Category: Michael Hartigan
Fixing a Broken System: How New Immigration Policy Would Affect the Cape
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 – When restaurant owner Felis Barreiro questions a foreign worker about suspect documentation, the worker usually vanishes the next day. Barreiro, like many Cape Cod employers, is left to question the validity of the country’s current immigration system.
“I’d be very in favor of a [new] guest worker program,” said Barreiro, owner of Alberto’s restaurant in Hyannis. “We need proper papers so there’s nothing down the road to come back to haunt us.”
In the coming weeks Cape employers will begin the often tedious and paper-drenched process of filing to bring immigrant workers into the country for the 2006 tourist season.
With large numbers of foreign workers, legal and illegal, already in the country, confusion on the part of the government and employer often leads to misconception in the general public.
Immigration reform in general has long been a touchy subject in the United States, but the migrant worker policy itself forces workers to seek help, employers to seek clarity, and politicians to try to appease everyone.
“It’s a very touchy subject,” said Barreiro.
While Barreiro is plowing through paperwork, several immigration reform bills are working through Congress, the most popular of which was introduced in May by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Their bipartisan Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act was touted as comprehensive immigration reform that addresses border security, access to health care and a new worker visa program. The McCain-Kennedy bill was simultaneously introduced in the House by Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., and others.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., introduced their own comprehensive immigration reform bill in July. The Cornyn-Kyl bill has a temporary worker component that allows workers in the country for two years, requiring them to return to their home country for one year before applying to the program again. It also would require illegal workers already in the United States to leave the country before they are able to get in the pipeline for
permanent residency.
Last month Kyl joined President Bush in Arizona at a border issues briefing. Bush supports the position that guest workers, legal and illegal, should return home after their time here expires, according to a release from Kyl’s office.
Melissa Wagoner, Kennedy’s press secretary, said Judiciary Committee hearings on the McCain-Kennedy bill should begin at the conclusion of the committee’s hearings on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, which are scheduled to start Jan. 9.
“We’re obviously anxious for this to become a reality,” Wagoner said.
Kennedy met with Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern on Dec. 1 to discuss the immigration policy, among other things. According to Kennedy’s office there are up to 50,000 Irish in the United States who could benefit from immigration reform. In October the Irish Parliament endorsed the McCain-Kennedy bill. Mexican President Vicente Fox also has endorsed the proposal.
Besides foreign governments, the McCain-Kennedy bill has received widespread support via editorials and established organizations.
In October McCain and Kennedy laid out their proposal in front of economists and business owners at the supportive U.S. Chamber of Commerce immigration conference in Washington.
“We could really do something that is really in our national interest in the interest of our national heritage,” Kennedy said at the conference.
The McCain-Kennedy bill seeks to tighten border security and was explained as a national security matter by both senators.
According to McCain, border enforcement funding has tripled and the number of agents patrolling the borders has doubled but illegal immigration has doubled as well.
“There is a demand and there is a supply,” McCain said in October of immigrants. “When people can’t feed themselves and their families where they are, they’ll go some place where they can.”
Those immigrants who arrive on Cape Cod are the intended beneficiaries of a key aspect of the McCain-Kennedy bill: a new worker visa program that addresses legal and illegal immigrants. This section would immediately and significantly impact the hidden backbone of the Cape’s workforce.
According to the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, the Cape increases its workforce seasonally by 25 percent: Year round the Cape has a stable workforce of around 100,000 but during the tourist season that jumps to around 125,000. In the past decade between five and six thousand of those additional workers come from overseas.
“We have become very dependent on immigrant labor for seasonal time frames,” said Wendy Northcross, CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber.
The majority of positions being filled by these workers are considered unskilled. This commonly means jobs in the hospitality and service industry, such as hotel workers or landscapers. These jobs must first be offered to American workers, but if they go unfilled, the employer can seek international help.
Currently there are several routes Cape employers take to bring workers to their businesses. One of the most common is the H-2B worker visa. The H-2B allows workers to be in the country for nine months, although they can extend it for another 9 months. Many workers will spend winters working at ski resorts and then move south.
Historically, the Cape relies on the H-2B program more than most other regions of the country, according to Northcross.
She said there is a burgeoning Brazilian population on the Cape and many of the seasonal workers are from Jamaica or Eastern Europe. According to immigration attorney Matt Lee, there are already three to five thousand Brazilians on the Cape working illegally.
“H-2B is a system that doesn’t work,” said Lee, who is on the Cape Cod Chamber’s board of directors and workforce development committee.
Perhaps the most irritating aspect for employers, besides the laborious application process, is what the current program does not address: After a worker’s time expires he or she must leave the U.S. and return to their home country. Many people involved with the issue feel this is part of what begins, and perpetuates, the illegality of many migrant workers.
Many Americans traditionally have trouble swallowing anything involving immigrant workers because they automatically associate the issue with jobs being taken away from Americans.
“People think they steal American jobs. They don’t steal American jobs; they’re here because they already got a job,” Lee said. “I can understand the animosity towards immigration, but it’s truly unfounded if you look at it from a macroeconomic level.”
To this end, immigration policy has become a thorny issue for politicians trying to balance demands from opposing views.
“Our proposal helps fill a mismatch between the kinds of jobs created and the kinds of workers available in the U.S.” Kennedy said. “Our society is aging. As baby boomers retire, they require more services. Their kids want to go to college, not work in the fields, factories, or the services sector. And more than half the new jobs being created in our economy require hard work but little formal degrees.”
In some cases, views on immigration policy are rife with misconception. There is the argument that college students, home for the summer, would quickly snatch up these positions.
However, as Barreiro noted, college workers usually do not completely fulfill an employer’s needs. Because the students arrive in May or June and leave the end of August, they miss several months at the start and close of the tourist season, leaving many Cape employers understaffed for a large chunk of what could be a very profitable time.
“I don’t think people look at it economically and rationally,” Lee said. “They look at it from their gut like, ‘I’m not losing my job to a damn foreigner.’”
Protecting American workers is a part of the H-2B program. Employers must exhaust all American options for employees before opening the position to international workers, a stipulation the McCain-Kennedy bill retained.
Their bill proposes a new H-5A visa to complement the H-2B program. Employers and potential employees would go through a similar process but with key differences: Potential workers must prove they have a job, get health and security risk clearance and pay application fees.
“The guest worker visa [proposal] is terrific for the country and it’s terrific for the Cape because it addresses the biggest problem in America today, which is a critical labor shortage in the service industry,” Lee said.
The new visa, for jobs requiring little or no skill, would last for three years and would be renewable for another three years. After the sixth year the worker could stay in the United States if he or she is in the pipeline to obtain permanent residency. Whereas the cap for the amount of H-2Bs that can be given out is somewhere around 60,000, according to Northcross, there would be 400,000 H-5As distributed at the outset under the McCain-Kennedy bill. Each year that cap would fluctuate depending on demand.
“We need to do more to help immigrants enter the United States legally and help American businesses that need the manpower immigrant workers are looking to give,” Kennedy said.
The McCain-Kennedy bill also provides for undocumented workers already in the country, an issue Barreiro describes as major.
He said many immigrants, mostly illegal, move around constantly because they are afraid of being caught by the government. When an inquiry comes in about a Social Security number that does not match up with the national database, Barreiro calls in the worker in question, asking for verification. On numerous occasions the worker claims to have the information at home but does not return to work the next day. Barreiro would like to see workers keep their jobs so he can provide more extensive training and give them the opportunity to move up in his company.
“You invest money in these people and you train them and before you know it they’re gone then you have to start all over again,” Barreiro said. He emphasized he is one of many employers facing this problem.
The McCain-Kennedy bill allows immigrants already in the U.S. without documentation, most likely illegally, to register for the temporary visa and get into the pipeline for permanent residency. They must prove they will be working, pass security checks and pay substantial fines and back taxes.
But opponents say this policy amounts to amnesty.
“The Kennedy-McCain bill doesn’t lean toward amnesty. It is an amnesty,” said John Vinson, editor at Americans for Immigration Control, in an E-mail. “It rewards people who have broken our laws and invites others to do the same.”
Vinson said the fine is merely a slap on the wrist and makes American citizenship a bargain-priced commodity.
Kennedy said his bill is not offering a free pass or a trip to the front of the line. “We support proposals that provide an opportunity for undocumented immigrants who are already working in our communities and contributing to our nation to come forward . . . and obtain a temporary visa that could lead to permanent residency, over time,” he said.
For Lee, the most controversial part of this is what to do with the 10 to 15 million workers in the country illegally filling jobs. The McCain-Kennedy proposal for him is not offering amnesty but, rather, forces illegal workers to find an employer and register with the government.
Lee, and others, say making an immigration policy palatable for the American public is the biggest difficulty facing politicians. But, he says, if you asked each hospitality business on Cape Cod, the majority would support keeping workers here for an extended period of time.
“If we can make them legal, documented, tax-paying citizens,” Northcross said, “that would be a good thing for our country.”
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Delahunt’s Chief of Staff to Move On
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 - On Steve Schwadron's first day on the job he watched Sen. Ted Kennedy announce his candidacy for President of the United States. That was more than 25 years ago when Schwadron worked for the former 10th district Congressman. Gerry Studds, D-Mass.
Since then Schwadron has avoided the hypnotic dazzle of Washington players to become chief of staff for first Studds and, currently, Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass. But Schwadron announced this week that next month he is leaving his Capitol Hill office and the position he has held for almost 20 years.
"It's a fascinating workplace and, most important, it's been rewarding to be able to stay so close to issues of importance to the Cape and Islands and to work on those issues in a national arena," Schwadron said. "It's a time in my own life when I'd like to explore some new challenges."
Schwadron, who is 50, will go from public service to public affairs. Along with Jeff Pike, former Chatham fisherman and staff director of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, he will work in a public affairs business overseen by the Washington, D.C., law firm Sher & Blackwell. Mark Forest, who currently manages Delahunt's Massachusetts offices, will replace Schwadron as chief of staff.
After graduating from Brown University, Schwadron worked as a reporter for almost four years. He wrote for the now defunct Provincetown Advocate, where he says he learned the basic skills and philosophy he still utilizes today.
"Working in weekly papers on the Cape, I carried that kind of worldview here," Schwadron said. "I think of what we do here in the congressional office as being a variation on that. The formula is the same, the product is different: that idea of being very well rooted locally without being parochial in scope."
Schwadron, who grew up in Rhode Island and has lived in Hawaii, California and Barnstable, was offered a job with Studds as a liaison to local Cape communities. In 1986, after four years of nightly, year-round law school classes, Schwadron picked up a law degree from Georgetown and a chief of staff position from Studds.
When Studds did not run for reelection in 1996 Schwadron prepared for a job change. But he was surprised when Delahunt, the newly elected congressman, approached him with the offer to remain on staff.
When asked why he accepted the position Schwadron replied simply, "Him."
"They're very different people, Studds and Delahunt," Schwadron said. "I guess I hadn't considered until that moment how new and fresh it could be by just changing the name on the door."
But if Schwadron was to stay, so was the rest of the staff, a stipulation Delahunt agreed to.
"Most people want their own stamp on the thing and there's an ego," Schwadron said. "That really impressed me; it tells me he's a guy who knows how to say no."
Delahunt said Schwadron's reputation preceded him. "I think it was a wise choice on my part because I had a learning curve," said Delahunt. But Schwadron and the staff had no learning curve and were able to take leadership roles.
"Not only is he a superb public servant but he's a dear friend," Delahunt said. "It's been a very rewarding relationship in the sense that we've worked on some very significant issues that have had a positive impact on the lives of many, many, many people."
Both Schwadron and Delahunt cited an international adoption treaty and the recent acquisition of 13 million gallons of discounted oil for low income Massachusetts families, as some of the major accomplishments in their nine-year collaboration.
The Capitol dome, the monuments and the historical buildings don't captivate Schwadron like they do many staffers. But rather it is the proximity to important decisions.
"It's the fact that you can actually see it, not to mention help shape it right before your eyes," he said. "It's not always pretty, it's not always the outcome that you want . . . but you actually are in the mix, and I guess that's what gets me."
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Shakespearean Success for Former Cape Actor
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - P.J. Sosko left Cape Cod early last summer so he could fall in love. Now, dressed in a bomber jacket and khaki pants, he does just that, six days a week and four times on weekends.
Tuesday through Sunday, armed with a quick wit, Elizabethan vocabulary and a World War II-era pistol, Sosko wrestles with his feelings as Benedick in the Folger Shakespeare Library's production of "Much Ado About Nothing." This production of Shakespeare's classic comedy, which is set in post-World War II England, began its run in October and goes through the Thanksgiving weekend.
In one of Shakespeare's most renowned comedies, Benedick returns from war to a verbal battle of wits with former fling Beatrice, played at the Folger by Kate Eastwood Norris. Emotions clash until a trick their friends devise unleashes the torrent of their true feelings.
"Kate and I are trying to fall in love on stage," Sosko said. "It's like a high-wire act every night."
But before he took on Beatrice's sharp tongue, Sosko enacted some post-9/11 racial profiling as Will in "Crazy Eyes," at the Provincetown Repertory Theater. The play, set in New York City in the weeks following the terrorist attacks, follows Will's descent into insanity and his murder/kidnapping of two Middle Eastern men he believes were engaged in another terrorist plot.
"Crazy Eyes," written by Provincetown's own John Buffalo Mailer, son of Norman Mailer, ran from late May to mid June, receiving varied reviews.
But what Sosko got from his time on the Cape was more valuable than any critic's opinion.
Working at the theater there allowed him to experience acting in a historic place and the traditional expectations that come with it. This prepared him for work at the Folger.
"You're learning something in every play that you take on to the next," said Sosko, who also has acted in New York and Russia. Sosko puts much stock in the development of emotion, he said, and learned to harness anger and rage in "Crazy Eyes."
Sosko's strengths are his natural timing, emotion and intense devotion to a project, according to friend and "Crazy Eyes" co-star Dana Watkins. They lived in the artistic director's house in Truro with Sosko's dog, Dodger, and would run through lines on the deck after a full day of rehearsing.
"Him and his dog, they are exactly alike, bounding with energy and incredibly friendly," Watkins said. He is currently looking after Dodger while Sosko is in Washington.
Sosko was born in New York, but when he was in the third grade his family moved from Queens to a small town in the Catskills, where he grew up. In a town where Sosko described cow-tipping as a real sport and baling hay as one's first job, the community theater was "just something to do."
He participated, but high school shifted his focus to running. At one point Sosko was ranked 22 nd in the nation for high school cross-country runners. Running took Sosko to the University of Rochester, but the theater became his focus there, where he played Hal in both parts of Shakespeare's "Henry IV."
After graduation in 1993 Sosko joined a traveling production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov." The troupe took the play, performed in English, on a tour through Russia.
It was there, in a newly democratized and freshly chaotic Russia, that Sosko discovered the emotional connection people make to literature.
During a visit to Dostoevsky's grave, "little old babushka ladies" would take visitors by the hand and laud the writer, sometimes shedding tears, Sosko recalled.
The three-month trip also gave Sosko insight into the changing world. His troupe was locked in a train car from the outside during a 64-hour ride across Russia because of the danger to Americans. They were in Moscow during the attempted coup against then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Tables used as props in their play were stolen and then reappeared in the midst of the chaos.
The chaos seemed to follow him back to New York: Within three months his apartment burned down. The six large stacks of music cassette tapes, (he refused to convert to compact discs), that covered a wall of his living room had melted into a wall of plastic.
"I felt erased," Sosko said.
After years of adversity and an international journey, Sosko is now comfortable. He has made a good living doing commercial voiceovers for such products as Sudafed, Kentucky Fried Chicken and the restaurant Ruby Tuesday's. He also appeared on the television show, "Law and Order."
But theater is clearly his passion.
"It's such a random life and career," he said. "I'll never leave theater."
His dream, he said, is what all actors want: to open a play on Broadway while his movie is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.
Until then, Sosko sees the Folger as a benchmark because of its reputation as the gold standard in Shakespeare productions. This show has garnered positive reviews from such publications as Washingtonian magazine and Roll Call.
After a show, someone called Sosko's Benedick a combination of Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra. After that compliment, he said, he just went to bed because his job was done.
For now, "Much Ado" and Benedick have Sosko's full attention, and the audience's.
Perhaps the most entertaining part of the Folger production is Sosko's interaction with the audience and his ad-libbed onstage gestures. During a squabble with Beatrice, Benedick turns and walks away from her across the stage. Sosko, in a portrayal of modern male frustration, rolls his eyes and mouths the words, "I can't win."
"He has a very good grasp of Shakespeare's language, and a great ability to communicate with an audience," said "Much Ado" director Nick Hutchison in an e-mail message from London.
One night Sosko, as he usually does with a Benedick monologue, bowed and focused his attention on a woman in the audience. After he uttered the line, "If I do not love her, I am a fool," the older woman nodded and said yes.
"He played up the aspects of the love/hate courtship with Beatrice that are common to almost anyone who's falling in love," said University of Virginia graduate student of English and New Bedford native Tim Zajak after seeing the play. "The mix of being completely enamored and completely frustrated really came through. . It was equally charming and hilarious."
Sosko's charm and mastery of words is apparent off-stage. He can sit, hashing out theories on Shakespeare, over a burger at an outdoor café and smoothly transition the conversation to excessive alcohol consumption in Washington, D.C.
"You can't help but love P.J., and everybody does," Watkins said. "He's just great with people."
The Folger troupe occasionally puts on private performances for student groups, who are then treated to a backstage meet-and-greet. Sosko and the rest of the cast compete over who gives out the most autographs.
"It's my time to feel like Tom Cruise," Sosko said, adding that he usually wins.
He enjoys playing Benedick because he says he connects with the character.
"It's an iconic role. This is my Benedick," he said. "The way I see him is the way you see him. I have a kinship with the guy, I understand where he's coming from."
But emotion is not something Sosko sees as easily attainable.
"You don't want to push for emotion," he said. "The language is so beautiful. More and more you learn how to get out of the way."
Whereas in "Crazy Eyes" Sosko was free to give vent to the character's rage, Shakespeare draws out the actor's love.
"There are times when tears come in the wedding scene and you don't know why they're there and [Benedick] doesn't know why they're there either," he said.
By letting the emotion come he is able to engage the audience and take them on Benedick's emotional rollercoaster.
If a man laughs when Sosko makes one of Benedick's snide misogynistic remarks, he acknowledges him with a nod. When Benedick tells Don Pedro to get himself a wife, he elicits laughter by focusing on a woman in the audience and repeating the line while eyeing the embarrassed theatergoer.
Audience reaction, Sosko said, is "the strongest drug in the world."
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Georges Bank Safe for Now
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 - Georges Bank will continue to be free of offshore drilling, for now.
House leaders agreed Wednesday to remove a provision, which would have overturned a federal moratorium on offshore drilling, from a sweeping budget bill. The provision, part of the Deficit Reduction Bill, would have made individual states responsible for renewing or canceling the federal freeze on offshore drilling that was instated in 1998 under President Bill Clinton.
Also stripped from the bill was the controversial plan to allow drilling in a portion of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Had the plan passed, it could have been a critical first step in opening Georges Bank to oil and natural gas drilling.
"We are relieved and glad that the House of Representatives had the good sense to take these important ocean treasures off the development block," said Priscilla Brooks, director of the Healthy Oceans Program at the Boston office of the Conservation Law Foundation. "We believe that oil and gas exploration and development will be harmful to the marine mammals and other ocean life."
Georges Bank has circular currents, Brooks said, which would prevent any spilled oil from dissipating and moving out to sea. The acoustic impact of drilling, she said, would be a threat to whales' extreme sensitivity to underwater sound.
Brooks said she does not believe there is anywhere in New England that is appropriate for drilling, especially on Georges Bank where the amount of oil and gas does not justify the risks involved.
The Senate version of the bill does contain the offshore and Alaska oil drilling plans. If the Deficit Reduction Bill passes the House, it would send the bill to a conference of House and Senate negotiators who would reconcile the differences between the two versions. They could re-attach the drilling plans.
"It's a small victory because the Senate version of this bill actually contains all this language," said Steven Broderick, aide to Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass. Broderick said Delahunt would vote against the House version of the Deficit Reduction bill, which is expected to be voted on next week.
The budget reconciliation plan that originally included the drilling plans was introduced in October by the House Resource Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo, R-Calif.
Rep. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., and a group of other moderate Republicans, including members of the Republican Main Street Partnership, urged the House leadership Wednesday night to remove the oil drilling plans.
At a press conference Thursday with several Republican congressmen, Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md., said the issue of drilling deserved its own debate and should not be part of the budget reduction. Bass said he would not vote for the final package if it included oil drilling in the Alaska refuge, which is also known by its acronym, ANWR.
"If you want the thing to succeed you better keep ANWR out," Bass said.
Gilchrest said the moderates' opposition is an example to the public that there is a strong feeling from a centrist group about conservation and fiscal responsibility.
"New England is breathing a sigh of relief," Brooks said, "at least for now."
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Keeping Cranberry Bogs Afloat
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 - Massachusetts cranberry farmers, facing one of the toughest growing seasons in recent history, received federal support last week to help keep the state's bogs afloat.
The Agriculture Appropriations Bill that passed through the House last week included $460,000 for Massachusetts cranberry growers' research and conservation and is currently awaiting Senate approval.
"These urgently needed conservation and research funds will make a major difference for our cranberry growers in their constant struggle to make ends meet and survive in their very competitive industry," Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a released statement.
Massachusetts is the second largest producer of cranberries in the country. Last year Massachusetts growers produced 1.8 million barrels, according to Jeffrey LaFleur, executive director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association. Wisconsin, the nation's largest cranberry producer, grew 3.3 million barrels in 2004.
This year, LaFleur said, there has been a dramatic drop in cranberry crops, possibly the worst in 15 years. He said he thinks it is due in large part to strange weather patterns.
The severely cold winter with a large amount of snow and the dry summer led to a very tough growing season, according to Linda Burke, director of community relations for cranberry growers A.D. Makepeace Company of Wareham. There are other concerns.
"The number one issue that will determine the future of the industry in this state is the availability of water," LaFleur said, citing the importance of both the quality and quantity of water to cranberry growers.
Under the bill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service would receive $300,000 for finding ways to help conserve resources, like clean water, necessary for increased cranberry production. The service first started receiving federal aid for this purpose in 2002.
"From the standpoint of local and regional agriculture problems, these grants have had a big impact," said Tom Bewick, national program leader for horticulture for the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, an agency of the Department of Agriculture..
The agency creates conservation plans for all types of farmers but this money will fund positions that focus specifically on writing cranberry farm plans. These plans evaluate natural resources available to a specific grower and then recommend ways to best utilize those resources, such as maintaining a supply of clean water.
Once a farmer has a plan in place he or she is eligible for various United States Department of Agriculture cost sharing programs. Cranberry growers are interested in the Environmental Quality Incentive Program, which will pay up to 75 percent of the cost of improvements to farming systems, such as replacing old equipment.
The remaining $160,000 will go to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Cranberry Experiment Station in East Wareham for research on cranberry growing practices. They study a range of topics such as pesticide use, crop disease, insect behavior and weather and water patterns.
According to LaFleur 70 percent of the nearly 400 Massachusetts cranberry growers, mostly located in Barnstable, Bristol and Plymouth counties, have less than 20 acres. Many are farming only part time.
Burke applauded the federal government for putting some focus on the cranberry industry because, "attention usually falls to the larger commodities."
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Heating Funds Blocked As Energy Bills Expected to Soar
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - An emergency $3.1 billion in funding for heating and energy assistance to low-income households was blocked Thursday for the second time in two weeks.
For now funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program will remain at a little over $2 billion. The program is slated to begin for the year on November 1.
The procedural block comes two days after a report said the average national home energy bill for a low-income household this winter will be $1,000 more than they can afford. The report, published Tuesday by Boston-based consulting firm, Fisher, Sheehan and Colton, argued that the "Home Energy Affordability Gap" will increase nearly 50 percent from last year's gap.
At $1,760, Massachusetts' gap is higher than the national average of $1,032 per household, ranking it 48 out of the 50 states and District of Columbia.
"There is no excuse for the Republican majority to look the other way but they do," Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) said in a released statement. Kennedy and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) have been outspoken in recent weeks about the need for additional funding to this program.
Estella Fritzinger, executive director of the Community Action Committee of Cape Cod and the Islands, said funding for the federal program, also called LIHEAP, is a serious issue, especially because of the high cost of living on the Cape.
"If there's not a raise done on the LIHEAP dollars we are literally going to be in a situation where someone is going to die in their home this winter," she said. "The government needs to release the monies now."
Nationwide the number of households participating in the program rose from 4 million to 5 million in the past year, according to Kennedy
"We will not give up the fight," he said. "We'll be back again and again and again, until our nation's neediest families are better protected this winter."
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Bill Seeks to Strengthen the Home Front
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - While it is rebuilding Iraq, the United States should not be ignoring projects on the home front, according to a bill introduced by Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.) that seeks to bolster the U.S. infrastructure by refocusing government spending.
The bill says that for each dollar spent on Iraq reconstruction, the same amount must be spent on domestic infrastructure projects such as schools, dams and public facilities. Delahunt joined Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) at a press conference Thursday to introduce the American Parity Act of 2005. The bill was previously proposed in 2003 but never put to a vote.
"This administration has created a mess in Iraq, it's creating a mess in America," Delahunt said. "If we're going to have a strong America let's begin at home, and that's what this act is all about. This is about priorities for America."
Everything from fixing dams and schools to building primary health care centers was mentioned as possible uses for the money. The bill would not affect military spending in Iraq.
Delahunt referred to recent infrastructure problems that have resulted in widespread damage, including hurricane-ravaged levees in New Orleans and a dam in Taunton that is on the verge of breaking, putting some 50,000 residents in danger.
The bill's sponsors said the Bush Administration has ignored infrastructure needs with one hand and given the money to similar projects in Iraq with the other.
Delahunt said the a U.S. Coast Guard fleet was aging while the United States was building ports in Iraq.
Emanuel began the press conference by showing a picture of a $20 million dam built in Mosul, Iraq, next to a photo of the breached levees in the lower ninth ward of New Orleans.
"Not that any of us are against investing in Iraq's future," Emanuel said. "What we should not have is a situation where after this process and after the war and after the investments we made, Americas is weaker and not stronger."
The U.S. presence in Iraq created a moral responsibility to rebuild that nation, Delahunt said. But he said American taxpayers should be repaid and the reconstruction process should be done as a loan and not as a free ride.
"It's a giveaway, it's a welfare program. It's the terrible use of American taxpayer dollars," Delahunt said.
The bill is not expected to make much headway in the House, according to Delahunt, but he emphasized the need for his party to press Republicans on the issue.
"You've got to keep pushing it in their face because they're getting nervous because they're looking at the polling data," Delahunt said. "They're saying to themselves, 'Oh, we're going down the wrong road.' "
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Kennedy and McCain Promote Immigration Bill
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) pushed their bipartisan immigration overhaul Tuesday, taking their case to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce immigration conference.
Earlier this year Kennedy and McCain introduced a bill to restructure the country's immigration policy. Kennedy said he was optimistic the Senate, House and Bush Administration will be able to cooperate on the issue.
"We could really do something that is really in our national interest, in the interest of our national heritage," Kennedy said.
Both senators described controlling the borders as a national security matter.
McCain said that while border enforcement funds have tripled and the number of agents patrolling the borders has doubled, illegal immigration has doubled as well.
"There is a demand and there is a supply," McCain said. "When people can't feed themselves and their families where they are, they'll go some place where they can."
The legislation seeks to differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants and provide the legal ones with a simplified route toward visas and eventually green cards.
Illegal immigrants already in the country would have the opportunity to gain temporary visas to continue jobs in the United States but only after paying a fee and passing rigorous security checks. These workers would have to work at least six more years in the country, go through further security checks, pay more fees and pass several other requirements before being considered for permanent legal residency.
Kennedy expressed a desire to see greater cooperation on immigration issues from Latin American countries.
"Unless we're going to have an active Mexican government that's going to work with us . . . it's going to be all the more difficult," Kennedy said.
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New England Senators Push for More LIHEAP Funding
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - A bipartisan delegation of New England senators encouraged officials to increase the amount of money to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program in a letter to the Bush Administration Wednesday.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who has been championing the issue in recent weeks, was joined by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) in requesting another $3.1 billion.
While up to $5.1 billion can be spent on the program, which helps heat low-income households, the administration had requested only $2.183 billion for this fiscal year.for the program. The additional money would bring the funding to its fully authorized level.
Last week Kerry introduced an amendment to the Department of Defense spending bill that would have added the remaining funds. Although supported by 50 senators the amendment was blocked on a procedural vote.
"We can't let another cold New England winter leave low income families and seniors shivering in their homes because Washington failed to act," Kerry said in a released statement. "Congress must act now, and the Administration needs to join us."
A national survey of last year's recipients, done by the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, found that 49 percent of the households had at least one resident 60 years of age or older. Sixty-one percent of those surveyed reported their annual income to be at or below the poverty level.
The senators' letter, sent to the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the program, noted that the Energy Information Administration predicted Wednesday that in last year in October, heating oil in New England hit 193.1 cents per gallon. This past week, heating oil in Massachusetts was 251.4 cents per gallon.
Last winter, the average household expenditure on natural gas in the Northeast was $1,029. This winter that number is expected to rise more than $300.
The Energy Information Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, also reported that U.S. households using heating oil, the most popular heating fuel in Massachusetts, are projected to pay 32 percent more on fuel this winter, whereas those using natural gas are expected to pay 48 percent more.
Costs will depend on the winter weather, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said will be colder than last year.
"The forecast for a cold winter and high fuel costs means that the elderly, the disabled, and many others will be forced to make a painful choice between heating their homes and paying for food, healthcare, and rent," Kennedy said in a released statement.
Estella Fritzinger, executive director of the Community Action Committee of Cape Cod and the Islands, said funding for the program, which is also known as LIHEAP, is a serious issue, especially because of the high cost of living on the Cape.
"If there's not a raise done on the LIHEAP dollars we are literally going to be in a situation where someone is going to die in their home this winter," she said. "The government needs to release the monies now."
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U-Mass. Team Gets A Chance To Shine
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 - Emma Green-Beach has been waiting more than two years for her day in the sun.
This week she and her classmates from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth will get their chance to shine in the U.S. Department of Energy's "Solar Decathlon."
The Solar Decathlon is an international competition to design and build the most comfortable and energy-efficient solar-powered house. Teams from the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Spain built their homes on the National Mall this week, nestling a solar village between the Washington Monument and Capitol Hill.
"Renewable energy sources are the way of the future, they're going to have to happen," said Green-Beach, a Martha's Vineyard native. "Some people want to hold onto the old ways as long as possible but it just has to happen."
The Decathlon runs through Oct. 15, with an overall winner announced on Oct. 14. Throughout the week awards will be given out in 10 categories such as architecture, livability, and ability to power lights and appliances. The houses are open for public viewing.
"Every one of these houses is a marvel of engineering and design, and a model of creativity and innovation," Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said at the opening ceremony Thursday. "This competition really is improving and enlarging the ways we develop and apply solar energy technology."
Green-Beach, a senior, was working for Habitat for Humanity during her sophomore year when she was approached by Professor Gerald Lemay, head of the UMass team, to be a liaison between Habitat and the Solar Decathlon project. After the competition the house will be donated to Habitat for Humanity to house displaced Hurricane Katrina victims.
Green-Beach, a biology student, said she supports renewable energy like solar or the Cape Wind project. Her role involved more organizing than engineering but all 24 students on the UMass team helped construct the house.
With its recycled yellow vinyl siding and conventional design the one bedroom, one level UMass house stands out among the rest for its simplicity rather than glittering space-age aesthetics.
"We wanted it to look like a house and not stick out on the block, not be that 'weird house that I think runs off the sun,'" Green-Beach said.
UMass construction manager Tim Lyden said he hopes the event, and the UMass house in particular, will raise awareness of the technology that is currently available.
"None of this stuff out here is laboratory science or rocket science," Professor Lemay said. "It's all available."
The UMass team raised about $75,000 for the house and had many materials like windows and floor tiles, donated. BP Solar sold the solar panels at half price.
Beginning this year the competition will be held every two years. Green-Beach hopes to come back for the 2007 Decathlon as a volunteer alumna. By then the team hopes solar power will be more prevalent.
"If everybody lived like our culture does, we'd need two or three more worlds," Professor Lemay said. "And they're kind of hard to come by."
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