So SB 5795, which enables student-parents to earn their degrees through reinstating the Childcare Matching Grant program, died today when it failed to get a floor vote by the 5 p.m. deadline.
Senator Brown, the bill's prime sponsor and a champion of students and childcare issues, has vowed to pursue making this a part of the big omnibus budget bill. The bill may be dead, but the idea lives on.
The bill had made it out of the Senate Ways & Means and Rules committees. It was eligible for a floor vote as of yesterday morning. But because the cut-off for bills to leave their chamber of origin was at 5, and because it didn't get a vote until then, the bill in effect died at 5 p.m.
It was quite the interesting day. We learned that the bill had opposition, so there wasn't going to be a floor vote. There was one especially influential member of the opposition, so we mobilized to influence him. And it actually worked.
At first he very much opposed it, making arguments against it. He was saying we should fully fund State Need Grant before funding a "new program." We eventually explained that is wasn't a "new program" but this bill restores funding to a suspended program. We also explained that this is financial aid and a way to help students during a session that is very unfriendly to students.
By the time we spoke to him the third time, he finally said, "I'm not against it, talk to Democratic leadership. Look how I voted in committee!" (He voted for it in Senate Ways & Means.)
So we finally got him and I ran to write Senator Brown a note. However, by then it was too late. It was 4 p.m., and the deadline to hear bills was 5 p.m., and there were still a million bills ahead of this one. I think if we had another day we could have gotten it.
But I will say I am proud that we can say we got this bill out of TWO committees and a breath away from a floor vote. We got this bill moving pretty late in the process. And thanks to Senator Brown's support, we at least got the conversation moving on this issue.
There is still a lot more work to be done, and I will be calling upon students to make your voices heard when the timing is right.
UPDATE: The Daily's coverage: http://dailyuw.com/2011/3/9/child-care-funding-bill-stopped-state-senate/
Senator Brown, the bill's prime sponsor and a champion of students and childcare issues, has vowed to pursue making this a part of the big omnibus budget bill. The bill may be dead, but the idea lives on.
The bill had made it out of the Senate Ways & Means and Rules committees. It was eligible for a floor vote as of yesterday morning. But because the cut-off for bills to leave their chamber of origin was at 5, and because it didn't get a vote until then, the bill in effect died at 5 p.m.
It was quite the interesting day. We learned that the bill had opposition, so there wasn't going to be a floor vote. There was one especially influential member of the opposition, so we mobilized to influence him. And it actually worked.
At first he very much opposed it, making arguments against it. He was saying we should fully fund State Need Grant before funding a "new program." We eventually explained that is wasn't a "new program" but this bill restores funding to a suspended program. We also explained that this is financial aid and a way to help students during a session that is very unfriendly to students.
By the time we spoke to him the third time, he finally said, "I'm not against it, talk to Democratic leadership. Look how I voted in committee!" (He voted for it in Senate Ways & Means.)
So we finally got him and I ran to write Senator Brown a note. However, by then it was too late. It was 4 p.m., and the deadline to hear bills was 5 p.m., and there were still a million bills ahead of this one. I think if we had another day we could have gotten it.
But I will say I am proud that we can say we got this bill out of TWO committees and a breath away from a floor vote. We got this bill moving pretty late in the process. And thanks to Senator Brown's support, we at least got the conversation moving on this issue.
There is still a lot more work to be done, and I will be calling upon students to make your voices heard when the timing is right.
UPDATE: The Daily's coverage: http://dailyuw.com/2011/3/9/child-care-funding-bill-stopped-state-senate/
Everybody who worked on this- you all rock! I hope we'll be able to convince them when the time comes to bring this up again!
ReplyDelete