Category: Fall 2002 Newswire
Maine Moderates Yield Power in Homeland Security Debate
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25–The fate of a proposed Department of Homeland Security may depend on a handful of moderate senators, including Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, political experts say.
The Senate, which is debating legislation to create the new Cabinet-level department, is divided almost along strict party lines over a provision in the bill that would allow President Bush to eliminate union protections for federal employees. The president has said he would veto any bill not granting him such authority.
Earlier in the week moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee of Rhode Island became the lone member of his party to have crossed party lines to endorse a Democratic plan that limits the president’s authority in labor issues. Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia is the lone Democrat to announce his support of Bush’s demand. Political experts predicted the move would give Democrats sufficient support to pass their version of the bill.
Chafee’s defection has brought to the forefront the role of moderate senators, including Collins and Snowe, in a Senate where Democrats hold a one-seat majority.
“When you have a virtual tie in the Senate you’re not going to get anything done unless you can somehow keep everyone together for the Democrats or persuade one or two individuals to cross party lines,” said Norman Ornstein, congressional expert for the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. “So the critical players in this become the moderates.”
Ornstein estimated there are a halfdozen moderate Republicans and Democrats, including both Maine senators, who could change the fate of the Homeland Security Act.
Collins publicly expressed concerns about the Republican version of the bill late last week, prompting Republican leaders to slightly amend their proposal to include greater employee protections. The first-term senator now says she stands united with the Republicans.
“She has made up her mind and says she’ll support the president,” Felicia Knight, a Collins’ spokesperson, said Wednesday.
Snowe, however, has openly met with Republicans and Democrats to discuss the issue, but her spokesman, Dave Lackey, said Wednesday: “She has not taken a final position on it. She is still very open to both sides.”
Snowe met last week with a group of Senate moderates to discuss the labor provision and has been working with Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and John Breaux, D-La., who helped draft a Democratic compromise to the bill.
“She’s trying to bridge the differences,” Lackey said. “Thus far she has kept an open mind.”
Political experts say moderates like Snowe and Collins get extreme pressure from each of their parties, but that their open-mindedness puts them in a position of power.
“Being undecided is potentially a powerful position to be in,” said J. Mark Wrighton, assistant professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire.
He said that party leaders often make concessions to accommodate their moderate members. “You can gang up on someone and lobby them, but you have to have something to give,” he said.
Snowe spokeswoman Knight said that Republican leaders apply pressure on occasion, but are generally respectful of her position. “They understand that the people of Maine want someone like her who is open-minded,” she said. “But because she is a moderate they understand that her vote is not taken for granted by either side.”
Wrighton said the timing of elections also could help push a moderate in one direction or the other.
He said that Collins, who will face off against Democratic challenger Chellie Pingree in November, is aware of the political ramifications of her decisions. “This is all taking place in the environment of the election,” Wrighton said. “And so Susan Collins is thinking fairly closely of the politics of this and how it’s going to play out in Maine.”
Wrighton said such political pressure could be a good thing.
“In thinking about their own re-elections they’re forced to think about their constituents,” he said. “It forces them to do their jobs, which is to be representatives.”
But Ornstein said that above political or party pressure, most moderates value substance. “These are people who genuinely struggle with the substance of these issues and often face substantial political pressure from their parties to support issues they sometimes don’t agree with.”
Snowe spokesperson Lackey agreed. “(Snowe) makes her decisions based on factual merits, not party pressure,” he said. “This is not a party issue. This is a matter of national security.”
A vote on the proposed Homeland Security Department could come as early as Thursday.
The department would have a $40 billion budget, combining two dozen federal agencies and nearly 200,000 employees.
Published in Foster’s Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
North Shore Affordable Housing Crunch Similar to Rest of Nation
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2002--Two years after the 2000 census that rated Massachusetts the third-lowest state when it comes to home ownership, the state's lack of affordable housing continues to grow.
With a 13 percent price increase in single-family and condominium homes in Northeastern Massachusetts since last year, it is no wonder North Shore residents have difficulties finding a home.
The Greater Newburyport Association of Realtors reports that the average price for a single home in Newburyport in the first nine months of this year was $433,613 as compared to last year's second quarter price of $350,000, a rise of almost 24 percent. As the Newburyport area becomes more desirable for professionals and young families, housing costs rise and lower-income residents have trouble finding affordable housing.
"The sale prices in Newburyport are way off of what a low-income family could afford," Christine Cashman, director of Newburyport's Community Development Block Grant Program,said Wednesday.
As more homeowners move out of the Boston area, more people are looking for property on the North Shore. Over the last few years Newburyport has become a popular area for young professionals and families who can afford more expensive single-family homes and condominiums. This leaves lower-income families looking for housing farther north or in New Hampshire.
Barbara Moynahan, president of the Greater Association of Newburyport Realtors, says even moderate-income residents are forced to look for housing elsewhere because of growing gentrification.
"Newburyport has become an incredibly desirable community," Moynahan said. "As far as people coming in five years from now, I don't see any way that low-income families are going to be able to live here."
The declining availability of low-income housing is a national issue. Earlier this month Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-MO) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Affordable Housing Expansion Act of 2002. The legislation would establish a $1 billion block grant program for state housing agencies to build more low-income housing and assist in the preservation of existing low-income housing. It also would issue a tax credit for assisted rental units for low- and extremely low-income families.
At a Senate subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, along with Bond Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) and housing agency representatives, testified that skyrocketing costs and limited housing availability have left low- to mixed-income families without many options.
"Despite, or maybe because of, the strength of the housing economy across our country, working families and people of all ages, at different income levels, are struggling to keep a roof over their heads," Menino said in his prepared testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing and Transportation.
Witnesses called on the federal government to help state governments fund housing subsidy programs. Richard H. Godfrey Jr., executive director of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp., testified that the best way to alleviate the housing problem is for the government to help subsidize programs that build more low-income housing units.
"The private market just can't meet the demand. We need government intervention to fix it," Godfrey said. The best option, he said, was to establish a federally supported housing program with flexibility that allows states to decide directly where housing money goes.
While Massachusetts's Chapter 40B law aims to ensure that at least 10 percent of every municipality's housing is affordable for low and medium incomes, many communities still do not meet the housing needs of their lower-income residents.
Cashman said that if the figure is approved by the state, Newburyport's official affordable housing percentage would be up to 8.6 percent. Of 7,717 housing units in Newburyport, 687 are subsidized and low-income. In 2001 there were only 666.
The Community Development Block Grant Program also is developing 22 new housing units, 15 of which would be considered affordable. The units would be built on the former site of the Public Works Building on Merrimac Street near Route 1.
Getting low-income people into affordable housing also frees up Newburyport's rental market, Cashman said. "You can't have a tight market in both of those areas and expect people to afford to live here."
Published in The Newburyport Daily News, in Massachusetts.
Kennedy to Extend Unemployment Benefits
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2002--Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would extend unemployment benefits for jobless workers and provide additional benefits for people in states with high unemployment rates, such as Massachusetts.
"Massachusetts has the highest unemployment in New England, and there's very little indication that it's going to change," Kennedy said at a press conference.
The legislation, drafted by Kennedy and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), would continue the current program that awards jobless benefits for 13 weeks to people in most states, which is due to expire at the end of this year. Their bill would provide an additional 20 weeks of temporary extended benefits for workers in Massachusetts and other "high unemployment" states and an additional 13 weeks of benefits for workers in all other states.
Last month, the Massachusetts unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, 1.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Massachusetts reported the third-highest rate increase in the country during that period, though its current rate is below the national average.. There are 8.1 million Americans out of work, or 5.7 percent of the workforce, according to the Department of Labor. Kennedy blamed the Bush administration, and said that since Bush assumed office in January 2001, the economic well-being of the country has vastly deteriorated.
"This is not just an economic coincidence," he said. "It is the result of the economic policies of this administration-policies which neglect the basic needs of working men and women, lavish extravagant tax breaks on the wealthiest taxpayers and allow corporate abuse and excess to go unchecked."
"There are now 8.1 million unemployed Americans, 2.2 million more than when President Bush took office," Kennedy added. "And no amount of tax cuts for the rich can restore their jobs and pay their bills."
Last March, Congress temporarily extended benefits in a similar measure, as is often done during a recession. But Kennedy said further extensions were essential.
"Already, more than one million workers have exhausted these benefits without finding a new job, and another two million will join their ranks by the end of the year," Kennedy said.
The $14 billion needed for the program would come from the federal Unemployment Benefit Trust Fund, which, according to Kennedy, is in surplus by $28 billion.
"These are funds that have been paid in by workers…. We have the resources to do it, and the administration should support it," he said.
In the recession of the early 1990s, during the earlier Bush administration, Congress extended unemployment benefits three times. Last March's legislation was the only extension awarded during the current recession, Kennedy said.
"It is rare to have this kind of vehement opposition by the administration and by Republicans in the face of these extraordinary economic indicators," Kennedy said.
But according to a statement released Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee, Republicans in Congress have provided significant support to the unemployed. They see Kennedy's proposal as "well beyond 'temporary' support," according to the statement.
"There is no free lunch," the statement says. "Despite what proponents say about benefits being 'paid for,' higher benefits today require higher taxes (or reduced benefits) tomorrow."
Kennedy said he expected the Senate to take up the issue within weeks.
Published in The Gloucester Daily News, in Massachusetts
Sierra Club Runs New Ads Attacking Sununu
By Tia Carioli and Gregory Chisholm
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2002--The Sierra Club announced today they will be sponsoring a multi-million dollar advertising blitz in six states including New Hampshire focusing on the voting records of candidates in the November 5th general election.
NHPR Correspondent Gregory Chisholm reports from Washington.
New Hampshire's Sierra Club has already endorsed Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Katrina Swett and Martha Fuller Clark. And now the National Organization is taking on GOP Senate Candidate, Representative John Sununu.
In radio and TV ads, like this one, slated to run across NH from now until election day, the Sierra Club attacks Sununu's record on environmental issues.
Congressman Sununu has sided with the polluters, voting to force taxpayers-not corporations-to pay for clean up.
In a written statement, Sununu says he is proud of his record in protecting New Hampshire's environment and he calls the charges "ludicrous."
Margaret Conway, the National Political Director for the Sierra Club, said today in Washington that New Hampshire is one of just six states in which the new ads will run.
The Sierra Club is also targeting candidates in Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and South Dakota.
For NHPR News, This is Gregory Chisholm in Washington.
Broadcast on New Hampshire Public Radio, in New Hampshire.
Maine Woman Honored as ‘Angel in Adoption’
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2002--Four years ago, Jan Riddle and her husband, Rob, brought home a six-month-old baby boy whose only possession was his dirty blanket.
"The case worker gave me twenty dollars to get him through the night," Riddle, of Belfast, said. "He didn't come with anything - not even a paper bag."
The judge ordered the infant back after 10 days. Riddle reluctantly placed his new belongings in a garbage bag for him. It was a moment Riddle would never forget, and it became the inspiration for her work with foster children.
Although glittering banquets are commonplace in the nation's capital, it's not every day that adoption heroes are nominated for an award by their members of Congress. Riddle was one of 277 honorees at the annual Angels in Adoption ceremony sponsored by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) Tuesday night.
The event gives congressional leaders a chance to spotlight people from their state or district who make key contributions toward highlighting adoption and foster care.
Riddle, nominated by Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, was celebrated for her Kits for Kids program. She attended the gala with her eight-year-old daughter Kelleigh, and recently adopted her four-year-old son, Sean, who came to the family from the foster system in 1998.
Kits for Kids provides each foster child with a "KidPack" filled with essential items like toiletries, clothes, and a stuffed animal. The care pack also contains a children's book by Riddle called "Sam Has a New Home Just Like You."
Riddle was a guest on the Rosie O'Donnell Show in May to talk about her book, which is available only to Maine foster children, without charge. Since her appearance, Riddle has received over 2,000 e-mails of support for her program.
"Jan's work has helped many frightened children through their first night in a new environment," Snowe said in a written statement.
Kits for Kids started as simple donations from friends and relatives but soon became a community effort. The duffel bags, once filled with used clothes, are now packed with new items, thanks to donations and monetary gifts.
Nearly 550,000 children in the United States are in the foster care system, according to the CCAI.
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
Westport Scholarship Winner Meets With Sen. Dodd
By Andrew Kosow
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2002--Seventeen-year-old Westport native Benjamin Schwartz came to the Capital this week to receive a $10,000 scholarship he earned as a 2002 Davidson Fellow because of a computer program he created that could someday make computers cheaper, bridges safer and buildings like the World Trade Center sturdier.
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) met with Schwartz and his parents, Laura and Joshua, at his Senate office Wednesday to congratulate him and talk about his program, AFMetric, which Dodd admitted sheepishly, "I don't completely understand."
Seated comfortably on couches in the senator's office, Schwartz eagerly explained the computer program and how it uses data from an atomic force microscope to accurately measure grain boundary energy with a series of three-dimensional mathematical operations.
"Most materials, such as metals, are not completely solid but built of many large grains stuck together," Schwartz said to an impressed Dodd, "and my program helps measure the energy at the weakest points in the structure, which are the grain boundaries." He explained that this would aid engineers and physicists in creating more durable metals and cheaper computer chips and in helping detect flaws in building materials.
"Makes sense," Dodd said. "Heck, I'm surprised we didn't have this already."
Schwartz created AFMetric in an intense five-week period he spent working with Professor Eugene Rabkin, an expert in grain boundary engineering, this summer in a program at the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.
At the beginning of the meeting, Dodd jokingly asked Schwartz, now a freshman at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Why not go to school in Connecticut, why go to school in Boston?"
This prompted a serious discussion about the University of Connecticut's inability to attract the best students from Connecticut. "They are just not aggressive about identifying the best students in the state," Dodd said. "Now if you were 6'9", it would be a different story," he added lightly, alluding to UConn's powerhouse basketball program.
"They aren't aggressive at all," Schwartz agreed. "I never heard from them."
Laura Schwartz said that Benjamin had been interested in science "since he was three years old," and that while growing up, the only television he was allowed to watch were video rentals of shows like "Nova" or the science show "Teacher to Teacher with Mister Wizard."
"Half of what I know came from Mr. Wizard," Schwartz said.
Dodd then asked slyly, "So where did you sneak [watching other television shows]?" The Schwartzes laughed heartily.
Schwartz expressed an interest in understanding government and said that someday he would want to be the science adviser to the president because "technology changes foreign policy. Look at the debate now over countries with weapons of mass destruction."
Dodd promptly extended Schwartz an invitation to work in his Senate office here next summer so he could see how policy is formulated. " I'm always excited when people express a desire to understand policy and how politics work," Dodd said.
After the meeting, which lasted 30 minutes, Schwartz said, "That was great, and I am very interested in working for [Dodd] next summer."
"Ben is an impressive young man - bright and articulate," Dodd said in a press release. "He makes Connecticut and Westport proud, and I wish him all the best in his future achievements."
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
N.H. Senators Respond to Daschle’s Angry Words
By Max Heuer
WASHINGTON, Sept 25, 2002--Scathing remarks from Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) Wednesday accusing President Bush of trying to politicize the looming war in Iraq were met with harsh rebukes from New Hampshire's two Republican senators.
"In my experience I've never heard such an irresponsible statement by a major legislative leader in that he based his allegations on statements which the president and vice president had not made," Gregg said Thursday.
Daschle was responding to remarks Bush made at a political event in New Jersey this week, saying that Democrats had sold out to special interests on labor issues in the Homeland Security bill and that its Senate opponents are "not interested in the security of the American people."
"The president ought to apologize," Daschle said. "He ought to apologize to the American people. That is wrong. He ought not politicize this war. We ought not politicize the rhetoric about war and life and death."
Gregg said the president's remarks were taken out of context by the media and that Daschle was just frustrated.
Daschle "then hyperbolized into a period of almost uncontrolled rage." Gregg added. "He appears to have personalized it and I think that is a big mistake."
"Our country must join together to stave off threats at home and abroad," Sen. Bob Smith said in a press release. "The Democrats should not be playing partisan politics during these challenging times."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
HELP Marks Up Two Gregg Bills
By Max Heuer
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2002--The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved a pile of bills Wednesday, two of which were sponsored by the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH).
Gregg sponsored the bipartisan Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act with committee chairman. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act with Kennedy and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).
The food allergen legislation would require food companies to identify major food allergens on a product's label.
The second bill includes a reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which Gregg supports.
"Each year, close to one million children in the United States are abused or neglected," Gregg said in a press release. "These funds will help provide grants to states for additional training for child and family service workers."
The measure also includes new state requirements aimed at improving accountability and service.
Gregg also supported bills aimed at preventing birth defects and developmental disabilities, increasing funding for pharmacy education and adding funds for the Education Department for research and for new National Research and Development Centers. All three bills also were approved Wednesday.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Gregg Makes Case for West Nile Virus Bill
By Max Heuer
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2002--New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg (R) made the case this week for the need to increase funding for research and programs to combat the West Nile virus, a growing peril around the country that is spreading in the Granite State
"We're seeing in my state the death of the bird population, which is clearly tied to West Nile virus infection, and the fact is that [the virus] could be transmitted to humans in northern New England," Gregg said Tuesday at a joint Senate hearing on the virus by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Governmental Affairs Subcommittee On Oversight Of Government Management, Restructuring and the District of Columbia.
While there are no reports of human infection in New Hampshire to date, about 100 birds have tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire since May compared to a total of 83 birds in all of 2001.
While mosquitoes spread the virus, it is prevalent in many birds.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says there is no evidence to suggest transfer from person to person or from animal to person, ruling out any direct bird-to-human transfer. But the CDC also noted that the presence of dead birds in an area might indicate that the virus is being spread from mosquitoes to birds.
The most recent finding this week was a dead bird from Loudon. This development confirmed "that West Nile virus continues to spread across our state, and northward," Dr. Jose Montero, chief of the New Hampshire bureau of communicable disease, said in a press release Wednesday.
For most humans, exposure to the virus usually brings flu-like symptoms, according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.
But the virus can be fatal to the elderly, young children and people with weakend immune systems.
Both Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Health Committee, and committee chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA) highlighted the spread of the virus this year in particular.
The virus was first discovered in New York City in 1999. A total of 151 cases and 19 deaths from the virus were reported through 2001.
This year, however, the numbers have spiked - as of Wednesday, 98 people had died and 2,072 cases had been reported to the CDC. The virus also has spread west, with its highest incidences this year in Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, and Ohio.
"The news of the spread of the West Nile virus at such a fast rate is alarming," Gregg said in a press release this week.
Gregg introduced legislation last week that would provide $100 million to the CDC to develop mosquito abatement programs, a method of chemical spraying over large land areas to prevent the spread of the disease in mosquitoes.
The bill also directs the National Institutes of Health to research insect control methods and asks various organizations, including the Red Cross, to look into the virus's potential impact on blood supply.
At Tuesday's hearing, Gregg pressed Dr. Jesse L. Goodman, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, on how long it would take to set up a testing system for the virus in blood banks.
Goodman said a testing system could be available as soon as next summer, but added that would be "an optimistic" outlook. Another major issue, Gregg said, is the need to balance the environmental concerns with the need to combat a fatal virus.
"Obviously we're known for years that certain types of spraying do have a significant environmental impact," he said. "Is it appropriate for us, however, to initiate aggressive spraying programs in the face of those environmental impacts because the human impact of not doing the spraying is more significant?"
Among those testifying about the issue was CDC director Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding.
"Spraying usually is really the last resort, and the · assistance that CDC provides usually suggests that we not institute spraying programs until there are actually human cases in an area, because we try to deal with the problem through all other means first," Gerberding said.
The CDC recommends the use of insect repellent that contains the chemical DEET to ward off mosquitoes carrying the virus, but warns that infants should not use it. DEET is safe for use on young children in a concentration no higher than 10 percent, Gerberding said.
A vaccine for the West Nile virus is in the works and may be available in about three years, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at the committee hearing.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Gregg Breaks with Bush on 9/11
By Max Heuer
WASHINGTON, Sept 25, 2002--New Hampshire's two Republican Senators have ended up on different sides on the question of whether an independent commission is needed to investigate the events that led up to the Sept. 11 attacks.
A measure sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) was approved, 90-8, on Tuesday as an amendment to the Homeland Security bill.
President Bush, who initially had opposed the idea, supported it last week after Senate Democrats agreed to exclude the White House from the investigations.
Sen. Bob Smith, recently defeated in his re-election bid, supported the amendment, but the White House endorsement wasn't enough for Sen. Judd Gregg, who served as President Bush's s debate practice partner when Bush prepared to face Al Gore during the 2000 presidential election.
"I feel very strongly that in this instance we know most of what happened," Gregg said Thursday. "We know there were huge failures in the intelligence community, we know that people that were out there who were threatening us were not being properly tracked.
"I think there are a lot better places to put the money," Gregg said, estimating that the commission will cost $10 million to $15 million.
Smith, noting in a press release that he supported the president's request for the commission, said, "As we work to establish a Department of Homeland Security, the more we can learn about the facts and circumstances that led up to the horrific events, the better we can protect our country from future terrorist activity."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
