Nursing issues up for US Sentate vote week of September 8, 2003:

nstat alert:

two important votes are scheduled in the u.s. senate for the week of september 8:

nurse education funding:

a vote on the amendment by senators susan collins (r-me) and barbara mikulski (d-md) to increase funding for nursing education by $63 million is scheduled to take place early next week. the appropriations bill that has passed the house of representatives (h.r. 2660) and the senate committee bill (s. 1356) both contain flat funding ($0 increase) for these programs. with such inadequate funding, the benefits of the nurse reinvestment act will never be realized.

a list of the amendments' co-sponsors is available on the ana government affairs website are your senators supporting nursing? ana needs your help to secure the 60 votes necessary to pass the collins/mikulski amendment. please call or e-mail your senators as soon as possible to urge them to support the collins/mikulski amendment to s 1356. the number for the capitol switchboard is [phone].

overtime compensation:

the week of september 8, sen. tom harkin (d-ia) will introduce an amendment to the fiscal year 2004 labor, hhs, and education appropriations bill that would protect nurses and other workers from proposed new u.s. department of labor (dol) regulations that would strip many of eligibility for overtime pay. if enacted these regulations could have a substantial and harmful impact on nurses, their families, the nursing shortage, and patient care. the ana-supported harkin amendment would block the proposed regulations by barring the dol from spending money on their implementation.

for more information on this issue, visit ana's online legislative newsletter capitol update and the ana government affairs website. call or e-mail your senators today-urge them to support the harkin amendment--remind them that nurses are watching! you can reach your senators through the capitol switchboard [phone].