Category: Randy Trick
Meehan Pushes Bill Through to Give Citizenship to Fallen Veterans
By Randy Trick
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2002–A classic case of a constituent asking a congressman for a new law played out here Thursday, as the House passed a bill by Rep. Marty Meehan to give posthumous citizenship to veterans of the Korean War.
Members of the Massachusetts chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish American fraternal group, approached Meehan and two other Democratic congressmen from Massachusetts – Barney Frank of Newton and James McGovern of Worcester – asking if they could do something for Irishmen who died serving in the Korean War but were not yet citizens.
Now the Lowell Democrat has made his constituents proud.
“We’re entirely grateful,” said David R Burke, vice president of the Lawrence chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. “We sure know this will bring comfort to the families.”
It took little effort by the Hibernians to convince Meehan, Frank and McGovern to push the bill. After the bill was introduced, Meehan and the initial co-sponsors found over 60 other lawmakers to sign onto the bill, and it passed the House Thursday with over 400 votes. It has yet to see Senate action.
The bill is an important way to recognize the sacrifices made by foreign soldiers, Meehan said.
“Through this nation’s history immigrants seeking a better life in America felt the call to serve our military,” Meehan said. “It’s very important recognition.”
The legislation, which passed as part of the Department of Justice Authorization Act, would give families of any veteran killed without citizenship two years to apply for posthumous citizenship. A previous law expired in 1992, and Meehan’s bill reopens the window for applications.
The law, if signed by President Bush, would apply to any veteran from anywhere, not just Ireland, and has the support of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.
According to Burke, there are about a half-dozen Irish from Massachusetts killed in the line of duty in the Korean War who were unable to be given posthumous citizenship. Nationwide, 15 Irish families are expected to seek citizenship for their relatives, with hundreds more from other nationalities expected.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Mass. Unemployment Hits Five Percent: Kennedy Proposes Extending Benefits to 2003
By Randy Trick
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2002--The Massachusetts job market, and Lawrence's in particular, received a lot of bad news Wednesday, and a glimmer of some good.
Just as the Massachusetts Division of Employment and Training announced the state unemployment rate has jumped from 3.8 percent to 5 percent from August 2001 to August 2002, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) unveiled a legislative proposal to extend federal unemployment benefits through June 2003 in states with high unemployment.
Massachusetts is included in the list of high unemployment states, Kennedy told reporters at a press conference.
Despite Kennedy's assurance, Massachusetts has only the 25th-highest unemployment rate in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. When Congress extended unemployment benefits in March 2002, many states received 26-week extensions, while the rest of the nation received 13-week extensions. However, Massachusetts stopped qualifying for the 26-week program in June when the state's economy improved slightly.
During the recession in the early 1990s, the 15 states with the highest unemployment received longer extensions, ranging from 20 weeks to 33 weeks, while the other 35 states received extensions of 13 to 26 weeks (see sidebar).
In the Merrimack Valley, the unemployment news coming from Beacon Hill is harder to swallow than elsewhere in the state.
Unemployment in the Lawrence area reached 7.4 percent in August, up from 6 percent during the same month last year. Only the New Bedford area has a higher unemployment rate - 8.1 percent.
But 400 miles down the seaboard, the state's delegation is proposing solutions.
Kennedy's proposal, also written by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, a fellow Democrat, comes as unemployment nationwide has increased by 2.2 million people, to 8.1 million currently collecting benefits.
For nearly 2 million of these unemployed, their benefits will expire in a few weeks, when the extension from last spring ends.
"The bill we introduce today will extend their benefits just as we have every recession over the past three decades," Kennedy said." Families are struggling, and we must act."
Kennedy and his Democratic co-sponsors said they feel they can pass the bill in the Senate in time, but admit the House - where key Republicans already have denounced the bill - will be a tougher sell.
A statement Wednesday by the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee said providing longer benefits would lead to more and longer unemployment.
Kennedy has support in the House from fellow Massachusetts lawmaker Rep. Marty Meehan, a Democrat from Lowell. He has been lining up support from his collogues for Kennedy's proposal.
"The administration's economic program is failing, and we must reach out to protect Massachusetts workers and their families that have lost jobs," Meehan said.
Kennedy's bill would stand a better chance of passing if President Bush were to get behind some kind of economic support package, Kennedy and his co-sponsors said.
"The Bush administration has fought efforts to provide adequate unemployment assistance to workers," Kennedy said. "But the administration can no longer afford to ignore [the issue]."
The cost of extending the benefits will draw $14 billion from the federal Unemployment Benefit Trust Fund, Kennedy said. However, he said, the fund already has a surplus of twice that amount.
The unemployment fund comes from taxes on income and business profits and is meant to help those that cannot find jobs, Kennedy said.
"The funds are already there; they're paid into that fund for this kind of emergency," he said. "It's absolutely irresponsible not to use the funds put aside by hardworking people to help."
The extension bill may not see any action until the Senate finishes debating the Homeland Security Act, which Kennedy hoped would conclude this week. After that, he said, he expected his bill would be discussed.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Showing Lawmakers the Face of Cancer Survivorship
By Randy Trick
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2002--Breast cancer survivor Elizabeth Savard has participated in many "Relay for Life" walks around her home in Methuen, but never in the nation's capital.
She has also never shared her story of survivorship and hope for a cure with a congressman.
On Thursday, she did both.
Savard found a receptive ear on Capitol Hill Thursday as one of four Massachusetts volunteers for the American Cancer Society to visit with Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass. Other volunteers met with other state lawmakers.
The goal of the visits was to ask for support from lawmakers in increasing the budgets of cancer research organizations such as the National Cancer Institute and programs of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, they asked lawmakers to pass the Eliminate Colorectal Cancer Act.
A constituent of Meehan's, Savard was visibly excited when the congressman said he would like to do better than President Bush's proposal to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health over the next five years; he would like it to triple.
Meehan has been fighting cancer on the tobacco front, drafting legislation to control tobacco sales and limit the exposure of tobacco advertising to minors. He is currently working on a bill to ensure that children cannot make tobacco purchases over the Internet.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., also has been working on cancer legislation. Tuesday, Kennedy introduced legislation calling for better survivorship care and for a study of the quality of cancer care. At the announcement of the legislation, Kennedy appeared with four-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong, who overcame testicular cancer.
Lining up legislative support was only one facet of the first-ever event. Throughout the day, cancer survivors, caregivers and others affected by cancer walked laps around the Capitol's reflecting pool.
Later in the evening, the pool was to be lined by thousands of candles honoring cancer patients and survivors.
"This will be like a pebble in a pond," Savard said. "We'll start with this and it will resonate out like ripples."
Since Savard beat her cancer six years ago, she has become part of a support network in Massachusetts. She matches newly diagnosed women with survivors in the area.
"When I first heard I was diagnosed, I was overwhelmed. I felt I was the only one," Savard said. "Then I got a call from a survivor, and it was a relief to know I wasn't alone."
Savard has stayed in touch with the woman who gave her support. They were the same age - 29 years old at the time.
According to the American Cancer Society, 4,700 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer each year, a ripple in a pool of 1.2 million new cases of all kinds of cancer each year, 31,700 of which are in Massachusetts. Each year, 555,500 die from cancer 13,700 of them in the state.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Heating Home With Oil Expected to Jump: Warmer Weather may Lower need, However
By Randy Trick
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2002--The Energy Department predicts the cost of heating the average home with heating oil will increase 42 percent this winter, which has area residents and oil distributors nervous.
The department's forecast, the first so far for the coming winter, predicts the national price of heating oil will rise 15 to 24 percent over last year. The report also forecasts that demand for heating oil will be up by about 18 percent.
The report released last week by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) based its predictions solely on factors affecting the price of crude oil, such as volatility in the Middle East and domestic stockpiles that affect the level of supply. The report considers past oil usage in calculating demand, but does not take into account the predicted severity of the winter.
"We don't try to forecast the weather. We assume it will be a normal winter," said Jonathan Cogan, an EIA energy information specialist.
The EIA is the Energy Department's primary source of comprehensive energy information and statistics. Cogan said the agency's forecasts are updated every month and do a good job forecasting what actual prices will be. Prices in the Northeast rarely vary from national prices because the region is the largest consumer of heating oil, he said.
"We're pretty good at predicting what's going to happen," Cogan said. If anything, he added, "Massachusetts prices may be slightly lower."
But that's little consolation to area residents still facing a hefty increase.
Alice Kluk paid $1,313 to heat her home in Lawrence during the bitter winter of 2000-2001.
Last year, which was much warmer, her bill dropped to $911. The prospect of quadruple-digit costs to stay warm this year is not comforting.
Her house, a refashioned farmhouse that has been in her family for about 90 years has one thermostat, so the entire house is always heated. Based on the Energy Department's forecast, Kluk is looking at a bill near $1,300.
"I'll get by," she said. The 81-year-old widow of 19 years said she has the money to pay higher rates but was not enthusiastic about paying.
"I know everything else is going up - gas, electricity. I'm sure oil will go up too, especially with the situation the world's in," Kluk said.
Companies that sell heating oil are not enthusiastic about the predictions either, although few expressed surprise.
"We keep a close eye on prices," said Lee Marchand III, President of Colonial Oil, in Lowell.
Marchand said he expects prices to be 10 to 15 percent higher than last year's, and figures prices will stay below $1.19 a gallon.
Last year, with winter temperatures warmer than normal, businesses like Marchand's were hurt by low demand and sales were off, he said. "We're still trying to catch up from last year," Marchand said.
"We like it when heating oil prices go down, because competition decreases, and it saves customers money," he said.
When prices increase, he said, heating oil distributors in New England "start climbing all over each other," hurting businesses and driving up prices further for residential customers. "It's the little guy that gets hurt."
Colonial Oil, serving customers within a 20-mile radius of Lowell, is admittedly a "little guy," according to Marchand.
Besides the availability of oil, weather factors affecting demand contribute to overall heating costs.
Yesterday the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration released its climate predictions for the coming fall and winter, saying Northeasterners can expect warmer than usual conditions.
"Expect something much like last year," said Jim Laver, director of the climate prediction center at the national weather office.
A moderate El Nino system in the Pacific Ocean will make the northern part of the nation warmer than usual, while the southern tier will be wetter than usual, the agency said.
"By no means do we imply there won't be winter," Laver said. "It's twice as likely there will be East Coast storms," but they will be warmer.
To businesses whose bottom line relies on heating oil demand, the winter outlook is not great news.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
