Status of the AML Reauthorization
URGENT LEGISLATIVE ALERT
AML RE-AUTHORIZATION NEEDS YOUR HELP THIS WEEK!
Congress returns from its August recess on Tuesday, September 5th.
We have a very brief window of opportunity during the month of September to finally secure enactment of S 2616 -- the AML re-authorization bill.
S 2616, sponsored by Senators Santorum and Specter, has broad bi-partisan support but is stalled in the US Senate.
This week, please contact our PA Senators Santorum and Specter -- by phone, fax and email -- in their State offices, to urge them to finish the job and get Congress to pass S 2616 before Congress adjourns at the end of September. There is no chance for AML re-authorization to pass unless the Senate acts.
Contact information in PA for Sen. Santorum: Phone 202 224-6324 Fax 202 228-0604 Email santorum.senate.gov
Contact information in PA for Sen. Specter: Phone 202 224-4154 Fax 202 228-1229 Email specter.senate.gov
MESSAGE:
In your message, please tell the Senators:
** This is the most important legislation affecting Pennsylvania that Congress still has to deal with.
** The AML bill (S 2616) needs to be separated from the unpassable Estate Tax/Minimum Wage bill, and be passed by the Senate in September.
** If S 2616 Is not passed in September, Pennsylvania may not be able to get guaranteed funding for AML cleanup in the next Congress.
** Pennsylvania will be badly hurt if this bill does not pass, and there will be no good excuses if the Senate and House don't do their job and turn S 2616 into a law.
BACKGROUND:
FYI, here is some background information about AML developments:
Just before the August recess, the House of Representatives removed the AML bill from the broadly supported Pension Reform bill to which AML had been attached. (After the House did this and sent the Pension Reform bill to the Senate, the Pension Reform bill was passed overwhelmingly in the Senate and became law in August).
The House, after stripping AML from the Pension Reform bill, then
attached AML to the highly controversial Estate Tax/Minimum Wage
bill, which had been predicted to die in the Senate, and did -- taking
AML down with it. The House and Senate did this not to truly try
and pass AML, but with the hope that including AML would win more
support for the doomed Estate Tax/Minimum Wage legislation. There
is still talk of trying again to get the Senate to pass Estate Tax/Minimum
Wage with AML included, but there is no evidence that a second try
will pass that legislation.
Thank you very much for taking some of your busy end-of-summer
time to send these messages -- it is certainly worth while to do
so, because if we don't let our US Senators know that they should
not come home without enacting S 2616, we will have a much more
difficult time getting AML re-authorized next year.
Sincerely,
John Dawes, Chair, PA AML Campaign
rjdawes @aol.com