Category: Fall 2007 Newswire
McKinney Follows in Father’s Footsteps, Pushes to End Homelessness
HOMELESS
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/4/2007
WASHINGTON– Connecticut State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney (R-28th), asked Congress on Thursday to do more to help end homelessness in America. He urged the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, named after his father, the late Rep. Stewart McKinney.
“Sadly, over the past 20 years since this law first passed, we have not followed through on the promise to do more to combat homelessness,” McKinney said at a hearing before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. “We no longer need simply to manage homelessness, we can end it.”
In 1987, President Reagan signed the McKinney-Vento Act into law. Now, 20 years later, Congress is looking to reauthorize the bill. The Senate passed its version of the legislation on Sept. 19, while a House version is still being worked on.
According to McKinney, more federal money is needed to better provide affordable housing and services to those in need.
“We need new funding to jump-start the next phase of supportive housing development,” he said.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a nonpartisan advocacy group, 5,327 people in Connecticut were classified as homeless in January 2007, 0.15 percent of the entire state population. Of the total homeless, 799 went unsheltered. According to Carole Antonetz, executive director of Norwalk Emergency Shelter Inc., increased funds should go to creating more supportive housing that would let homeless people live more independently and more affordable housing for the poor and homeless.
“We are pretty full every night,” said Antonetz, whose shelter has 95 beds. “It takes a large amount of funding.”
According to McKinney, Connecticut has become a leader in creating supportive housing. There are 3,000 permanent supportive-housing units already created or in the planning stages. But, McKinney said, the money given through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs is not enough.
“Today the funds only cover the expenses of keeping current housing open,” he told the subcommittee. “While the state has tried to pick up the slack…there are many more developments proposed than there is money to cover.”
Because of the work that has been done to combat homelessness in Connecticut over the past 10 years, McKinney said, the state could be looked upon as a blueprint for creating effective movements in supportive housing and putting people into permanent homes. But, according to the senator, there is still more to be done.
“We’re not going to end homelessness unless we have more units,” he said.
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President Vetoes SCHIP Bill, Connecticut Officials Disagree
VETO
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/3/2007
WASHINGTON – President Bush, as promised, vetoed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program legislation on Wednesday. The bill now goes back to Congress, where Democrats are fighting hard to gain enough votes to override the President’s veto.
“I voted for…the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, and I was disappointed the President vetoed this legislation,” Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th) said in a statement Wednesday. “When the House considers the President's veto, I will vote to override it. [This] is a good piece of legislation that, on balance, is worthy of passage.”
The program’s reauthorization and expansion passed Congress last week, with a 265 to 159 vote in the House and a 67 to 29 vote in the Senate. With Democrats holding only a relatively slim majority in the House, considerably more than the 45 Republicans who voted for the bill last week would have to vote to override Bush’s veto by the required two-thirds majority. The Senate, based on last week’s vote, could vote to override. Last week, Congress agreed to an extension of the program, which expired Sept. 30, until Nov. 16.
“The President has said himself that at least the bill…has some very serious problems,” Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a press briefing last week. “It helps those who are well-off as opposed to those who are poor. It moves people from private insurance to government insurance. It covers adults; this is a program for children.”
Leavitt also referred to the “holes” in funding for the legislation, including the proposed increased tax on tobacco products.
According to Rep. Shay’s office, the congressman is pleased that the bill calls for an increased tobacco tax to offset the program’s costs and hopes that would save future generations from huge fiscal responsibilities. Rep. Shays also disagrees with the President that the program’s enrollment should be closed to children in families making above 200 percent of the poverty line, or $41,300 for a family of four.
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) also criticized the veto. “This President's priorities are unconscionable,” Dodd said in a statement Wednesday. “With the resources it takes to execute just over three months of the Iraq War, we could fully fund the expansion of health care for needy children.”
Janie Friedlander, director of pupil personnel for Norwalk Public Schools, said “We would hope that all kids come in healthy and ready to learn. Without insurance, the risk is that [they won’t], and that should be a concern for everybody.”
This is only the fourth time President Bush has used his veto power during his almost seven years in office. The first, in 2006, was against expanding embryonic stem-cell research. In May of this year, the President vetoed an Iraq war spending bill that included timelines for troop withdrawal. And, in June, Bush again vetoed stem-cell legislation. Congress has failed to override any of Bush’s vetoes.
While officials in the House Ways and Means Committee said they hope enough Republicans will join with the majority and override the President’s veto, they were unsure of when the legislation would be brought back to Congress for the override vote.
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UConn Coach, Cancer Survivor, Keynote Speaker for Medical Technology Conference
CALHOUN
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/2/2007
WASHINGTON – University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun addressed an audience of hundreds on Tuesday as a keynote speaker for the inaugural AdvaMed Medical Technology Conference. Calhoun, a two-time national championship coach with the Huskies, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003.
“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here,” Calhoun said, referring not only to his cancer treatment but also treatment for the general wear and tear on his body. “Thank you. I really enjoy the walking.”
The Hall of Fame coach was named a keynote speaker at the medical technology event not only because he is a cancer survivor, but also because of his work in the field of medicine, including founding, along with his wife, the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Calhoun, who has lost many family members, including his mother, to heart problems, said he wants to do all he can to make sure that no other children have to face losing a parent prematurely to heart problems.
“My mother died after a successful bypass surgery at 30,” he said. “Things that can be prevented shouldn’t happen.”
AdvaMed member companies produce medical devices, diagnostic products and health information systems that help provide early detection, less invasive procedures and effective treatments for patients. According to the association’s mission, AdvaMed advocates for advances in global health care and for ensuring access to the benefits of medical technology.
Calhoun, whose new book, A Passion to Lead, was published on Tuesday, also gave audience members his advice on leading their medical technology companies. Comparing running a company to coaching a basketball team, he stressed finding one’s passion, setting standards, motivating those beneath you and winning every day.
“Do you notice everyday victories?” Calhoun asked the crowd. “It’s a process, not an event. The national championship was an event that ended the process.”
After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in February of 2003, Calhoun took a leave of absence from his basketball team to have surgery and receive treatment. While reports at the time predicted Calhoun would be absent for up to a month, it was only a matter of weeks before he was coaching again. Two years later, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
The 65-year-old Massachusetts native has amassed more than 700 wins as a head coach. Along with two NCAA championships, Calhoun also led the Huskies to a National Invitation Tournament Championship in 1988, and has been named the Big East Conference Coach of the Year four times, more than any other coach in the history of the conference.
“Excellence is never by accident, it’s always by design,” he said. “Leaders help people cross that long, long bridge from potential to excellence.”
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House Votes to Reauthorize Flood Insurance Program
HOMEOWNERS
Cape Cod Times
Darlene Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
Thursday, September 27, 2007
WASHINGTON – Responding to the rising cost of homeowners’ insurance and increased probability of extreme weather, the House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to increase coverage offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Flood Insurance Program and improve its financial solvency.
The bill, approved by a 243 to 146 party-line vote and co-sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) would reauthorize for five years the flood insurance program, which is set to expire in 2008.
The bill also would increase insurance limits, allowing more extensive coverage for homeowners, and would impose larger fines on insurers who fail to enforce the mandatory flood insurance policy. Mandatory coverage applies to homeowners holding federally backed mortgages and living in high flood risk areas.
Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) said he is pleased with the bill. Amendments adopted just before Thursday’s vote “will help the overall solvency of the program and provide added benefits to the people of the Cape and Islands,” he said.
One of the amendments would allow business owners to purchase business interruption coverage.
The bill also increases the program’s access to federal funding and extends coverage to wind damage, contentious issues for those opposed to the bill. Critics called the bill financially irresponsible, citing the program’s existing $19 billion debt.
The Congressional Budget Office labeled the National Flood Insurance Program high-risk in March 2006. The office said that the program sets its rates to be in line with the cost of average historical claims, meaning that in worse-than-typical years, it runs a deficit. The office also reported that the program had to increase its borrowing from the U.S. Treasury from $1.5 billion to $20 billion following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The program paid out nearly $16 billion in claims related solely to Katrina, compared to the total $14.6 billion in payouts for all flood events from 1968 until Katrina.
Frank said that the program’s debt should not prevent expanding the program to include wind coverage. “We have made significant improvements in the national flood insurance program to ensure its continued viability to serve people and to limit tax-payer exposure to the program,” he said.
If the Senate passes the bill, President Bush may veto it, arguing that homeowners’ insurance is a private industry matter that the government should not commit to further funding.
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Shays Supports Resolution for Respecting the Memory of Veterans
VETERANS
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
9/27/2007
WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th) has joined supporters of a congressional resolution in response to an act of vandalism at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial earlier this month. The resolution, which already has more than 100 supporters, would express the House’s anger over acts of vandalism against those who have fought and died for the United States.
“Those who have their name etched on that memorial gave their life for their country,” Shays said in a statement Thursday. “Their families should not have to deal with the pain of finding their loved one's name defaced.”
On Sept. 7, a thin, light, oily substance was reported to be smeared on the memorial and its walkway. At first, it was not clear if the substance was there accidentally, but U.S. Park Police recently determined that the act was not accidental. Numerous chemical analyses of what the substance could be have been inconclusive, and the Park Police are continuing their investigation.
Members of the House are seeking action through their resolution condemning the act of vandalism, which damaged at least 14 of the 140 inscribed panels of the memorial. The resolution states that the House “condemns all attacks upon the memory of veterans and their service to the United States.”
“I was a [prisoner of war] in Vietnam for seven years and I find this vandalism unconscionable and un-American,” Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) said in a press conference attended by Shays and other members of Congress on Thursday. “I hope that the authorities find the criminal responsible for this and that they lock him or her up for a very, very long time.”
Parts of the memorial still appear to be stained, according to Bill Line, spokesman for the National Park Service. However, the memorial has remained open to visitors.
“Quickness is the enemy of the proper removal of this substance,” Line said, adding that the Park Service is more concerned about preserving the memorial and remains confident that it will be able to remove all of the substance.
In addition to the resolution, AMVETS, a veterans’ organization, is offering a $5,000 reward to help in finding those responsible for the vandalism of the memorial.
“From media reports, I gather this may have been seen by the perpetrators as a protest against the government and current military operations,” AMVETS National Commander John P. Brown III said at the press conference. “If that is the case, these criminals are as uneducated as they are unpatriotic. This wall belongs to the people, not the government.”
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Senate Votes to Pass Children’s Health Insurance Legislation; President Threatens Veto
VOTE
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washingtn News Service
9/27/2007
WASHINGTON – The Senate voted TK to TK Thursday to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The bill will now be sent to President Bush, who has threatened a veto.
"The idea that George Bush—someone who's never had to worry about health care himself—would take health insurance away from thousands of children shows how little he understands and sympathizes with what working families face every day,” said Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) in a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty last week.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services met with Connecticut Department of Social Services Commissioner Michael Starkowski on Thursday to explain the President’s veto position, according to department spokesman David Dearborn.
President Bush has threatened to veto the bill mainly because he supports the new rules for the program outlined by his administration in August. Among these is the requirement that 95 percent of eligible low-income children be insured before a state can be reimbursed for insuring children in families with higher incomes.
For 10 years, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program has insured children whose families’ annual income was too high to make them eligible for Medicaid but too low to afford private health care. The Connecticut HUSKY B program insures children of families with incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $62,000 for a family of four.
The program is due to expire on Sunday. The House and Senate plan to pass a bill that would temporarily continue funding at current levels if Bush vetoes the new legislation. Starkowski, concerned about the uncertainty of the program’s future, requested that the HUSKY B program be protected from a decrease in funding should Congress fail to override a Bush veto and the temporary funding run out. The state currently pays for HUSKY B but receives a 65 percent reimbursement from the U.S. government through the federal program. The federal officials said they would be taking the request back to department Secretary Mike Leavitt.
“As the President indicated, he believes, I believe, that SCHIP was designed for low-income children and for those who currently do not have private insurance,” Leavitt said in a briefing last week. “We think that poor children who do not have insurance ought to go to the head of the line. There are many states and many children who currently qualify for SCHIP who have not been enrolled, and that ought to be our first priority.”
The $35 billion increase passed by the Senate following House approval on Tuesday would more than double the spending for the program over the next five years.
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Congress Aims to Curb Foreclosures
Housing
Union Leader
Darlene M. Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
WASHINGTON – The increase in foreclosures and home mortgage defaults stemming from subprime lending market problems will only worsen in coming months, financial experts told Congress last week.
“Economists generally agree that the probability of a recession next year has risen and is now quite elevated relative to normal conditions,” Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said at a Congressional Joint Economic Committee hearing last Wednesday.
Martin Eakes, CEO of the Center for Responsible Lending, said he thinks there will be a recession.
“We can talk about whether it will be a national recession or not,” Eakes told the committee. “But I can tell you in the neighborhoods where I have worked for the last 25 years it will be utterly a depression.”
Eakes was the founder of the Center for Community Self Help in Durham, N.C., a non-profit group that helps borrowers build wealth through home and business ownership.
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday of last week cut the prime interest rate for the first time in more than four years in an effort to prevent a recession. The Fed dropped the rate by a half-percentage point, boosting the stock market.
Congress and the executive branch of the government also moved last week in a variety of ways to fix the subprime market problems. At issue is a series of mortgage defaults stemming from a combination of problems: loans awarded to borrowers who could not afford them or did not understand them, predatory lending practices and falling housing prices, meaning that homes were no longer worth the loans paying for them.
A lack of disclosure about the terms of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages, which reset to higher rates at predetermined dates, has especially wreaked havoc in the mortgage market. Many borrowers, enticed by extremely low “teaser” rates, entered loans they would never be able to repay once interest rates automatically jump after a couple years. Some of these borrowers, not realizing just how high interest rates on their loan could reach, are facing unaffordable payments.
Delinquencies and foreclosures among subprime adjustable-rate mortgages have risen dramatically and will remain high as nearly 2 million subprime loans originated between 2004 and 2006 will reset to higher rates over the next 18 months, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. At least 500,000 of these loans are expected to end in foreclosure.
Eakes warned that foreclosures, combined with a “spillover” effect that will devalue neighboring homes, “will be utterly catastrophic” to communities nationwide and the economy at large.
According to a recent Mortgage Bankers Association delinquency report, more than 1,000, or 4.5 percent of the 24,435 subprime loans in New Hampshire were in foreclosure by the end of June. And almost 2,000 others were seriously delinquent or past due by at least 90 days.
Congress and the Bush administration generally agree that the solution to the immediate foreclosure crisis lies primarily in expanding the role of the Federal Housing Administration, the government’s federally insured loan program operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
To such ends, the House of Representatives passed a bill last Tuesday that would enable the Federal Housing Administration to offer refinancing loans, zero and lower down payment loans, additional multifamily loans and increased funding for affordable housing, counseling for at-risk subprime borrowers and reverse mortgage programs for senior citizens.
“I believe that parents shouldn’t have to turn to predatory lenders with high interest rates in order to keep a roof over their children’s heads,” Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., said in a statement. “By providing more affordable, fixed-rate loans, as well as expanding counseling and loan refinancing programs, this bill will help make sure that more families don’t lose their homes.”
The approved House bill also imposes penalties on lenders who fail to make payments to borrowers’ escrow accounts. Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., is looking to take this protection a step further through the Homebuyers’ Protection Act he introduced on Sept. 12. Hodes’ bill would require escrow accounts to be established on all subprime loans. The escrow account allows homebuyers to pay property taxes with their monthly mortgage payments to avoid a large end-of-year tax bill that could lead to default.
“A home foreclosure is incredibly traumatic for the affected family and for their community,” Rep. Hodes said in a statement. “This bill will help protect folks from questionable loan practices and enforce their rights as consumers.”
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee passed similar legislation on Wednesday. It will be considered on the Senate floor, although the timing of when is unclear. While there are “negotiable” differences in the House and Senate versions of the legislation, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he is confident that a bill could be signed in the very near future.
“If the Senate would pass some versions of those bills and send them to conference I am confident that with the Administration participation, the House and the Senate, within a few weeks we could have a package that would greatly enable our ability to do what we’ve been talking about, and it would result in much more relief for people who are facing foreclosure,” Frank said.
The congressional action follows the Bush administration’s August overhaul of the Federal Housing Administration’s refinancing program, focusing on risk-based pricing.
Under the new plan, loan fees depend on a borrower’s credit profile. Creditworthy borrowers, who made timely payments before interest rates on their subprime loans increased, would qualify for refinancing. The administration hopes that the overhaul will prevent an estimated 260,000 foreclosures.
Also last week, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight eased restrictions on lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, allowing the government-sponsored enterprises to take on billions of dollars of additional subprime loans and loosen credit in the housing market.
Rep. Frank said that the move recognized the current problem, but did not sufficiently respond to it. He said that he and other lawmakers hope that regulatory and oversight agencies will do more to restore homeownership.
“The ‘lesson’ here is not to throw out subprime loans,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson told the House Financial Services Committee Thursday. “Most people with subprime loans will be fine and their homeownership adds wealth to our economy and gives them equity and a financial stake in the community. Our estimate is that 80 percent of the subprime loans made in 2005 and 2006 will not be problematic.”
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Connecticut Schools’ Scores Remain the Same
REPORT CARD
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
9/25/2007
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 – Connecticut students in both the fourth and eighth grades are still performing at academic levels higher than the rest of the country in reading and math, according to a national report card released Tuesday, but they have shown little improvement over the past two years.
“Connecticut students continue to perform well above the nation in reading and math, which is something we have come to expect in this state,” Mark K. McQuillan, commissioner of the Connecticut State Department of Education, said in a statement Tuesday. “We have to keep in mind that our strong performance needs to be stronger every year to maintain our position among the top performers in America.”
The U.S. Department of Education released the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the Nation’s Report Card, in both reading and math at the fourth- and eighth-grade levels.
The national report cards are developed every other year as a sample assessment of student progress in a number of subject areas and grade levels. Included in the reports are statistics by race and gender and across three levels of income. While the nation saw on average a rise in performance among all these groups, Connecticut’s results were basically unchanged.
In fourth-grade reading, 41 percent of Connecticut children performed at the proficient or advanced levels, much higher than the national average of 32 percent. In eighth-grade reading, 37 percent of Connecticut students were proficient or above, compared to 29 percent for the nation.
For fourth-grade math, 45 percent of Connecticut students were at the proficient or advanced levels, with only 39 percent nationwide. And in eighth-grade math, 35 percent of Connecticut students performed at the proficient or advanced levels, while 31 percent of students were at these levels across the country.
Although the Connecticut statistics are not significantly different from the last assessment, there have been some dramatic changes since the first assessments were taken in 1990 for math and 1992 for reading.
In fourth-grade math, for example, Connecticut has seen a rise from 24 percent of students at the proficient or advanced levels to today’s 45 percent. In fourth-grade reading, the number has risen from 34 percent to 41 percent.
Among Connecticut fourth-grade students, 12 percent performed at an advanced level, according the State Education Department, while nationally, only 7 percent achieved that level.
“Its obvious that states that do better have trouble making gains,” Darvin M. Winick, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, said after the press conference releasing the report. “Connecticut spends a lot of money on education; they expect good education.”
In the areas of economic status and race, Connecticut’s statistics have shown no narrowing of the gap over time. While 53 percent of non-disadvantaged fourth-grade students are testing at the proficient or advanced level for reading, according to the State Department of Education, only 13 percent of disadvantaged students are at this level. According to the department, this discrepancy has “persisted” since 1998.
The performance gap in reading between white and black fourth-graders has not narrowed since 1992, nor has it grown closer between white and Hispanic students since 1994. The performance of black and Hispanic students in Connecticut is not drastically different from the performance of black and Hispanic children around the country, except in eighth grade math, where Hispanic students in Connecticut scored lower than the national average for Hispanic students.
For students with disabilities and students learning the English language, Connecticut’s statistics are at a higher level than the nation’s while including a greater percentage of these students than the national average.
The data show what the State Education Department referred to in a press release Tuesday as “the effort Connecticut educators make to ensure that all students are provided the support and accommodations necessary.”
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Homeland Security Committee Meets to Discuss Care for First Responders
RESPONSE
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
9/20/07
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 – Treatment of ongoing health issues for emergency workers who first responded to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City continues to be insufficient, a government investigator told Congress Thursday.
The testimony came as part of an ongoing effort by the House Committee on Homeland Security to focus on the health and safety of first responders to catastrophic attacks or disaster areas.
“We are so much further ahead than we were on September 11,” Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4th), a committee member, said in an interview. “But we still have a way to go.”
In his testimony on the progress being made in caring for the health of first responders, Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Health and Human Services, outlined strides being taken in enhancing and expanding this care.
These include the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program and the World Trade Center Responder Health Consortium, which both work to provide screenings, monitoring and treatment of conditions related to early response to the scene of the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.
Those responding to Ground Zero on September 11 were exposed to “an intense, complex and unprecedented mix of toxic chemicals,” including glass fibers, glass shards, asbestos, lead and hydrochloric acid, Dr. Philip Landrigan told the committee in written testimony Thursday.
In follow-up examinations of more than 9,000 World Trade Center responders, more than 7,000 received treatment for physical health problems, while just below 5,000 received treatment for mental-related health problems
Cynthia A. Bascetta, director of health care for the Government Accountability Office, said she did not believe this is good enough.
“These efforts are not complete,” she testified “The stop-and-start history of the department’s efforts to serve these groups does not provide assurance that the latest efforts to extend screening and monitoring services to these responders will be successful and sustained over time.”
The Government Accountability Office found that the responder screening program run by the Department of Health and Human Services has had trouble with consistency and has twice stopped scheduling screening exams because of administrative changes and because the department was considering expanding the program, which did not happen.
“If federal responders do not receive monitoring, health conditions that arise later may not be diagnosed and treated,” she said. “Knowledge of the health effects of the…disaster may be incomplete.”
Nicholas Visconti, the deputy chief of the New York City Fire Department, testified that there were avoidable failures on the day the twin towers were attacked. He cited problems in personnel, communication, tools and training, said changes were needed in these areas and called for the federal government to help local responders in times of crisis.
“As the federal government continues to ask more of its first responders, we owe it to them to ensure that our nation’s policies and priorities enable their safe and effective response,” he said.
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Weir Farm Looks Ahead
Weir
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
9/11/07
WASHINGTON – The Weir Farm National Historic Site is seeking congressional authority to expand its territory beyond Wilton and Ridgefield.
At a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday, National Park Service deputy director Daniel N. Wenk testified that the Department of the Interior will support legislation that would help the historic site to acquire new facilities at no extra cost.
“We believe that we can exchange land, save money,” Wenk said during the hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks.
The legislation, an amendment to the 1990 Weir Farm National Historic Site Establishment Act, was proposed in March by Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4. In April, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., proposed a similar amendment, which Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., is now cosponsoring. The bill would “expand the National Park Service’s authority so that it can consider the acquisition of property in all of Fairfield County,” Wenk testified.
Under current law, Weir Farm has been able to look at acquisition in only Ridgefield and Wilton, where it already holds land. The Park Service also is required to come to an agreement with these towns before any building is to be done.
The amendment would allow Weir Farm to exchange up to nine acres of land in Ridgefield for 12,000 square feet of the Georgetown Wire Mill in Redding, reducing the farm’s construction, operating and maintenance costs. The historic site has been leasing 5,000 square feet of the mill property.
Park officials said that rising costs and concerns about building in residential areas led to the need for the amendment.
“This is not about expansion,” Linda Cook, the Park Service’s superintendent for Weir Farm, said in a telephone interview. “We want to be able to think broadly, to look beyond a mile outside of the park boundaries.”
Weir Farm was established as a national historic site in October 1990. One of two National Parks that deal chiefly with visual art and artistic expression, the area was once the land of J. Alden Weir, one of the main players in cultivating the American impressionist movement. The site works to preserve and maintain the landscape as it was in the late 1800s, and to offer other artistic and educational opportunities.
“I am proud to be a co-sponsor of the Weir Farm National Historic Site Amendment Act,” Dodd said in a statement Tuesday. “Finding a long-anticipated permanent home for this facility will save taxpayers money and help to ensure the preservation of Weir Farm, an important part of the culture and history of Connecticut.”
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