Category: Sarah Crosland
Supreme Court Hears New Hampshire Abortion Law Case
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 — As protestors from both sides of the abortion debate gathered outside the Supreme Court Wednesday morning, New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte urged the justices to uphold the state’s parental notification law concerning abortion rights for minors.
The case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood, was the court’s first abortion rights case in five years and the first under Chief Justice John Roberts.
The New Hampshire parental notification abortion law, which was passed by the New Hampshire legislature in June of 2003, requires parental or guardian notification before abortions can be performed on minors. It was passed in the state Senate by 12 to 11 and the House by 187 to 181 and signed into law by then-Gov. Craig Benson. However, a federal judge issued an injunction blocking enforcement of the law two days before it was supposed to take effect.
The law provides an exception to the parental notification when the pregnant minor’s life is threatened. However, New Hampshire is one of only five states that do not provide exceptions for medical emergencies that are serious but not necessarily life-threatening. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld the lower court, finding the law to be unconstitutional because the health exception was limited to preventing the minor’s death.
“As the nation’s leading medical authorities have explained, delaying appropriate care for even a very short period can be catastrophic and puts the teen at risk of liver damage, kidney damage, stroke and infertility,” said Jennifer Dalven, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.
Dalven was asked by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg why it would have not been adequate for the court of appeals to have simply said that the New Hampshire law is unconstitutional because it “leaves no exception for emergency cases?”
Dalven said that this would not resolve the issue because “different medical emergency definitions” have been adopted by other states.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor interjected, saying, “We’re dealing with New Hampshire law. Could you focus on this one?”
The oral arguments were intense and included Justice Stephen Breyer describing a dramatic hypothetical situation in which a pregnant teen goes to an emergency room at 2 a.m. in distress and a doctor decides that unless an abortion is performed immediately the patient will become sterile and only reaching voice mail when he calls a judge to receive permission for the procedure.
Ayotte argued that “the physician in those circumstances could perform the abortion” because the state would protect his medical judgment without prosecution.
According to Ayotte, “in that rare circumstance” when the minor needs an abortion to protect her health a doctor can end the pregnancy without fear of prosecution or civil lawsuits and that a physician who performed such an abortion would be “constitutionally protected.”
Justice David Souter, who is from New Hampshire, challenged her on the point. “What do you mean when you say it would be constitutionally protected?” Souter asked.
Breyer questioned her statement that a different state law would protect physicians in emergency situations. “How do we know that’s the law?” Breyer asked.
He said that people on both sides might disagree on whether the law offered such protection to the physician and mentioned the competing argument, that the life of the fetus is more important.
“Lot’s of people think ‘health exception’ is a way of getting abortion on demand,” said Justice Breyer. This view corresponds with the intent of the bill’s original New Hampshire sponsors who argued that a health exception would give doctors a loophole to avoid parental involvement in abortions.
However Dalven argued that without a health exception, the minor’s life is put in danger. “Once a minor arrives in the emergency room, it is too late for her to go to court,” said Dalven.
Justice Antonin Scalia considered what would happen if “a special office, open 24 hours a day,” with what he called an “abortion judge” on duty, could field all of the calls from physicians in these types of emergencies.
Proponents of both sides of the case consider it to be of great importance, although because of its narrow focus on the health exceptions it does not challenge the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that abortion is a constitutional right.
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Panda Cub’s Press Agent Says, “I Miss Keene”
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 -Carolyn Martin can watch cheetah cubs play from her office window.
It's a perk that comes from her job as director of public affairs and communications at the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park. Before that, her position as the press secretary for science for the Smithsonian allowed her to work in the famous Smithsonian Castle facing the National Mall. But despite such unusual surroundings, Martin still misses the sense of community that came from working and living in downtown Keene.
"I feel very connected to the Smithsonian and very proud to be here, but in terms of the city, I miss Keene," said Martin, who studied at Antioch University and worked as a reporter for the Sentinel from 1996 to 2003. "It's a beautiful, progressive community and I really enjoyed living there very much."
Martin, who turned 50 in August, moved to Keene for graduate school in environmental studies at Antioch. Originally from Alabama, she had graduated from the University of Alabama and was a television news reporter in Mobile. While in Keene she met and married her husband, Robert Rand, who now works for the Washington Post Company in Washington, D.C. The two moved to Washington in June of 2003 when Martin was offered an opportunity she said she couldn't turn down.
"It's the Smithsonian!" said Martin. "My charge was to promote Smithsonian scientific research. It was a terrific opportunity to learn about all kinds of scientific research going on at the Smithsonian and then write about it and educate my former news colleagues about it."
However, shortly after she had begun her job as the press secretary for science she received a new job assignment: working for the National Zoo. She began working there in November of 2003 when it was under extreme press scrutiny and was even being examined by the National Academies of Sciences at the direction of Congress after a series of untimely animal deaths. Shortly after her arrival the then-current director of public affairs left and Martin was appointed to the position.
"It was quite a surprise and not what I expected when I left Keene," said Martin. "It's pretty cool. I hear all kinds of interesting things sitting here in my office with the windows open."
On July 9 Martin's job had a new twist added when Tai Shan, the zoo's famous giant panda cub, was born.
"Our panda cub is our really big star and he's just the cutest thing. I have seen him about three times now. He's not open to the public yet, but in my duties I have had to see him," jokes Martin. "It's been terrific!"
It was Martin's science and reporting background that drew her to the position with the Smithsonian and she has found the zoo very rewarding in that area.
"We have 2,400 animals here - 400 different species, and about a quarter of our animals here are endangered animals," said Martin. "We're only one of a few zoos in the country who have science departments. We have scientists on staff here who do a good bit of scientific research for conservation and reproductive science."
Her scientific knowledge has impressed those who work with her at the zoo. John Gibbons, who works in the public affairs department of the zoo, came to the Smithsonian institution after working with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, a conservation organization in Boston. After speaking with Martin he was pleased with her scientific knowledge and environmental interests.
"We shared a profound scientific and environmental conservatism background," said Gibbons. "It was wonderful for me to realize right off the bat that Carolyn was coming from a background steeped in science, research, and environmental conservation."
Martin and her husband still return to Keene to visit friends and family. And they miss events like the Pumpkin Festival. However while Martin does miss her friends and the "sense of connectedness and place" she felt in Keene, she enjoys her job at the zoo.
"It is just a great daily learning experience," said Martin. "I like a challenge and I'm certainly challenged here."
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Bass Calls for House GOP to Elect New Leaders
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - Congressman Charles Bass (R-N.H.) Monday called for House Republicans to select new leaders at the beginning of next year.
"We ought to have new leadership as soon as the session resumes in January just because I think it would be good for our conference to begin the second session of Congress under a new leadership," Bass said Wednesday. "The leadership isn't as clearly defined as it should be."
Former Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas) has been temporarily replaced by interim House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a situation that Bass said takes the focus off important issues.
"Tom Delay has his issues in the Texas judicial system which need to be worked out, but his problems should not be the main agenda items of the Republican conference in the second session," Bass said. "It should be the agenda that we want to pursue."
While Bass acknowledged that he was speaking only for himself, other moderate Republicans agreed with his assessment and see him as taking on the role of a leader in Congress.
Congressman Joe Schwarz (R-Mich.), who sees Bass as not only being a leader among the moderate Republicans, but also as a potential national leader of the party, agrees that there should be leadership elections in January.
"It doesn't serve the party itself to be in a situation where leadership from the majority leader down has an asterisk by it and then at the bottom it says temporary," Schwarz said. "For the purpose of moving the agenda forward it probably would be appropriate to have a leadership election after the first of the year."
"Charlie Bass has really blossomed as a leader in Congress," Congressman Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who co chairs the moderate Republican Tuesday Group with Bass, said in a press statement Wednesday.
Bass said that he had spoken with the current House leadership about the need for a new election and did not want to criticize Blunt, who he believes is doing a "great job." He said that newly-elected leadership might provide "a little bit more unity" among Republicans.
"I want our Congress to have a productive and successful second session and I think part of the key to that will be to have a stable leadership." Bass said.
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Lawmakers Oppose Alaska Drilling
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 - House leaders agreed Wednesday to drop a plan from the budget bill to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling following fierce opposition, led by Congressman Charles Bass (R- N.H.).
"We're happy to report that at this point the budget package will not contain provisions to drill in the Arctic refuge," Bass said at a press conference Thursday. "My colleagues who in the face of considerable pressure -- peer pressure and pressure from leadership -- stuck to their guns and sent a clear message to leadership that we would not vote for this package no matter how long the vote is open, no matter what arm-twisting occurs, no matter who calls on the telephone, and we plan to project that position forward to the final conference committee report."
The debate centers on a 1.5-million-acre section of the 19-million-acre refuge. President Bush has made drilling there a centerpiece of his energy policy, and oil companies have pushed for years for the legislation, arguing that they can drill without ruining the wilderness. Opponents argue that the entire refuge should be left undeveloped.
The language originally in the Deficit Reduction Act would have allowed drilling for oil and natural gas in the refuge, which is also known as ANWR. Bass, who is the co-chairman of the House's Tuesday Group, a moderate Republican organization, authored a letter to the House leadership stating his strong opposition to the inclusion of this language in the budget bill.
"Opening up ANWR to drilling would dramatically shift U.S. environmental policy," Bass said in a press release Tuesday. "A change this significant necessitates an open, substantive policy debate that can only occur in a stand-alone measure."
Bass's letter was signed by 25 other moderate Republican members of Congress and presented to the House leadership, prompting the leaders to remove the provision from the bill. The members opposed the drilling provision on environmental grounds.
"The critical value of this Refuge to the Arctic and sub-Arctic wildlife is undeniable," Bass wrote in the letter. "Rather than reversing decades of protection for this publicly held land, focusing greater attention on renewable energy sources, alternate fuels and more efficient systems and appliances would yield more net energy savings than could come from ANWR."
Other members critical of the drilling proposal made similar points at Thursday's press conference, citing the preservation of this area as a major concern.
"I am not anti-energy. I'm not anti-oil drilling, but ANWR should stand as a pristine area that should not be despoiled by oil drilling," Congressman Joe Schwarz (R- MI) said Thursday. "There are numbers of things that could be done there without actually drilling in ANWR."
The bill, which was scheduled to be voted on Thursday, was delayed until next week. Assuming it passes the House, it will then go to a conference of House and Senate legislators who will iron out the differences between the two chambers' bills. Because the Senate version of the bill has the drilling provision, it could be reattached there. However, Bass and his moderate Republican coalition intend to continue their opposition.
"We will not waver in our position," Bass said at the press conference on behalf of those who signed the letter.
The deficit reduction bill was passed last week by the Senate. Senator Judd Gregg (R- NH), who voted in favor of the bill, supports seeking energy resources in the refuge.
"Any energy policy should balance the need for energy resources with the need to protect natural resources and the environment," Gregg said in a press release Thursday. "Given the extraordinarily high prices of gas and oil this fall, and the instability of energy from foreign sources, we have a responsibility to find ways to increase the domestic supply of energy and to stabilize the prices of energy.. While it takes a bit of political courage to offer possible solutions to meet our energy needs, I feel we must continue to take the necessary steps to make our country more energy-independent."
Bass and his coalition of other moderate Republicans maintain that using the refuge does not offer long-term solutions for the energy shortage.
"It provides absolutely no alternatives to our continuing dependence on oil as a main source of transportation," Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (R- Md.) said Thursday. "If we can hold the line -- and we will hold the line -- on this provision of ANWR we will begin to open up a much more urgent dialogue on alternatives to oil."
Bass and his congressional colleagues are hopeful of success in preventing the passage of the drilling provisions. "It hasn't looked good for protecting the Arctic wilderness for some time now, and I think the situation looks a lot better," Bass said.
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New Hampshire Lawmakers Seek More Special Ed Funding
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 - Three decades ago, Congress approved landmark legislation aimed at improving the educational opportunities for children with disabilities. But the law has never been funded to the level originally promised.
Now, the members of New Hampshire's congressional delegation are pushing for Congress to finally fully fund the program.
The 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act promised that 40 percent of the additional cost of educating these students would come from federal funding. However the federal government has never funded more than 18 percent of those additional costs in the 30 years since the act was passed. And from 1975 until 1995 the funding level actually hovered under six percent.
"There is no program that impacts local school districts more than the cost of special education," said Congressman Charles Bass (R-N.H.), a long-time advocate of increased federal funding for special education. "This authorization mandate, passed so many years ago in Congress, is still valid and needs to be met -- the promise needs to be kept. If there ever was an unfunded mandate that has not been met it is this one in terms of both its cost as well as its importance."
Under the leadership of Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who then chaired the Senate education committee, Congress in 2004 reauthorized the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, overhauling it and promising full funding by 2011. But even with the 2004 legislation, Bass believes that additional measures will be necessary to get full funding by the date promised.
Bass introduced a bill on June 30 to fully fund special education and ensure that the federal government would be paying the full 40 percent by 2011. The bill would mandate annual increases in the funding so that the federal government would have to meet its promise to local school districts.
"That would certainly have a significant impact on every school district in the state," Bass said.
Currently there are concerns among both Republicans and Democrats about the federal deficit and the increases in federal spending for both Iraq and for hurricane relief.
"This was why the bill that Mr. Bass has introduced lays out a plan to provide full funding over time," said Alissa Southworth, spokesperson for Bass. "It sets us on the path to full funding by 2011 with spending increasing incrementally."
Jamie Hopkins, the president-elect of Council for Exceptional Children, an international organization focused on improving education for students with disabilities, recently met with members of the House to discuss her concerns over the current low levels of federal funding for special education.
"It continues to put a great burden on school districts that end up having to take funds away from students in general education in order to pay for special education and that's very frustrating," Hopkins said. "Some children are missing out on what they need. It's really becoming very stressful to get the money in order to educate our kids."
New Hampshire Senators John Sununu and Gregg have both supported funding for the program in New Hampshire. Sununu, who served three terms in the House before being elected to the Senate, has played an integral role in funding increases from $2 billion in Fiscal Year 1997 to approximately $10.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2005 for the Individuals with Disabilities Education program.
Because of the continually increasing cost of special education the burden on New Hampshire's tax payers has consistently risen since the law was first passed. Since it was first enacted, the percentage of those enrolled in special education, served by Part B of the law and identified as having learning disabilities, increased, the Department of Education reported to Congress in 1994.
Part B is the section of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that funds the services for children ages three to 21. Under Part B, data is collected concerning children educated between those ages.
The report noted that between 1976 and 1994, those identified as having learning disabilities under Part B of IDEA has increased from 23.8 percent to 51.1 percent of all students with disabilities. Since 1994, that number has continued to grow. The cause for these increases continues to be debated.
"There are medical procedures and diagnoses and assessments in medicine that are more efficient and effective in identifying the incidence of a disability or a disease so that over a period of time it's higher -- not necessarily because the incidence is higher, but because of their being better at diagnosing what is there," said Robert Wells, education consultant in the Bureau for Special Education in New Hampshire.
Medical advances and the increase in the ability to identify learning disabilities are two of the most frequently mentioned reasons for increases in the percentage of students identified as having learning disabilities. However, there is some speculation that the extra funding given to special education may have affected the increase as well.
"Where there is not money to provide appropriate education for everybody, kids get identified as having special needs," said Wells. "If there was more money for just good education, certified teachers, qualified people, a lot of the kids that get identified as having learning disabilities wouldn't even pop up on the radar screen.
Bruce Thielen, the director of special education for SAU 29 in New Hampshire, has been following the percentage increase since he began working there in 1989.
"In 1988-89, 8.9 percent of our students were classified as disabled and now it is close to 17 percent," Thielen said. "That's a huge increase."
Thielen also recognizes that there are a variety of factors affecting the increase, including more thorough medical assessments and a greater awareness in the average population of individual learning disabilities. He too has seen the increase affected by those interested in the additional funding provided in special education programs.
"There is some influence of entitlement, feelings of entitlement, like if special ed has the money and if my kid is classified - it could be a mild disability-- but if he was classified as disabled, then he could tap in to some of those services," Thielen said.
As the percentage of special education students, and consequently the increase in funding for those students, continues to rise, New Hampshire's lawmakers understand the burden the law, also called IDEA, has placed on local school districts in their state.
"There is no greater priority for New Hampshire's schools than to fully fund the federal share of IDEA, and I will continue the fight to ensure Congress fulfills the commitment it made nearly 30 years ago," Sununu said in a press release. "When full federal funding of IDEA is achieved, local communities will once again be in the position to utilize critical local resources on important initiatives such as structural improvements to schools, technology upgrades, or to hire new teachers, rather than paying for the federal government's share of special education costs."
While there has been significant improvement, it is currently projected that the federal funding for special education for next year will not be more than 18.6 percent, not even half of what was promised in 1975.
"I know there are a lot of needs right now and Congress is really being pulled in many different directions as far as even helping pay for the victims of the hurricanes, but at the same time we're not talking about legislation that was passed just a couple of years ago," the Council for Exceptional Children's Hopkins said . "We've been going on for 30 years like this."
Senators Sununu and Clinton Introduce Kids and Care Safety Legislation
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 -Sens. John Sununu (R-NH) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have joined in introducing legislation targeted at reducing the risk of motor vehicle accidents involving children.
The legislation would direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations requiring most light passenger vehicles to have back-over warning systems, power window strangulation prevention and brake-shift interlocks that makes it impossible to shift out of park unless the brake pedal is depressed.
"We want to provide clear direction to the Highway Traffic Safety Administration so that they can move forward and create standards in areas that are important to preventing traffic fatalities," Sununu said in an interview Wednesday. "It's always good to have some people from different sides of the aisle working together on a piece of legislation, and I think this is no exception. Hopefully we can bring together a number of co-sponsors from both parties and get the bill moving forward."
In New Hampshire, State Representative Packy Campbell (R - Farmington) is especially interested in this legislation. His son, Ian, died last year when he was playing in a truck and was able to put it in gear without the ignition being turned on.
"The whole point for me is that I don't want to see this happen to other kids," Campbell said Wednesday. "It's preventable and it is technology that exists and it is technology that is in 70 percent of the cars and it's an expectation that consumers have." He noted that if his son had climbed into a different car in his driveway, which was equipped with the brake-shift interlock, he would still be alive.
"Unfortunately, with the advent of these technologies, people are lulled into a false sense of security or they buy a product and expect that it works a certain way and you have this hidden defect," Campbell said. "It's going to take legislation to get rid of this hidden defect, and that is why it's so important that we fast-track this bill and we get it passed."
Kids In Cars, an organization dedicated to informing people about the dangers involved with children and motor vehicles as well as preventing future accidents, has been pushing for this legislation for many years, said Janette Fennell, its founder and president.
"With a bill like this it will really help to take this issue forward and make sure that everybody in Congress understands that our children are being killed unnecessarily and that they have the power of the pen to fix it," Fennell said Wednesday.
Even as the legislation was introduced, another such death occurred Monday night when 2-year-old Natalie Williamson of Haleyville, Ala., was trick-or-treating with her mother and was killed when a car backed over her. According to Kids In Cars, there have been more than 2,000 accidents involving children left in or around motor vehicles since 2000.
"We're working to try to get all of these things passed, but at the same time we want people to understand how they could protect their families in the meantime," Fennell said. "We're definitely about education until we can get this stuff taken care of."
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Campaign Contributions Correlate to Committee Placement
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 - For New Hampshire's members of Congress, their committee assignments in the House and Senate often affect which political action committees contribute to their campaigns.
"What interest groups are trying to do is to control the agenda of a committee, and they're trying to either often keep things out of a bill, as well as to get things into a bill," said Linda Fowler, a government professor at Dartmouth College. "If they can get favorable legislation at the committee level it just makes their job as lobbyists a whole lot easier because committees are the gatekeepers."
Congressman Charles Bass (R-N.H.) is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee as well as of several of its subcommittees, including Telecommunications and the Internet. During the current election cycle, some of his largest contributions came from political action committees of well-known companies and trade groups that are affected by subjects within the committee's Jurisdiction, such as General Motors Corp., Verizon Communications and United States Telecom Association.
"He is on the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House, and that is the committee that deals with a lot of issues that are important to us," said Robert Eisenbud, director of legislative affairs for Waste Management Inc., which contributed $2,500 last May, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. "There's the subcommittee on hazardous waste and the environment that he sits on, and as a waste company involved in environmental issues that's one that's of interest to us."
Political action committees often will concentrate their contributions to committees that focus on issues important to them and will give to members of those committees on a bipartisan basis.
"The congressman is on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over health issues," said Frank McLaughlin, director of political affairs for the American Dental Association. His political action committee typically gives money to members of that committee, McLaughlin said, because the panel affects "how the health care profession, and in our case certainly dentistry, is practiced on the federal level."
Shannon Finney, the communications manager for Financial Services Roundtable, an industry association, said that because of the diversity and complexity of her organization's interests, it has a stake in a broad set of legislative issues.
According to filings with the Federal Elections Commission, the Financial Services Roundtable PAC contributed $2,000 to Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), who sits on the Joint Economic Committee, the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee.
"We're completely bipartisan; we just want to make sure that the interest is in our industry," Finney said.
The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers' political action committee donated $2,000 last April to Sununu, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
"He is on the banking committee and on the commerce committee," said Joel Wood, senior vice president of government affairs for the council. "He is extremely knowledgeable about financial services and related issues because those are two of the key committees of jurisdiction."
The American Council of Life Insurers, which donated $1,000 in July, according to the Federal Election Commission filings, also tends to contribute to those people who have an understanding of what the industry is facing, according to spokesman Jack Dolan.
"Frequently, a lot of money goes to those members who are on committees that have jurisdiction over our issues - not surprisingly, the general way that people make their PAC contributions," Dolan said. Sununu "is knowledgeable about the life insurance business and the myriad of issues that we deal with," he said.
Other times, contributions are based on specific votes or legislation. However, that correlation is more difficult to make, Dartmouth's Fowler said.
"Political scientists who have tried to establish a statistical relationship between roll-call voting and campaign contributions have failed," Fowler said. "The results are very inconsistent, but there is a much stronger relationship between funds for committee members."
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New Hampshire Lawmakers Seek More Special Ed Funding
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - Three decades ago, Congress approved landmark legislation aimed at improving the educational opportunities for children with disabilities. But the law has never been funded to the level originally promised.
Now, the members of New Hampshire's congressional delegation are pushing for Congress to finally fully fund the program.
The 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act promised that 40 percent of the additional cost of educating these students would come from federal funding. However the federal government has never funded more than 18 percent of the total cost in the 30 years since the act was passed. And from 1975 until 1995 the funding level actually hovered under six percent.
"There is no program that impacts local school districts more than the cost of special education," Congressman Charles Bass (R- N.H.), a long time advocate of increased federal funding for special education, said Tuesday. "This authorization mandate, passed so many years ago in Congress, is still valid and needs to be met -- the promise needs to be kept. If there ever was an unfunded mandate that has not been met it is this one in terms of both its cost as well as its importance."
Jamie Hopkins, the president-elect of Council for Exceptional Children, an international organization focused on improving education for students with disabilities, recently met with members of the House to discuss her concerns over the current low levels of federal funding for special education.
"It continues to put a great burden on school districts that end up having to take funds away from students in general education in order to pay for special education and that's very frustrating. Some children are missing out on what they need," Hopkins said Thursday. "It's really becoming very stressful to get the money in order to educate our kids."
Local school districts in New Hampshire have been forced to shoulder much more than the 60 percent promised in 1975. Bass reintroduced legislation on June 30 to fully fund special education and ensure that the federal government would be paying the full 40 percent by 2011. The bill would mandate annual increases in the funding so that the federal government would have to meet its promise to local school districts.
"That would certainly have a significant impact on every school district in the state," Bass said Tuesday.
Under the leadership of Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who then chaired the Senate education committee, Congress reauthorized the program in 2004, overhauling it and promising full funding by 2011. But even with the new legislation Bass believes that his additional bill will be necessary to get full funding by 2011.
"I have doubts that Congress will ever make that 40 percent number -- it's an elusive goal. The bill essentially sets a guaranteed schedule or plan to meet that goal," Bass said Thursday in reference to his June 30 bill.
Senators John Sununu (R- N.H.) and Gregg have both supported funding for the program in New Hampshire. Sununu, who served three terms in the House before being elected to the Senate, has played an integral role in funding increases from $2 billion in Fiscal Year 1997 to approximately $10.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2005 for the program, also known as IDEA..
"There is no greater priority for New Hampshire's schools than to fully fund the federal share of IDEA, and I will continue the fight to ensure Congress fulfills the commitment it made nearly 30 years ago," Sununu said in a press release Thursday. "When full federal funding of IDEA is achieved, local communities will once again be in the position to utilize critical local resources on important initiatives such as structural improvements to schools, technology upgrades, or to hire new teachers, rather than paying for the federal government's share of special education costs."
While there has been significant improvement, it is currently projected that the federal funding for special education for next year will not be more than 18.6 percent, not even half of what was promised in 1975.
"I know there are a lot of needs right now and Congress is really being pulled in many different directions as far as even helping pay for the victims of the hurricanes, but at the same time we're not talking about legislation that was passed just a couple of years ago," the Council for Exceptional Children's Hopkins said . "We've been going on for 30 years like this."
Gregg Wins $800,000 in Powerball
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - The chairman of the United States Senate Budget Committee came into some discretionary spending money of his own Thursday morning.
Senator Judd Gregg (R - N.H.) was one of 47 players of the Powerball lottery to match five of the numbers without the Powerball and win $853,492. He collected and deposited his money Thursday, but has still not decided what he will be doing with his winnings.
"I've always considered myself to be one of the luckiest people in the country just to be able to represent New Hampshire and now this has just sort of been confirmed," Gregg said in a conference call on Thursday.
Gregg, who said he purchased $20 worth of Powerball tickets when he was buying gas in Washington, D.C., on Monday, was just short of winning the entire jackpot. His Powerball number was 25 and the winner was 29. He let the machine choose the numbers and actually almost left one of his tickets at the gas station, but was aided by a woman working in the station.
"I was rushing around because I wanted to get down to the Capitol and she threw me the tickets and I started to walk out and she said, 'You forgot one of your tickets,' " Gregg recalled. "I'd only taken three of the tickets. She was very nice. She could have kept the ticket herself and for all I know that was the winning number."
Gregg, who discovered his winning numbers as he was reading the paper Thursday morning, says he plans to give some of the money to the Hugh Gregg Foundation, a charitable foundation established by his father. The foundation has given money to a variety of charities in New Hampshire including the Humane Society and Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center.
He and his wife are still deciding what to do with the remaining money. Thursday, in celebration of his win, he purchased lottery tickets for each member of his main staff.
"I guess that means I'm good with numbers," Gregg said. "Everybody in America believes in good fortune and a little luck and I'm no different than everybody else."
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New Hampshire Lawmakers Expect Smooth Confirmation
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 - New Hampshire lawmakers are anticipating a thorough and smooth confirmation process for Harriet Miers, President Bush's nominee to fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court.
"I look forward to closely reviewing the record and resume of the president's nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court," Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said Tuesday in a press statement to the Sentinel. "The nomination hearings for now-Chief Justice Roberts went smoothly and did not fall to partisan politics, and I would expect that this nominee will be afforded the same civility and respect of a dignified, fair hearing."
If confirmed, Miers, who is President Bush's White House counsel and former personal attorney, would be the United States' 110 th justice and the third woman to sit on the court. Beyond her work for Bush, Miers served for two years on the Dallas City Council, was the first woman to be head of the Texas Bar Association, and was a partner in the Texas law firm Locke Liddell & Sapp.
"Harriet Miers is a seasoned attorney with a demonstrated commitment to public service, and she has served the nation at the highest levels of government," Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) said Tuesday in a statement for the Sentinel. "I look forward to reviewing her credentials and working with my colleagues to ensure that her nomination receives a thorough and fair review."
Despite Miers' previous experience as an attorney and leader of the Texas Bar Association, the fact that she has never been a judge has been noted. However, experience as a judge is not required and its lack is not unprecedented on the nation's highest court.
"Thirty-five justices have served on the Supreme Court who did not have prior bench experience, including the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist," Congressman Charles Bass (R-N.H.) said in a press release. "I am confident that the Senate will thoroughly review Harriet Miers' credentials during the confirmation process."
President Bush has asked the Senate for the confirmation process to start early enough for the vote to occur before their Thanksgiving recess.
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