Category: Sarah Crosland
Bass Reintroduces American Spirit Fraud Prevention Act
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 – While Hurricane Katrina prompted an outpouring of American generosity, it also spurred national venality: charity scams and fraudulent solicitations intended to divert money from disaster relief.
Trying to crack down on such cons Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) this month introduced legislation that would increase the civil penalties for those who commit fraud during times of national emergency.
“When there is more charitable giving going on obviously there is more interest in making sure that there is accountability,” said Bass, who has introduced this bill twice before.
The bill was originally introduced in 2001 in response to fraud problems following the September 11 terrorist attacks. The House passed the bill each time, but the Senate never voted on it.
Only a small number of bills introduced each year are enacted into law: 5,767 bills were introduced in the House of Representatives during the 107 th Congress, when Bass first introduced his legislation, according to congressional records. The House passed 566 of them. Of those, the Senate only passed 307.
During the 108 th Congress, when the bill was reintroduced, 5,432 bills were introduced in the House, of which only 618 passed. Of those the Senate passed only 350.
“Legislation doesn’t always pass on the first try so you have to do it a couple of times,” Bass said. “I feel pretty confident that it will pass the Senate and be signed into law by the President.”
The bill is designed to protect not only those giving to charities, but also to protect consumers from illegal price manipulation, such as inflated gasoline prices, during a time of crisis. It would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to double the current penalties for fraud during times that the president has declared a national emergency, bringing the civil penalty up to $22,000 for each fraudulent action. This increased penalty would apply for up to one year.
“There is more interest on the part of Congress in addressing this issue because there is a pretty good chance that we will hear at some point of some terrible situation where some entity bilked money out of people with good intentions and then got a slap on the wrist from the Federal Trade Commission,” said Bass.
Federal Trade Commission officials have declined to comment on the bill at this point.
Because the legislation would be immediately useful on the Gulf Coast and has had little opposition in the past, it could move quickly through the House.
“My understanding is that it may be up on the floor as early as this week,” Bass said on Tuesday.
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Feds Look Toward Long-term Katrina Relief Legislation
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 -- As the floodwaters on the Gulf Coast recede, the federal government is beginning to look beyond providing short-term relief for Hurricane Katrina's victims and toward the long-term effects and possible legislation resulting from the tragedy.
"When you have a disaster as widespread as Katrina you can't have multiple levels of bureaucracy fighting or having to make decisions and have different responses in different states," Representative Charles Bass, R-N.H., said. "I think that will be one of the major debating points, and there will probably be legislation on that issue."
While there is wide agreement that there were problems surrounding the government's response to Katrina, differences remain over what the legislative response should be to those problems.
"The principal problems had to do with planning, leadership and implementation of existing plans," Senator John Sununu, R-N.H., said. "I don't think any legislation in the world will solve the problems of poor leadership, poor planning or poor execution on the part of elected officials."
President Bush's vow to give major monetary aid to the damaged regions in the Gulf Coast, as well as the temporary halt Katrina brought to other legislation in Congress, including tax cuts and social security reform, means that the storm's effect will be felt on a financial level nationwide.
"We should pay for it, we should not deficit finance it," Senator Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said in a statement Thursday, noting that he didn't think it was fair for one generation to pass the cost of a catastrophic event on to another generation. On the other hand, he said, "the majority of additional spending will be the rebuilding of roads and schools and infrastructure which will benefit many generations, so maybe you can argue that money can be borrowed to pay for that."
For New Hampshirites, the long-term effects could come in the form of changes in government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"If there are systemic reforms affecting FEMA, it will obviously have an impact on every single FEMA agency," said Rep. Bass, who added that until there is a disaster it is impossible to know how New Hampshire could be affected by something like Katrina. "It might affect the relationship that FEMA has with local police and fire departments."
Much of the current concern is focused not only on aid for the Gulf region, but also on the prevention of mismanagement of government funds.
Sen. Gregg is particularly interested in the Katrina recovery and rehabilitation effort and is working on a proposal to create an oversight authority within the Office of the President to monitor the use of federal funds related to the disaster. The authority would be located in one of the states in the region.
"We must make sure that the people and areas that were directly affected by the storm get the help they need to get on their feet and get their communities rebuilt," Sen. Gregg said in a Sept.14 press release. "At the same time, we must take every precaution to ensure that these dollars are spent wisely."
Sen. Sununu is working on similar legislation and has co-sponsored a bill with Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, to create a single inspector general who, he said, would have the power to "investigate allocation of funds, allegations of fraud and to make sure that whatever money is spent is done so wisely and effectively."
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Official: New England Vulnerable to Hurricane
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - New England is vulnerable to a Katrina-like hurricane disaster, a senior government official warned members of Congress this week.
"Katrina will not be the last major hurricane to hit a vulnerable area, and New Orleans is not the only location vulnerable to a large disaster from a land-falling hurricane," Max Mayfield, the director of the Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center, told the Senate commerce committee's disaster prediction and prevention subcommittee Tuesday. "Houston, Galveston, Tampa Bay, southwest Florida, Florida Keys, southeast Florida, New York City, Long Island and, believe it or not, New England are all especially vulnerable."
New England is not typically considered to be an area with hurricane problems, but they are not without precedent. Hurricane Bob, a Category 2 storm which struck New England on September 9, 1991, caused significant damage to coastal New Hampshire, and in 1938 a Category 3 hurricane, referred to as the great New England Hurricane, caused flooding throughout the state.
"The last hurricane that hit New Hampshire on a Katrina-like level was a 1938 hurricane," said Representative Charles Bass, R-N.H., who noted that New Hampshire is probably not ready for a hurricane like Katrina. "I'm not going to suggest that we never have hurricanes, but we've had Hurricane Bob, Hurricane Carol, the 1938 hurricane and that's it for 100 years. "
Added Senator John Sununu, R-N.H.: "We have had several emergency planning and response drills on the seacoast and other places to try to prepare for a potential disaster either natural or man-made, such as terrorism .. Those drills and exercises have been used to develop state and local emergency response plans."
In the weeks following Katrina many critics compared its devastation to that of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. They argued that the government's lack of an immediate response to Hurricane Katrina was an indicator of the federal government's inability to quickly respond to a terrorist attack.
"The best defense our nation has against hurricanes is accurate prediction as well as effective evacuation," said Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C., the chairman of the disaster prediction and prevention subcommittee. "We must not be surprised again. We must be prepared because, unlike a hurricane, a terrorist will not give us 56 hours notice before an attack."
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Katrina Delays Republicans’ Tax Cut Vote
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - Hurricane Katrina has forced a significant shift in priorities for Congress this fall. Senate consideration of Republican-sponsored tax cuts, including the permanent repeal of the estate tax, has been delayed as Congress concentrates on recovery and rebuilding in the wake of the devastating storm.
"The work that is being done on hurricane relief is going to delay any legislation that was scheduled for September, including appropriations and tax relief," Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., said in a statement.
Sununu, a long-time supporter of repealing the estate tax, is an original co-sponsor of the "Jobs Protection and Estate Tax Reform Act of 2005," which would permanently repeal the estate tax
The Bush tax cuts in 2001 included a gradual reduction of the estate tax on inherited assets and total elimination of the tax by 2010. To hold down the total amount of the 2001 tax-cut bill, however, Republicans agreed that the new rates on the tax would expire at the end of 2010 and would have to be reinstated in 2011.
The Senate intended to vote on permanent repeal of the tax as its first order of legislative business following its summer vacation. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R- Tenn., delayed the vote indefinitely to allow the Senate to concentrate on legislation related to Hurricane Katrina.
"Hurricane Katrina is the top priority right now," said Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H., in a telephone interview. He noted that the House had voted in April to eliminate the estate tax.
The hurricane has changed congressional plans not only because of the needed legislation surrounding its aftermath but also because of the national attention it brought to thousands of poor residents on the Gulf Coast
"Obviously, the impact on the Gulf states has been enormous, and we have to do whatever we can to help the people of the Gulf States rebuild and reestablish their lives," Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said in the Senate on Monday.
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