SEIU Involved In Federal Stimulus Money Negociations?

Jillian Bandes | May 11, 2009 1:37 PM

SEIU is accused of influencing a federal law reversing wage cuts for health care workers in California. The wage-cut reversal was a requirement for accepting federal stimulus money.

Investigators from the governor's office are worried that without SEIU's influence, California would've been able to accept stimulus money without having to reverse the wage cuts. From the Los Angeles Times:

California Secretary of Health and Human Services Kim Belshe said she could not recall another instance in which the federal government invited a significant stakeholder group into such government-to-government negotiations.

"The involvement of a stakeholder in this kind of state-federal deliberative process is unusual at best," she said. "This was really atypical and outside any norm I am familiar with."