New Hampshire Delegation – It’s Business As Usual, With a Few Changes
By Kim Forrest
WASHINGTON–Nearly two weeks after the war began in Iraq, the offices of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation on Capitol Hill are trying to keep to business as usual despite increased security and their need to keep a close watch on the Middle East.
District Two’s Rep. Charles Bass says the biggest change has been more security in congressional office buildings.
“Over the last month, they have implemented a much more coordinated security plan for evacuation,” he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
He noted that loudspeakers have been placed in the office buildings, cars are being checked more carefully as they enter the Capitol grounds, a barrier has been placed around the Capitol and Congress members are encouraged not to walk outdoors. Still, he said, his day in Congress is still structured pretty much the same as it was before the war began.
“As for day-to-day life,” he said, “there’s really the same mechanics of it. Obviously, everybody’s more focused on the hour-by-hour events in Iraq.”
Bass said that members of Congress do get a special briefing at 10:30 each morning from the Armed Services Committee, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then another briefing on the House floor from Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But Bass said he also follows the war in the same way his constituents do.
“I watch television when I get a chance, just like every other American,” he said.
Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) said that senators, too, receive exclusive briefings each day.
“On a day-to-day basis, we’re receiving top-secret briefings each morning that help ensure senators have any information they need in making good policy decisions,” Sununu said in a statement.
Jeff Turcotte, press secretary to Sen. Judd Gregg, said that senators continue to go about their business. For Gregg, that meant presiding as chairman at a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing Wednesday.
Turcotte also said that even as the Senate continues to deal with the budget and other domestic issues, the war is on everyone’s minds.
“The mood on the Hill is not run-of-the-mill by any means,” he said. “While the budget process is a predictable, annual event, obviously the thoughts and prayers of Sen. Gregg are with the troops in Iraq.”
Sununu, in his statement, expressed similar sentiments, saying that the work on the Senate floor is focused on keeping Americans safe, especially during this time of war.
“National security issues and homeland security spending are at the top of the priority list,” he said.
On a more local level, Bass discussed two ways he is helping Granite Staters who are affected personally by the war.
He has placed a link on his Website titled War Time Services and Information, which connects family members of those who are in military service in the Middle East to various help organizations.
And, in all four of his district offices, in Keene, Concord, Nashua and Littleton, he has created a military help desk, in which Second District families with a member on active duty can call in with any problems, financial or administrative, and get specialized assistance.
“I’ve instructed my staff to accept requests and make them top priority,” Bass said. “I feel it’s very important to do everything we can to limit the obvious anxiety that many families are feeling right now.”
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
