4. Despite concerns raised by the minority, some Senate Republicans are expected to support the bill as it comes to the Senate floor later this week.
The bill would provide health insurance to 3.3 million children who are eligible for coverage but not enrolled. The President's threat to veto the bill, considering his recommendation was only $5 million, will give Republican opponents of the bill leverage to negotiate. Opponents see the bill as financially restricting the private insurers considering the broad eligibility standards at 300 percent of the federal poverty level would be at their expense.
The House is expected to propose increasing the federal tobacco tax in order to pay for the SCHIP provisions, yet found the increase passed by the Senate Finance Committee to be excessive. The House bill will provide $50 billion for SCHIP over a five year period (the Senate bill only funds one year), and cancel a scheduled 10 percent Medicare reimbursement cut for physicians due in 2008 to then replace it with a 0.5 percent pay increase in 2008 and 2009.HIGHER ED AMENDMENTS CONSIDERED, REID EXPANSION AMENDMENT APPROVED
On Monday, July 24, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) withdrew an amendment to expand the Secretary of Education's role in policing illegal "peer to peer" file sharing on college campuses, although it was later accepted into a manager's package adopted by a voice vote.
On Tuesday, July 24, the Senate is slated to vote on a amendment by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) to bar colleges and universities from using earmarked federal money or tuition to finance lobbying. The Senate adopted eight amendments by a voice vote of 8-53 on Monday, July 24, while rejecting only one. The failed amendment would have created a new lending program within the Education Department to compete directly with private lenders while eliminating loan limits on other federal student loans.
CONGRESSMAN PORTER MOVES TO EXTEND SANCTIONS AGAINST MYANMAR
Actions in both the House and the Senate this week would extend trade sanctions against Myanmar, extending the provisions included in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003. Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV) on Monday, July 23, spoke in support of such an extension, calling on the United Nations and other international organizations to adopt similar sanctions against the Southeast Asian nation.
The full House passed a joint resolution by voice vote, while the Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved a similar extension.
Myanmar's recent and past record of human rights violations and military actions against ethnic minorities prompted the ban on imports from the country and require the reporting of any assets of any of Myanmar's government officials held by U.S. financial institutions and give s the president the power to freeze such assets.
MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE
On Tuesday, July 24, the first minimum wage increase in ten years went into effect. The federal minimum wage rises by 70 cents, to $5.85 an hour, to become the first of three scheduled increases that will raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in two years. 30 states currently including the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage; therefore only 20 states will be affected by the increase. The minimum wage will boost pay for covered, non-exempt employees. The next increase will occur on July 24, 2008, to $6.55 an hour, and then to $7.25 an hour effective July 24, 2009.
