Governmental Affairs looks ahead to hot legal topics Congress will address in 2006

The second half of the 109th Congress is expected to be filled with several issues of import to American Bar Association members.

A perennial priority of the organized bar is ensuring adequate funding for the Legal Services Corporation. Despite other pressing demands and a growing budget deficit, Congress originally funded LSC at $330.8 million for FY 2006. However,  funding was reduced to $326.5 million after Congress approved two across-the-board cuts.  The $4.3 million net  cut comes at a time when federal funding for LSC - and legal aid in general - remains woefully inadequate.  In addition to being unable to meet the legal needs of the pre-existing low-income population, LSC-funded programs are expected to provide assistance to those who suddenly qualify and need legal assistance, such as when a natural or national disaster strikes. The LSC Board plans to ask Congress for $411 million for FY07; the administration's budget will not be released until the first week of February.  Acceptable funding levels for LSC, indigent defense, the judiciary, and for programs to provide legal assistance to military personnel and their dependents will all be a major focus of the ABA's legislative program.

The ABA has long been urging law schools, bar associations and lawmakers to establish student loan repayment assistance programs for law school graduates accepting low-paying, public interest employment. Many higher education issues, including elements of loan repayment assistance, for which the ABA has been fighting, were rolled into the budget bill that was voted upon by both the Senate and House in December. The two bills were different, however, and the House is expected to vote on the version passed by the Senate - which does not include the loan forgiveness provisions - in late January when Congress returns. ABA leadership will be working toward enactment of favorable legislation, either as part of a larger bill or in a narrower higher education reauthorization bill.

Several measures relating to medical liability, class action suits and other tort issues have been introduced in the 109th Congress. Because Senate advocates of several of these measures lack the votes to pass the bills, alternatives such as a proposal to create health care tribunals - known as health courts - that would deny patients injured by medical negligence the right to a trial by jury and the right to full compensation for their injuries, are now being looked at. The ABA is monitoring such efforts closely; the Standing Committee on Medical Professional Liability will offer a recommendation at the Midyear Meeting opposing this type of health care tribunal. Legislation relating to asbestos litigation is also likely to see action by the Senate in the early days of the second session of the 109th Congress.

Access to legal representation for individuals in the immigration process, particularly for unaccompanied alien children, will continue to be a major focus for the ABA. This, along with a host of other issues - including reforms at the Board of Immigration Appeals, the elimination of certain due process protections for immigrants, and a renewed effort to require state and local police to enforce immigration laws - also may be addressed this year.

The ABA will also continue its work with members of Congress to preserve the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia against the FTC's imposition of the privacy provisions in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act when the act is amended in 2006.

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