Category: Fall 2007 Newswire
House Takes on Weir Farm National Historic Site Amendment Act
FARM
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/30/07
WASHINGTON – Weir Farm is still looking to expand its authority beyond its Wilton and Ridgefield borders.
On Tuesday, a House subcommittee heard testimony regarding legislation that would allow the site to acquire new facilities for both visitors and administrative purposes.
“Weir Farm contributes to Connecticut’s rich culture and history,” testified Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th), who introduced the bill in March. “It is the only National Park Service site in Connecticut, and the only park in the country dedicated to an American painter,” impressionist J. Alden Weir.
At the Tuesday hearing by the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, Karen Taylor-Goodrich, the service’s associate director for visitor and resource protection, said the department supports the bill. A National Parks official had previously testified before a Senate committee in support of the bill.
The bill would expand the area in which the park would be allowed to gain new land and facilities. Existing law sanctions acquisition only in the towns of Wilton and Ridgefield.
“This expanded authority would reduce the cost of building support facilities and would address concerns that local towns have expressed about the location of administrative facilities in residential neighborhoods,” Taylor-Goodrich said in her prepared testimony.
She said the site is currently seeking to acquire the Georgetown Wire Mill, a National Historic Place, in Redding. Weir Farm currently leases the mill and would like to exchange nine acres of land it owns in Ridgefield for 12,000 square feet of the mill. Gaining the mill, she said, would “reduce construction, operating and maintenance costs for the park,” as well as aid in creating “environmental sustainability.”
Weir Farm was established as a historic site in October 1990. The land was once owned by Weir, remembered for cultivating the American impressionist movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is one of only two national parks that deal with artistic expression and the visual arts, and, according to Shays, is host to approximately 15,000 to 17,000 visitors a year. The site now works to maintain the landscape as it was in Weir’s lifetime.
“Weir Farm provides its visitors with a true understanding of the life of J. Alden Weir and the beautiful landscape he captured on canvas,” Shays said. “[This bill] would allow the Park Service to continue to improve its off-site administrative facilities in keeping with the park’s mission to maintain the integrity of a setting that inspired artistic expression, and I strongly urge the committee to support this bill.”
###
Real Estate Industry Targets Contributions
FEC HOUSING
Cape Cod Times
Darlene M. Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
WASHINGTON – The real estate industry spent more than a billion dollars on political contributions and lobbying since 1990, consistently ranking it among the top five political donors each election cycle and among the most active lobbyists.
This year alone, real estate industry has given at least $30 million, including $41,500 from its political action committee to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who chairs a key congressional committee.
With Congress moving to deal with the current housing market turmoil – millions of foreclosures, inflated housing prices, stalled home sales, predatory lending and a credit crunch perpetuating it all – the industry will soon find out how much those campaign and lobbying dollars are worth.
“If you are going to pass legislation on an industry, you have to talk to that industry,” said Erick Gustafson, vice president of government affairs for the Mortgage Bankers Association. Lawmakers “need expertise on how the whole process works so they’re passing legislation that actually works,” Gustafson said.
Consumer advocates worry that the contributions could stall congressional action. “The mortgage lending industry has steadfastly opposed meaningful reforms for many years,” said Josh Nassar, vice president of federal affairs at the Center for Responsible Lending, a non-profit group that advocates for consumers.. The industry “continues to exert considerable influence in Congress through lobbying and campaign contributions,” he said.
The industry’s interest in government is evidenced by the amount of money it spends on its political agenda and by which legislators get that money.
“Industries tend to give money to two types of legislators: Those from where the industry is prominent and those who sit on the committees that regulate them,” said Massie Ritsch, of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks and analyzes political contributions.
“In the case of real estate, it’s a national industry, so they give broadly to just about every member of Congress, but they’re going to focus most of their attention on those who regulate and can make life easier or more difficult,” Ritsch said.
In recent years, the real estate industry has focused its contributions on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. Both handle legislation that has an impact on the regulation and performance of the housing market and related industries.
Frank, the Financial Services Committee chairman, has consistently been one of the top recipients of real estate’s political dollars.
The National Association of Realtors’ spokeswoman, Mary Trupo, said that the association considers legislators’ committee assignments when deciding who gets its political money, but that it’s not the determining factor.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Gustafson said that committee assignments are a primary consideration when it’s allocating political dollars. “We usually give to lawmakers that [affect] our industry – Banking, the Financial Services Committee, Ways and Means, and also leadership.”
Frank said industry contributions do not bear on his legislative decisions. “None of them have any influence,” he said in an interview.
He pointed to his most recent legislation, introduced Monday, which regulates mortgage bankers. The bill faces opposition from the industry while it’s favored by consumer groups.
As of Sept. 30, the end of the most recent reporting period, four of the industry’s political action committees – Fannie Mae PAC, Freddie Mac PAC, the National Association of Realtors PAC and the Mortgage Bankers Association PAC–contributed $382,500 since the beginning of the year to members of the Financial Services Committees, which represents 16 percent of the groups’ total political contributions in the same period.
In the 2006 election cycle, those same PACs gave almost a million dollars, or 17 percent of their total contributions, to members of the Financial Services Committee.
The four PACs gave $89,500 to Frank in the 2006 cycle, and so far in the current cycle, Frank has received $15,500 from the four, representing 37 percent of his total real estate PAC contributions.
The real estate industry has been a major supporter of the Massachusetts Democrat for years. Since 1989 it contributed $376,357, making it Frank’s number one industry contributor and making him its fourth-largest recipient in all of Congress.
The industry as a whole contributed $140,485 to Frank in the 2006 cycle. Only the securities and investments industry and the insurance industry gave him more last year –$177,808 and $144,248 – respectively.
In 2007, the real estate industry already has contributed more than $30 million, almost half of what it spent in 2005 and 2006, and is ranked fourth among the80 industry categories analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics. The industry has paid lobbyists $35.8 million so far this year, compared to $84 million in the entire 2006 election cycle, according to the Center.
Historically, the real estate industry has contributed more than $491 million and had more than $588 million in lobbying expenses.
House Democrats have been pushing an agenda, widely supported by the industry, that aims to stop foreclosures, increase credit in the mortgage industry so money is available to refinance or repurchase at-risk loans, and create a regulatory framework that establishes accountability among lenders.
To that end, the House already has passed legislation that expands the roles of the Federal Housing Administration and the two government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to provide additional improved loan products and credit in the market.
Legislation introduced in the Financial Services Committee by Reps. Brad Miller (D-NC), Mel Watt (D-NC) and chairman Frank Monday addresses predatory lending in the subprime mortgage market. Among other things, the bill would establish licensing and registration requirements for residential mortgage originators and a minimum standard for mortgages ensuring that borrowers have a reasonable ability to repay.
The Mortgage Bankers Association ‘s senior vice president for government affairs and public policy, Kurt Pfoterhauer, said the association generally supports the bill but “without a uniform national standards, this legislation could only serve to foster more confusion and the marketplace for borrowers and lenders alike.”
####
Coinciding with Lawsuit, House Discusses Aviation Noise
FAA
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/24/2007
WASHINGTON—A congressional committee has tackled a subject that has southwestern Connecticut towns, including Norwalk, up in arms: aviation noise.
On Tuesday, the town of Norwalk, led by Mayor Richard Moccia, joined in a multi-town lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration. This comes almost two months after the agency announced its Integrated Airspace Alternative, a design plan intended to reroute aircraft from the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia airports over southwestern Connecticut towns, including Norwalk. Community members have expressed concern about noise pollution.
“I’ve been receiving complaints from residents about increased noise,” Michael Coffey, president of Norwalk’s Common Council, said in an interview. “We are attempting to be a part of this to see if there can be a solution.”
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Aviation subcommittee heard testimony Wednesday from aviation and noise pollution experts on the issue. Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), the chairman of the subcommittee, said: “The purpose of the hearing is to learn more about these issues … what communities have done and what they are doing to address the problem. [Airports] must reach a balance between the need to expand with the quality of life of the people who live near and around our airports.”
Although some testified at the hearing that noise is a “significant” problem, several witnesses at the hearing spoke of the gains that have been made in aviation over the years.
Carl Burleson, director of the federal agency’s office of environment and energy, said the agency has offered noise-abatement air traffic procedures and grants to help reduce noise. He also discussed the agency’s strategy of soundproofing schools and hospitals to reduce the impact of noise.
For Burleson, technology is one of the main factors in noise reduction.
“Advances in technology must play a crucial role if we are to repeat our successful past 30-year effort at reducing noise while growing the aviation system,” he said. “We are identifying technology gaps and targets we will need to address to meet the noise challenges in the years ahead.”
Alan Epstein, vice president of technology and environment for the East Hartford technology company Pratt and Whitney, testified that the company has created a new “geared turbofan” engine, designed to generate a very low level of noise for passenger aircraft. Epstein promised the new engine would be in service as early as 2012, and would create less noise not only in and around airports but also in flight.
“The less noise, the less concerned you are about where it goes,” he said, referring to the new flight plans over Norwalk.
Coffey, however, said he was less than confident.
“If there was a plane that was totally silent, and residents were safe, I hope it would be part of the solution,” he said. On the other hand, he said, “the population is growing, the density is growing…. The biggest part of the problem is the noise problem.”
Mayor Moccia agreed.
“It’s not as if people bought houses near airports,” he said in an interview. “It’s a quality-of-life issue.”
##
Jim Himes Eyes the 4th District Seat: ‘I Am Going to Win This Race’
FOURTH
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/22/2007
WASHINGTON -- Jim Himes knows the history.
He knows that Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th) has been in office for 20 years and 11 terms.
He knows the 4th congressional district in Connecticut has become one the most expensive seats in the country, and also one of the most important.
And, he knows that last election’s Democratic challenger, Diane Farrell, collected more than $3 million in campaign contributions, only to lose by a narrow margin on Election Day. Yet none of this has discouraged the former vice president of Goldman, Sachs and Co. from throwing his hat in the ring.
“I am working as hard as I can,” said Himes, a Cos Cob resident and Democrat. “I am going to win this race.”
Since he announced his intention to run, Himes has raised over $600,000. In the second quarter of the year alone, less than 11 weeks into Himes’s campaign, the first-time congressional candidate posted a total of $352,000 raised. This is an amount, according to spokesman Michael Gordon, that no candidate running against Shays has ever posted in their first months.
During the third quarter of the year, from July through September, he raised almost $260,000. As of the end of September, the most recent reporting period, he still had $546,699 in the bank. Shays raised $360,308 during the three months that concluded at the end of September, and has pulled in $848,031 overall. He has $593,791 in his war chest.
“[They] are on pace to set a record,” said Dr. John Orman, chair of the politics department at Fairfield University. “You have to have money to look respectable.”
In 2006, former Westport Selectwoman Farrell lost to Shays by narrow 51 to 48 percent of the vote. Farrell, who also lost to Shays in a close race in 2004, raised more than $3 million for her 2006 campaign. Shays, who has been able to garner loyal donors over his 20 years in office, raised more than $3.8 million during the race.
The race was the ninth-most expensive in the country in 2006. The huge sums of money were required because of the 4th district’s close proximity to the expensive New York media market.
Himes’ early showing has garnered approving attention from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has long targeted Shays. Connecticut is widely known for its Democratic tendencies, having voted for both Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John Kerry in the last two presidential elections. In addition, Shays is the only Republican in the entire Connecticut delegation. This is not only a seat the Democratic Party wants, but also, according to an official with the committee, a seat the Democrats think they can gain.
“Jim Himes will have to raise a fair amount of money just to compete,” said the official. “A struggle to raise money means a struggle to convince people of your message.… But the goal is to meet with as many people as possible, to get the message out there”
She added, “Washington has gotten to Chris Shays.”
Himes is certainly taking the committee’s advice and getting to the people. While he raised less during the third quarter of the year than during the second, the majority of the contributions came in donations of $250 or less. He called this a good sign.
“The very high number of grass-roots donors indicates that people are very excited with change,” he said. “It’s great to be a candidate.”
Himes out-raised Shays in the second quarter by more than $70,000 and was only about $100,000 behind Shays in the third. This, paired with the narrow margin of Shays’ victory in 2006, has caused Republicans to sit up.
“The reality is that we are going to give [Shays] every resource he needs,” said Julie Shutley, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Money is a factor, but it’s not the only factor.”
This may be one point upon which Democrats and Republicans can agree. Himes, for example, calls the focus on fundraising a “shame,” preferring to talk about issues, like the Iraq war.
“Chris Shays needs to be held accountable for getting us into that catastrophe,” he said, referring to Shays’ support of President Bush, and his stated belief that progress is being made in Iraq. “He has ignored other issues.”
John Armstrong, a self-employed information technology consultant from Weston, donated $1,000 to Himes’ campaign committee. Although Armstrong notes that he tries to be proactive by donating to congressional campaigns, he understands what the money will ultimately be used for.
“[Himes] is building a war chest,” Armstrong said. “He will spend it on advertising, unfortunately. It’s the nature of the world these days. Hopefully he’ll do a good job selling his position.”
Even though Himes may feel that it is an “outrage” to focus on the fundraising aspect of his campaign, he realizes that it is all part of the political process, especially in the expensive 4th district,. Pleased as he is with the “self-gratifying” support he has received from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and with the number of people he has already reached, Himes said he is merely interested in getting his message out there.
“I am interested in recapturing all of those things that make this country great,” he said. “Law, opportunity and good government.”
###
House Fails to Override SCHIP Veto
HOUSE
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/18/2007
WASHINGTON – All five Connecticut members of the House voted Thursday to override President Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The effort to override failed, however, 273 to 156, 13 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed.
Democratic leaders are expected to try to revive the legislation before the end of the session.
“I am disappointed the House was unable to override the veto,” said Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th), one of 44 Republicans who voted for the override. “This was a good, bipartisan bill, worthy of passage.”
“Going forward, our primary goal must be to enact legislation that significantly reduces the number of children without health insurance,” he said.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-2nd) said in a teleconference after the vote that the House is going to let the legislation sit for a few weeks to allow more pressure to build, possibly from constituents, on those members who opposed the bill. House Democrats will then reintroduce the bill for consideration sometime before Thanksgiving, he said. Congress has passed an extension of the program until Nov. 16.
Vigorous debate ruled the House floor before the vote Thursday morning, as both sides made their arguments for and against the legislation. Democrats, who have been the main supporters of the program’s expansion, continued to refer to the millions of children who stand to lose public health care, to the chagrin of some Republicans.
“It’s bad enough we are playing politics with this war, we are now playing politics with our kids,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas). “Why don’t we sit down and find a solution that’s right for our children?”
This was not the first time Republicans have recommended coming to a compromise over the Democratic legislation. On Sunday, Bush responded to an assertion by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that the President “never talked about a compromise” on the legislation.
“If they need a little more money in the bill to help us meet the objective of getting help for poor children, I'm more than willing to sit down with the leaders and find a way to do so,” Bush said in a statement.
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program was created 10 years ago to insure children in families whose annual income is too high to make them eligible for Medicaid but too low to afford private health care insurance.
In August, Congress voted to reauthorize the program for another five years. The Bush administration later created new requirements for program eligibility, leading both the House and Senate to introduce bills both reauthorizing and expanding the program. These bills met with opposition, mostly from Republicans who said the program was covering children whose parents’ income was well above the federal poverty level. In Connecticut, that income ceiling is 300 percent of the poverty level, or almost $62,000 a year for a family of four.
“It’s crucial that Connecticut retains the ability to cover children up to 300 percent of the poverty level,” said Mary Glassman, director of legislative affairs for the advocacy group Connecticut Voices for Children. “Connecticut residents understand what it takes to keep kids healthy. This is just a temporary setback.”
###
Congress to Shed Light on TV’s Going Dark
CABLE
Cape Cod Times
Darlene M. Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
WASHINGTON – By February 17, 2009, television stations will stop broadcasting analog signals and switch to digital signals, potentially causing millions of television sets across the nation to go dark.
Anyone who owns an analog television – one that receives over-the-air analog signals through an antenna or “rabbit ears” – and does not have cable will have to purchase a digital-to-analog converter box, a digital television or a subscription to a cable or satellite service provider to continue viewing television programming after the February transition date.
A 2005 law directed the Federal Communications Commission to require all television stations to change from analog to digital-only broadcasting. This transition will provide improved television services to consumers and free up space on the broadcast spectrum. The government plans to use some of the additional space for public safety alerts and auction other space to commercial wireless services.
“While the switch to digital promises to enhance news and entertainment alike, it will be cumbersome if broadcasters and consumers are not ready,” Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) said in a written statement.
At an oversight hearing on Wednesday members of the committee’s Telecommunications and the Internet subcommittee questioned FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, John Kneuer, administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and industry experts about their plans to educate the public about the transition.
“The most critical component of a successful DTV transition is consumer education,” subcommittee Chairman Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said. “Unfortunately, prior oversight hearings have left this subcommittee with a DTV picture that is fuzzy at best.”
Markey and other committee members, concerned that a clear transition plan does not yet exist, urged industry and agency leaders to create a comprehensive plan that coordinates efforts by all parties involved in facilitating the transition to effectively educate consumers.
Already, the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration have created informational Web sites, prepared consumer alerts and held meetings with retailers, manufacturers and other private industry groups.
Education efforts by the Federal Communications Commission have been directed at the groups of consumers most likely to be affected and least likely to be aware of the transition: senior citizens, non-English speakers and minorities, disabled people, low-income families and residents of rural and tribal communities, according to Martin.
Yet, many are still unaware of the transition at all. The Association for Public Television Stations, a trade association, conducted a survey in January 2007 that showed 61 percent of participants had “no idea” there was going to be a transition, reports the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The Federal Communications Commission also is responsible for regulating manufacturers and retailers. Under the federal law manufacturers can no longer produce or import televisions that only have analog tuners since they’ll soon be obsolete without a digital-to-analog converter box. Retailers must include consumer alerts on any televisions that have analog-only tuners.
The commission has inspected almost 1,280 retailers as of October 15, 2007 and issued 280 citations for failing to comply with alert requirements, according to Martin’s testimony. To date, fines against retailers total at least $3 million. In its investigations of manufacturers’ violations, the commission has issued fines totaling more than $14 million.
To help inform consumers about the transition, private industry groups have created the Digital TV Transitional Coalition. With more than 160 member organizations, including the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Consumer Electronics Association, Nation Association of Broadcasters, LG Electronics and AARP, the coalition is planning information educational campaigns and broadcasting public service announcements.
Also a $1.5 million program to subsidize consumers’ purchases of digital-to-analog converter boxes has been established. Starting next January, every U.S. household is eligible to request from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration – via phone, mail or online – up to two coupons, each worth $40, to use toward the purchase of converter boxes.
###
Shays Frustrated with HUD’s Late Payments to Section 8 Housing Assistance Program
HOUSING
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/17/2007
WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th) berated the Department of Housing and Urban Development Wednesday for what he called its inability to provide timely monetary assistance to all participants in the department’s Section 8 project-based rental assistance program.
“I happen to be a Republican, with a Republican administration, and I am more offended than my Democratic colleagues, who I think are being very nice to you,” Shays said, addressing a senior department official during a House subcommittee hearing. “You’ve made a fool of yourself.”
In the past months, the department has been two to eight weeks late in providing subsidized rental assistance to some owners of Section 8 housing. Owners are then in turn late in making payments to mortgage lenders and service and utility providers, something members of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity deemed intolerable.
“Telling an owner that they have no guaranteed funding is simply unacceptable,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the subcommittee.
John Cox, the department’s chief financial officer, cited lack of technology as the cause of late payments. According to Cox, the processing of owner contract renewals, a stipulation for receiving payment, is done manually and takes some time. If owner contracts are not processed in a timely manner, payments can’t be made.
“I apologize on behalf of the department,” he said. “[The department] is committed to improving systemic needs. Improved administration is critically needed.”
According to David Wood, director of financial markets and community investment for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 75 percent of the department’s payments to owners are on time. However, eight percent are late by two weeks or more, leading to loss of services and even abandonment of the program out of frustration.
Wood, like Cox, attributed these late payments to the department’s lack of a Web-based, paperless contract renewal process, but included the department’s uncertainty about the amounts that should be attributed to each contract and inaccurate or incomplete monthly vouchers submitted by property owners.
For some subcommittee members, the real reasons for late payments were not being stated.
“I figure it’s not happening because somebody doesn’t want it to,” said Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) during questioning. “Is this… really a reflection of the administration’s basic contempt for public housing programs? When smart people do dumb things, something else is going on.”
According to Tom Hickey, director of finance for the Norwalk Housing Authority, Norwalk’s 200 rental-assistance units have not been heavily affected by the late payment problem.
“We received a letter from HUD [the Housing and Urban Development Department] saying that there would be some late payments, and there were some earlier in the fiscal year. But they caught up,” he said.
Cox assured the subcommittee that the late payments will not happen again once the department adopts a new technological system for processing contract renewals. His testimony, however, was not enough to convince subcommittee members.
“We are going to have to take some very direct action to ensure that this late payment problem does not continue, and make sure that we don’t continue to allow HUD to use late payments as a way to under-fund,” said Waters, who vowed she was going to contact everyone in her district as a way of monitoring the department’s progress. “We don’t like this. We don’t like this at all.”
###
House Passes Affordable Housing Trust Fund Bill
HOUSING MANCHESTER
Manchester Union Leader
Darlene M. Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
WASHINGTON – The House voted Wednesday to expand the nation’s federal housing program by investing in the construction and rehabilitation of 1.5 million affordable housing units over the next ten years.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), would establish a trust fund committed to allocating $800 million to $1 billion annually to states’ housing assistance agencies and organizations to increase the supply of affordable housing for low-income families. The bill will now be considered in the Senate.
New Hampshire Democratic Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter voted for the bill.
“The 110th Congress has already passed legislation to provide low-cost home loans to families in need,” Rep. Shea-Porter said. “This bill builds upon that work by helping to increase the availability of affordable housing, but with no new expense to the taxpayers.”
The bill would enable states to make grants from the federal trust fund to eligible local agencies and organizations that manufacture or rehabilitate affordable housing units, or provide assistance to low-income homebuyers and owners.
The grants also could be used by state and local jurisdictions to provide affordable rental units, which, according to the National Association of Realtors, are becoming rapidly unavailable. The shortage reported by the National Low Income Housing Coalition has reached 2.8 million rental homes. Programs to assist first-time homebuyers with down payments and closing costs also are eligible for grants under the bill.
The National Association of Realtors reported at a committee hearing on the legislation that while nationwide homeownership has significantly increased in recent years, many low-income families face serious difficulties because the inventory of affordable housing units for purchase or rent is dwindling.
“The growing shortage of affordable housing is one of the most serious social and economic problems facing our country,” Rep. Frank said in a statement.
In New Hampshire’s rental market “over the past several years, we’ve actually lost rental units to condo conversion,” said Jane Law, spokeswoman for New Hampshire’s Housing Finance Authority. On the homeownership side, there has been some softening, but it’s still fairly tight, especially among first-time homebuyers, she said.
Demand for affordable housing remains high in the state, with a four-year waiting list for rental assistance through the authority’s housing choice voucher program, a federal subsidy program administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The authority’s low-income housing federal tax credit program also struggles to meet demand. “We get three times as many applications as we have funding for,” Law said.
The authority committed projects on an estimated 614 affordable housing units for 2006, using tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds, federal home subsidies and housing tax credit funds.
“The demand is there to create affordable housing, and New Hampshire would absorb it,” Law said.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition, in its analysis of the 2005 American Community Survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau, found that 64 percent of extremely low-income homeowners and 71 percent of extremely low-income renter households spent more than half of their income on housing costs. And a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development study found that the number of those households rose 16 percent in recent years, from 5.18 million in 2003 to almost 6 million in 2005.
Through state-allocated grants, funds would be targeted at families with incomes below 80 percent of the state or local median income. Families with incomes below 30 percent of median income, or below the national poverty line, would receive at least 75 percent of the total funds.
Approved by a 264-148 vote along party lines, the bill faced Republican criticisms that the trust fund would be a redundant program, would cost taxpayers money and deteriorate the solvency of other government programs that would fund the trust.
The trust fund would be financed from the profits of two government-subsidized enterprises—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--and of the Federal Housing Administration, which is expected to reap increased profits from a House-passed bill to expand the program.
“Given our severely constrained fiscal realities, we are today doing the best we can to address this – creating a low-income housing trust fund that will be paid for in ways that do not draw from federal tax revenues,” Rep. Frank said.
###
House Subcommittee Calls for Clear Strategy for Post-9/11 World
POST-9/11
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/10/07
WASHINGTON – The United States needs a more coherent and functional strategy to combat terrorism and other threats that have come into play since the Sept. 11 attacks, Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th) said at a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
“The brutal nature of the terrorist threat shattered naïve assumptions terrorists would be deterred by geographic, political or moral borders,” Shays said. “Containment, deterrence, reaction and mutually assured destruction no longer served to protect the fundamental security interest of the American people.”
Shays is the senior Republican on the National Security and Foreign Affairs subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which held the hearing Wednesday on the threats, risks and security in the post-9/11 world.
Members of the subcommittee agreed that lacking a cohesive definition of what these threats are and the resources needed to control them are the greatest problems in effectively protecting the country.
Rep. Shays said it was recognized even before the Sept. 11 attacks that the United States lacked a practical counterterrorism strategy and needed to create one. When President Bush assumed office, he “inherited a loose collection…used as a strategic framework for a national strategy against terrorism.”
Since then, the administration has created a number of strategies in the areas of national security, military strategy, global terrorism, homeland security, weapons of mass destruction, money laundering, cybersecurity and critical infrastructure. The administration’s National Security Strategy of the United States of America, published in 2002 and updated in 2006, poses a counterterrorism strategy, but subcommittee members are calling for an evaluation of its success, if any.
“A large number of counterterrorism strategies do not necessarily mean we are any safer,” Shays said. “Only if these strategies guide us toward clearly articulated goals will they help secure our liberty and prosperity against the threats of a new and dangerous era.”
Walter Isaacson, author and former chairman and CEO of CNN, compared the current national status to the Cold War, but said the country lacks that era’s “burst of creativity.”
“This is an entirely new global struggle, and we are still using old institutions,” Isaacson said during his testimony. “We still haven’t even defined the threat very well. We are not nearly at the level of the people of a previous generation.”
Testifying along with Isaacson, Jessica Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the real impending threat to national security is not terrorism, but nuclear weapons, an area, she said, in which the United States. is in no position to lead.
“The Achilles’ heel here is that no safeguards can provide protection when a country has direct access to plutonium,” she said.
Although the witnesses could not agree on what exactly has become the biggest threat to the United States since Sept. 11, their testimonies are just the beginning of debate on this matter. Wednesday’s subcommittee hearing was the first in a series dedicated to examining long-term national security strategies.
Shays, after reading his prepared remarks, said that the problem in creating a coherent strategy is the lack of debate in Congress and in the public. Instead, he said, “We look at whether some performer should have control of her child and not have her children taken away, whether [in the case of] Anna Nicole Smith, who is the father of this child? We get into the most absurd debates at a time when we need to have meaningful dialogue.”
###
Congress And Tourism Industry to Market America
TOURISM
Cape Cod Times
Darlene M. Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
Thursday, October 4, 2007
WASHINGTON – America was once the number one “dream destination” for foreign travelers, but now it ranks sixth, and its market share in international tourism has been slipping.
But the rapid decline in the relative value of the U.S. dollar—it has fallen about 45 percent against the euro recently—bids to make visits to the United States more attractive to Europeans and citizens of other countries whose currency has risen against the dollar.
While the United States has seen slight increases in the number of foreign tourists this year and led international tourism receipts with $86 billion in 2006, both Congress and the tourism industry hope to accelerate the upward trend. Globally, international tourism generated $735 billion in receipts in 2006.
Last Thursday, industry representatives at the annual Travel Leadership Summit in Washington lobbied for legislation, sponsored in the House by Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), that would create a national marketing plan to attract foreign travelers to the United States
“We need to jump-start a proactive campaign for the whole country – a comprehensive marketing plan” to get the tourism industry back where it should be, said Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO Wendy Northcross, who attended the conference. On Cape Cod, international travel dropped 23 to 27 percent since 9/11, she said. In Boston, international tourism declined 25 percent over the last six years, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick this year approved a $25 million tourism budget with at least $1.5 million to enhance the Commonwealth’s share of international tourism. In 2006 then-governor Mitt Romney allotted $5 million to international travel promotion.
The United States is one of the few countries worldwide that does not spend federal money to attract overseas travel. Australia spends more than $100 million, according to the World Tourism Organization, and its annual international arrivals just equal Cape Cod’s, Northcross said. Greece, Malaysia and Mexico also spend over $100 million annually; the United Kingdom, almost $90 million.
Delahunt’s bill would not require the government to fund the tourism industry. Rather, it would establish a nonprofit corporation with a board of 14 private-sector directors appointed by the Secretary of Commerce to oversee promotional design and operation.
The corporation would be funded by fees on foreign travelers acquiring visas online through a new federal Electronic Travel Authorization system. The private sector could match funds with tourism industry donations. A study authorized by the Discover America Partnership, an industry organization, estimated that a $100 million promotion plan could yield millions of new visitors, $8 billion of new spending and $850 million in federal tax receipts.
On average overseas visitors spend more than $1,600 per visit to the United States, more than they spend in any other country, according to the Commerce Department. Cape Cod’s 4 million annual tourists spend $2 billion, and $1.2 billion of that can be attributed to international visitors, Northcross said. “International travelers: they stay longer and spend more money, and they come in the off-season, when we need them most,” she said.
But the United States faces several challenges: a general anti-American sentiment abroad, tighter security measures since 9/11 and lack of a national promotion plan.
President Bush is the “leading link to anti-Americanism,” according to the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes project, yet America’s favorability rating in general has also dropped in Great Britain, Poland, Canada, Germany, France, Russia, Indonesia, Jordan and Turkey. However, research from the Travel Industry Association shows 74 percent of foreigners who visit the United States are then more likely to have favorable opinions and 61 percent are more likely to favor U.S. policies.
The legislation aims to improve homeland security and clarify the entry process in order to mitigate perceptions that it is among the most arduous. The Commerce Department found that heightened security since 9/11 has bolstered this perception, helping explain the 17 percent decline in overseas visitors since 2000.
In addition to federal legislation, plans to promote international tourism in Massachusetts include the expansion of the Massachusetts Cultural Coast, a marketing collaboration between Quincy, Plymouth, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Southeast Massachusetts, and Discover New England, a six-state, regionally coordinated tourism group.
The Cultural Coast was a pet project of Rep. Delahunt beginning in 2004, in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention in Boston, to showcase the economic impact of international tourism. Eventually, participating regions in the Commonwealth combined resources and developed a grant-funded Web site.
The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce plans to put additional financing, public relations efforts and staff resources into this initiative in the coming year to expand the project’s online presence. Its Web site, www.theculturalcoast.org, got more than 2,000 hits in 2007 and 7,500 page views in its first month, with half of its users from abroad. The chamber also plans to work with the Office of Travel and Tourism and Discover New England to offer international trips to the region.
###
