Category: Maine
Homeowners Could Get FHA-backed Mortgages Under a New Program
FHA
Bangor Daily News
Guanlei Ren
Boston University Washington News Service
October 1, 2008
WASHINGTON – Homeowners stuck with costly mortgages and facing foreclosure will be able to refinance into more affordable loans with the assistance of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) under the HOPE for Homeowners program that took effect Wednesday.
“The turbulent economy has reached a boiling point, and the American people require and deserve immediate relief,” Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe said in a Sept. 30 statement. “With these programs, homeowners can access FHA-insured mortgages or receive valuable tax credits for first-time buyers. I encourage Americans to take advantage of these beneficial provisions and contact the FHA today.”
The HOPE for Homeowners program is authorized to insure up to $300 billion in mortgages and is expected to serve approximately 400,000 homeowners over the next three years.
“HOPE for Homeowners will add to the Housing and Urban Development Department’s (HUD) existing efforts to make FHA refinancing available to homeowners who need it most,” FHA Commissioner Brian D. Montgomery said in a statement. “One year ago, FHA expanded refinancing into its FHASecure program. Since that time, we have helped more than 360,000 families keep their homes by refinancing with FHA, and we will assist a total of 500,000 families by the end of this year.”
The temporary and voluntary program is intended to create new equity for troubled homeowners to ensure affordability and sustainable homeownership. Participating borrowers will have to take out 30-year FHA loans for 90 percent of the current value of their home and share their newly created equity and future appreciation equally with the FHA, according to the agency.
Kristine Foye, a spokeswoman at the New England Region of HUD, said, “The program is really designed to help people stay in their home.”
To benefit from the proceeds of the loans refinanced with government insurance, investors and lenders have to agree to take substantial and significant losses, which would be less than the losses associated with foreclosure, according to the FHA.
“Anybody who is interested in it will need to contact their lender, to work with their lender being able to write down their existing mortgage,” Foye said.
According to the FHA, only owner-occupants who are unable to afford their current mortgage payments are eligible for the program. Qualified borrowers’ existing mortgages must have been originated on or before Jan. 1, 2008, and at least six payments must have been made. The borrowers’ mortgage debt-to-income ratio must be at least 31 percent. The borrowers also need to prove that they cannot afford their current loan payments and did not intentionally miss any payments and that they own only one home.
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Maine Senators Call for Passage of a Revised Bailout Plan
Bailout Maine
Bangor Daily News
Guanlei Ren
Boston University Washington News Service
September 30, 2008
WASHINGTON - Maine’s two U.S. senators called Tuesday for the approval of a revised bailout plan after lawmakers in the House defeated the legislation by a 228-205 vote on Monday.
“Our nation is facing a dire economic crisis,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins said in a statement. “I am disappointed that a day following the U.S. House’s failure to pass legislation to address this issue, an agreement has yet to be reached on compromise legislation that will pass the House.”
The senator said that Congress must stay in Washington until an agreement is reached and the legislation has been passed.
President Bush warned Tuesday that the economic damage would last and be even worse if the financial rescue plan were not passed.
After the House rejected the plan on Monday fear spread among investors and the Dow Jones industrial plunged 777 points, the most ever for a single day. On Tuesday the market rebounded with the Dow gaining 485 points after it appeared that there would be an effort to revive the emergency rescue plan.
Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe said in a statement, “At a time of tremendous economic peril in this country, it is regrettable the bipartisan process has broken down.”
Both senators said the economic crisis had already affected Maine as shown by the recent inability of the state to sell a $50 million transportation bond that would be used to make critical transportation improvements and create as many as 1,700 jobs.
“I find it unconscionable that unchecked greed and a stunning lack of oversight has resulted in the economic calamity we face today,” Sen. Snowe said.
On Tuesday, Senate leaders of both parties vowed to work toward agreement on the bailout plan.
“Now it’s imperative that Congress continue to work together to forge a bipartisan consensus,” Sen. Snowe said.
Sen. Snowe and Sen. Collins both emphasized the need for strong protections for taxpayers, availability of critical credit, tough oversight and accountability of financial markets, and restrictions on executive compensation.
Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud, who voted against the bailout bill, said in a telephone interview that the plan put forth by Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson did not really address the problem.
“Over the last 10 days, I seeked a lot of input from economists, banking regulators, the former FDIC chairman, and I was convinced that voting for the Paulson proposal would not offer banking institutions the capital that they need to free up the frozen markets,” Michaud said.
He said the revision of the bailout plan should include raising the $100,000 federal insurance on bank deposits and more details on how taxpayer money will be recouped.
Before the vote on Monday, Rep. Michaud’s offices received more than 2,000 phone calls and emails and about 90 percent of them opposed the bailout, according to Monica Castellanos, the congressman’s press secretary.
Democratic Rep. Thomas Allen, who voted for the plan, said in a statement that “it is imperative that Congress act responsibly to prevent any further deterioration to the financial underpinnings of our economy.”
He said that the failed bailout plan was not perfect, but it was an improvement over the original proposal.
“I will continue to work with members of Congress from both parties to build consensus and pass this critically important legislation,” Rep. Allen said.
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Fair Trade Protest at Sen. Collins’ Bangor Office
FTA
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
9/26/08
WASHINGTON -- About 30 protesters delivered 24,000 pink slips to Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ office in Bangor on Friday and asked her to oppose the U.S.-Columbia free trade agreement awaiting congressional approval.
The Maine Fair Trade Campaign, a coalition of 51 organizations and unions across the state, said the pink slips – a piece of paper given to a worker as a layoff notice – symbolically represented the 24,000 manufacturing jobs lost in Maine since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The protesters said another free trade agreement would put at risk thousands of other jobs in Maine.
“The problem with free trade is that it is sending our jobs overseas,” Daphne Loring, a Maine Fair Trade Campaign coordinator, said. “People are suffering, the middle class is squeezed. The last thing we should be considering is the extension of the NAFTA to Columbia.”
Collins was the only Maine member of Congress who did not take a position on the issue, either supporting or opposing it, Loring said in a telephone interview.
“Collins is supposed to represent Maine working families,” Loring said. “We need her to represent us in Washington. We need the entire delegation to support us.”
Jen Burita, Collins’ spokesperson, said that the senator had opposed some trade agreements, such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and supported others, such as the Chilean Free Trade Agreement.
“In deciding whether or not to support trade agreements, Sen. Collins always evaluates the impact on Maine workers and examines the labor and environmental provisions in each pact,” Burita said.
If approved, the agreement would eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers between the U.S. and Columbia.
Both governments signed the Trade Promotion Agreement in November 2006. The legislative branches of both countries need to approve it before it can be enacted.
The Colombian Congress approved it last year. President Bush sent it to the U.S. Congress last April but the bill did not get out of committee in either the House or the Senate. As a result the bill will likely die, as Congress is on the verge of adjourning.
Protesters denounced the risks of unfair trade agreements, for American manufacturing and service jobs.
“We hear about the loss of 25,000 manufacturing jobs but this is just the beginning of the trade agreements’ effects,” Alec Maybarduk, a staff member of the Maine State Employees Association, said in a telephone interview. “We wanted to send a clear message today, especially with the economic context. Right now, we are feeling the effects of deregulation on financial markets but we’ve felt that in manufacturing jobs for years.”
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No Hasty Vote on the Bailout Plan for Maine Members of Congress
MAINE REACTION
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
9/24/08
WASHINGTON – Maine’s U.S senators and representatives all share the same point of view on the $700 billion bailout plan and the Bush administration’s efforts to have it approved by the end of the week: the Congress should not act in haste.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Tuesday and the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that delaying passage of the plan would cause a recession and increased joblessness.
But members of Congress, across party lines, are concerned about giving $700 billion to the Treasury without a thorough analysis of the plan and inclusion in the final version of guarantees of oversight and safeguards for taxpayers.
“It is not reasonable for the administration to ask Congress to rubber-stamp the proposal,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins said in an interview. “It is important that Congress takes time to carefully review the plan. It could potentially put at risk as much as $700 billion of taxpayers’ money.”
Paulson’s original plan has especially been criticized for its lack of oversight and concerns for taxpayers who are going to finance the bailout.
“If the plan looks like the first Paulson proposal, I would vote against it,” Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud said in an interview. “We shouldn’t act in haste. We ought to continue working and do whatever it takes to get it right. We have to make sure that all our concerns are answered.”
The Maine representatives and senators also said that taxpayers’ interest ought to be included in the plan.
“My overriding priority is to protect the financial security of the families and small businesses,” Democratic Rep. Tom Allen said in a statement. “I am working with members of Congress from both parties to craft a response to this crisis that minimizes taxpayer exposure.”
Democrats, as well as some Republicans, want to require the government to get a stake in companies that are helped so that taxpayers would get a return if those companies make a profit.
“I don’t think taxpayers should be responsible to bail out Wall Street,” Michaud said. “We have to make sure taxpayers are protected.”
Collins and Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, with several colleagues, asked in a letter to House and Senate leaders that any “financial rescue” legislation provide for an independent inspector general to monitor and report on Treasury’s activities.
“We need to include sufficient regulatory reform to prevent it from happening in the future and sufficient oversight so it doesn’t result in propping up Wall Street executives’ salaries that have contributed to this crisis,” Collins said.
The Maine delegation also condemned Wall Street companies that acted out of greed and put the country in this financial crisis.
“We must assure that there are consequences for the companies and the executives that led us into this crisis,” Snowe said in a press release.
Michaud said that “golden parachutes should be eliminated” and Collins and Allen said they favor limiting excessive compensation for executives.
Snowe said the government should rethink the regulation of financial markets.
“This must also begin the process of reforming our regulatory framework across our financial markets,” she said. “Looking forward, we need increased accountability and transparency for all our markets, not just some, as it has been the case in the past.”
Michaud said Congress has to ensure good corporate governance, unlike in the past.
“If it had been regulated, we wouldn’t have gotten to that point,” he said.
Congress had been scheduled to adjourn Friday so that members could go home to campaign. But with the serious concerns remaining about the bailout plan, Congress is likely to remain in session at least through the weekend.
“I feel strongly that we should not adjourn,” Collins said. “There are still questions about how it would work and even if it is an appropriate response.”
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Senate Defense Bill Includes Projects in Maine
DEFENSE
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
9/19/08
WASHINGTON – The Senate approved on Wednesday night a $612.5 billion defense budget for 2009 which includes provisions that would fund defense programs based in Maine and support the work of several Maine companies.
The bill “includes a number of provisions that recognize the value of Maine's defense industry to our national security, as well as key shipbuilding provisions that are critical to Bath Iron Works, the Navy, and our overall national security,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
The House version of the bill, passed last May, allocates $531.4 billion to national security programs in the 2009 fiscal year budget, which starts October 1.
Members of a conference committee will be appointed shortly to work out the differences between the two bills before sending the revised version to the Senate and House for a final vote.
“With the limited amount of time remaining in the Congress, this is a must-pass bill, and I am pleased that we we’re able to move this priority legislation through the Senate,” Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe said in a press release.
The Senate bill includes $20 million for the construction of a training facility at the Bangor Armed Forces Reserve Center and more than $9 million for Maine’s Army National Guard for a medical data system used in the field in Iraq that allows for real-time data management and analysis via hand-held devices. The system was developed by Global Relief Technologies in Kennebunk and Orono.
Another $3 million will go to the development of an infrared detection system designed by Orono Spectral Solutions in Orono and $3 million to develop software that will allow for the secure transmission of data developed by Angel Secure Networks, Inc. based in Orono.
The University of Maine would receive $4.5 million for several national security research and development programs, including lightweight tent insert panels to provide protection to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sen. Collins proposed several key provisions that were included in the bill, such as $2.55 billion to fund several major military projects, including the building of destroyers and combats ships to be built by the Maine-based company Bath Iron Works.
“I am particularly pleased that the final Senate bill contains my request to include $20.6 million for a new drydock support facility at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery,” she said.
“As most of these important provisions are not included in the House bill, I will work to ensure that the Senate provisions prevail,” Collins said in a statement. “It is my hope that conference negotiations will begin as soon as possible.” Collins will be a member of the conference committee, according to her spokesperson Jen Burita.
Sen. Collins also co-authored a bi-partisan provision, written with Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind., to transfer to Iraqis the responsibility to pay for major reconstruction projects, salaries and training of their troops and other expenses.
“There is no reason why the Iraqis cannot bear more of the cost of securing, stabilizing and rebuilding their country,” Collins said in a press release. “No more American funds should be spent for major reconstruction projects.”
The bill also includes a 3.9 percent pay raise for service members and money for improved mental health services for the military.
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Maine to Get Grants for Public Safety and Criminal Justice
GRANTS
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
9/18/08
WASHINGTON – Maine agencies this week received federal grants that will help prevent drunken driving, improve highway safety and reduce the number of DNA samples awaiting analysis at the State Police crime laboratory.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Thursday that the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety will receive $1 million for drunk driving prevention and $100,000 for motorcycle safety.
“We received all our grants for the 2008 fiscal year,” Lauren Stewart, director of the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety, said. “We are happy. The last couple of years we received around half a million dollars.”
The funds, shared with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, will go to local law enforcement officials throughout the state to enforce alcohol traffic safety and drunk driving prevention programs, and to reinforce training and education programs for motorcyclists.
“In 2005, 23 percent of all drivers aged 15 to 20 who died in motor vehicle crashes had a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher,” said Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, in a press release. “I strongly support this grant program and its objective of curbing the scourge of drunk driving.”
The South Portland Bus Service also will receive $294,000 from the Federal Transit Administration to buy a replacement bus.
“These funds will address major transportation issues,” Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a joint statement. “Maintaining highway safety and improving public transportation services will keep Mainers connected and safe.”
The Maine State Police crime laboratory also received two grants this week.
The Justice Department announced that the laboratory will receive $98,000 as part of the Forensic DNA Backlog Reduction Program which is intended to reduce the number of unanalyzed DNA samples in criminal cases under investigation.
Another $126,000 will go to the compulsory DNA testing of convicted offenders.
Elliot Kollman, crime lab director, said that more money could be used.
He said that the funds have been going down for the past five years because they are intended to reduce the number of cases awaiting analysis.
But as the demand for DNA testing has been increasing, in part because law enforcement officials have become more aware of forensics and use it mainly today for “property crimes” such as burglaries, the number of unanalyzed cases is close as what it was 5 years ago.
“We had 300 to 400 DNA submissions about five years ago and we already have 700 this year,” he said. “Even if we have increased our capacity, we still have 200 cases waiting analysis now. We are pretty much where we were 5 years ago. If we still had 400 cases’ submissions, we wouldn’t need the amount we need now.”
Finally, the Penobscot Nation will receive a $37,000 grant to implement a registry for the tracking and monitoring sex offenders.
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More Money for Home Heating Assistance
LIHEAP
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
9/17/08
WASHINGTON—Maine will receive more than $7 million in additional home heating assistance for low-income families as part of an emergency contingency fund.
Maine’s congressional delegation announced Wednesday that the administration will immediately release $120.7 million nationwide from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which provides aid to vulnerable people to help pay their energy bills.
The state’s two senators and two representatives wrote separate letters to the administration earlier in the month asking for additional funds.
Though they said they welcomed the administration’s decision, they added that increased spending remains necessary and that they will keep pushing for additional funds for fiscal year 2009, which begins on Oct. 1.
Rep. Michael Michaud (D) said in an interview that of the $121 million released, more than a fourth, or more than $33 million, will go to New England states, which are identified as needy because of the large number of eligible families that use oil to heat their homes.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) said in a press release that Maine received $46.5 million the current fiscal year, the most the state has ever received.
She said that she was “pleased” but that the current economic crisis and the increase in energy prices require a more significant increase in the low-income aid program, which totaled $2.57 billion in fiscal year 2008.
“While release of these funds is a positive step forward, we must do more to mitigate this crisis by fully funding the … program at $5.1 billion,” she said.
Rep. Tom Allen (D) said in a statement he is also working to secure full funding for the program.
Sen. Susan Collins (R) said in a press release that she sent a letter last week to Senate appropriators requesting the inclusion of $2.5 billion for next year.
According to Sen. Collins, the program assists 4.5 million low-income families nationally each year, which represents only 15 percent of Americans eligible for assistance under the program. To be eligible the family must earn no more than 150 percent of the poverty level or 60 percent of the state median income. About 48,000 Maine families rely on the program.
Reps. Allen and Michaud said that they also were working on changing the eligibility requirements so that more families would benefit from the program.
“Economically people are hurting,” Michaud said. “They are going to be in desperate need this winter. It is really important that Congress looks at expanding eligibility requirements.”
Allen said in a statement that he also filed legislation to create a $2,000 refundable tax credit for fuel costs and a tax credit for small businesses for the amount they spend on fuel above the Labor Day 2004 price and to raise the Internal Revenue Service’s standard mileage rate to 60 cents.
“Congress must take even bolder action to provide relief from high prices to families and small businesses in Maine and across America,” he said.
While Maine’s delegation pushes for additional funds, President Bush’s proposal for the fiscal year 2009 budget actually reduces funds for the program by 22 percent. The regular fund would be cut from $1.98 billion to $1.7 billion and the emergency contingency fund from $590.3 million to $300 million.
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Maine’s Manufacturing Industries being Replaced by Service Industries
Industry
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
5/02/2008
WASHINGTON— Lisa Northup never thought she would be changing careers at age 41. But after more than 20 years at Moosehead Manufacturing, the furniture factory shut its doors, changed owners, consolidated and left Northup jobless last June.
Rather than find work at a different mill, Northup, who lives in Guilford, chose a more stable path and in September began classes at Bangor’s Beal College to become a medical assistant.
“There’s so much in the medical field. We can all find a job,” Northup said. “But there really isn’t a lot of call for jobs in factories like Moosehead.”
Maine’s once flourishing “icon industries” – paper and lumber, as well as shoes, potatoes and blueberries – are quickly leaving the state with the expansion of free international trade, economists said.
Taking the place of these manufacturing industries are service industries like tourism, freight transportation, financial services and especially health care, said David Douglass, an economist at the Maine State Planning Office.
Maine has lost about 22,400 jobs in manufacturing in the last decade. The state gained about 29,000 jobs in education and health services during the same period, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Because of the thousands of people affected throughout the country, trade has become a hot-button issue on Capitol Hill and along the campaign trail, as the presidential candidates argue over their positions on the North American Free Trade Agreement. All of the members of the Maine delegation want to take a second look at NAFTA, the free-trade deal signed by President Clinton in January 1994 that eliminated import duties on most products traded among the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The main arguments over NAFTA and other free-trade agreements revolve around job losses caused by competition from countries that sell similar products at cheaper prices, often because of lower wages.
Advocates argue that the United States benefits because a rise in exports adds jobs. The Department of Commerce estimated that U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico after NAFTA went into effect created more than 600,000 jobs, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
But in the decade after NAFTA’s authorization more than 1 million jobs were lost because imports increased, said the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
“That’s why I never supported NAFTA,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. She said she thought it disproportionately affected Maine and some of its industries.
As free-trade deals make it cheaper to manufacture goods in other countries, Maine’s traditional industries are “indisputably” affected, particularly in lumber and paper, which lost four mills and 200 jobs in the last four months alone, Snowe said in an interview.
When thousands of jobs are lost in a state, its residents suffer as revenue sinks and less money is available for basic services. In Maine, a state with one of the oldest populations in the country, those basic services include providing help to struggling seniors and boosting the quality of education in schools to help retain young people.
“The impact of mill closings on Maine's communities is obviously devastating, especially on the middle class,” said Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, who said he is working to increase aid to laid-off workers.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also is working to assist these workers and is a cosponsor of a bill to reauthorize Trade Adjustment Assistance, the program that provides additional training and money to workers affected by trade agreements.
In addition to helping those hurt by deals like NAFTA, Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, is working on legislation to create a new trade model. NAFTA became the model for subsequent free-trade agreements in Peru, Panama and South Korea, which have contributed to additional off-shoring of jobs.
“I think that’s a failed model,” Michaud said about NAFTA. “You look at shoes, the textile industry, the paper industry – they’ve all dramatically been affected [by free trade] because it’s very difficult to compete with countries that pay very little.”
Forster Manufacturing Co., the Maine wood product factory that invented the toothpick, closed in 2002.
Great Northern Paper Co. , which made a third of the paper used for American newspapers in the 1950s, filed for bankruptcy in 2003.
Northup’s former employer, Moosehead Manufacturing, a family-owned furniture company founded in 1947, closed its doors in 2007 before being sold and consolidated.
These closings are regularly offered as evidence that Maine’s forest industry, which began producing wood products in the 1640s, is facing severe economic pressure from foreign countries. When the same chair that Moosehead sells for $120 can be made in China for $18, Maine’s companies can’t compete, said John Wentworth, the former president of Moosehead Manufacturing and grandson of one of the company’s founders. Wentworth is now the sales and product manager of the new Moosehead Furniture, which continues to have facilities in Maine.
“The furniture industry is pretty small now in Maine,” Wentworth said. “For a state that has the highest amount of forest land, to have such a small industry is a testament to how hard it is to have a manufacturing company in the state.”
Forestry is the largest manufacturing industry in Maine, where 89 percent of the land is covered in trees, said a 2007 report by the North East State Foresters Association. The industry contributes more than $5 billion to Maine’s economy each year and employed close to 18,000 Mainers in 2005. This included landowners and foresters (who grow the trees), loggers (who cut them down and bring them to the mills), and manufacturers (who make the lumber into products like paper and furniture).
But “our extensive forest cannot shelter us from the chill winds of international competition,” said Lloyd Irland of The Irland Group, a Maine consulting firm that focuses on forestry matters, in a 2004 report.
This trend in the forest industry is similar to what Maine’s shoe industry experienced in the mid-1990s. Once famous for its Bass and Dexter shoe companies, Maine’s shoe manufacturers moved overseas after a 1993 trade agreement.
But while many in the forest industry expect to have a bad year, most believe the industry will never completely disappear. One reason industry experts give for this is that the industry is suffering not just from competition as a result of trade, but also from a worsening U.S. economy and housing market, said economist Charles Lawton, who works for the Maine consulting firm Planning Decisions, Inc. If these factors improve, so could the industry’s outlook, he said.
While overseas trade has greatly affected paper and furniture manufacturers, Maine sawmills continue a struggle with Canada that has rocked trade relations for decades.
Unlike the American system governed by market prices, the Canadian government owns 97 percent of the forests and can set cheap rates to cut trees, called stumping fees. If a Canadian mill has trouble surviving, the government lowers the price, causing the price of lumber in Canada to be cheaper than lumber in the United States. Along with these government subsidies, energy costs are lower in Canada. Canadian companies also don’t directly pay for their employees’ health insurance because the country has a nationalized health-care system.
To equalize trade deals, Canada and the United States came to an agreement. In the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement, Canada agreed to place a tax on exported lumber to bring the price up to the market value.
While the agreement has helped, Snowe said, it took more than 25 years to reach. “In that time the Canadian subsidies were eroding the foundation of our manufacturing sector in the state of Maine,” she said. “And we’re still having huge challenges with failure to uphold the agreement” because Canada isn’t collecting some of the taxes.
While the Canadian government argued the subsidies were going to communities, not companies, Snowe said the money to these towns went toward building roads and other uses that were directly tied to the lumber sector.
It would be impossible for the United States to cut ties with Canada completely, regardless of how unfair the pricing system may be because ties between the countries are so strong that both country’s lumber industries would greatly suffer without the other, said Eric Kingsley, vice president of the environmental and forest industry consulting firm Innovative Natural Resource Solutions LLC.
Fraser Papers, a pulp and paper mill company with operations in New Brunswick, Quebec, Maine and New Hampshire, is one example; one of its pulp mills is located in Canada, and its paper mill is just across the border.
“As much as it’s easy to focus on Canada because they’re right next door to us, it depends on the day whether Maine and Canada have a symbiotic or antagonistic relationship,” Kingsley said. “Like any relationship, it’s not all rosy, but it is longstanding.”
Because of the aging population of the state, it may be a “natural evolution” for the number of jobs in health care to grow, Snowe said. But Snowe does not believe the forest industry should be neglected.
“If you think about where the job loss is occurring in the plant and lumber mill closures, they’re happening in very rural areas of our state,” Snowe said. “It’s very difficult to replace those jobs.”
Collins agreed, calling these forestry jobs the “backbone of Maine's rural economy.”
As a new generation of workers leaves their families in rural Maine to go to areas with better job markets, the abandonment of natural resource industries like forestry means families will be less rooted and there will be “fewer opportunities for multigenerational families to be in touch,” Irland, of the forestry consulting firm, said.
“Small-town life in many parts of Maine will never be the same,” as the forestry industry becomes one of the last manufacturing industries to leave, Irland said. “Yet in all the change and gloom, we should remember that a key trait of Maine has always been adaptability.”
“Maine workers are very resilient,” said Adam Fisher, a spokesman for Maine’s Department of Labor. “Some of the issues around trade have hit rural places hard. It’s a challenge to come back from, once you’ve lost a job, especially one you’ve had for a while. It’s hard for those workers.”
That’s where Susan Moore steps in. Moore helps to run a Dover-Foxcroft career center which gets federal funding to train workers who have lost jobs because of trade. Moore has urged Northup and others to enter the medical industry.
“The labor outlook indicates that jobs in the medical industry are growing,” Moore said. “We’re here to get people trained and skilled to find a good job so they will get employed after they leave.”
For Northup, medical assisting is something she hopes will “open up a whole lot of possibilities” for her future.
Collins Seeks to Have Iraq Shoulder More Financial Burdens
Iraq funding
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
4/18/2008
WASHINGTON – Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is urging Senate leaders to take steps to require Iraq to shoulder more of the financial burden of rebuilding their own country.
Collins was joined by Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind., in proposing legislation at a Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday.
The legislation would require the Iraqi government to reimburse Americans for fuel they use in Iraq. It may also include having Iraq reimburse for the salaries, equipment and training Americans provide Iraqi soldiers. Reimbursements would come in the form of direct initial payment or subsequent payment on American loans.
The three legislators attempted to pass similar legislation in 2003, when the rebuilding of Iraq was in the early stages, but that legislation did not get passed. Had Congress passed the legislation then, they said, the Iraq government would need to repay the more than $45 billion the United States has spent on Iraq reconstruction in the last five years. Collins also said she believes that if the first $10 billion allotted to reconstruction in 2003 had been a loan, the reconstruction would be further along because the Iraqis would have had a stake in the process.
The United States is paying about $90 million a month for the salaries of the Sons of Iraq, the local security force, which was critical in the progress made in the Anbar province and around Baghdad, Collins said.
Additionally, while Iraq oil revenue is estimated to be about $56 billion, American gas prices have reached record highs, negatively impacting the U.S. economy. Some economists have said that America is nearing a recession, and yet the United States spends about $10 billion a month in Iraq.
“It’s one thing to be asked to help those who can’t help themselves,” Bayh said at the press conference. “It’s another thing entirely to ask the people to borrow more money from China that our children will need to repay, with interest, to give to a country that is running a surplus and is not spending its own money to help itself.”
While American troops in Iraq spend about $3.23 a gallon for gasoline for military vehicles, Iraqi citizens spend only $1.30 a gallon because of government subsidies, Bayh said.
“Why are we paying that cost?” asked Collins at the press conference.
“You don’t do that to your friends,” Bayh said.
The three senators wrote letters to the Senate leadership, Appropriations Committee and U.S. State and Defense departments presenting these policy proposals.
“The time has come to end this blank check policy and require the Iraqis to invest in their own future,” said the April 17 letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “It is not our intent to punish or harm the government of Iraq; rather, we believe this is an opportunity for Iraq to demonstrate its desire to act independently from the United States.”
Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, who is running against Collins for the Senate, said he agrees “that Iraqis need to take more responsibility for their country,” but the best way to account for the taxpayers “is to set a deadline to bring American forces home responsibly and end our involvement in Iraq’s religious civil war,” he said.
Congress recently enacted legislation written by Allen to establish a bipartisan commission to root out waste, fraud and war profiteering.
Collins is looking to make her legislation part of a war-funding bill that Congress will consider in the next few weeks. She believes it will be met by “overwhelming support.”
“This idea’s not a Democrat or Republican idea. It’s just plain common sense,” Bayh said.
Collins said several of her Republican colleagues have already pledged their support, some wanting to be cosponsors.
In contrast to 2003, Collins said she believes the administration has evolved in its thinking and is more open to the concepts being presented, “but I have a feeling that we will want to go further than the administration will want to go,” Collins said.
Some in the administration are saying that these proposals are already being done in Iraq because the Iraqis have begun to take over some of the reconstruction costs. But the senators distinguish the difference between the natural process of assuming the costs of reconstruction and the need for the Iraqis to begin to pay the salaries of the Iraqi soldiers and to reimburse the United States for the oil Americans are using in Iraq to help the Iraqi people.
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Collins, Michaud Attend Mass with the Pope
Pope Reaction
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
4/17/2008
WASHINGTON – Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, were among the 46,000 to crowd the new Nationals Park on Thursday for a Mass with Pope Benedict XVI.
Collins called the Mass one of the most memorable experiences of her life and found the pope’s homily to be exactly the right message for American Catholics.
“It was heartening and hopeful,” Collins said in an interview Thursday afternoon. “He recognized the contributions of the American church and its diversity.”
Also in his homily, the pope “expressed a profound regret” for the sexual abuse problems, Collins said.
At the Mass, Collins had a cross necklace blessed. She had gotten the necklace from Rome when she attended Pope John Paul II’s funeral in 2005.
“It was a tremendous honor to hear his message of hope and renewal,” said Michaud, who called the Mass a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a high point in his life as a life-long Catholic. “The Pope’s message was a clear call to Americans of all faiths and walks of life to push for a more just and more peaceful society.”
Michaud, like Collins, attended the White House greeting of the pope on Wednesday and called that event a “great honor” as well.
Collins, along with her guest, Sister Mary Norberta, president of St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, dined at the Italian Embassy Wednesday night for a birthday reception for the pope, who turned 81 on Wednesday. Another dinner occurred at the White House. The pope had a quiet evening in the Vatican’s house, close to the Italian Embassy, and did not attend either of his birthday celebrations despite rumors that he might.
Though the guest of honor was not present, opera singer Denyce Graves led the gathering of about 300 at the embassy in wishing him happy birthday.
“It was a lovely evening nonetheless,” Collins said. “And perhaps he heard us singing from across the street.”
Thursday’s Mass was the last chance for most Washingtonians to see the pope before he headed to New York City Friday morning. Before leaving Washington, he met with the leaders of Catholic colleges and universities at Catholic University and representatives from other religions at a separate gathering at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, located next to the university.
Events in New York include an address at the United Nations, a visit to Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood, and a Mass at Yankee Stadium.
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