Category: Connecticut
Dodd to Treasury: Constituents Are Frustrated
Photos by Caroline Bridges
BANKING
Norwalk Hour
Tait Militana
Boston University Washington News Service
Feb. 10, 2009
WASHINGTON—Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., urged the Treasury Department Tuesday to act swiftly to distribute the remaining Troubled Assets Relief Program funds, saying Americans are frustrated with the results so far.
“They are frustrated that even as we spent billions of their money, they have yet to see the results,” Dodd said. “They reminded me that we cannot restore the credibility of our financial institutions and put our economy back on track, until we restore the credibility of the government’s response.”
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, of which Dodd is the chairman, questioned Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner following his announcement of a new plan for the remaining financial system rescue funds earlier in the day. In a speech at the Treasury building, Geithner outlined a four-part program to restart frozen credit markets and alleviate the problems of the devastated housing industry. Congress passed the original plan last October.
Though Geithner did not produce specific details about the plan, he said the key components would create a public-private investment fund, a consumer and business lending initiative, an evaluation of the banking industry and a foreclosure prevention plan. He said the $350 billion in remaining funds need to be used in a comprehensive plan in a variety of areas because the problems are all interconnected.
“We believe that action has to be sustained until the recovery is firmly established,” Geithner said.
Dodd, who said he would need to see more specifics and called for further hearings in the future, applauded the new direction for the bailout bill. He said the first use of funds, dictated by the Bush administration, did not work.
“Rather than increasing confidence in the banking system, the piecemeal, lurching intervention of the previous administration scared away private sources of capital needed to plug the growing hole on the balance sheets,” Dodd said. He estimated that the credit loss in the banking system has doubled since September.
According to Dodd, housing foreclosure is the most critical issue facing Connecticut. He called on Treasury to make it the number one priority, saying that nationwide, nearly 10,000 families are losing their homes each day.
Dodd also pressed Geithner to make the future use of the money transparent so that he and his constituents could see how the money was being spent.
But not every senator at the committee hearing was as optimistic about the potential for the rest of the funds. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the committee’s senior minority member, said the first half of the program was a failure that was hastily pushed through Congress.
“The economy worsened as Congress panicked,” he said.
Geithner said moving forward will not be easy. He said that the bailout plan alone would not solve the economic crisis but that paired with the stimulus bill could create significant strides forward.
“This strategy will cost money,” he said. “It will involve risk and take time. As costly as this effort may be, we know that the cost of a complete collapse of our financial system would be incalculable for families, for businesses and for our nation.”
The stimulus bill passed the Senate Tuesday afternoon and now is in conference to work out differences with the House version.
###
As Senate Debates Stimulus, Dodd and Lieberman Demand Help for Housing Market
SENATE STIMULUS
The Day
Katie Koch
Boston University Washington News Service
2/4/09
WASHINGTON – As the Senate debated its economic stimulus package this week, Sens. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., spoke out for increased funds to get the housing market back on track—a key component, both said, of America’s economic recovery.
Meanwhile, the White House, with its American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, focused on job creation. The administration’s plan would create 43,700 jobs in Connecticut over the next two years, 90 percent in the private sector, according to the White House.
“There are millions of Americans who need work and there is an enormous amount of work that needs to be done in the country,” Lawrence H. Summers, director of the National Economic Council, said Wednesday. “And what this temporary funding does is bring the people without work together with the work that needs to be done.”
The debates underscore the challenges that face Congress and the new administration as the Senate struggles to craft an economic recovery plan that will please both political parties while addressing the nation’s many pressing needs.
Lieberman threw his support behind increased tax breaks for homebuyers, which, he said, would bolster the economy by jump-starting the ailing housing market.
On Wednesday he introduced with Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., an amendment that would increase the homebuyer tax credit to $15,000 from its current $7,500. The amendment, which passed Wednesday night, would extend the tax credit to all homebuyers, not just first-time homeowners, and would not have to be paid back.
“Real economic growth will not resume until housing values stabilize and American families once again have faith and confidence that the most valuable asset they own—their home—is safe and secure,” Lieberman said in a statement.
A Lieberman aide said the tax credit, combined with a proposed mortgage-rate incentive from the federal government, would be likely to cost $18.9 billion over the next 10 years. But Lieberman said he believes such aggressive jolts to the housing market would put even more money back into the economy.
Economists have predicted the tax credit could spur 1.1 million home purchases in 2009, he said on the Senate floor. It would generate $14 billion in federal tax revenues and create 539,000 new jobs, mostly in construction, he added.
Dodd also said he sees weaknesses in how the Senate stimulus bill addresses the financial problems that have contributed to the current economic downturn. In addition to modifying the bill, he said he wants to see $50 billion of the funds allocated through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the so-called bailout package that passed last fall, dedicated to preventing foreclosures.
“We had over 2,000 foreclosures in Connecticut in the month of December,” Dodd said in an interview. “You’ve got 8 million homes under water, that is, where the mortgages exceed the value of the homes, in the United States. Obviously foreclosure mitigation is a huge issue.”
“Whether it’s foreclosure mitigation or ideas that will get the credit markets moving again, I think [these issues] are very important,” Dodd said Tuesday. “The House [bill] does a bit better, I think, in those two areas.”
Dodd said the White House’s plan for job creation was a “positive step,” but far from sufficient.
“For every job you’re creating you hear about two that get lost,” Dodd said. “My state’s lost 125,000 over the last year or so.”
In addition to its job creation estimates, the White House Wednesday released a breakdown of benefits Connecticut would receive from some of its key stimulus proposals:
- 278,000 Connecticut workers who have lost jobs would be eligible for an extra $100 a month in unemployment insurance benefits.
- 30,000 Connecticut families would be eligible for a $2,500 tax credit for four years of college tuition.
- At least 80 Connecticut schools would receive money for renovations and technology upgrades.
#####
Courtney Speaks Out on Expansion of Children’s Health Insurance
SCHIP
The Day
Katie Koch
Boston University Washington News Service
2/4/09
[TO BE ADDED TO WIRE COPY BY EDITORS AT THE DAY]
“We are going to move forward as a country towards universal health coverage,” Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said on the House floor. “Today will go down in history as an important step forward to accomplish that much-needed goal.”
Under the new law, the expanded program will insure 24,700 new children in Connecticut, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
That would reduce the number of uninsured children in the state—58,000 by one estimate—by 43 percent. That is slightly less than the 47 percent reduction nationwide that the report predicts.
Courtney said legislation for expanding children’s health insurance, which President George W. Bush vetoed twice in the fall of 2007, was long overdue.
“It’s a real validation of the change that took place in the November election that within two weeks we’re able to have a new administration finally get this issue resolved,” he said in an interview.
The program is aimed at children whose parents earn too much for Medicaid eligibility but not enough to pay for private health insurance.
Connecticut families may receive coverage under the law’s provisions if they earn no more than 300 percent of the poverty level. In past debates, some outside lawmakers criticized the threshold as too lenient, but many argued it was necessary because of Connecticut’s relatively high cost of living.
Courtney said the new law will lock in the current level required to receive coverage under Healthcare for Uninsured Kids and Youth, Connecticut’s subsidized health insurance program partially funded by the federal program.
The law also will expand dental coverage, raising the reimbursement rate for dentists who take on HUSKY patients to the rate the state employees’ health plan pays.
“You’re [no longer] going to have a situation where dentists refuse patients because they’re being paid at Medicaid rates, which were a disgrace,” Courtney said.
A 2006 study commissioned by the Connecticut Department of Social Services found that only 27 percent of frequent callers were able to obtain routine dental appointments for HUSKY children.
###
Dodd, Himes say Infrastructure is an Investment in Future
RECOVERY
Norwalk Hour
Tait Militana
Boston University Washington News Service
Feb 04, 2009
WASHINGTON –The White House estimates that more than 40,000 jobs would be created in Connecticut by the $900 billion stimulus package but Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Jim Himes, D-4 say that may not be enough.
Both urged Congress to commit more money to infrastructure projects in the state. Improving the local infrastructure is critical to keeping the state economically competitive, they said.
“It’s one that ought to be a no brainer,” Dodd said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Particularly in a state like ours with congested highways, providing resources to develop alternative means of transit in the corridors as well as the feeder lines, will be very important to us.”
In the House version of the stimulus bill, which passed last week, Connecticut would receive nearly $600 million for infrastructure improvements, including $400 million for highways and bridges and $70 million for transit.
Both Himes and Dodd said they were wary of White House data on the number of jobs the stimulus bill will create. Dodd said with the state losing 125,000 jobs last year, 44,000 new jobs does not seem to help that much. However, if it means 44,000 jobs are saved, that is a positive step.
“I think we need to keep eye on the goal of this bill,” Himes said. “Creating jobs and slowing the rate Americans lose them – I will judge the package by the extent it will do that.”
Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, said Tuesday that the White House stimulus package could create up to 44,000 jobs in Connecticut, the majority of which would be in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
“The program will include the largest investment in the backbone of the American economy, our basic infrastructure—roads, transit, broadband, schools—since the interstate highway system,” Summers said in a meeting with reporters in the Old Executive Office Building.
Himes said when it comes to infrastructure, transit is the most important issue facing Norwalk and Fairfield County, but there are issues with government buildings and utilities that cannot be ignored.
“The schools are crumbling and the sewage systems are not up to snuff,” Himes said in a telephone interview. “I am happy it [the stimulus package] will help us upgrade and improve our standard of living while creating jobs.”
To best support these proposed projects, Dodd called for money to be directed straight to municipalities. He said towns and cities know the needs of their communities better than the state government.
“My experience has been that if you can get money directly to your local governments you do very well,” Dodd said. “They are more likely to have shovel-ready projects.”
According to the United States Conference of Mayors, which met in Washington last month, there are more than $150 billion in shovel ready projects nationwide, including $180 million in Norwalk. The Senate is working on the stimulus bill which Republicans say has too much spending and not enough tax cuts. Democratic leaders say they hope to finish the bill and have something to President Obama by the end of next week.
####
Lawmaker Says Darien Investment Fund Ripped Off Clients
MADOFF
Norwalk Hour
Tait Militana
Boston University Washington News Service
Feb 04, 2009
WASHINGTON—Legislators and investigators on Wednesday tore into financial firms and investment funds that invested with Bernard Madoff’s alleged fraudulent firm, accusing them of failing to protect their clients.
One of the members of the House subcommittee conducting the hearing, Rep.Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said of the private firms that they had “ripped off the American people.”
The panel and its principal witness also had few good words for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which failed to pursue the case when it was first brought to its attention.
Harry Markopolos, an independent financial fraud examiner from Boston, who discovered evidence of Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme more than eight years ago, said all of his information was available to the public. He said feeder funds such as Maxam Capital Management LLC, of Darien, should have been able to determine that Madoff’s company was too good to be true.
“If they didn’t know, they were woefully blind,” Markopolos told the subcommittee.
Comment from Maxam Capital was not immediately available.
The town of Fairfield, which lost nearly $42 million in pension funds in the Madoff scandal, used Maxam Capital as a retirement investment fund for municipal employees. According to Paul Hiller, the town’s chief fiscal officer, Fairfield first invested with the company in June 1997. Last December, Madoff was arrested for allegedly committing $50 billion in investment fraud.
Much of the suspected fraud was conducted through feeder funds such as Maxam that unknowingly recruited new victims for Madoff. Though Hiller declined to comment on the culpability of the feeder fund or the town in the bad investment, he said Fairfield was lucky because it had a stronger retirement system than most others.
“No one has lost their pension,” Hiller said.
According to Markopolos, who also blamed the SEC and other financial regulators for allowing Madoff to get away with his scheme for so long, others were not as lucky. He testified as the featured witness before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, on which Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, serves.
Himes said local feeder funds are responsible for continuing the alleged fraud, but investors at all levels need to be more diligent.
“Everybody involved with Bernard Madoff is at best guilty of willing suspension of disbelief, at worse malfeasance,” he said.
Markopolos said he discovered Madoff was deceiving investors in 2000, when he was working at a competing firm. He took his case to the SEC, which, he said, refused to investigate. He said it was inexplicable that Madoff went unnoticed by financial firms and regulatory bodies for so long.
“It took me about five minutes to figure out he was a fraud,” Markopolos said, explaining how Madoff appeared to get consistent good returns. “His performance line was a 45-degree angle, without any variation. No such performance exists.”
SEC employees who testified at the hearing cited the current investigation as the reason they were reluctant to say why agency investigators did not take up the case. They also said the commission receives thousands of tips each year and does not have the resources to pursue all of them
###
Freshman Rep. Himes Learns Ins and Outs of Congress
Photos by Caroline Bridges
TRANSITION
Norwalk Hour
Tait Militana
Boston University Washington News Service
1/29/09
WASHINGTON – For many first-time members of Congress, the trials of starting their new jobs include finding their way around the Capitol, meeting other members and learning the ins and outs of Washington.
For Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, the first weeks also included dealing with unprecedented inauguration crowds and fixing the heat in his office.
He said he is still figuring out some of the basic stuff about Congress.
“I can get to the floor, no problem,” Himes said. “I can get to the gym, no problem. I know a couple of places where I know I can be fed. You ask me to get to anything a lot more esoteric than that and it’s a little slow.”
Taking the failing economy as his primary issue, Himes, 42, defeated incumbent Republican Chris Shays in November. The day after the election he began working on his transition to Washington. Yet this transition proved to be a challenge.
Himes started his career in Congress during one of the most historic events in politics. With almost 2 million people descending on the city to witness the inauguration of President Barack Obama, thousands of constituents looking for tickets and dozens of reporters nagging his incomplete staff, Himes said things have been hectic in his first few weeks as a representative.
“It’s been really busy,” Himes said. “The inauguration took all of the air out of the room.”
Himes also moved into his new office on Capitol Hill without a functioning heating system and during one of the coldest weeks of the year. Nonetheless, Himes has taken it all in stride. He said what really makes Congress tick is its members.
“The action of this place doesn’t really depend on the statues, the offices or the halls,” Himes said. “It’s about sitting down with people, thinking hard and making good decisions.”
Caitlin Donohue, a congressional assistant, said though Himes still may get lost, he is a hard worker and is always prepared for the next problem.
“Jim has adapted to the new challenges quickly,” Donohue said.
Earlier this week, Himes, who is on the Financial Services Committee, was appointed to two subcommittees: the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises and the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, which oversee the securities, banking and housing industries.
Himes, who worked at the global investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. before running for office, said though his history in business should help him on the committee, the way things are done in politics is completely different from the business world’s methods. He said he was surprised by how important seniority is in the day-to-day happenings of Congress.
“The protocol and hierarchy are odd to me,” Himes said, describing the realities of seniority that “I came head to head with when I got to wait three hours to ask a question in a hearing.”
During Himes’ first week on Capitol Hill, he attended various social activities for new members and was able to speak to a lot of his new colleagues. One of the most powerful moments for him, he said, was walking through the Capitol for the first time and seeing the statues of Daniel Webster, Thomas Jefferson and of all the great politicians of the past.
“I had two sensations,” Himes said. “One was where we are today is really tough, but we’ve been in tougher straits before and we got through it. Two, boy the bar is pretty high.”
According to Himes, his biggest worry in the coming months is being a good husband and dad. He said he does not plan on moving his family to Washington.
“I’m regularly 200 miles away,” Himes said. “But as motivated as I am to be a public servant at this very important time, I’m fundamentally committed to being a good dad.”
Despite the challenges of the first few weeks and those that surely lay ahead, Don Carlson, Himes’ campaign chief of staff, said, Himes’ perseverance is one of the qualities that makes him so successful.
“He’s the most persistent guy I’ve ever met,” Carlson said. “He doesn’t know how to quit. He’ll make it work.”
####
Lieberman Calls For More Troops in Afghanistan
AFGHANISTAN
Norwalk Hour
Tait Militana
Boston University Washington News Service
1/29/09
WASHINGTON- Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn, called on Thursday for more troops and money for Afghanistan, backing the Obama administration’s view that a defeat there would be detrimental to regional stability and the reputation of NATO.
In a speech at the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank, Lieberman laid out a broad five-point plan to bring more civilian and military personnel to the country in the coming months to turn around the deteriorating conditions and defeat the insurgency. He urged foreign nations to do more to help, saying that regional stability has far-reaching implications for curbing terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons.
“Our failure there will make every problem in the region worse and harder to solve,” Lieberman said.
According to Lieberman, any surge in American troops in the country must be matched by a surge in the civilian workforce and the Afghan Army. Specifics on how much it will cost and how many troops his goals will require were not immediately available, but Lieberman said it is important that the United States make a long-term commitment to the region.
He said the U.S. military has learned a lot of lessons from the war in Iraq and that is why there is still an opportunity for success in Afghanistan.
“The American military has become the most formidable counterinsurgency force in history,” Lieberman said. “So we go into Iraq having learned a lot.”
Tom Mancinelli, a student at Georgetown University and former Marine Corps officer in Iraq who attended the speech, said that Lieberman’s view on the situation in Iraq is optimistic but that agrees with his analysis of the importance of Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan is more serious, more critical to our security,” Mancinelli said.
###
Lieberman, Courtney Address Sec. Gates’ Remarks on Defense Spending
DEFENSE
The Day
Katie Koch
Boston University Washington News Service
1/27/09
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress Tuesday that one of his major goals is to fix the “long-standing systemic problems” in how the government acquires military goods and services with taxpayer dollars—a process that for years has brought billions of dollars in defense spending to Eastern Connecticut.
In separate hearings by the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Gates said this was his next most important priority after stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate committee, and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-2nd District), who serves on the House committee, attended the hearings, which were meant to set the tone for the new Congress.
“Many programs that cost more than anticipated are built on an inadequate initial foundation,” Gates said at the Senate hearing.
He criticized the Department of Defense for its “entrenched attitudes,” including resistance to change, factional in-fighting and focus on parochial interests. He called for increased competition and better use of technology to ensure that all defense spending projects are pursued fairly and wisely.
At the Senate hearing, Lieberman questioned Gates about his attitudes toward new defense investments, which Connecticut politicians hope will spur economic growth in the region. The Day reported Sunday that Camp Rell in Niantic and the Naval Submarine Base in Groton will receive a combined $163.95 million for construction projects, while Electric Boat in Groton landed a $14 billion contract with the Navy last December.
“My interest [is] in having the Defense Department review some programs—defense acquisitions that we’re going to have to make in the next five years, let’s say—and see if we can accelerate any of them to this year as part of the economic stimulus,” Lieberman said. He said these programs, much like the infrastructure projects the new administration wants to speed up, would create jobs and be consistent with national goals.
Gates said that the White House had already asked the Department of Defense for a list of “shovel-ready” defense projects, including military hospitals, barracks and clinics.
Courtney, who attended the House hearing later in the day, said Gates’s analysis impressed him.
“He’s absolutely right that the system needs to be reformed,” Courtney said in an interview. “I think to a large degree it’s a negative legacy of the Rumsfeld era. He really just pretty much handed over the whole area [of defense acquisitions] to private contractors.”
Both congressmen said they largely exempted Electric Boat’s new contract to build Virginia-class submarines for the Navy from their criticisms.
“I am not afraid of scrutiny being given to the Virginia-class program,” Courtney said. “At the end of the day, the Virginia-class program has really earned its place in the Navy’s plans, because they really had to go through a pretty wrenching process of bringing down costs.”
“Electric Boat is probably the best example in the country of a defense contractor that has worked well with the Defense Department to bring the cost of a major project…down substantially,” Lieberman said in an interview.
Lieberman said his goals for procuring defense spending for Connecticut did not conflict with Gates’s call for better procurement processes.
“If you have better acquisition you’re actually going to be able to acquire more defense systems because you won’t waste money,” he said. “You’ll be able to spend every dollar and get something for it.”
###
Area Doctor Calls on SEC to Refund his Practice
HEARING
Norwalk Hour
Tait Militana
Boston University Washington News Service
1/27/09
WASHINGTON – A Fairfield doctor lashed out against the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday, saying that his practice lost more than $11 million in pension funds in the Bernard Madoff scandal.
Dr. Henry Backe of the Orthopaedic Specialty Group testified as a witness in front of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and the rest of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee at a hearing on why regulators were unable to detect Madoff’s alleged fraud. Backe said the regulators did not do a good enough job preventing the scam.
“They [his practice’s employees] are regular working-class Americans,” Backe said. “They were let down by Madoff, the regulators, the SEC and FINRA [the securities industry’s self-regulatory Financial Industry Regulatory Authority].”
Backe’s practice first invested in Madoff’s investment fund in 1992, he said. Since then the investments were used to fund pension plans for more than 140 employees, including doctors, nurses and office personnel. Last month, Madoff was arrested for allegedly perpetrating more than $50 billion in investor fraud in what has been called the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The practice’s employees, including a partner who had 30 years worth of investments with Madoff, lost all of their savings, Backe said.
According to Backe, the scandal has cast a shadow over the workplace. Many employees do not know when they will be able to retire and may have to sell personal assets to make up for their losses, he said.
“Our employees are scared, worried and angry,” Backe said.
Backe, who was in Washington seeking a way to get more of his firm’s investments back, said officials told him because the employees’ investments were pooled as a 401 (k) retirement plan, whatever they recover from settlement of the Madoff affair will be treated as a single investment and thus limited to no more than $500,000.
Backe said his employees have lost faith in the government.
“We don’t know where to turn, and that’s one of the reasons I’m here,” he said.
According to Backe, the group’s pension plan was audited by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2005 and by an independent Connecticut firm in 2008. In both cases, no concerns were raised.
During the three hour hearing, Dodd, the committee chairman, grilled regulatory officials on why they were unable to detect what Madoff was up to and protect victims such as Backe. He said that what he described as Madoff’s deception was allowed to continue for so long was unacceptable.
“Obviously a number of signals and warning were given,” Dodd said. “It is inexcusable, in my opinion, that this matter went on as long as it did. There were enough red flags being raised.”
Though Dodd said no immediate legislation is pending to overhaul financial regulation, he called on the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to report to the committee every three months on measures being taken to improve oversight and fraud prevention.
Backe said he felt obligated to fight for his employees because they worked hard to save money and do not need more distraction from patient care.
“I told them I would go to the end for them,” Backe said. “I wasn’t getting clear answers from all the sources I was looking at, so I thought the best thing to do would be to ask them myself.”
###
Oakdale Native Among Coast Guard Cadets in Inaugural Parade
CADETS
The Day
Katie Koch
Boston University Washington News Service
1/20/09
WASHINGTON – Nearly 90 cadets from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy marched in Tuesday’s inaugural parade, and Oakdale native and third-class cadet Richard Kyle Coleman was excited to be among them.
“It was pretty exhilarating, actually,” said Coleman, 20, a graduate of Montville High School. “It went by really fast.”
The cadets spent many hours preparing for their brief moment before the new President. They gathered at 2 a.m. Tuesday to take a bus from the Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Md., where they stayed Monday night, and spent most of the day practicing and waiting to step off.
The Coast Guard didn’t begin to march until dusk and finished the parade route at about 6:30 p.m. They went directly to another bus, which they took in order to arrive home in time for classes today.
While marching, the cadets got to stop in front of the White House and turn “eyes left” to Barack Obama, who saluted them.
“I really didn’t get into the election because I figured I’m going to be taking orders no matter what. I support the president, and that’s my responsibility,” Coleman said.
But, he said, marching in the parade left a more distinct impression of what the next four years will be like.
“I felt a lot of hope and pride for what was happening,” he said. “It makes me hopeful that everyone else is so hopeful.”
Third-class cadet Brian Bonomi, 19, of Cooper City, Fla., said the crowd’s good will extended beyond the new President.
“Every time they announced our service and what we do, the crowd would cheer us, and it was like, wow,” Bonomi said. “It kind of restored my pride in what we do.”
###
