Category: Anthony Bertuca
House Sends Bill to President that Would Protect Gun Industry from Lawsuits
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20-The House passed a bill on Thursday that would grant the gun industry immunity from most civil lawsuits. Because the Senate approved the bill in July, the measure will go directly to President George W. Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.
“A gun manufacturer should not be held liable for a crime committed with their product,” said Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), who voted for the legislation. “Neither should a knife or baseball bat manufacturer be liable for those kinds of damages.”
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act passed , 283-144, with 59 Democrats joining 223 Republicans and 1 Independent.
The bill was part of a larger effort by House and Senate Republicans to pass several lawsuit abuse reform measures and was preceded by House approval a day earlier of a bill to protect the food service industry from lawsuits in obesity-related claims.
“There is a general understanding that this is an overly litigious society,” Bass said. “We have to protect these business owners from overzealous trial lawyers.”
The National Rifle Association, which has contributed more than $30,000 to Bass’ reelection campaigns, has fervently backed the gun legislation from the beginning, according to Sam Cohen, spokesman for Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and a board member of Gun Owners of New Hampshire, a state affiliate of the National Rifle Association.
“It was obvious to anybody that these lawsuits are what lawyers call frivolous and laymen call dishonest,” he said. “It makes no more sense that suing General Motors if a kid gets drunk and runs over somebody with a Chevy.”
Zach Ragbourn, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, attributed the passage of the bill to the Rifle Association’s powerful lobbying tactics and said some lawmakers were missing the point.
“It was the number one priority of a powerful lobbying group who took it behind closed doors,” he said. “It is not a question of holding gun manufactures responsible for a criminal’s actions. It is about holding them responsible for their own behavior that can contribute to a crime. We are not asking them to go on trial for murder, but we are asking that they be held accountable if they are negligent.”
The bill does not grant the gun industry immunity from all lawsuits and makes exceptions for the illegal distribution of weapons or the sale of defective products.
“These lawsuits impose unreasonable burdens on interstate commerce in firearms and ammunition and can have a significant economic impact on this industry,” said Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-N.H.) in a press release. “We should be focusing on the perpetrators who commit crimes with firearms, rather than lawsuits directed against gun manufacturers, which will only restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens.”
Though both chambers have approved the bill, the Brady Campaign has no plans to stop fighting the legislation, according to Ragbourn.
“We hope the President will recognize that the bill is not in the interest of the public and is only in the interest of a very wealthy few,” he said. “But there are many ways in which to fight this bill, and if it becomes law, we will investigate ways to fight it on constitutional grounds.”
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Kennedy and Gregg Team Up to Rebuild the Gulf Coast
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - In an unusual ideological pairing, Sens. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) have crossed party lines and crafted a bipartisan proposal that would create a new federal agency to supervise the recovery of the entire Gulf Coast region.
The senators held a press conference on Tuesday in which they sketched out their plans to create the Gulf Coast Recovery and Disaster Preparedness Agency whose director would be confirmed by the Senate and report directly to the president-a move designed to appeal to lawmakers from both parties who have called for fiscal responsibility in Hurricane Katrina spending.
"They both had been speaking publicly about the need to have some centralized oversight in the expenditure of federal funds in the Gulf Coast," said Erin Rath, a spokeswoman for Gregg. "They were in step on the major concept behind the proposal and have worked for over a month to draft this plan."
The legislation is expected to be successful given the influence both senators wield in their respective parties. Gregg is chair of both the Senate Budget Committee and the Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security and Kennedy, who has served in the Senate for more than 40 years, is the ranking Democrat on several committees.
"On its face, it is an odd relationship given that they are at different ends of the spectrum ideologically," said Mark Wrighton, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. "But on a personal working level, it is not that odd; bipartisan efforts attract votes from both sides of the aisle."
Both men have worked alongside each other for several years on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, although they were generally closer in proximity than in political opinion.
"That personal working relationship is what you are seeing now," Wrighton said.
Kennedy is the patriarch of one of America's most prominent families and perhaps the most outspoken member of the Democratic Party, while Gregg is a legislator who avoids public discourse on divisive issues and prefers to work behind the scenes, Wrighton said.
Despite being at odds on many issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, Gregg and Kennedy have joined together in the past with successful results. In 2003 the senators developed legislation that updated the nation's special education laws.
"Sen. Gregg and I have tackled many important issues together in the past, and I'm pleased that we're again working together to ensure that the region is equipped to rebuild effectively and efficiently," Kennedy said in a statement to the Union Leader. "We share a strong commitment to bringing everyone to the table."
Both men were brought together on a more personal level during the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when they sat together and watched on television as the events unfolded.
"They were together on 9/11," said Laura Capps, a spokeswoman for Kennedy. "They were in the Russell Building in the Senate with the first lady. The first lady had just arrived for an early education hearing in the Russell Caucus room when the planes hit."
The three later held a press conference outside the Russell Building and stood side by side behind Laura Bush.
Like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina has been a unifying force for the nation and its legislators, according to Jennifer Donahue, a senior political advisor at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
"I think the most successful efforts in legislation are bipartisan efforts and Katrina has galvanized that," she said. "With Gregg and Kennedy together on this, it is showing that the full spectrum is covered ideologically."
Though Donahue thinks the legislation will be successful, she said it would be interesting to note the White House's reaction to the proposed creation of another government agency whose leader would be a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate.
"It will be interesting to see how the White House reacts to this particularly at a time when a lot of appointees are up for examination like Harriet Miers and FEMA's Mike Brown," she said. "People may have viewed the idea differently if it came from the president now as opposed to coming from a bipartisan senatorial effort."
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Kennedy and Gregg Team Up to Rebuild the Gulf Coast
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - In an unusual ideological pairing, Sens. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) have crossed party lines and crafted a bipartisan proposal that would create a new federal agency to supervise the recovery of the entire Gulf Coast region.
The senators held a press conference on Tuesday in which they sketched out their plans to create the Gulf Coast Recovery and Disaster Preparedness Agency whose director would be confirmed by the Senate and report directly to the president-a move designed to appeal to lawmakers from both parties who have called for fiscal responsibility in Hurricane Katrina spending.
"They both had been speaking publicly about the need to have some centralized oversight in the expenditure of federal funds in the Gulf Coast," said Erin Rath, a spokeswoman for Gregg. "They were in step on the major concept behind the proposal and have worked for over a month to draft this plan."
The legislation is expected to be successful given the influence both senators wield in their respective parties. Gregg is chair of both the Senate Budget Committee and the Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security and Kennedy, who has served in the Senate for more than 40 years, is the ranking Democrat on several committees.
"On its face, it is an odd relationship given that they are at different ends of the spectrum ideologically," said Mark Wrighton, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. "But on a personal working level, it is not that odd; bipartisan efforts attract votes from both sides of the aisle."
Both men have worked alongside each other for several years on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, although they were generally closer in proximity than in political opinion.
"That personal working relationship is what you are seeing now," Wrighton said.
Kennedy is the patriarch of one of America's most prominent families and perhaps the most outspoken member of the Democratic Party, while Gregg is a legislator who avoids public discourse on divisive issues and prefers to work behind the scenes, Wrighton said.
Despite being at odds on many issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, Gregg and Kennedy have joined together in the past with successful results. In 2003 the senators developed legislation that updated the nation's special education laws.
"Sen. Gregg and I have tackled many important issues together in the past, and I'm pleased that we're again working together to ensure that the region is equipped to rebuild effectively and efficiently," Kennedy said in a statement to the Union Leader. "We share a strong commitment to bringing everyone to the table."
Both men were brought together on a more personal level during the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when they sat together and watched on television as the events unfolded.
"They were together on 9/11," said Laura Capps, a spokeswoman for Kennedy. "They were in the Russell Building in the Senate with the first lady. The first lady had just arrived for an early education hearing in the Russell Caucus room when the planes hit."
The three later held a press conference outside the Russell Building and stood side by side behind Laura Bush.
Like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina has been a unifying force for the nation and its legislators, according to Jennifer Donahue, a senior political advisor at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
"I think the most successful efforts in legislation are bipartisan efforts and Katrina has galvanized that," she said. "With Gregg and Kennedy together on this, it is showing that the full spectrum is covered ideologically."
Though Donahue thinks the legislation will be successful, she said it would be interesting to note the White House's reaction to the proposed creation of another government agency whose leader would be a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate.
"It will be interesting to see how the White House reacts to this particularly at a time when a lot of appointees are up for examination like Harriet Miers and FEMA's Mike Brown," she said. "People may have viewed the idea differently if it came from the president now as opposed to coming from a bipartisan senatorial effort."
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Will New Hampshire Get Company in Early Democratic Primary?
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1-A special Democratic National Committee panel recommended Saturday that at least two states be allowed to join Iowa and New Hampshire as early battlegrounds for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Even if the panel's plan is adopted, however, Iowa and New Hampshire laws require that their nominating elections come before those in any other state.
The Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling's recommendations are tentative. Its final recommendations will be submitted to DNC chairman Howard Dean in December.
Some critics have argued that New Hampshire and Iowa voters are not representative of the national electorate and that other states should be allowed to lead the presidential nominating parade.
The Democratic commission did not single out any states to join Iowa and New Hampshire in holding primaries or caucuses before the official "window" that the party establishes every four years for its presidential nominating contests.
Michigan, after the 2000 election, challenged New Hampshire's primary status, and California, Delaware and New York also have made bids to be first to hold their primaries.
"We want to at least create the framing of a consensus position on the part of the commission members," said former Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, who co-chairs the commission.
Though the commission decided to recommend the expansion of the so-called pre-window period, it will meet once more in the coming months to determine the criteria to be considered for states to join Iowa and New Hampshire.
At Saturday's commission meeting, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan argued for adding more states to the pre-window of early primaries and caucuses for the sake of racial and geographic diversity and to represent a cross-section of the country.
"There is no way we can achieve diversity with one state, no way we can achieve diversity with two states," said Levin, who has long said Iowa and New Hampshire have had unfair influence in deciding presidential nominees.
Former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen and former Ambassador Terry Shumaker, a New Hampshire resident, said New Hampshire should continue to hold the first presidential primary while allowing a few other states to enter the pre-window period. They cautioned that too many states with such early primaries would cause "frontloading" in campaign schedules, drawing out the primary election season and making it more likely the candidate with the most money would win the party's nomination.
'What we really need to do is move this process back," Shaheen said. "As much as we all support diversity...the more states in a window, the more it will contribute to the frontloading of the process."
This was the commission's fourth meeting and was intended to narrow down the different timing scenarios that had been proposed to expand the pre-window period.
Though the DNC cannot force a state to hold a primary or dictate when to hold it, it can disregard the results of an unsanctioned primary or refuse to seat National Convention delegates chosen based on that primary. The DNC can decide when a caucus is held.
Traditionally a controversial topic, the timing of the pre-window period became an issue again in the 2000 election when the Republican National Committee and the DNC used different windows, leaving some to speculate that more media attention may have been focused on the earlier Bush-McCain race than on the Gore-Bradley race several weeks later.
Some Granite Staters remain skeptical that the DNC will ever approve the recommendation or that its approval would make much difference.
"There is still the question of what the candidates will do even after the decision is made," said Ricia McMahon, a New Hampshire state representative. "The candidates know they'll get a fair shake in New Hampshire. Senator [Russell] Feingold [a potential candidate] is up there this weekend."
McMahon is also skeptical of what she said was the effort to "unseat" new Hampshire as the nation's first primary.
"It is in our state law," she said. "They'll just change the day so it is seven days earlier than any other primary."
The Republican National Committee window in 2008 opens the first Tuesday of February, and no one on the commission argued that the RNC would not begin their races in Iowa and New Hampshire.
"It is decision time. and we need to begin to narrow down our options... and make what may be some hard decisions for all of us," said Rep. David Price, who also co-chairs the commission.
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NH Delegation Open to Cutting Transportation Bill to Offset Katrina Costs
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29-New Hampshire lawmakers say they would be open to measures that would cut funds from the special congressional projects earmarked in the federal transportation bill.
"Earmarks" are added to spending bills by congressmen seeking to win more money for special projects in their home districts; this year's $286 billion transportation bill has been assailed by critics for its 6,371 earmarks valued at more than $24 billion.
"At this point, everything is on the table," Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) told the Union Leader. "All possible offset options remain open, including reconsidering highway projects sought by members in the transportation bill."
New Hampshire Rep. Jeb Bradley said he would support cutting the earmarks in the bill that seemed excessive.
"I think the transportation bill is an area we ought to look at," he said. "There are some special projects in there that I think would save us money, like some of the bridges in Alaska and some snowmobile trails." Bradley did not identify any New Hampshire projects that he would consider eliminating.
One earmark authorized for Alaska involved $315 million for a bridge that would serve a rural town of 50 people. Another, authorized for Vermont, allocated $5.8 million for a snowmobile trail, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group critical of "pork barrel" spending.
The suggestion of cutting earmarks to pay for Katrina first caused a stir last week when Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, announced he would be willing to give up the funds for his special projects and urged other lawmakers to do the same.
But because so many congressmen oppose losing the special-project money promised to their districts, cutting the earmarks appears somewhat unlikely, according to Bradley.
"A lot of people are talking about it, but it comes back to what is likely to happen," he said. "Across-the-board reductions in discretionary spending in agriculture, food stamps, Medicaid., that scenario is likely to gain more support."
At $69 million, New Hampshire ranks last in the country in terms of earmarks. Among them are $5.2 million to improve Route 110 in Berlin, $4 million for a study of the effect of salt on the surface of Interstate 93 and $3.6 million to realign an intersection in Claremont.
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), the chairman of the Budget Committee, was one of only four senators to vote against the highway bill. He supports efforts to offset Katrina spending through budget cuts, but did not specify where the cutting should take place.
"Congress has provided $60 billion already for reconstruction, recovery and rehabilitation efforts to help the people in the Gulf Coast region get back on their feet," Gregg told the Union Leader. "Currently, I am working with a number of my colleagues to come up with viable options for finding offsets for this emergency spending. I look forward to finding consensus on a solution that will make the most sense to ensure that we do not deficit-spend."
Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) supports cutting transportation earmarks to pay for hurricane relief.
"As many are well aware, the bill included thousands and thousand of earmarks--about $24 billion worth of earmarks," Sununu said in a press conference last week. "Eliminating those--scaling them back across the board--provides an opportunity for tens of billions of dollars in savings. Although the funding may have been well-intentioned, the budget requires fiscal responsibility, particularly in light of the dire needs associated with reconstruction in the Gulf States."
Critics of the transportation bill have called for the removal of the earmarks as well.
"We support the effort to give back the earmarks, and cutting those projects would be a great start," said Erich Zimmermann, senior policy analyst for Taxpayers for Common Sense. "I hope Congress doesn't leave the hard work for another day, given we are facing record deficits."
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Bradley to Return DeLay Campaign Funds
By Anthony Bertuca and Kathleen D. Tobin
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28- New Hampshire Rep. Jeb Bradley said Wednesday that he will return $15,000 in campaign funds from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political action committee in the wake of the Texas Republican's indictment for criminal conspiracy to violate the state's campaign financing law.
The indictment by a Texas grand jury involves corporate contributions to an arm of the Republican National Committee, with the money going ultimately to Republican candidates for the Texas legislature.
The money Bradley said he would return came from DeLay's leadership political action committee, which does not figure in the indictment. Leadership political action committees are organizations controlled by a politician for the purpose of donating money to other members of their party.
"Today's indictment specifically concerns Rep. DeLay's state of Texas political action committee, TRMPAC [Texans for a Republican Majority]," Bradley said in a statement to the Union Leader. "His federal election PAC, ARMPAC [Americans for a Republican Majority], which has contributed to my campaign, is not under investigation. However, to remove any questions that may arise about his contributions, I will be returning these funds from his federal PAC."
Since his first House campaign, in 2002, Bradley has received $15,000 from ARMPAC.
Rep. Charles Bass will keep the $7,500 he received from ARMPAC in 2000 because that committee is not under investigation, said Scott Tranchemontagne, a campaign spokesman for Bass.
"Those contributions were spent," he said. "Unless new evidence emerges that ARMPAC was in violation, the Bass Victory Committee will keep those funds."
Under House GOP rules, DeLay has stepped down at least temporarily as majority leader.
Earlier this year, both Bass and Bradley voted against changes in House Republican Conference rules that would have allowed members of the leadership to remain in their positions if indicted.
"Congressman DeLay has stepped down from his position as majority leader in response to an indictment," Bass said in a press release. "I believe the rules are appropriate, and their application is justified in this instance."
New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu also received $10,000 in 2002 from DeLay's committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Sununu was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
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Motorists Seek Explanations for High Gas Prices
WASHINGTON. Sept. 23 - New Hampshire motorists have been seeing some minor relief at the pump lately, but some people want to know why gas prices surged when Hurricane Katrina crippled oil production on the Gulf Coast, an area that does not supply New Hampshire with very much oil.
"I think the oil market is in chaos right now," said Rep. Charles Bass. "But that doesn't mean it isn't a good idea to have a discussion about why prices are so high."
On Bass' website he encourages constituents to write in about suspicious gas pricing and possible gouging.
After only four days, Bass' office turned in to the Federal Trade Commission more than 100 letters from New Hampshire motorists.
One motorist wrote on Sept 3: "Just an hour ago I drove by a local Mobil station in North Conway [Big Apple Mobil] and the price for regular unleaded was $2.99 (or may have been $2.89).. Not 45 minutes later when I drove back by, the gas had climbed to $3.29 - that is totally unacceptable."
Another wrote: "A station on the corner of Mast Road and Plummer Rd. in Goffstown (Premium Gas) on Tuesday (8/30) morning was at $2.49 per gallon. Several hours later I drove by and the price had jumped to $2.89, a 40 cent increase.... The next morning, it was $3.25. I'm sorry but there is NO WAY their costs increased 76 cents per gallon in matter of hours. If you have inventory in your tanks already, there is no way you paid a higher price for that fuel. If you do charge more for existing inventory, then you HAVE to be accused of GOUGING."
The FTC is currently conducting a nationwide investigation into the allegations of price fixing and collusion on the part of oil corporations and is expected to file a report with Congress by the end of the year.
"With anomalous activity, like a hurricane, it might make sense to see gas prices in Maryland increasing [because Maryland gets most of its gas from the region struck by Katrina]," said Mitch Katz, spokesman for the FTC. "But in a place like New Hampshire, why is that happening? That is just one of things we'll have to take a look at."
But the federal government is only investigating collusion on the part of corporations like Exxon Mobile or Shell Oil. The price gouging that is historically carried out by independent retailers or franchise owners is left to the states to handle. And New Hampshire has no law preventing an individual retailer from over-pricing his gas.
"We are not looking for gas gouging; the headlines are wrong," said Katz. "We are looking for any instances of illegal fixing or collusion. A retailer can charge whatever they want for a gallon of gasoline."
Bass says he is trying to push through legislation that would double the penalty for collusion by corporations in price gouging, but that one retailer overpricing his gas was boxing himself out the market anyway, and was not much of a threat t consumers.
"He can charge whatever he wants for gas," said Bass. "But if it is $50, you'd be crazy to go to his gas station."
But motorists trying to avoid brand-name retailers that may be overpricing gas should be on the look-out for gas station attendants who claim their credit card machine is broken, according to Tad Furtado, Bass' policy director.
"He wants to be paid cash because he doesn't want the record of his price getting back to the company," said Furtado.
Meanwhile, oil and gas companies say that oil is a global market and whenever there is a disruption in the global supply, prices increase.
"In previous hurricanes, only crude production was lost form platforms in the Gulf of Mexico," said Sara Banaszak, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute. "But with Katrina, there were pipeline and refinery disruptions. This is an unprecedented event and the affects are hard to measure."
The oil industry has regained some of the 11 percent reduction in refining capacity it lost as a result of Katrina, Banaszak said, but with Hurricane Rita tearing its way through the Gulf, the supply disruption may last for quite a while.
On Sept. 23, the price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline ranged from $2.59 to $2.95 in New Hampshire, according to AAA.
"Frankly, our prices are a lower than other states," said Bass.
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Former Berlin Mill Poses Environmental Risk
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - The site of a former paper mill in Berlin has been leaking mercury into the Androscoggin River, creating a high level of ecological risk and raising possible health concerns, according to Environmental Protection Agency officials.
"This is a very unique site, unique on a national level," said Andrew Hoffman of the New Hampshire Environmental Services Department, who has been assisting the EPA. "There is mercury at other sites in New Hampshire, but not at this level and not so close to a river."
More that 2.5 pounds of mercury were removed from the site earlier this year, and the EPA has since put it on the National Priority List of Superfund Sites, a register of the nation's most contaminated areas for which the agency cannot find a private entity legally responsible to pay for the cleanup of the contamination.
The addition brings the number of long-term New Hampshire Superfund Sites to 22.
The site in Berlin is a former chlor-alkali facility used from the late 1800s to 2001 to whiten paper by sending an electric charge from a mercury cathode, or cell, into a brine of sodium chloride. The electrochemical reaction would create the chlorine gas needed to bleach paper.
When the cathode needed to be replaced with new mercury, the old mercury was disposed of on the property. Because the site was used so frequently in the years before hazardous disposal regulations were instituted, decades of disposed mercury remain as contaminants.
"Mercury can be found at the site in its elemental form," said Daryl Luth, the EPA official in charge of the site. "You can actually see the little globules of mercury coming out of the bedrock" near the river.
Because the 4 1/2-acre facility abuts the eastern bank of the Androscoggin, Hoffman says that the mercury globules along the river are evidence that the mercury made its way into the water.
"In 1999, the site was capped [with landfill] and a slurry wall was put in place," Hoffman said. "But that didn't stop the mercury from making its way into the Androscoggin River."
The danger with mercury in a river is that it will become "mentholated" by microbes in the water and transform into methylmercury, a highly toxic form of organic mercury that can work its way into the food chain by way of fish and drinking water, Luth said.
While both Luth and Hoffman maintain there is no reason for Berlin residents to be alarmed, they say people should heed the catch-and-release fishing advisory for the Androscoggin and should not wade into the river or drink from it.
"You can't deny that there are certain health risks from eating fish, drinking water or some dermal exposure to sediment [in the Androscoggin]," Hoffman said. "There is still quite a bit of mercury making it into the river."
Methylmercury has been linked to brain damage in people of all ages and poses a particular risk to the unborn children of expectant mothers, according to the EPA.
"This is the newest priority for the EPA in New Hampshire," Luth said. "There is an investigation searching for responsible parties, but it does look somewhat dire."
The facility changed hands several times over the years, its most recent owner being the Pulp and Paper Company of America, which went bankrupt in the summer of 2001, Hoffman said.
While most of Pulp and Paper was purchased by Fraser Papers Inc. in 2002, Fraser did not absorb the contaminated chlor-alkali facility in Berlin, leaving the state and federal government in charge of financing the cleanup with taxpayer dollars.
Now that the area has been designated a Superfund Site, approximately 90 percent of the cleanup cost will be paid by the federal government, with the remaining 10 percent coming from the state.
"People in Alaska and Kansas will be paying for it as well as people in New Hampshire," said Tad Furtado, the policy director for Rep. Charles Bass, whose 2 nd Congressional District contains the chlor-alkali facility. "The next step is making sure the state has appropriate support for the funding it needs."
Both Hoffman and Luth say they expect the cleanup to be long and expensive because of the level of contamination.
"It will take many years, a decade or more," Hoffman said. "I would hope that at least in five years we will have stopped the mercury from moving into the river."
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N.H. Congressmen Assist Southern Colleagues Besieged By Katrina
WASHINGTON, Sept 15 - New Hampshire Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley have put their congressional staffs at the disposal of two southern congressmen struggling to serve the needs of thousands of constituents affected by Hurricane Katrina.
In an example of goodwill crossing party lines, Bradley, a Republican, has been sending members of his Washington staff to the office of Rep. Gene Taylor, a Democrat from Mississippi, who has had to summon volunteers to deal with the high volume of calls coming from his district along the ravaged Gulf Coast.
"Gene is a good friend of mine and we've worked together on a bipartisan basis," Bradley said. "A lot of us are trying to help our colleagues in the affected states. They are overwhelmed with work and whatever they ask us to do, we will do."
Bradley's office has been rotating staff members in and out to answer phones and assist with day-to-day duties for more than a week, according to Courtney Littig, a spokeswoman for Taylor's office.
"We're at the point where Democrat or Republican doesn't matter," she said. "There are a lot of desperate people calling because they just got their phones working and they can't get [Federal Emergency Management Agency] assistance; they have no water, no fuel for their generator. It is incredibly generous of Congressman Bradley to loan us some of his people."
Many of the callers who cannot get in touch with FEMA by phone are seeking help with registering online, Littig said.
"They can't really get anything until they register with FEMA, and it isn't like they can use the WIFI signals in southern Mississippi with their lap tops that survived the storm," she said. "They can't apply for a small business loan or apply for FEMA disaster aid because the 800 number for FEMA is always busy."
So constituents call their congressman's office seeking help, backing up phone lines and overwhelming case workers.
"It's about a 24-hour operation they've got there, trying to point people in the right direction and in some cases, do actual case work," said Bradley. "My office will help as long as it takes and I expect it will be a while."
Meanwhile, Republican Bass's office has teamed with Louisiana Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal, whose district includes portions New Orleans and remains partially underwater.
Bass' case workers in New Hampshire will soon be fielding calls from Jindal's displaced constituents, Bass said.
"If you get a thousand calls in one day, how can you expect to be able to answer them all?" Bass asked. "There is such an enormous number of requests for help. It occurred to us that a case is a case and people who work for me solve problems day in and day out."
Bass said calls will be forwarded to his district offices in New Hampshire, where case workers will address a range of requests such as registering people with FEMA, reporting missing loved ones to the Red Cross, and ensuring Medicaid and Social Security checks are delivered on time.
Both Bass and Bradley said their staffs have been enthusiastic about the opportunity to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina and don't mind the extra work.
"It will be challenging, but it will also be rewarding," said Katherine Tomlinson, a case worker in Bass's Concord office. "Anything and everything above and beyond the call, we will do. I'm psyched about it."
Chris Paolino, Jindal's spokesman, said it was vital for callers to know they could get personal assistance from the offices of elected officials during this time of uncertainty.
"It is important to offer personal support to constituents and get them the help they need," he said. "I hope it offers some semblance of normalcy and comfort to people who need someone to talk to, even if it's just to listen."
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