Health care reform, which is expected to dominate the summer's domestic policy debate, was again front-and-center this week as details of draft legislation in both the Senate and House continued to leak into the public domain. Official debuts of the legislation will include two key mark-ups scheduled to begin prior to the Fourth of July. While schedules are fluid, the Senate HELP Committee chaired by Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) is set to begin marking up its version of health care reform. Kennedy, who is undergoing treatment for brain cancer, has tapped Sen. Dodd (D-CT) to shepherd the bill in his place. Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee is slated to conduct its initial mark-up session the following week. In the House, a tri-committee proposal has been released, with legislation expected to be introduced in the coming weeks. A key issue continues to be the inclusion of a "public option" and what role the government would play in providing that option, whether or not an employer mandate for coverage and a pay-or-play structure would be included, whether or not contributions to employer-sponsored health plans would be taxable, and what the overall cost of comprehensive reform would be to the federal government. The Congressional Budget Office has yet to score the proposals. Stay tuned for editions of Special-Edition imPRINT as the legislative process begins next week and continues throughout the summer.

The House Committee on Small Business held a hearing this week titled "Laying the Groundwork for Economic Recovery: Expanding Small Business Access to Capital." The hearing examined both the role that the SBA could play in providing more credit to small businesses and other steps to better achieve the mission of making credit more readily available to small firms during the current economic conditions. Witnesses included a panel of representatives of banks and a panel of small business owners, each of which shared their current business experiences with the Committee. Highlights from the testimony are available on YouTube.

A group of bipartisan Senators led by Senators Baucus (D-MT) and Hatch (R-UT) this week introduced a bill that would make permanent the current R&D tax credit set to expire at the end of 2010 and would also increase the alternative simplified credit from 14 percent to 20 percent. The more flexible R&D credit would be intended to help start-up firms. The National Association of Manufacturers reported this week that while large, established corporations tend to rely more on the traditional R&D credit, more are starting to seek an alternate credit. The White House had proposed making the credit permanent but has not issued a supporting statement on merging the two components into one bill. A cost estimate for the Baucus-Hatch bill is not currently available. A House counterpart was introduced earlier this year by Reps. Meek (D-FL) and Brady (R-TX).

The recent D.C. parlor game-questioning,  "Which will the House vote on first: climate change or health care reform?"-leaned more toward the latter this week as intra-party squabbles between factions of the majority party in the House continued. Rep. Peterson (D-MN), Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, contended this week that nearly four dozen of his Democratic colleagues are not on board with the current Energy & Commerce version of the comprehensive climate change bill, citing specific concerns over how agricultural states would fare under the plan's treatment of biofuels and similar provisions. Meanwhile, House Ways & Means Republicans are concerned with Chairman Rangel's intention to allow the bill to bypass his committee in order to focus on health care, noting that the climate change bill would result in a "carbon tax" and should therefore be scrutinized by the tax-writing committee. This week's House developments put Speaker Pelosi's mandate to Democratic Committee Chairs to square differences by June 19th increasingly unattainable. Democratic Leadership insists that the bill will be considered before the 4th of July recess.

The Senate next week is expected to confirm Inez Tenenbaum, President Obama's nominee to chair the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Once confirmed, Tenenbaum would oversee any future actions of the CPSC regarding the applicability of the CSPIA to children's books. Tenenbaum would join current Commissioners Moore and Nord, both of whom Printing Industries has been in communication with regarding our position on the issue for a number of months.

Your input is needed! The USPS and the Mailers Technical Advisory Council are co-sponsoring an industry mail volume survey to better understand mailing plans for 2009-2011. The USPS considers this initial survey critically important. While the USPS recognizes that mailing plans may be uncertain, it is seeking best estimates. All responses are confidential. The online survey deadline is June 17^th. Printing Industries encourages member companies to provide input on the important issue of mail volume.

The House Committee on Education & Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections is scheduled to hold a hearing today to examine legislative proposals to provide paid family and sick leave, H.R. 2339, the "Financial Income Response to Significant Transitions Act" and H.R. 2460, the "Healthy Families Act." Reps. Grayson (D-FL) and DeLauro (D-CT) will testify on behalf of their respective bills, followed by a panel of human resource, business, and family leave advocate organizations. Highlights of today's hearing will appear in next week's imPRINT.

Current House Committee on Education & Labor Ranking Member McKeon has been elected by the House GOP Steering Committee to become the new Ranking Member on the Committee on Armed Services, a spot vacated when Rep. McHugh (R-NY) was nominated by President Obama to be Secretary of the Army. McKeon will remain as Ranking Member at his current committee assignment until a replacement is chosen. Committee members Reps. Kline (R-MN) and Wilson (R-SC) have publicly indicated that they will seek the position; Reps. Petri (R-WI) and Castle (R-DE), respectively are next in line by seniority. The Committee on Education & Labor has jurisdiction over issues such as OSHA, employer benefits, pensions, union organizing issues, and other topics of key interest to the printing industry.

A special election to replace newly nominated Secretary of the Army McHugh has not yet been set but is now expected to be a potentially close contest between the Democrats and Republicans. The NY-23 will follow on the heels of a NY-20 special election held when now-Sen. Gillibrand (R-NY) was selected to fill former Sen. Clinton's (D-NY) seat. The NY-23 was too close to call on Election Day, and eventually the Democrats emerged with the win.