Category: Kenneth St. Onge
WIA Reauthorization Concerns Regional Planners
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2004 – Last Sunday, after almost four years, Marisol Morales won her battle to get off welfare and find a job.
“I didn’t only do it for myself, I had to do it for the boys, too,” said the single mother of a three-year-old son and the caretaker a five-year-old nephew she is in the process of adopting. She had been on welfare since her son was born. After two months on the staff at Habit Management Institute in Lawrence, she was excited to receive her final welfare check.
Morales credits her success to the Valley Works Career Center on South Union Street in Lawrence. As part of the center’s structured work program she finished her GED, earned certificates in phlebotomy and medical office management and worked in a training program at Habit Management for two months before being hired in October.
Valley Works in Lawrence, like its sister center in Haverhill, is one of 39 centers across the state and nearly 2,000 nationwide that form the backbone of the government funded American workforce development system.
Congress established one-stop career centers in 1998 under the Workforce Investment Act, which combined more than 60 job training programs into single locations where three kinds of people – youths, disadvantaged adults and workers who have been laid off–could receive training best suited to their individual needs. Keeping with that idea, Congress designated three separate funding streams for each group
As early as next year, that could all change – but few know how and some local administrators are concerned what the changes could bring. Although the programs were designed and funded by Congress to treat groups of workers differently, some members of Congress – backed by the President – would like to revise those guidelines and let governors determine how to spend the money.
The Workforce Investment Act expired in 2003 and Congress failed to reauthorize it before adjourning earlier this month. After separately passing alternative versions of the bill, the House and Senate failed to reach a compromise, leaving it to be reintroduced in the new Congress.
Although the program continues to be funded, there is a growing disagreement over how best to do so. That controversy is likely to resurface if the bill is introduced next year.
House Republicans, led by Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), favor consolidating the three separate funds into a single block grant to the states to be spent under the discretion of their governors. McKeon sponsored a bill to make those changes in May 2003, which passed, 220-204.
McKeon, said his spokesman, Vartan Djihanian, plans to reintroduce the bill with only a few small changes early in the next session.
In the Senate, Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo.) introduced a bill that would leave the original structure intact, saying it provides greater flexibility to local economies, which have needs that can vary greatly within a state. The Senate passed the bill, and the competing versions were sent to Senate and House negotiators in November 2003.
The White House favors the single block grant approach, saying it would eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and save money that could be spent on more training, said Ken Lisaius, a White House spokesman.
Some congressional scholars see the single block grant proposal as a first step toward scrapping the program
“Once a program is block-granted, one of two things happens, sometimes both,” said Margy Waller, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, “Either Congress loses interest because they don’t control how the dollars are spent or they get uncomfortable with the fact they’ve given so much authority to states and local government.”
Under the current system, funds are distributed in Massachusetts according to a federal formula that takes into account the growth of the region’s population and workforce. Congress allocates money into three separate streams for each of the three categories of workers.
That money goes to the Massachusetts Department of Career Services, which distributes it to the state’s 16 regional Workforce Investment Boards. Under the McKeon bill, those funds would have been consolidated and the governor would have been free to designate each of the funds for any relevant purpose in a region.
“If they change the funding, I think the concern is that someone is going to lose somewhere,” said Stephanie Powers, CEO of the Washington-based National Association of Workforce Boards. “We don’t know how that’s going to play out because every state will be different in how it uses the money.”
“I think the conventional wisdom here in Washington is that consolidation is always next to cutting funding,” she said.
The Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board runs the two Valley Works Career Centers. The board’s 39 members decide how best to train workers to fit the region’s available jobs.
“It could make the funding streams more difficult in terms of how you would allocate money because right now it comes down in separate money and we service people through separate categories,” said Arthur Chilingirian, executive director of the
Department of Training and Development, the regional entity that administers the board’s funds.
“My sense of it is that the president thinks that by going to a block grant, you cut administrative costs and you bring more training into the programs,” Chilingirian said. “But I’m not sure how that’s going to work.”
It has been the lack of funds, rather than the structure of the program, that remains the largest obstacle in helping customers of the center, he said. The board receives 84 percent of its money from the federal government and, including emergency grants to assist workers dislocated by major closings such as Lucent’s local plant, the budget has decreased over the last four years.
“We’re not sure at the local level how it will impact,” Chilingirian said. “But there definitely could be a change in the way the funding stream would be. If it comes block granted it’s definitely going to change the way business would be done.”
The region faces a range of workforce problems, said Shaw Rosen, executive director of the Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board. Those problems reflect the local economic conditions, she said, such as bringing in first-time workers and youths who need assistance in developing skills to re-employing workers laid off because of recent closings.
The centers’ programs are focused on preparing workers for available jobs in the region, she said, and that task is often a challenge since no single worker faces exactly the same circumstances.
Methuen natives Robert Pomerleau, 58, and his wife, Mary Pomerleau, 53, faced the challenge of re-entering the workforce after being laid off when Lucent closed its plant in North Andover in 2002.
Robert Pomerleau had been an employee there for five years, having spent 18 months as a consultant before being hired. His wife had been at Lucent for 32 years.
“I was providing PC support to about 700 Bell labs employees before I left,” said Robert, who now works as an instructor at Northern Essex Community College and has a small consulting business.
“The psychological support was as important as anything I received,” he said of his re-training experience.
At the center, the Pomerleaus attended workshops and went through mock interviews. They were both certified in Microsoft Office, which Robert now teaches. Mary also was certified in medical terminology. She ultimately found a job at a CPA firm in North Andover by answering a newspaper advertisement.
“It’s kind of scary getting back out into the market when you have not had to look for a job for 30 years,” she said. “Seeing other people who are in the same situation as you kind of helps also. You don’t feel like you are all by yourself.”
Although it is too early to tell what impact consolidation of the three funding streams might have on regional entities, planners are concerned that it could diminish local control
“That’s where the rubber hits the road, and we need flexibility to meet the local needs,” the National Association of Workforce Boards’ Powers said. “Nobody goes to the statehouse looking for work and nobody goes to the statehouse to hire.”
“It certainly will depend on the governor,” Rosen said. “Economic development happens locally. The importance of preserving the role of a regional board is very important.”
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Intel Overhaul Highlights
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2004 -The intelligence overhaul bill that the Senate sent to the White House Wednesday includes these major provisions:
. Establishes the post of director of national intelligence to oversee and coordinate intelligence gathering across the government, including the FBI and the CIA and some, but not all, military intelligence agencies;
. Creates a National Counterterrorism Center, under the office of the national intelligence director, to plan intelligence and counterterrorism operations. Regional National Intelligence Centers and a National Counterproliferation Center would also be created;
. Sets national standards for driver's licenses and other government-issued identification cards;
. Mandates that the Homeland Security Department develop plans for using "biometric" information (such as fingerprints or facial features) to identify individuals;
. Instructs the President to institute an "information-sharing environment" to inform relevant agencies of new information about terrorist activities;
. Authorizes the Transportation Security Administration to begin testing a new pre-screening system for airline passengers by Jan. 1 and develop a similar system for cruise ships. The agency must also develop an enhanced cargo-screening system within eight months;
. Encourages the Treasury Department to work with international groups to promote improved standards for halting terrorist-financing and money laundering.
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Congress Signs Intel Overhaul
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2004 - After a month of wrangling over budgets and immigration and an initially fruitless attempt at compromise before Thanksgiving, the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly last Tuesday and Wednesday to implement the key 9-11 Commission recommendations and create the post of national intelligence director.
On Tuesday, the House approved the intelligence overhaul legislation 336-75, with a relatively minor change, the compromise hammered out before Thanksgiving by House and Senate negotiators. Reps. Martin Meehan (D-Lowell) and Jeb Bradley (R-Wolfesboro) both voted for the bill.
"I am deeply gratified that the leaders in Congress . have put partisan and territorial concerns aside to take a critical step forward for our national security," Meehan said. "Over three years after 9-11, agreement on intelligence reform has been sorely overdue."
To Bradley, the bill "marks significant progress in our nation's effort to defeat and deter terrorism. I am pleased to support legislation that improves our nation's intelligence-gathering capabilities while at the same time ensures that our troops have access to battlefield information, which will protect their safety and enable them to succeed in their mission."
Some Republicans, including Bradley, were disappointed that some provisions in the original House bill aimed at curbing illegal immigrants were left out of the final version. Those issues are likely to be a high priority in the next Congress, he said, noting that House leaders and President Bush "have provided assurances that these issues .will be dealt with early in the next session."
On Wednesday, the Senate approved the compromise, 89-2. Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) voted for the compromise, as did Sen. John Kerry (D), who had missedthe vote on the original proposal. New Hampshire Sens. Judd Gregg (R) and John Sununu (R) also voted for the bill.
Kerry, who along with Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) did not vote on the original legislation, issued a statement saying "it's time to respond to the 9/11 Commission and the courageous voices of 9/11 families. With today's vote, the Senate can take the first step in doing what's right for our country's security."
Judd Gregg, called the bill "a step in the right direction" but said further steps remain to be taken in correcting "leadership" failures within the intelligence community.
Sununu, who served on the conference committee that negotiated the final version of the legislation, said the bill "removes the outdated, stove-pipe structure of our intelligence organizations."
The bill, which President Bush is expected to sign next week, will create a national intelligence director to advise agencies such as the CIA and FBI on intelligence priorities and make budget recommendations. The bill also establishes a national counterterrorism center under the supervision of the national intelligence director.
Final passage of the bill had been held up in the House because of concerns by some House Republicans, particularly Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, over how the reordering of intelligence gathering could affect the flow of intelligence to the battlefield.
When Hunter agreed to language clarifying the Pentagon's control over such field
intelligence, the bill sailed through the House.
"The President has always wanted a strong national intelligence director with full budget authority, while protecting the [military] chain of command," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said during a briefing on Tuesday. "There are a lot of stakeholders with very good, legitimate concerns about preserving that. The President was one of them. He certainly wants a bill that preserves the chain of command. And so that's why there was ongoing and good-faith discussions about how best to write the language, the fine print of this piece of legislation that will reform our nation's intelligence services for generations to come. And it was good that we acted carefully and deliberately."
The final 9-11 Commission report, which was released in July and condemned the U.S. intelligence community's "failures of imagination, policy, capabilities and management," helped generate a swell of support behind legislation to implement its recommendations.
For 29-year-old Carie Lemack, a Framingham native whose mother, Judy Larocque, was a passenger on one of the hijacked planes on Sept. 11, approval of the bill was bittersweet.
"We didn't want other victims' families in the future to say, 'If you had just done what the commission had said, I wouldn't be a victim's family member.' That was our motivation," she said.
Carie and her sister Danielle helped co-found Families of September 11, a group that campaigned heavily for the bill's passage. She organized a five-day vigil last week at the Boston memorial site, hoping to pressure the House leadership to bring the bill for a vote.
"It's hard," she said. "I feel like I want to tell my mom all about it - about all the things that have happened in the past three years.. But she's still not here, and that's very difficult."
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On George Peabody
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2004 - To those who know his family history, it makes sense that Lawrence-born George Peabody would be a leader in a group that on Thursday challenged Congress to affirm a new vision for the National Mall.
"It has become a center stage not just for monuments, celebrations and varied public uses, but for social movements that have shaped our history," said the report by the National Coalition to Save Our Mall, a Maryland-based citizens group for which Peabody serves as secretary. "It's a metaphor for our burgeoning democracy."
In his small role with that group, which aims to preserve open space in the maze of museums, monuments and memorials the Mall has become, Peabody said he is partially fulfilling his family's tradition of public service.
"He's our wise soul," said Cheryl Terio, the coalition's director.
The middle child in a family where public life is a generations-old custom, it was expected that Peabody would carry on the tradition. Along with his brother and sister, Peabody, more than eight decades ago at the age of two, left Lawrence, where he was born into one of the oldest and most prominent families in the state. His father, a priest at Grace Episcopal Church, left for a new parish in Pennsylvania.
His older sister, Marietta, who went on to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations with Adlai Stevenson, was the eldest of the five children of Malcolm Peabody and Mary Parkman. Their second oldest, Endicott, known as "Chub," would become governor of Massachusetts from 1963-65 and a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. George's younger brother, Sam, went on to a successful real estate career in New York. Malcolm, the youngest, became a teacher and a leader in the charter school movement.
"I think, from my family, I was influenced by two things," Peabody said in a recent interview, "a certain rebelliousness and a certain confidence at the same time. The kind of confidence that mother had when she went to jail."
In 1964, his 72-year-old mother joined civil rights protesters in St. Augustine, Fla., where she was promptly arrested for helping African-Americans disobey the state's Jim Crow laws. It made national headlines: Massachusetts socialite, cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt, mother of sitting governor of Massachusetts, arrested for protesting. Martin Luther King Jr. called her one of the "heroes of St. Augustine."
George Peabody has tried to exemplify those qualities throughout his careers, he said. He joined the Coast Guard and served as a gunnery officer on the ship that carried three of the marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima.
According to Harry Haskell, his best friend since age five and World War II crewmate, after their first year in the Coast Guard, he and Peabody - both nearsighted - tricked their way into officer candidate school, by surreptitiously putting on contact lenses to pass the eye exam.
"It was George's idea," Haskell said. "What a wonderful man."
Later, as an Episcopal priest, Peabody resigned from the church over political differences to spend eight months following community organizer Saul Alinsky.
Since 1980, Peabody has lived in Washington, where he teaches about leadership to clients such as the CIA and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Although he has long since left Lawrence, Peabody recalled returning several years ago to preach a sermon in the same church his father had nearly 80 years earlier.
"I was preaching a sermon about my mother and I mentioned that she had been given this very fine painting by a famous French painter," he said. "Since it was showing a little bit too much bosom, my mother gave it to the rummage sale where it sold for about 50 cents. I said, 'Somebody here has to remember the family who bought this important French painting. It's probably up in your attic.' Having said that, I expected everyone to leave."
While in Lawrence he was able to locate the Prospect Street house he was born in.
Despite his many years' absence, the shape of the house was etched in his memory, he said.
"It just felt right," he said.
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Smithsonian Gets Seinfeld’s “Puffy Shirt”
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 - Starting next week, the "puffy shirt" worn by comedian Jerry Seinfeld on his hit show will hang alongside Kermit the Frog and Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz at The Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
"Of all the forms of theater we have in America, what we seem to remember most is situation comedy," said cultural historian Dwight Bowers addressing an after-hours gathering Thursday to welcome the new donation. "It reminds us of ourselves. of a world that is sometimes more surreal than real."
Museum director Brent Glass said the piece complemented the museum's collection because "we tell the story of America here."
Along with the shirt, which will hang in the museum's "Icons of Popular Culture" display, the Smithsonian also received an original script of the episode. In it, Seinfeld's character, after being asked by the "low-talker" girlfriend of his neighbor, Kramer, unwittingly agrees to wear the pirate-like shirt for an appearance on the Today Show.
Seinfeld, on hand to celebrate the donation, reminisced about spending time at the museum before he began acting. He said he drew comedic inspiration from a toothbrush that was "on-loan" from the collection of astronaut Neil Armstrong. "I remember thinking: 'Come on Neil, Give 'em the toothbrush,'" he said.
"The Smithsonian philosophy is the opposite of mine, which is to throw everything out," Seinfeld said. "You see, I believe the world is divided into garbage and pre-garbage. Thank you for including me in the world's greatest collection of pre-garbage."
Environmental Groups Elaborate Defensive Posture
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON – Expecting significant challenges by an increased Republican congressional majority, environmental groups are likely to find themselves locked in a defensive battle over spending and legislation with both Congress and the Bush administration during the next two years, their leaders said at a briefing Wednesday.
Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters, dismissed a recent statement by Mike Leavitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, that the Nov. 2 election victory was a mandate for President Bush’s environmental agenda. Her group’s “state partners are preparing for a devolution on environmental policy from the Bush administration,” she said.
Added Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust: “The environment is likely to be one of the top targets in the next Congress.… The strategy will be to help corporate allies,” who will argue that “we don’t know when we will have the majorities that we have again. Now we want environmental laws weakened.”
Technical maneuvering in the packaging of bills by the party leadership poses one of the biggest threats to environmental legislation, Marchant Wentworth, legislative representative of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said. Existing environmental law could be restructured by adding riders to unrelated bills such as military appropriations for Iraq or by referring legislation to committees more inclined toward deregulation.
Although in a defensive posture, the groups outlined a series of strategies they could follow in the next two years to counteract environmental deregulation. They will try to put pressure on the administration to work toward a global climate change accord like the Kyoto Protocol, Clapp said, which could help the President, who rejected it, as he tries to bridge gaps with allies who were signatories to that agreement.
The environmental groups may also lobby moderate Republicans, such as incoming Budget Committee chairman Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who in the past have shown support for environmental legislation. Republicans have a majority in both the House and Senate but are still vulnerable to dissent by moderates. That could lend those members added political weight, Clapp said.
“The Judd Greggs of the world are concerned with their drinking water,” Wentworth said.
Gregg, at a press conference Wednesday announcing his promotion to chairman, declined to speculate on the implications his new position would have on issues such as drilling for oil in a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Another strategy the environmental advocates identified was working with state-level groups to promote local initiatives. Callahan, noting the success that state ballot referenda had on bringing pro-environment voters to the polls on Nov. 2, said her group supported 147 ballot initiatives on land conservation in 25 states, 111 of which passed. Those efforts would continue to be a part of its broader strategy on encouraging environmental reform.
In Massachusetts, for example, 10 towns (including Groveland and Middleton) adoptedthe Community Preservation Act on Nov. 2. Already in effect in a number of areas statewide, (including North Andover, Boxford and Georgetown) the initiative authorizes ? a local property tax surcharge to generate money for open space, affordable housing, historic preservation and recreation. The state provides matching grants for the funds raised through the surcharge.
During the final period before the election, Clapp said, Bush attempted “to green up” his record, visiting swing states such as Florida and Michigan, where he announced significant new funding to clean up the Everglades and the Great Lakes .
Those efforts, Callahan said, suggest that a lack of support for environmentalism can be a political vulnerability.
“It’s dangerous for politicians to have to defend rolling back clean air and environmental enforcement,” she said.
But now that the elections have passed, Clapp said, it’s less clear how that dynamic will play out.
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Meehan Dominates Cash on Hand
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 – Fifth District Rep. Martin Meehan (D-Lowell) has more money in his campaign coffers than any other House candidate in the country, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks money in elections.
According to the center’s Website, as of Sept. 30 Meehan’s campaign held approximately $4.2 million.
“They’re overwhelmingly [from] Massachusetts and entirely individual,” Meehan spokesman Matt Vogel said of his boss’s nearly 3,000 donors. “It’s a grassroots effort by those who know him best.”
Cash on hand can lend a significant advantage to an incumbent by discouraging others from seeking office, said Steve Weiss of the Center for Responsive Politics. In the 2002 election cycle, he said, the candidate who spent the most won 95 percent of the time in the House and 76 percent of the time in the Senate.
In this election cycle, approximately 78 percent of Meehan’s contributions came from donors inside Massachusetts – putting him among the top 10 nationwide in totals raised by a candidate in his home state, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Meehan, who has pledged not to accept political action committee money, has relied on individual donors to provide all of his contributions – approximately $2.7 million through Sept. 30. Those contributions, which are capped at $4,000 per election cycle ($2,000 for a primary and $2,000 for the general election), have come from individuals affiliated with a range of industries, including law, real estate and construction.
Among Meehan’s top group of contributors are donors affiliated with the Middlesex Corp. in Littleton and JF White construction company in Framingham. He also has received contributions from donors affiliated with Triton Systems in Chelmsford and Raytheon, which is headquartered in Waltham.
In what could become an important subtext for the November election, Seventh District Rep. Edward Markey (D) now ranks third on the national list with approximately $2.7 million on hand. Both Meehan and Markey have expressed interest in running for John F. Kerry’s Senate seat if Kerry is elected president.
An election to replace Kerry would take place next spring. Under federal law campaign funds raised for a House race can be carried over to another federal race, such as for the U.S. Senate.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Meehan and Markey are among the highest in the House in contributions from advertising and public relations affiliates, with Markey taking $36,750 and Meehan taking $27,000, ranking them second and third in the nation respectively. They also lead the nation in contributions from affiliates of the business services sector, with Markey’s $86,750 ranking third among House members and Meehan ranking fourth with $81,950.
Between Aug. 25 and Sept. 30, the last reporting period for the Federal Election Commission, Markey outpaced any other Massachusetts candidate raising approximately $600,000. Meehan raised approximately $230,000.
More than 60 percent of Markey’s donations from individuals – over $870,000 – came from outside Massachusetts, placing him among the top-10 incumbents nationwide in totals raised outside of a candidate’s home state, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
A number of other House members have expressed interest in a Senate race to replace Kerry, most prominently Reps. Barney Frank (D-Newton), William Delahunt (D-Quincy) and Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston).
All trail Markey and Meehan in terms of cash on hand: Delahunt currently has $1.8 million while Lynch and Frank each have approximately $500,000.
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Could Florida Happen Again?
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 – A court could end up determining the winner of the presidential election if John Kerry or George W. Bush fail to win by a significant margin in enough states to guarantee an Electoral College victory, said a panel of experts assembled at the National Press Club Friday to discuss the possibility of a repeat of 2000..
“Could Florida happen again? I get that question all time,” said Doug Chapin, executive director of the non-partisan electionline.org. “I think the answer is ‘yes,’ but not for the reason most people expect.”
Chapin said public scrutiny of the presidential election – the first following the 2000 recount and the first under the recently enacted Help America Vote Act – will be very high and could amplify any incident where voting practices are questioned.
Such scrutiny could lay the foundation for a recount or lawsuit in states where either candidate’s margin of victory is small, Chapin said.
That scenario may be likely, as recent polls indicate that the winner in several battleground states, particularly Ohio, is too close to predict.
In such a scenario, the use of “provisional ballots,” created in the aftermath of 2000 to help avoid allegations of disenfranchisement, would take center stage, said Chapin –just as hanging chads and butterfly ballots did in 2000.
Provisional ballots are given to voters whose registrations cannot be immediately verified at a polling place. This measure provides for a voter to receive a provisional ballot, bearing his identification, which would be stored separately from regular ballots.
Those ballots are subject to verification by election officials, but would not be counted unless their total exceeds either candidate’s margin of victory.
Provisional ballots are being used in Massachusetts. Lawrence City Clerk Bill Maloney said his office finalized the city’s master list of registered voters Friday afternoon. He said he expects a large voter turnout of 29,000 people in the city’s 24 polling places.
“I think we’re seeing more reform in the last four years than we’ve seen in the last hundred,” said Paul DeGregorio, a member of the United States Election Assistance Commission. That group, established by the Help American Vote Act, has distributed $1.5 billion to 44 states to reform voting procedures.
“We are determined to serve voters in a non-partisan way,” he said.
“This will be the most important election of our lifetimes,” said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, an advocacy group that deals with civic participation and civil rights issues. “We are not just electing a president. [The winner] will have a number of Supreme Court appointments.”
Neas said his group has formed an “Election Protection Coalition” to provide 25,000 poll monitors and 6,000 lawyers nationwide, focused mostly on predominantly minority precincts, to assist voters who feel their registrations have been unfairly challenged.
Calling the action “Freedom Fall,” Neas compared Tuesday’s endeavor to the “freedom summer” of 1964 where activists went to the South to register African-American voters.
Benjamin Ginsberg, a lawyer for the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign, disagreed that the outcome of the election will be challenged in a court. “I am of the belief that lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place… history doesn’t repeat itself exactly,” he said.
He dismissed Democratic allegations of Republican attempts to disenfranchise voters. He said that Republicans are concerned with maintaining the integrity of the voting process and avoid situations where “Dick Tracy, Daffy Duck, Jive Turkey and Mary Poppins are all registered to vote and, come to find out, Poppins isn’t even a United States citizen.”
Despite the looming possibility of litigation and the close margins in many battleground states, all except Chapin said the outcome of the election will probably be decided by Nov. 3.
But that doesn’t mean it will be without controversy,
“The woods really aren’t any drier that they were four years ago,” Chapin said. “Just a lot more people have matches.”
Reps. Reflect on 108th
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON Oct. 22 – Two years ago, newly-elected Rep. Jeb. Bradley (R-N.H.) came to Washington with four priorities—terrorism, the economy, veterans’ benefits and affordable heath care. Some of the issues have been addressed he thinks. Others will await the next Congress.
The tax cut package passed in September was the most significant accomplishment of the entire 108 th Congress, the former small business owner said in an interview Wednesday.
“I think the fact that we passed the stimulus plan was a really big accomplishment in terms of helping us to grow jobs,” Bradley said. “It was hard to get it through but it was well worth it, certainly from my visits around the state.”
Bradley, who is a member of the House Armed Services committee, also listed a few lower profile items as personal legislative victories—provisions to increase military pay and reduce out of pocket housing costs, an increase in funding for veterans’ health care and authorization of an increase of 20,000 troops.
“Between the armed services bill and homeland security,” Bradley said, “the Congress is addressing the threats that face our nation.”
But some feel that the Congress may not be addressing other issues.
“I don't think this Congress will be judged very well by history,” Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Sarah Binder said.
“Although quite a number of ‘big things’ were done in 2003, Congress deadlocked on a number of major measures towards the end of 2004,” she said. “Given that this was a period of unified Republican control of the White House and Congress, historians will reasonably have expected a bit more success in addressing major issues of the day.”
Future historians, reflecting on the 108 th Congress, might look at two bills in particular—the expansion of Medicare and the tax cut package—Binder said, noting that Medicare bill’s passage was “extremely contentious and was largely opposed by Democrats and even some Republicans.”
Looking back, another congressman, Rep. Martin Meehan (D-Lowell), said he is not sure there were any significant accomplishments.
“This wasn’t a do-nothing Congress,” Meehan said in an Oct. 14 interview. “It was a do-harm Congress. I don’t think there were many accomplishments—few and far between. The successes were a handful of things.”
Among that handful Meehan, also a member of the Armed Services Committee, said he is most proud of are provisions to reimburse families who had purchased body armor for troops overseas, and bills to prevent torture on military installations.
He also said securing economic development funding for the area, including $1.5 million for Gateway Project, $175,000 for the Lawrence Boys and Girls Club and $100,000 for Lawrence General Hospital, was a major personal accomplishment.
Although this Congress has not officially adjourned—the intelligence bill has yet to pass and a “lame-duck” session following the Nov. 2 election is likely—a number of priorities remain for the 109 th Congress. What those priorities are may depend less on who is elected to Congress and more on who is elected president.
“If Bush is re-elected,” Binder said, “we should see more of the same: GOP efforts to reduce taxes, reign in malpractice, reduce class-action law suits, and so forth. If Kerry is elected, domestic issues, like jobs, wages, the economy and health care, are likely to rise to the top. How either party will maneuver given increasing deficits is difficult to see.”
Bradley said that, if re-elected, his priorities would be economic development and medical liability reform.
“Clearly it will depend on who wins the presidency,” he said. “But I wouldn’t even be able to speculate in terms of what it might mean.”
Meehan, who plans to focus on providing health care if re-elected, agreed that the direction of the next Congress will depend significantly on the outcome of the presidential election.
"A fear I have is control by one political party in the House, Senate and Presidency,” he said. “We need more checks and balances. I think Kerry will win, but I would be concerned with a lack of checks and balances with one party controlling the entire government.”
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Workforce Growth a Priority for Congressman
By Ken St. Onge
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 – Echoing concerns of regional planners in Northeastern Massachusetts, national lawmakers and industry trade groups at a “High-Tech Summit” here Wednesday said that plans to promote economic growth in the high technology sector must include educating the workforce in math and science and reducing healthcare costs.
“It is essential for us if we are going to be competitive,” said House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) addressing the Capitol Hill summit sponsored by the Information Technology Industry Council, an industry trade group. “It’s about realizing our priorities.”
Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., in an interview Friday, agreed with Pelosi’s statements. “Any strategy to lift wages and create new jobs has to include investing in technology and the skills and long-term potential of our workforce,” he said.
Meehan added that, in the valley, community colleges are a logical place for workforce training to occur. Northern Essex Community College has a history of working with local companies to create technical training programs for employees.
“I think we’re building a structure between the vocational and technical high schools, colleges and universities,” said Michael Pelletier, chairman of the computer technology and engineering department at the college.
Many students, he said, transfer to four-year colleges with engineering programs.
Pelletier said the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and Merrimack College both offer scholarships for promising students from the community college, which is one of the few in New England offering a program in biomedical electronics.
Developing a skilled workforce, as well as reducing health care costs were among the top priorities identified by John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, in a presentation during the summit.
He touted the results of a Cisco-sponsored study that estimated health care costs could be reduced by as much as 25 percent through increased use of information technology, including greater networking of electronic medical records, computerized physician ordering and remotely monitored specialty care.
Chambers outlined a number of the steps his own company has undertaken such as the Cisco Networking Academy Program, a partnership with high schools, technical colleges, universities and community groups that trains students in information technology. Since the program was introduced in 1997 it has trained more than 260,000 students worldwide, he said.
“One of our top priorities is to prepare children and our workforce for high technology jobs and that means promoting science and math in K-12 and higher education,” said Shannon Feaster of the Information Technology Industry Council. “It also means creating and maintaining growth and jobs by enacting a human capital investment tax credit to help displaced workers find better jobs.”
The human capital investment tax credit would offset the cost of hiring and re-training workers. Supporters argue that the tax credit would provide incentives for employers to look first at displaced American workers with outdated skill sets.
Meehan co-sponsored the Jobs and Growth Reconciliation Act, a bill introduced in May 2003 that would have created a similar tax credit. He also said he favors legislation that rewards companies for retraining and creating domestic jobs and penalizes those who outsource abroad.
Partnerships between public and private companies have fared well in the Merrimack Valley. In 2001, a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor allowed Lucent and Northern Essex Community College to work together to train several hundred employees in electronic testing, said Milton Taylor, a Lucent employee who at the time was an executive board member of the union at Lucent and who helped administer the grant.
Following the 2001 layoffs of 4,000 Lucent employees from the North Andover plant, those partnerships with colleges and job training centers allowed former employees the chance to move into other careers such as medical device repair – a potential high growth industry in the region, said Shaw Rosen, executive director of the Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board.
The board advises regional planners on which industries would prosper when paired with the area’s workforce. The agency’s last recommendation, in October 2003, identified communications and medical instruments and supplies manufacturing (among others) as emerging industries in the region. Rosen said she doesn’t anticipate the 2004 report – expected by late October – to reach substantially different conclusions.
Workforce training and healthcare costs also were identified as major priorities for the valley by Gov. Mitt Romney’s Northeast Regional Competitive Council, according to council member Gaylord Burke. The council met Tuesday to review recommendations it will present to the governor.
