West Virginia AFL-CIO State Committee On Political Education

In the interest of full disclosure and providing detailed information on where I stand on the issues before me, I am providing all of my responses to all Political Action Committee (PAC) questionnaires. Below you will find the name of the PAC, their questions, my answers, and my reasoning for providing the answer that I did on the questionnaire. I formally encourage all political candidates to publicly provide this information so that the citizens of West Virginia can make an informed decision when casting their vote in the 2012 election.

West Virginia AFL-CIO State Committee On Political Education
Address: 501 Leon Sullivan Way, Charleston, WV 25301
Phone: (304) 344-3557
Officers: Kenneth M. Perdue, Chairman; Larry K. Matheney, Secretary-Treasurer; Sheery L. Breeden, VIP Director

QUESTION: If elected, would you co-sponsor and vote for the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1409 and S. 1560 in the 111th Congress), a bill that would require employers to honor their workers’ decision to join a union after a majority of them signed a union authorization card or petition; establish first contract mediation and arbitration; and create stronger penalties for employers who interfere with, coerce or fire workers for attempting to join a union?
ISSUE: Freedom to choose a union
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support workers who are forming unions by publicly reaffirming the importance of unions to our communities and take action, such as contacting employers and urging them not to interfere with employee free choice, issuing public statements, attending rallies supporting organizing campaigns, sponsoring public forums, etc.?
ISSUE: Freedom to choose a union
ANSWER: Yes, when in my district
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose a national “right to work” bill that would prohibit unionize workers and their employers from voluntarily agreeing to “union security” provisions which allow the union to recover the costs of collective bargaining from all the workers that federal law requires the union to represent in the workplace?
ISSUE: Freedom to choose a union
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose efforts to limit the ability of the National Labor Relations Board to enforce the law or to engage in rulemaking to streamline and modernize procedures for forming unions and to notify employees of their rights under the NLRA?
ISSUE: Freedom to choose a union
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose efforts to roll back the fair election rules issued by the National Mediation Board under the Railway Labor Act?
ISSUE: Freedom to choose a union
ANSWER: Yes
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QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose restrictions on the use o union dues for political and legislative activities?
ISSUE: Freedom to choose a nation
ANSWER: Yes
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QUESTION: If elected, would you support funding for important infrastructure projects that generate good jobs, such as transportation systems, school modernization, clean energy, airports and water systems?
ISSUE: Jobs and the economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support additional aid to state and local government to preserve vital public services and jobs, including health, education, and transportation and first responders?
ISSUE: Jobs and the economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support creating a publicly-financed jobs program to put Americans back to work in public service jobs?
ISSUE: Jobs and the economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support allowing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for families making more than $250,000 to expire? Would you support other progressive revenue measures, including taxing capital gains as ordinary income and imposing a small financial transactions tax so that Wall Street helps clean up the economic mess it helped to create?
ISSUE: Jobs and the economy
ANSWER: Expiring tax cuts – Yes; I would have to see impact assessments before voting on a financial transaction tax.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation and efforts that would promote a new, fair trade agenda for the United States so that our trade policy promotes the exports of goods and services rather than jobs? For example, the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act (The RADE Act, H.R. 3012, introduced by Congressman Mike Michaud, in the 111th Congress).
ISSUE: Trade, manufacturing and the global economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support efforts to strengthen trade law enforcement and to secure meaningful remedies for injuries resulting from unfair trade?
ISSUE: Trade, manufacturing and the global economy
ANSWER: Yes
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QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose legislation to implement bilateral, regional, or unilateral free trade agreements that do not require enforcement of internationally recognized workers’ rights and environmental standards?
ISSUE: Trade, manufacturing and the global economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose trade agreements that give greater rights to foreign investors than domestic investors or that encourage employers to move American jobs offshore by making it too easy to bypass national court systems to challenge environmental and workplace laws?
ISSUE: Trade, manufacturing and the global economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: What will you do to address trade imbalance with China and promote the rights of Chinese workers, especially the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining?
ISSUE: Trade, manufacturing and the global economy
ANSWER: Support legislation enforcing basic rights for workers for US company products manufactured overseas.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support measures to ensure that the Chinese government and other foreign nations cease illegal currency manipulation?
ISSUE: Trade, manufacturing and the global economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation to end the deferral of overseas income?
ISSUE: Trade, manufacturing and the global economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose granting U.S. corporations a tax holiday on repatriated overseas income?
ISSUE: Trade, manufacturing and the global economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose tax reform proposals that would move the U.S. toward a territorial tax system?
ISSUE: Trade, manufacturing and the global economy
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you work to ensure guaranteed health care for all as a right and not a privilege?
ISSUE: Health Care
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you work to defend and build upon the landmark comprehensive health reform law, the Affordable Care Act? Would you support further reform to improve access to quality care and reduce health care costs?
ISSUE: Health Care
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you work to repeal and oppose any proposal to tax health care benfits or health care plans?
ISSUE: Health Care
ANSWER: No. Basic healthcare should always be tax free. However, elective health care should be taxed like any other service.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation that shores up retiree health benefits by securing help for employers for the costs of catastrophic health care or by allowing 55 to 64 year olds to buy into Medicare?
ISSUE: Health Care
ANSWER: Yes. As an interim step to providing basic care through a single-payer system.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you work to enact additional health care reforms that take us in the direction of a social insurance model?
ISSUE: Health Care
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation that would establish minimum nurse staffing rations and prohibit mandatory overtime in our nation’s hospitals to ensure safe patient care?
ISSUE: Health Care
ANSWER: No. This is only viable if we have the workforce to support it; otherwise, this policy will damage quality of care.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose significant funding cuts for the Medicaid program, through block-granting, changes to the funding formula, or other approaches?
ISSUE: Medicaid and Medicare
ANSWER: Only when no other responsible solution exists to keep the program solvent.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose Medicare benefit cuts that shift costs to seniors, including premium increases, copayment increases, benefit reductions, or conversion to a voucher system?
ISSUE: Medicaid and Medicare
ANSWER: Only when no other responsible solution exists to keep the program solvent.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support efforts to control the rising price of pharmaceutical drugs in Medicaid and Medicare?
ISSUE: Medicaid and Medicare
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support maintaining an autonomous Independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and support the single Director structure?
ISSUE: Financial Regulation
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support increased funding to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with jurisdiction to regulate hedge funds, derivatives, private equity and many new investment vehicles that are developed, as directed in the Dodd-Frank law?
ISSUE: Financial Regulation
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support increased funding to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)?
ISSUE: Financial Regulation
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose any effort to exclude more workers from the protections of the 40-hour workweek or to deny more workers the absolute right to overtime pay?
ISSUE: Labor Standards
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose any effort to allow employers to avoid paying cash overtime for work in excess of 40 hours per week or to exclude certain forms of compensation from the calculation of overtime pay?
ISSUE: Labor Standards
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose any legislation that would either weaken or repeal the Davis-Bacon Act?
ISSUE: Labor Standards
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose any legislation that would weaken or repeal the Service Contract Act?
ISSUE: Labor Standards
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose efforts to prohibit or weaken Project Labor Agreements?
ISSUE: Labor Standards
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support an effort to expand the FMLA to cover workers in companies with fewer than 50 employees?
ISSUE: Labor Standards
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation to require that companies guarantee seven paid sick days per year?
ISSUE: Labor Standards
ANSWER: No. Possibly for full-time employees, but as a blanket policy, no.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support measures to ensure employer responsibility in providing workers with a secure retirement?
ISSUE: Retirement security: pensions and social security
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose measures to replace any part of Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with individual investment accounts?
ISSUE: Retirement security: pensions and social security
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose efforts to reduce Social Security’s guaranteed benefits under current law, including proposals: (1) to increase the retirement age (which is already increasing to 67 under current law), (2) change the calculation for the cost of living adjustment, (3) change the benefit formula, or (4) institute means testing?
ISSUE: Retirement security: pensions and social security
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation to extend OSHA coverage to the millions of state and local employees currently excluded from the OSH Act?
ISSUE: Occupational safety and health
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation to strengthen whistleblower protections for workers who raise job safety concerns?
ISSUE: Occupational safety and health
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation that would make criminal violations involving a death of a worker a felony instead of a misdemeanor?
ISSUE: Occupational safety and health
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support increases in the job safety budget to strengthen standard setting, enforcement and worker safety and health training programs?
ISSUE: Occupational safety and health
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose efforts to weaken or defund OSHA’s and MSHA’s regulatory and enforcement programs?
ISSUE: Occupational safety and health
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose legislation that would make it more difficult or impossible for government agencies to develop and issue new needed safeguards to protect workers, the public and consumers?
ISSUE: Occupational safety and health
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support comprehensive immigration reform and oppose enforcement-only legislation?
ISSUE: Immigrant Workers
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation that provides otherwise law-abiding undocumented workers and their families permanent legal status through an earned legalization program?
ISSUE: Immigrant Workers
ANSWER: Yes. Earned only.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support immigration reform that protects all workers by establishing an independent commission that makes rational assessments of short-term and long-term labor market shortages and makes recommendations based on actual labor market needs?
ISSUE: Immigrant Workers
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support efforts to reform existing temporary worker programs by enhancing workplace protections, strengthening oversight and enforcement and creating new methods to investigate and penalize employers who abuse workers?
ISSUE: Immigrant Workers
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you oppose all private school voucher proposals and other schemes intended to divert taxpayer dollars from public to private schools?
ISSUE: Education
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation that would help states and local school districts reduce their class size, provide professional development and supports for teachers and other school staff – particularly for staff working in schools serving high numbers of disadvantaged students?
ISSUE: Education
ANSWER: Yes. If proposed in an economically-sound bill.
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support proposals to increase federal support for school repair, construction and modernization projects at local prevailing wages?
ISSUE: Education
ANSWER: Yes
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QUESTION: If elected would you oppose efforts to privatize public services and instead support efforts to work with public employees to improve services through cooperative job redesign, training and labor-management coordination?
ISSUE: Privatization
ANSWER: Yes
JUSTIFICATION:

QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation to outlaw employment discrimination based on sexual orientation?
ISSUE: Nondiscrimination in the workplace
ANSWER: Yes
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QUESTION: If elected, would you support federal legislation to end pay discrimination against women and provide more effective remedies for its victims?
ISSUE: Equal pay
ANSWER: Yes
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QUESTION: If elected, would you support legislation that would partially remedy this grave injustice by allowing the delegate elected by citizens of the District of Columbia to vote in the House of Representatives?
ISSUE: District of Columbia voting rights
ANSWER: No. The delegate could only vote in a non-binding role, otherwise a tie could occur and the House has no constitutional tie-breaker. For a binding vote, legislation would have to be proposed to reapportion representatives.
JUSTIFICATION: