Category: Emelie Rutherford
Gregg and Kennedy: The Not-So-Odd Couple
WASHINGTON, April 25–After a decade of sparring in the Senate, Sens. Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) – who some may think have little in common other than their states’ shared border – have found some new common ground. The lawmakers with contrasting ideologies and styles have agreed in the current session of Congress on everything from anti-terrorism protection to agricultural subsidies, collective bargaining, environmental conservation, and – most notably – education reform. And another political odd couple, President George Bush and Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT), may have helped bring them closer together.
Since the 107th Congress started in January, 2000, the Granite State’s Gregg, a fiscal and social conservative who supports cutting taxes and expanding gun owners’ rights, has strayed at times to vote the same as Kennedy on initiatives such as a failed amendment to help firemen unionize. And the quintessentially liberal Kennedy, famous for his support of the poor and disadvantaged and increases in funding for programs like Medicare, has shifted to the right to reach compromises – as he did when he worked with Gregg and Bush to reauthorize the massive education bill that was signed into law in January.
This education compromise started when Bush, four days into his term, summoned Gregg and Kennedy to the White House to talk about reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the law that comprises the major part of the federal government’s commitment to K-12 education. Joining them were the heads of the House health committee – Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and George Miller (D-CA). The law that was enacted in 1965 had not been renewed as it was supposed to be in 1999, because of partisan squabbles, and Bush made reaching a compromise a priority.
So the president called the four partisan education leaders together for coffee and asked them to help him reauthorize the bill before the end of the year.
Gregg and Kennedy did not have a good track record: they had spent most of their time serving on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee disagreeing, according to observers. Jeffords was the chair of the committee, Kennedy was the ranking minority member and Gregg was the ranking majority member.
“They sat on both sides of Sen. Jeffords in hearings,” recalled committee spokesman Jim Manley. “And Senator Jeffords, who is hard of hearing, got caught in the middle of some epic battles.”
In a typical squabble in 1995, for example, Gregg and Kennedy traded jabs over a successful Republican committee effort to repeal a Depression-era law that protected workers wages on federal construction jobs. Gregg, calling the law “a holdover from a time that is past,” said their debate was “about whether we believe or not that the market system works.” Kennedy retorted by calling opposition to the law “an uglier face of class warfare, waged by Republicans to keep blue collar workers down, to keep them out of the middle class.”
There were a few instances when they managed to work together such as in 1989, when Gregg was governor and worked with Kennedy to call on the Bush administration to investigate the rising cost of home heating oil.
But most of the time they were each other’s nemesis. Kennedy once tried to sneak special health care coverage for fisherman into an obscure section of the federal budget; his plan failed because Gregg found the initiative, labeled as a neighborhood health item, and killed it.
Their styles differ greatly as well. Gregg is taciturn, Kennedy more outgoing and at times a bit bombastic.
“Senator Gregg has a sarcastic, biting kind of analysis of things while Kennedy kind of sits there and gets a head of steam going,” said Joel Parker, a lobbyist at the National Education Association who covers the Senate health committee.
“They didn’t know each other very well,” said Manley. “They were from different parties and very different philosophical backgrounds and very different political backgrounds.”
Gregg, 55, was elected to his second six-year term in the Senate in 1998 after serving two terms as governor and four terms as a U.S. Representative for the second congressional district; Kennedy, 70, has served in the Senate since 1962, when he was 30. Gregg stays out of major ideological battles, preferring, he said, to take “complex issues and breaking them apart to get a result;” Kennedy, Manley acknowledges, loves the game of legislating.
Case in point: During the State of the Union address in January, Bush thanked Gregg for his help on the education bill. But when television cameras turned to the audience to show the New Hampshire senator, they scanned the crowd in vain before turning back to the president and then on to Kennedy. Sources said Gregg was not in Washington the night of the speech.
“That’s demonstrative of the senator’s style,” said Mark Wrighton, a political science professor from the University of New Hampshire. “He isn’t the kind of person to seek out credit.”
That presidential praise, though, came after a year of impasse and compromise. After meeting at the White House in January, 2001, Gregg and Kennedy spent the early part of the year writing the Senate version of the education bill before bringing it to the floor of the Senate.
Then their burgeoning working relationship was tested. The House passed its version of the education bill on May 23, 2001. On May 24, Sen. Jeffords left the GOP, shifting control of the Senate and anointing Kennedy the head of the health committee and Gregg the ranking minority member. Jeffords, the buffer between the two, was gone. Now they had to not only help the Senate pass its education legislation (which it did on June 29) and then help consolidate over 3,000 differences between the Senate and House bill – they also had to rule one of the most high-profile committees together.
Manley said he and other staffers on the Hill expected a “shootout at the OK Corral” between Kennedy and Gregg when they assumed their new roles. But they surprised everyone by getting along.
“They actually developed an excellent working relationship,” he said.
Gregg went from being the ranking majority member to the ranking minority member – a role that requires more leadership and compromising with the chair.
“When Jeffords, who is very low key and very soft spoken, was still on the Republican side and chairman, he would agree more with Democrats than Republicans,” said Manley. “So at times Gregg [when he was ranking majority member] tried to act as the conservative champion.”
But as the ranking minority member he had to be more tempered, said Gordon Humphrey, a former senator for New Hampshire from 1979 to 1990. “The chair has to rely pretty heavily on the ranking minority member,” said Humphrey. He added that Kennedy, a “much stronger ideologue,” very much relies on Gregg to garner Republican votes.
“I am the theoretical leader of the Republicans and I know I need to participate with the majority,” Gregg said. “In this system, the committee can’t function as a committee unless the chairman and the ranking member work in a professional way.”
Gregg also works across the aisle in committee with Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC), the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary, on which Gregg is the ranking minority member.
“You develop a style,” Gregg said. “At the end of the day, you need to be able to produce something.” And Gregg does this even with someone like Kennedy who, Gregg said, “plays for keeps” and “has the votes and will beat me on [many] issues.”
Observers say Gregg’s close relationship to Bush – so close that he helped Bush practice for his presidential debates against Al Gore – has elevated his status.
“A part of the job of top Republican is to support the president, be the voice of the president,” said Humphrey.
Gregg did advance Bush’s education priorities over the summer while meeting with the education leaders – Kennedy, Boehner and Miller, dubbed the Big Four. They convened in regular secret sessions in Kennedy’s hideaway in the third floor of the Capitol two to three times a week, even meeting through the August recess.
Then, on the morning of the September 11 attacks, Gregg and Kennedy were on the third floor of the Russell Senate Office Building, where both of their offices are, with First Lady Laura Bush and Splash, Kennedy’s Portuguese Water dog. Mrs. Bush had planned on speaking about early childhood education at a 10:00 health committee hearing down the hall from Gregg and Kennedy’s offices.
After hearing that the second World Trade Center tower was hit, Gregg said, he called Kennedy. “I went to Ted’s office and Laura was already there. The three of us sat in his office for a while watching what was happening.” They moved to Gregg’s office, where the watched the second tower collapse.
“All I could think to myself was, the only other thing like this was when John F. Kennedy was shot,” Gregg said. “And here I was sitting with JFK’s brother.”
On September 12 the Big Four issued a statement pledging to move ahead on the education bill, and they did. They worked for more than 100 hours on the legislation that was signed – after a year of compromises – into law right after the New Year.
Gregg admitted work amongst the Big Four was slow at times.
And though he said Splash added some levity to the meetings in Kennedy’s hideaway, Gregg said negotiations over issues such as public school choice and civil rights language were often like “running into a brick wall.”
“There were some points that I didn’t think we’d reach agreement,” Gregg said. “We spent six weeks on supplemental services. We weren’t moving on until we got that worked out, and I was adamant about what had to be included in this bill.”
But they pulled it off.
“Senator Kennedy and I have clear philosophical disagreements, they are deep and significant,” said Gregg. “But we use the rules to pursue our positions in the most aggressive ways we can.”
Thomas Rath, a Concord attorney and veteran Republican activist, said that despite their differences Gregg and Kennedy “have mastery to get results in a Congress that can get grid locked.”
This skill, history shows, has helped them work on other issues aside from education.
Gregg voted on April 12 for the amendment to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill to help firemen unionize – legislation Kennedy supported. Though the proposal to ease restrictions on collective bargaining by emergency workers did not garner the votes it needed, Gregg supported the Democratic measure. He said he did so because “New Hampshire firefighters came to me and made a good argument.”
On November 15, 2001 Gregg joined with Kennedy and Sen. William Frist (R-TN) in introducing legislation they drafted for a bioterrorism protection plan. The successful proposal, which passed the Senate on December 20, calls for stepping up inspections of imported food, giving states money to improve public health systems, and encouraging pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs that treat illnesses such as botulism.
More examples abound.
In February they cosponsored a bill to designate some Massachusetts and New Hampshire communities as a national heritage area. Kennedy supported an amendment to the farm bill Gregg introduced last December to phase out the federal sugar program. In August 2001 they supported confirming John L. Henshaw as assistant secretary of labor directing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“Neither one of them is one-dimensional,” said Rath.
Of course, differences remain.
And school vouchers, something Gregg has advocated for since the Clinton administration, may be the most polarizing difference, predicted lobbyist Parker.
Last June, when Gregg proposed a creating a pilot program to test the effectiveness of vouchers, Kennedy said, “above all, there is no evidence that students using vouchers for private schools do better in school.” The proposal lost, 58 to 41.
When Gregg and Kennedy disagreed in July on holding hearings for nominate Gerald Reynolds to oversee the federal office that enforces Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in school sports, Gregg accused Kennedy of being partisan in his opposition to Reynolds. Reynolds was appointed by Bush in mid-April, 2002.
“I think we now know where each other stands and where we can get on those issues,” said Gregg.
And committee spokesman Manly predicted that Gregg and Kennedy will never agree on issues such as vouchers, cloning, and pension reform.
“They’ll work together when they can and oppose each other when they have to,” Manley said.
Gregg said he sees no epic issues arising, “unless they try to nationalize health care again,” he said
More evidence of the Gregg-Kennedy alliance will emerge in the coming weeks, when the two announce new early education legislation.
Gregg may continue to become more visible, according to UNH’s Wrighton, thanks to his role as the president’s spokesperson on the committee and his legacy as the crafter of the education bill. “These things have helped him to become a player on issues,” he said, “and it’s always good for any state when its senator gets the opportunity to become a player.”
Asked if he likes being considered a player, Gregg grinned and said, “Everyone likes to be acknowledged.”
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
Shaheen Takes Pharmaceutical Drug Message to the Capitol
WASHINGTON, April 23--Governor Jeanne Shaheen has taken her fight to Congress to change a law that limits competition among prescription drug manufacturers.
If the manufacturers of 15 brand-named drugs whose patents expire over the next two years face timely competition, New Hampshire could save $2.5 million each year in prescription drug costs by 2005, Shaheen testified before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Tuesday.
"In New Hampshire, $2.5 million would make a big difference for our taxpayers and the children, seniors and other vulnerable citizens who depend on state services," she said.
A controversial section of the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act allows brand-name pharmaceutical companies to stall competition from generic manufacturers by claiming patent infringement, which automatically grants a 30-month stay by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
These loopholes "are forcing state governments, seniors and businesses to spend hundreds of millions of dollars unnecessarily on brand-name prescription drugs," Shaheen said.
She said the Granite State spent $88 million in the last fiscal year on prescription drugs, more than twice the $41.7 million it spent in 1996.
Sitting next to Timothy Muris, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Shaheen told the committee that she and other governors needed their help.
"The skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs is making it increasingly difficult for governors to provide high-quality Medicaid coverage to children, seniors and people with disabilities - without breaking the backs of taxpayers," she said in the overfilled hearing room flanked with black-and-white photos of former committee chairmen.
In written testimony, Shaheen said she wants to close loopholes in Hatch-Waxman that allow companies like AstraZeneca to use a section of the law to stall competitors from going to market with generic alternatives. AstraZeneca's patent on the popular drug Prilosec expired, she said, but it has not faced competition from a generic version of the drug because it claimed patent infringement and was granted an automatic 30-month stay on FDA approval of a generic version of the anti-heartburn medication.
The FTC, Muris said, has taken antitrust enforcement actions against drug manufacturers that have misused Hatch-Waxman.
Other testimony in favor of reforms to Hatch-Waxman came from Tim Fuller, the executive director of the Gray Panthers, an advocacy group on social issues, and Kathleen Jaeger, the president and CEO of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association. All witnesses except Shaheen represented national organizations.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the senior minority member of the committee, has introduced legislation that would eliminate the 30-month stay provision. He and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) announced their Greater Access to Affordable Pharmaceuticals Act on May 1, 2001.
During a conference call after the hearing, Shaheen said that when the New England governors met in Washington in February they passed a resolution to urge Congress to close loopholes in Hatch-Waxman
"Medicaid was the strongest rising part of the budget in most states," she said. "What's driving those costs is the cost of prescription drugs.· This isn't the only answer, but it is one of the ways we can address it."
Drug companies contend that changing Hatch-Waxman will result in less innovation, research and development of new drugs.
Two witnesses testified against changing the law.
Shelbie Oppenheimer of the ALS Association testified that advances brought about by prescription drugs have aided her battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Dr. Greg Glover, who spoke on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said that people who want to change Hatch-Waxman have not met the burden of showing why a change is needed.
Glover pointed out that generic drug companies' share half of the prescription-drug market, up from 20 percent before the law was enacted, and that generic manufactures no longer have to wait three to five years after a brand name drug's patent expires to introduce their no-name alternatives.
"As a result of the Hatch-Waxman Act, generic manufacturers are able to avoid the huge cost, estimated at over $800 million on average, of discovering and developing a new drug," Glover said.
Julie Teer, the communications director for the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, said that Shaheen "should realize that her actions would put bureaucrats in charge of medicine instead of doctors. We need to make sure life-saving innovation is not stifled."
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
Smith Helps Defeat ANWR Plan
WASHINGTON, April 18--Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) joined with the Democratic Senate majority on Thursday to block an attempt to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Drilling proponents, including Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), needed 60 votes to break a Democratic filibuster and force the Senate to vote on an amendment to the pending energy bill to allow the drilling. They fell 14 votes short, 54-46. Seven other Republican senators, including Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), voted against the drilling.
Smith, who votes with the Republican Party on more than 95 percent of issues, has made the fight against ANWR drilling a personal priority. A legislative aide said he changed his position on drilling in Alaska after receiving 7,000 letters from constituents opposed to drilling. Smith said he "took the time to study my position, and changed it to do what's right."
"The [Alaska] Coastal Plain represents one of our last complete and unspoiled Arctic ecosystems in the world," Smith said in a statement after the vote. "While I have been a supporter of exploration for many areas in this country - in fact some areas that Arctic drilling proponents have opposed - I believe it is a different case to drill and develop in a designated wildlife refuge that was set aside by both Republicans and Democrats, conservative and liberal, specifically for its pristine wilderness qualities."
Gregg, in a March interview, defended his support for drilling, saying it would "minimally impact" the coastal plain of Alaska. "The United States could replace imports of all Iraqi oil over the lifetime of the designated area of ANWR," Gregg said.
The House approved drilling in ANWR last summer. Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH) voted against drilling. Rep. John Sununu (R-NH) voted for it. Sununu also successfully introduced two related amendments, one that would limit drilling to 2,000 acres and another that would distribute 50 percent of all royalties to environmental programs.
Opponents of drilling said oil from the reserve would do little to curb oil imports.
The United States now uses 19 million barrels of oil a day, more than half of which is imported. The Interior Department estimates that ANWR could supply, at most, 1.9 million barrels a day.
Environmentalists contend that opening the 1.5 million acres in the 40 year-old coastal plain refuge to drilling would harm wildlife.
The administration holds that drilling is crucial because Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has halted oil exports for 30 days.
After Thursday's vote, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said, "The president will continue to fight for the tens of thousands of jobs that are created by opening ANWR, as well as - more importantly - for the need for America to be able to achieve more energy independence that would result from opening ANWR."
Defending drilling in ANWR, Gregg cited the increase in the number of Central Arctic caribou in the nearby Prudhoe Bay region since oil was discovered there in 1969. He said that advanced technologies "drastically reduce the intrusion of necessary infrastructure on the environment when drilling." He added that 75 percent of Alaskans support limited development of ANWR.
According to a national poll conducted for the Associated Press by ICR of Media, Pa., more than half of the public oppose drilling in ANWR and only slightly more than a third favor it.
Adam Kolton, the Arctic campaign director at the Washington-based Alaska Wilderness League, which opposes ANWR drilling, said, "No oil from Alaska is used in New Hampshire - not to heat peoples' homes, not for cars, not for electricity."
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
Lott, Other Senators Show up at Fundraiser for Sununu
WASHINGTON, April 17--Sen. Republican Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) and other Republican senate colleagues of Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) turned up Wednesday at a Capitol Hill campaign fundraiser for Rep. John Sununu (R-NH), who is challenging Smith for his seat in September's primary.
Republican Conference Chairman Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Sen. Kit Bond (R-MS) and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) all showed up for the $500 per person event at a Capital Hill restaurant.
Stevens and Bond could become chairmen of the Appropriations and Small Business committees, respectively, if Republicans regain control of the Senate.
While senators rarely support challengers to incumbents in their party in a primary contest, some Republicans may still harbor ill will against Smith for his brief presidential campaign as an independent in 1999.
Lott, flanked by security guards, arrived over an hour and a half into the event and left before it concluded, staying only a brief time.
Lott "is walking an uncomfortable tightrope," said Jennifer Duffy, who monitors Senate races for the Cook Political Report in Washington.
Lott also cohosted a Smith fundraiser earlier this year and, according to Smith's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, agreed to be listed on every Washington fundraiser invite Smith sends out.
Bond, who along with Shelby endorsed Sununu last year, said support for the congressman in the Senate is "good" and the turn out was "great." When asked if he thinks Sununu will beat Smith, he said he "thinks so."
Sununu's campaign manager, Paul Collins, said Lott's "unprecedented act" is "certainly a tremendous boost." Before the event, Collins said the fundraiser "will prove to be our most successful fundraiser to date this year."
Wednesday night's event "speaks bad things for Smith," said Duffy.
Yet Lewandowski points out that Smith greatly surpasses Sununu in fundraising money. Smith has over $1.5 million in the bank, he said, while Sununu has approximately $660,000, according to the latest FEC filings.
"It takes two things to win in New Hampshire - grassroots and fundraising," Lewandowski said. "Bob Smith has the grassroots support · and $660,000 in the election account this close to the campaign isn't gonna be enough to compete with [Governor] Jeanne Shaheen in November."
Some insiders say Sununu may simply be new to the Senate game.
"Sununu had another bad fundraising report and I just don't get it," Duffy said, calling Sununu's lackluster fundraising "a concern."
Polls, however, show Sununu is doing well. A March 29 American Research Group poll shows Sununu ahead of both Smith and Shaheen in the Senate race.
"Fundraising is an ongoing process and we will have the financial resources to run a winning campaign," said Collins
Staff at the Capitol Hill restaurant where the fundraiser was held estimate that the 40-person room was filled to capacity.
Political action committees (PACs) paid $1000 to attend. Special interest invitees included the Sierra Club.
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
Smith Wants to Make Terrorists Pay
WASHINGTON, April 16--Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would allow victims of state-sponsored terrorism, including former Kingston resident William Van Dorp, to collect from the frozen assets of sponsoring nations.
Van Dorp, 50, was working in Kuwait in 1990 when he was taken hostage by Iraqi soldiers on Aug. 16, two weeks after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of the small bordering nation. He was released on Dec. 6.
As part of a class-action lawsuit, Van Dorp is suing Iraq for "in-between $100- and $200,000" in pain and suffering, he said after a press conference on Tuesday. After his 106-day ordeal, Van Dorp said, he was emotionally distraught and unable to find work in the United States as lucrative as his work teaching English to members of the Kuwaiti Air Force.
Smith joined Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sen. George Allen (R-VA) - the main sponsors of the bill - and Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in announcing the legislation, the Terrorism Victims' Access to Compensation Act, while standing alongside Van Dorp and five other victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
Smith said the bill is needed because while current laws allow citizens such as Van Dorp to sue terrorists, the plaintiffs have been unable to collect damages. The Treasury Department, Smith said, now has approximately $3.7 billion in blocked or frozen assets from seven countries identified as state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.
Last year, Congress passed legislation directing the administration to develop a plan by February of this year to compensate victims of state-sponsored attacks. The administration has not responded. Previously, former President Clinton signed a law endorsing such a move but then blocked payment.
"Saddam Hussein, ironically, as recently as this month, had offered $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers," Smith said. "The State Department's excuse for not supporting us on this is that if they want to do it, they want the liberty of negotiating with the Iraqis, I say come on now, let's get real. We have the assets, they are seized, let's give them to people who deserve them."
Van Dorp spent most of his time in captivity as a so-called human shield in a fertilizer factory in the Iraqi town of Khor-Al-Zubair. He was the only American among 16 hostages.
They were moved next to the refinery's ovens after a few weeks, he said in testimony for his lawsuit, because his captors wanted them to "die with the Iraqis when the Americans bombed."
"This episode is 11-plus years behind me," Van Dorp said on Tuesday. "I've forgotten parts of it. But I'm very happy there's a new interest in our case. I'm glad justice is being served."
Van Dorp said he lost 30 pounds from stress. After he returned to the United States, his ex-wife sued for custody of their five children, citing his post-traumatic stress disorder. He did not find a full time job unit 1994, three years after he returned.
Van Dorp's case against Iraq, which he and other victims have in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is "still on a judge's desk," he said. He does not know how he would spend his money if awarded.
Smith said the bill would help other Granite State terrorism victims, such Jeffrey Ingalls of Woodstock, who was on board TWA flight 847 when it was hijacked from Athens to Beirut in 1985.
One of the five other victims who spoke along with Van Dorp on Tuesday was also on that flight. Others were the wife of a man killed when Iranian-backed terrorists hijacked his Kuwait Airlines flight bound for Karachi, Pakistan, in 1984 and a woman held hostage for 44 days in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
"Our nation is at war against terrorism," Smith said. "This is just one more way we tell the terrorists they will be held accountable."
Van Dorp returned to Kingston, where he lived since 1988, after Christmas of 1990. He now lives on Long Island and teaches English to non-native speakers in Brooklyn.
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
Senate Begins Confirmation Hearing on Howard Judgeship
WASHINGTON, April 11--Salisbury's Jeff Howard, a former New Hampshire attorney general and gubernatorial candidate, testified here on Thursday about his suitability for a federal appeals court judgeship.
President George Bush nominated Howard, 45, to the seat on the Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit last August.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held confirmation hearings for Howard and six candidates for U.S. district court seats across the country. The committee will recommend to the full Senate whether Howard should be confirmed.
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) gave Howard his "most enthusiastic endorsement," telling the committee, "I've known Jeff Howard for years. He brings to the judiciary the knowledge of the real-world business of law enforcement." Gregg added that Howard "has been a country attorney as well as an attorney at a large firm in Manchester · He has an exceptional breadth of experience."
After Gregg left to attend another meeting, Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) ran through Howard's "impressive array of legal expertise." He said that Howard has been involved in more 100 cases before the Boston court. Smith also pointed to Howard's extensive work with victims of domestic violence, which Orrin Hatch (R-UT) called "impressive" when he questioned Howard.
Hatch, the senior Republican on the committee, and chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) asked Howard six main questions, including whether he believed that he could shift from a background in politics to a non-partisan judgeship.
Howard, when asked by Leahy why he thinks some members of a committee investigating whether he is suited for the judgeship concluded that he is not qualified, said: "I can only speculate that it may be because I am not a sitting judge." Howard has never served as a judge.
Howard has been a state, federal and private lawyer. He was attorney general of New Hampshire from 1993 to1997 after serving as a U.S. Attorney, deputy state attorney general and assistant state attorney general.
After serving as attorney general, Howard worked at the law firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart in Manchester until last year. He ran unsuccessfully in 2000 for the Republican gubernatorial nomination and has been in private practice since then.
The Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit presides over appeals from New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico. Six judges serve on the court.
If confirmed for the judgeship, Howard would replace Manchester's Norman Stahl, who is retiring after holding the seat since 1992.
During Howard's failed run in the gubernatorial primary, two of his campaign consultants sent mailings and made phone calls attacking his primary challenger, Gordon Humphrey, and Humphrey's wife, Patty. Attorney General Philip McLaughlin accused the consultants of breaking state campaign finance laws in doing so. This issue did not come up during Thursday's questioning.
Howard's wife, Marie, and his sons John and Joseph - who playfully hung on their mother in the committee hearing room- sat five rows behind Howard during the hour and a half proceedings, along with Howard's brother, Mark Howard, an assistant U.S. attorney in New Hampshire. Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH) and former governor Stephen Merrill, whom Howard served under as deputy attorney general in 1988, also stopped by the Dirksen Senate Office Building to support Howard.
Smith takes credit for bringing Howard to the president's attention and moving his confirmation along in the Senate.
"When the president called me last year and asked who I'd recommend for the seat, they weren't even thinking of anyone from New Hampshire," Smith said, moments after he and Gregg introduced Howard to the committee. "Now the president is very pleased with him."
Jeff Howard's brother, Mark Howard, said the proceedings "went great," though he joked that he was "a bit biased."
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
Merrimack Road Worker, Others Commemorated in Memorial Wall
WASHINGTON, April 09--Transportation officials unveiled a new National Workforce Memorial wall in nearby Maryland on Tuesday that recognizes people who have been killed in highway work zones, including a worker from Merrimack.
Daniel Carswell was killed in 1997 while working on the Everett Turnpike, according to Bill Boynton, the public information officer for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. Carswell's name is now listed with approximately 750 other road workers and other people on a 24 foot-long wall reminiscent of the Vietnam Memorial.
Boynton said Carswell, a 13-year veteran of the Transportation Department, worked in the Department of Turnpikes in Merrimack. An elderly driver hit him while he was picking up trash on the median near Exit 5 in Nashua. Carswell, who was 33, died immediately, leaving a wife, Cheryl, and daughter, Nicole.
Boynton submitted Carswell's name to the Fredericksburg, Va.-based American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) last November after hearing about its plans to build a wall recognizing people killed in highway work zone accidents.
ATSSA represents the segment of the roadway industry that maintains and installs safety features such as signs, pavement marking, guardrails and lighting.
"I suggested Daniel because his death was very traumatic and something you don't want to repeat," Boynton said. Work zone danger, Boynton said, "is an issue that I hear about all the time from workers."
Boynton hopes the wall will increase awareness of work zones and make drivers more cautious when driving near them.
The number of work zone fatalities has increased every year and is likely to continue to increase as the number of highway projects rises, according to James Baron, the communications director for ATSSA.
In 2000, 1,093 people died in work zones, up from 868 in 1999 and 789 in 1995, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. More than three-fourths of them last year were drivers. In addition, according to the NHTSA, approximately 40,000 crashes occur in work zones annually.
"Most roadways were built in the 1950s," Baron said at a ceremony to unveil the wall. "They need constant attention, and will need more. Motorists should be aware that if they think they're seeing a lot of work zones now, they haven't seen anything yet."
Most of the names on the memorial wall are those of highway workers, even though they represent a minority of those killed in work zones. "We have so many workers [listed] because we look after our own," Boynton said. People, he said, can submit the names of loved ones who died in work zone accidents for inclusion on the wall.
People on the wall died as long ago as the 1940s, according to Baron.
The wall is made of the same reflecting sheeting that road signs are made of. Names are raised so that loved ones can make rubbings of the names. Each name has a symbol next to it to signify whether the deceased was a child, a law enforcement officer, a motorist, a pedestrian, a public safety official or a work zone worker.
Jan Miller, the vice president of sales for Eastern Metal/USA-Sign, the Elmira, New York-based company that built the wall, estimates that it cost $8,000 to $10,000. The money came from transportation organizations that sponsored it.
The wall was unveiled at a ceremony with various transportation organizations and families of the deceased. The unveiling took place in College Park, alongside a highway work zone, as part of the third annual National Work Zone Safety Week.
After Tuesday's ceremony the wall was shipped to Pennsylvania for display. It will later travel to New York, Vermont, Washington, South Carolina, Illinois and Missouri. Boynton said he hopes the wall will come to New Hampshire at some point.
A bill moving through the New Hampshire legislature would name the Merrimack patrol facility where Carswell worked after him. The bill, introduced by Rep. Marlene DeChane, D-Barrington, passed the House and is awaiting Senate action.
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
New Hampshire Ranks 11th in Per Capita Pork, Up from 13th Last Year
WASHINGTON, April 09--New Hampshire's fiscally conservative lawmakers weren't so frugal last year when it came to pork barrel spending, according to a report released by a private watchdog group Tuesday.
Lawmakers, however, said they were simply effective in convincing others of the importance of Granite State projects when they brought home close to $100 million in contested appropriations for the current fiscal year.
While constituents appreciate federal funds garnered by members, some spending hawks criticize lawmakers when they bring home disproportionate spending, familiarly called pork-barrel spending.
The 2002 Congressional "Pig Book," released by the non-profit Washington-based Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), reveals that New Hampshire ranks 11th among the states in per capita pork this year, up from 13th last year. New Hampshire received 65 appropriations totaling $99,373,280 - $78.29 per person - in specific earmarks from the federal government.
Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH) balked at the suggestion that New Hampshire's ranking worsened from last year. "It's better," he said. "These projects are better than those for any other states. The delegation worked hard." The first district congressman, who sits on the House Budget Committee, added that "the Appropriations Committee makes decisions between competing options. The projects can not fly on their own."
The three largest New Hampshire appropriations mentioned by the group for 2002 were $7.5 million for the Manchester Airport, $6 million for the Dartmouth Thayer School of Engineering and $5.84 million for air traffic control facilities at the airport.
CAGW defines pork barrel spending as money that meets at least one of these criteria: it was requested by only one chamber of Congress, was not specifically authorized, was not competitively awarded, was not requested by the president, greatly exceeds the president's budget request or the previous year's spending level, was not the subject of congressional hearings and serves only a local or special interest.
"I think that simply because a member of Congress makes a request for a local priority doesn't necessarily mean the funding isn't going to be well used or that it's not well spent," said Rep. John Sununu (R-NH), a member of the House Appropriations Committee and vice chairman of the Budget Committee. "I think every project has to stand on its own merits."
One such project is the $3.6 million that Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) helped appropriate for the International Paper Co. land in the North Country, which the Pig Book defined as pork.
"This is one of the most important conservation initiatives, not just in New Hampshire but in the entire Northeast," said Sununu, who sat on a steering committee for the land deal project along with the other members of the New Hampshire delegation. "I think it's the exact kind of conservation program that the Forest Legacy Program was designed for."
The Agriculture Department's Forest Legacy Program gives grants to states for private land conservation.
Bass added that federal money pays for public land in other parts of the country. "We spend vast amounts of money in stewardship of western resources," he said. "This is tiny. This is the United States. For me to be unilaterally opposed to anything other than what New Hampshire cares about would be somewhat myopic."
Also in the Pig Book was $3.5 million that Manchester received for a combined sewer overflow project, which Sununu pointed out was money to fulfill a government mandate.
"That was a request I made for the city of Manchester to help comply with federal standards for cleaning up the wastewater that flows into the Merrimack River," he said. "Cleaning up the river is a critical initiative for Manchester and the state of New Hampshire. I think the federal government should have a direct appropriation role."
Of the 65 New Hampshire appropriations in the Pig Book, 21 - more than a third of all the pork spending for the state were labeled as commerce appropriations. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), is the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary.
Another 18 appropriations were labeled VA / HUD. Sununu sits on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD and Independent Agencies.
Another popular earmark - transportation - appeared 11 times on the list of 65. Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) is the senior Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which introduced some of the legislation.
The smallest of the 65 appropriations, under the VA / HUD label, was $40,000 for "My Friends Place," an emergency shelter in Dover.
New Hampshire's No. 13 ranking last year was based on $64,520,000 in appropriations, or $52.21 per person.
New Hampshire's senators both received awards for their fiscal thrift in recent months.
Sen. Smith received the National Taxpayers Union "Taxpayers' Friend Award" earlier this month for voting to reduce and control the tax burden on the American people. He ranked among the top five in the Senate.
Sen. Gregg was awarded the "Hero of the Taxpayer Award" in February by Americans for Tax Reform for votes during the first session of the current Congress "defending against tax increases and working to reform the U.S. tax code," according to a news release.
Gregg, in a statement, said he would "continue to support and fund worthwhile projects in New Hampshire from my position on the Appropriations Committee here in the U.S. Senate." He added: "To rephrase the words of Daniel Webster, 'It is, sir, as I have said, a small state. And yet there are those of us who love it!'"
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
Special Ed Gets Push From NH
WASHINGTON, April 04--Merrimack's Alice Porembski has jump-started a petition campaign that she began in 1999 with her 14-year-old Down syndrome son, Corey, to persuade the federal government to pay more for special education.
"It's kind of been on hold," Porembski said about the campaign whose members initially hoped to win a commitment for increased special-education spending in the education bill that President Bush signed in January.
Lawmakers never addressed special-education in the bill, however, and Porembski never presented the petitions.
Porembski, a special-education policy analyst at the New Hampshire Development and Disabilities Council, said she decided to restart the grass-roots campaign in earnest after talking to Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on special-education spending here on March 21.
"He said, 'You're Corey's mom,' and right then I realized what an impact the campaign had," she said. "He asked if the campaign is active and I said yes."
Porembski hopes to deliver 1 million signatures to Congress, which later this year will begin reauthorizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which mandates how public schools structure and pay for lessons for special-education students.
She now has 'hundreds of thousands' of signatures from people all over the country on petitions stored in her Concord office.
When IDEA was enacted in 1975, the federal government mandated that all schools provide appropriate education for special-needs students under age 21 and pledged to cover 40 percent of the costs.
This year, however, Washington is footing only about 17 percent of the bill, forcing schools and property taxpayers to pay the difference. As recently as 1996, the federal share was as low as 5 percent, though several hard-fought battles in Congress brought the spending up to current levels.
Porembski started the National Campaign to Fully Fund IDEA with Brandee Helbick, the 1999 Miss New Hampshire, and Fidele Bernascon, the retired publisher of the Hudson-Litchfield News, in the fall of 1999.
Since she started the campaign Porembski has testified before the state Legislature and Congress about how a public education has served Corey well, and about reforms that will help improve the level of instruction he and others like him receive.
Corey, a junior high school student who plays basketball, serves as an altar boy and likes to cook, said he's ready to start his work on the campaign: writing letters and e-mails to politicians such as Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H., Jeffords and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
"I tell them I want to learn. I want to speak clearly. I want to work when I grow up. I want to have a good life," he said.
Corey was featured in the March 2001 issue of Teen People magazine as one of "20 Teens Who Will Change the World."
Every five years Congress must reauthorize Part C of the bill, which covers early intervention, and Part D, which covers teacher assistance and training.
Porembski said those provisions should be revised to improve the quality of special education and lower its costs.
"Extending Part C down to birth could have a real benefit in reducing the number of children misidentified" as having special needs, saving the schools money, she said.
Porembski said many special-education teachers have no special-education training.
"There are some teachers who don't even understand that some kids are basically visual and some are basically auditory ÷ that there are many ways to present something," she said.
The Education Department will submit legislation to Congress in late summer or early fall, according to Robert Pasternack, the assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services.
The proposed bill will be presented either to the Senate Health Committee, on which Gregg is the senior Republican, or the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Gregg in March said that "we're moving toward the 40 percent funding level" and that "the President's made it a strong priority."
Porembski said she has sensed greater commitment for IDEA from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in recent months. Bass, who last week secured an increase of $4 million for special education in the House-passed budget for next year, said that momentum has grown for IDEA on Capitol Hill. "Advocacy groups have effectively communicated how important this is to Congress," he said.
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
NH AG’s Office Heads to DC to Fight for Fishermen’s Rights in Lawsuit
WASHINGTON, April 03--In an attempt to protect New Hampshire fishermen's livelihood, representatives of the state's Attorney General's office and the Division of Marine Fisheries will travel to Washington on Friday for round-the clock mediation talks on efforts to conserve groundfish.
Among the participants will be the environmental groups that sued the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for failing to protect the groundfish, which include such species as haddock, cod and flounder.
U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ruled in favor of the environmental groups in December, agreeing that the NMFS had not done enough to meet catch reduction requirements in the Gulf of Maine and other areas. Congress had instructed the NMFS to do more to rebuild the region's depleted groundfish industry.
The case is now in its remedial phase, and several proposed remedies have been filed with the court, including one from the New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island state governments.
The states - concerned about potentially severe restrictions that could hurt the economic fate of fishermen in their states - became intervenors in the case in January. New Hampshire did this because it does not want the court to decide the best way to rebuild groundfish populations, according to Peter Roth, New Hampshire's senior assistant attorney general.
"Governor [Jeanne] Shaheen directed the Attorney General's office to get involved in the remedy stage of this case to make sure the interest of fishermen is considered, said Shaheen's spokeswoman, Pamela Walsh. "We're concerned that the federal government's proposal and the suggestion made by the plaintiffs jeopardize the ability of New Hampshire fishermen and their safety," she said.
Judge Kessler referred the case to mediation on March 29 after it became clear that the two parties, along with various intervenors, including fishermen and boat owners, had very disparate views on how to resolve the dispute.
Senior assistant attorney general Roth is most concerned about thwarting remedies presented in court documents by the two sides that would hurt fishermen.
A remedy proposed by the NMFS, for example, would reduce the number of days fishermen could fish in May and June. Roth said the proposal "will force fishermen out of the water during prime fishing season. It forces them to do much of their fishing in the fall and winter months, when it's not safe to fish, or, under the complicated way the proposal is set up, work long hours during the prime season. Either way it's dangerous."
Another possibility, introduced by the Conservation Law Foundation - the lead environmental group that sued NMFS - would impose a hard cap on fishermen's allowable catch. The foundation's proposed remedy would also require fishermen to buy electronic monitoring equipment and hire on-board observers. Court filings that Roth helped prepare, however, contend that on-board monitors are ineffective and that hard cap restrictions are not equally effective for different species of fish.
The alternative remedy plan that New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island proposed on March 15 - that Roth and others will tout during the mediation discussions in Washington - calls instead for modifications to fishermen's existing gear, limits to the types and amount of gear that can be used and limits to fishing days during certain groundfish harvest times without unduly restricting in-shore fishermen.
Roth said New Hampshire intervened on the side of the federal agency simply because it had to choose a side. The state, he said, is aligned with neither the conservation groups nor the NMFS, but with the state's fishermen. Joining Roth on the trip to Washington will be John Nelson, the chief of the state's Division of Marine Fisheries. Approximately 35 people will be present at the mediation hearings, according to Priscilla Brooks, the marine project director at the Conservation Law Foundation in Woods Hole, Mass. Jennifer Patterson, a senior assistant attorney general in charge of the Environmental Protection Bureau, said the parties will be in separate rooms and the mediator will travel from room to room. Court documents say the mediation proceedings "will be conducted on a round-the-clock, emergency basis."
The case, The Conservation Law Foundation et al. v. Donald Evans et al., will continue during mediation, according to Judge Kessler's clerk, Jacqueline Michaels
Nancy Stanley, director of the alternative dispute resolution program, who is handling the mediation process in Washington, said the proceedings are confidential. After next Wednesday, if no consensus is reached, the case will go back to Judge Kessler.
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
