The UAW Legislative Office is continuing efforts to convince members of Congress to increase funding for the Legal Services corporation (LSC) and remove onerous restrictions placed on the program in 1996.  For the last three years, the UAW has worked in coalition with several other groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Brennan Center for Justice and the National Legal Aid Defenders Association (NLADA), to remove restrictions.  Late last week, our effort finally bore fruit, when the Senate passed the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies approprpriations bill (HR 2847).  For the first time in the appropriation process since 1996, the Senate bill removes the federal restriction on state, local and private funds held by LSC grantees.

Passage of the legislation came shortly after the Senate Democratic leaders secured the 60 votes necessary to limit debate on the bill.  The first cloture vote failed in October and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) set aside the bill.  At issue was an amendment by Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) to require the Census Bureau to ask about citizenship and immigration status during its count in 2010.  There were no amendments offered to the bill that would affect the LSC funding level or the removal of the restriction.

The Senate bill will now go to conference with the House, in order to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the bill.  The Senate bill funds LSC at $400 million, as compared to $440 million passed by the House of Representatives earlier in the summer.  The House bill did not remove the restriction on non-LSC funds, but did remove the restriction banning LSC recipients from seeking attorneys' fees.  The Senate bill did not remove the attorneys' fees restriction, but such fees could be sought in cases brought using non-LSC sources of funding if the Senate version is enacted into law.

The conference committee will meet shortly.  Conference chairs, including the appropriations subcommittee chairs and ranking members in both the Senate and the House, have already begun to meet and discuss differences in the bill.  The UAW-CWA Legislative Alliance sent a letter to the Conference chairs, urging them to support increased funding to LSC and removing restrictions on those funds.

To see the UAW-CWA Legislative Alliance letter click on the link below.

LSC_Conferee_Letter.pdf