Category: Allison Frank
The Army National Guard
WASHINGTON– For most of the six decades since World War II, men and women have joined the Army National Guard to pay for school, to learn specialty jobs and to serve their country close to home. With the exception of a few tumultuous events – such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots — serving in the guard has been relatively safe.
It’s not anymore.
In the past few years – in events that culminated with the war in Iraq – the picture has changed. Presidents have called upon members of the Army National Guard more frequently and in larger numbers for peacekeeping missions overseas, and most recently, for war. Being in the Guard nowadays means more than patrolling state airports and keeping rioters at bay.
The threat of danger and the threat of combat are increasing for the country’s oldest division of civilian soldiers.
“This isn’t your father’s National Guard,” said Maj. Thomas Maeder, commander of recruitment and retention for the Massachusetts National Guard. “It’s not the safe branch of the military anymore.”
Not only are members of the Army Guard fighting overseas, they also are on patrol against terrorism in the United States.
And they face a new challenge: How will these soldiers – who have regular jobs most of the year — uphold their traditional role as a state militia at the same time they are defending the homeland and serving around the globe?
The Pentagon is exploring the question as part of a larger plan to restructure the military’s active-duty and reserve forces. By as early as 2005, the soldiers of the Army Guard could find themselves in an entirely different militia with two branches. Some of them would go into a homeland security force and a large group would be trained primarily for mobilization as part of the regular Army.
“One proposal is to have Guard members specifically identified as easily federalized, or long-term federal, and to have others in that more traditional role,” said Reginald Saville, spokesman for the National Guard Bureau in Washington. “But that’s way down the road.”
A modern-day militia
The Army Guard often is considered safer than other branches of the military because of its close ties to states. During peacetime, governors control the force and call on soldiers to help keep order following such emergencies as hurricanes and floods or to keep the peace at protests, such as the anti-war demonstrations held across the country in the past few months.
The Army Guard played a crucial role in the desegregation of schools in the South during the early 1960s, when two state governors – Mississippi’s Ross Barnett and George Wallace of Alabama – and mobs of segregationists tried to keep black students from registering for classes at state universities. President John. F. Kennedy sent in the Army National Guard, and the governors backed down. The soldiers of Mississippi and Alabama helped win decisive battles in the civil-rights movement without stepping outside their states.
“You don’t have to leave your community to serve your country,” Maeder said. “That’s the beauty of the National Guard; we’re in 3,000 communities across the nation.”
But lately, more Army Guard soldiers are saying goodbye to their families and friends and hello to a six-month tour of duty away from home. The recent war with Iraq constitutes the largest mobilization of Army Guard forces since World War II, with 79,198 of its 354,220 soldiers on federal active duty as of April 23.
Capt. Winfield Danielson, public affairs officer for the Massachusetts National Guard, said the large-scale federal mobilization has brought the Army Guard back in sync with its militia heritage. Some soldiers are serving overseas, while others are manning military bases across the country until the regular soldiers return. Some soldiers patrol state airports on homeland security missions, while others go about their lives as mechanics, engineers and salespeople, waiting to see if they will be summoned for duty.
“We’ve sort of returned to our roots,” Danielson said.
While the Army Guard has participated in every major conflict since World War II, its federal responsibilities have increased during the past 12 years. In 1993, President Bill Clinton sent 65 Army Guard soldiers to Somalia to protect famine relief workers from clan violence. He sent thousands more to keep the peace in Bosnia, Kosovo and Haiti in the mid-to-late 90s.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush mobilized 63,000 Army Guard soldiers to fight in the Persian Gulf War.
“We are a militia nation,” said Maeder, who served five years as a marine before joining the Army National Guard in 1980. “We depend upon our citizenry to rise when called upon, and to do it in an orderly fashion.”
In Massachusetts, about 20 percent of the Army Guard’s 8,000 members are currently on federal active duty. Approximately 1,820 soldiers have been mobilized, Maeder said, and 850 have been sent overseas, mainly to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Pakistan. Soldiers from the 747th Military Police Company, based in Southbridge, are currently stationed at an Afghan National Army training base in Kabul and at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.
The risk is paramount. Spc. John T. Rivero, a 23-year-old member of the Army Guard from of Tampa, Fla., died on April 18 when his Humvee flipped over in Iraq.
“I don’t think you can call any of it safe,” Saville said. Members of Army Guard, he said, are not just “weekend warriors.”
A new challenge
Because the Pentagon is leaning so heavily on the Army National Guard, military officers such as Maeder worry that state forces may not have enough soldiers to protect the homeland from terrorism. After Sept. 11, 2001, military police patrolled Boston’s Logan International Airport Guard soldiers continue to guard facilities that could be potential targets of terrorism, such as nuclear power plants and reservoirs.
“It’s a concern we’ve never had before,” Maeder said. “In the past, we’ve had this cushion of people. There is a concern – it’s not alarming – but we’re aware of it.”
In the meantime, Lt. Col. Bob Stone, spokesman for the reserve affairs office, said states should not be alarmed over the recent wave of Army Guard mobilizations.
“We’ve only tapped about 20 percent of the (country’s) reserve pool,” Stone said.
Danielson said the number of Bay State soldiers on federal active duty is not an immediate concern. If terrorists struck, Massachusetts would not be left to cope alone. Army Guard units from other states could help. In the event of a nuclear, biological or chemical weapons attack, the Army Guard also could draw upon its two regional civil support teams in Massachusetts and Maine to help police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians.
“We’ve got about 80 percent of our manpower still here, so we should be able to react to 99.9 percent of all emergencies,” Danielson said.
The military has also stepped up homeland security training for its reserve force. Cpl. Stephen Lefebvre of Lawrence said his Army Guard unit, the 1st Battalion of the 102nd Field Artillery, based in Methuen, has received abundant training in homeland security the past two years.
“Training has gone a lot better,” he said. “Everybody knows everybody else’s job.”
Lefebvre, 25, said the Army Guard takes training more seriously now than it did before terrorists attacked the United States.
“Sept. 11 was a real eye-opener for all of us,” he said. “Since then, people have taken a lot of homeland security as well as foreign relationships very seriously. People have been more dedicated to what we do. It becomes more tangible. You realize the reasons why you do all of this training. You put a little more into it, you take a little more pride in your work.”
One weekend a month, six months in Iraq
While military planners grapple to reshape the National Guard and Reserves for years to come, government officials such as Thomas F. Hall, the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, must deal with another, more pressing, problem: recruitment and retention.
Many teenagers join the reserves, particularly the Army Guard, as a way to earn money to pay for college or to learn a specialty job, such as bridge building. The question now is whether the prospect of going to war will deter prospective volunteers or discourage soldiers from re-enlisting.
Maeder thinks not.
He said the war on terrorism has spurred patriotism among young people and has brought former soldiers back to the Guard’s ranks. But Lefebvre said it’s possible that the war may hurt enrollment.
“Sometimes people don’t know what they’re signing up for, or what to expect,” he said. “But I want to believe the majority of people know they signed up for a reason.”
Maeder said those who volunteer to serve their country know the risks. And for those who are unsure, he has one piece of advice: “If you don’t want to go to war, you don’t join the military.”
“It exists for one reason, and one reason only,” he said. “We tell kids that.”
Before Lefebvre joined the Army Guard, he spent two years in the regular Army. He was stationed in South Korea for a year. He said he switched to the Army Guard so he could go to school. He recently graduated from the Northeastern Institute of Whole Health in Manchester, N.H., and is looking for a job in massage therapy.
While the full tuition subsidy was the main draw, Lefebvre said it was not the only reason he joined the Army Guard. He wanted to serve his country, and he liked the camaraderie the military provides. For Lefebvre, the one weekend of drill each month is a welcome escape.
“In the civilian world, it’s pretty cutthroat, there’s not a lot of teamwork,” he said. At drill, “I’m with great guys. I go there, and it’s a nice break from a regular 9-to-5 job.
“I like being able to accomplish things, getting out and actually doing things,” he added. “It’s knowing that what you do and what you could do for the country guarantees freedom, and knowing that you are a part of that. It’s nice to actually see that kind of thing happen.”
Maeder said the perks are attractive, but most people join the Army Guard because they want to serve their country. A recent survey of 17- to 19-year olds in the Massachusetts Army Guard showed that 55 percent of soldiers who enlisted in the past year did so to pay for college. According to Maeder, nearly 80 percent said they volunteered out of patriotism.
And the Massachusetts Army Guard roster is growing. At the end of March, enlistments had increased by about a third over the same month in 2002, he said.
But nationally, enlistments are down. Hall said the Army Guard has missed its recruiting quota for the past three months.
Pentagon recruiting statistics show that the Army Guard fell short of its monthly quota well before the United States dropped the first bomb on Iraq March 17. In the last three months of 2002, the military aimed to recruit 14,664 soldiers for the Army Guard. It missed the mark by 2,107. For that same period, recruitment was down for only one other military branch: the Army Reserves.
Military officials insist the Iraqi war has not caused the drop-off, though they offer no other explanation.
“There is certainly a concern on the part of the Army Guard,” Hall said. “They have some challenges ahead. They don’t see this as a direct reflection of Iraq or the last two years of our war on terrorism.”
Hall noted that the military experienced a two or three-year drop in recruiting and retention after the Gulf War in 1991, but said that it picked up again after that.
“Are we going to see a little dip? We might,” Hall said. “But it did come back after the Gulf War, and that is sort of the last model we have to look at.”
Hall said Guard leaders told him that enrollment is improving and they expect to meet the quota by the end of the year.
“From what I have seen… they predict they’ll be OK,” Hall said. “Now, we’ll have to see.”
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Local Mayors Plead Case With Sen. Kennedy
WASHINGTON-- In an early-morning conference call Thursday, 17 Massachusetts mayors told Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy the same thing: Though cities and towns across the nation are expected to boost their homeland security efforts, their budgets just can't keep up.
At a time when the federal Homeland Security Department classifies the risk of terrorist attacks at Level Orange, or high, the mayors spoke of laying off firefighters and police officers. Gloucester Mayor John Bell said his town has laid off 15 employees of the police and fire departments, and Springfield Mayor Michael Albano said his police force is down 76 officers and his fire department is down 57 people.
Kennedy said Brockton Mayor Jack Yunitz put it best when he said that first responders are "fighting for their jobs as they're fighting to protect us."
"We've been hearing about homeland security money for a long time," Haverhill Mayor John Guerin told Kennedy and the other mayors, adding that his city could face a 20 percent cut in public safety services next year. "It makes no sense to have all kinds of homeland security money out there and I have five police officers on one shift."
Kennedy responded to the mayors by saying, "It seemed that if we were going to provide $9 billion for foreign countries that we should have a similar commitment to our cities and towns."
After listening to the concerns of the mayors, including Lawrence Mayor Michael J. Sullivan, Kennedy took to the Senate floor and pleaded with his colleagues to amend President Bush's $74.7 million supplemental war budget to include more money for homeland security. Bush's budget includes more than $9 billion for the State Department and for aid to foreign countries, Kennedy said, but only $3.8 billion was earmarked for homeland security programs. Kennedy said that is simply not enough.
"These first responders, when they signed up for their jobs, didn't think they would be taking on the additional threat of terrorism," he said in his Senate speech.
The Senate's version of the supplemental budget, which came to the floor hours after the Kennedy-mayors conference call, would provide more money to help local and state governments meet their homeland security costs. It includes $105 million to help vaccinate first responders against smallpox, and with shots costing $85 apiece, Kennedy said, the money would cover vaccinations for 1.23 million people. Health departments in Massachusetts are slated to get $2 million to vaccinate its first responders, Kennedy said.
Pittsfield Mayor Sara Hathoway said during the conference call that additional homeland security funds are desperately needed to prepare the community for the possibility of a large-scale disaster and to make residents feel safe.
"The communities want to see some reassurance that there is a new response level, a set of resources to address this changed world we live in," she said.
The mayors also talked to Kennedy about sites in their communities that could be potential targets for terrorist attacks, such as nuclear power plants and major waterways. The need for protection at the local level has never been greater, and the mayors said they wanted to see some of the federal dollars that Bush promised to cities and towns after Sept. 11.
"As the president prepares for post-war problems, he shouldn't forget post-war America and what's going to happen here," said North Adams Mayor John Barrett III.
"It seems we can always find money to help foreign countries," Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. "We need money for domestic issues."
Fixing up a local armory to house a regional training center for firefighters and emergency personnel tops Guerin's list of steps to improve the security of Haverhill and surrounding towns. He said that police and firefighters are training constantly, with an increased focus on disaster alerts.
"You never know where terrorism is going to strike," he said. "We may not be a prime target on anyone's radar screen, but when the security alert goes up, cities go to work."
"If disaster does strike in whatever form," Guerin added, "we need to make sure we're able to respond to it."
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
U.S. Senate Approves President’s $2.2 Trillion Spending Package, Tax Cut Package Still Up In The Air
WASHINGTON-- After days of intense debate over President Bush's plan to cut taxes, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved the president's request for $2.2 trillion to run the government in fiscal year 2004.
The budget passed 56-44; the Republican senators from New Hampshire, John Sununu and Judd Gregg, voted for the spending package and the Democratic senators from Massachusetts, John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy, voted against it.
The vote came a day after the Senate narrowly agreed to reduce Bush's proposed tax cuts over the next 10 years from $726 billion to $350 billion. The decision of a few moderate Republicans to join forces with the Democrats in Tuesday's vote reversed an earlier decision by the Senate to reject the reduced tax cut proposal. Republicans say that Bush's plan would boost the economy and create jobs. Democrats and the GOP opposition argue that Bush's tax cut is too large at a time of war, when the country is facing record deficits and increasing costs to defend the homeland.
The Senate budget resolution must now be reconciled with the House version, which includes the president's full $726 billion tax cut. Congressman Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., said in an interview Wednesday that the tax-cut number should fall somewhere in the middle of what Bush proposed and what the Senate approved.
"It's open to further amendments at this point, so what the final package is remains to be seen," Bradley said Wednesday. "We will have to begin negotiations to reconcile the differences between the two bodies."
Bradley said the tax cut would probably be lower than he'd like, but he hopes it is still enough to spark an economic growth spurt.
"In historic times, with fighting the war on terror, with a significant recession, we need a stimulus package that gets the economy moving again," he said. "That will be the best shot in the arm for the economy."
Massachusetts's lawmakers scorned the Republicans for focusing on a tax cut when the country is at war. Congressman Martin T. Meehan, who voted against the budget on the House side last week, said in an interview Wednesday that it's inconceivable "at a time when we're asking Americans to sacrifice, when some of our men and women in uniform are making the ultimate sacrifice, to give a tax cut to the wealthiest Americans."
In a Senate speech Monday, Kennedy said he's baffled that at a time when most Americans are tuned into television news coverage of the war in Iraq, Congress was pondering a budget without money for war-related expenses.
"It is as though this budget had been drafted in a sound-proofed room, so that the sounds of war and the voices of the American people could not be heard," Kennedy said.
The president plans to pay for the war through a supplemental budget, which includes money that that is not appropriated in the regular budget. Bush is asking Congress for almost $75 billion to pay for the first 30 days of the war. The money would be spent to pay the troops, replenish weapons and equipment and help rebuild Iraq when the war ends.
Unlike the president's fiscal year 2004 budget and proposed tax cut, the war budget is not likely to face much opposition. Meehan, D-Lowell, said that while he is skeptical of the price tag, he expects the war budget to gain bipartisan support.
"Certainly, with our troops in harm's way, we need to provide money for the war," he said. But $75 billion "really isn't the cost of the war. It's only based on a brief period of time. It assumes a short war, and while we're making progress, we can't be sure of the length of the war."
Meehan said the president's supplemental war budget does not include sufficient funds to rebuild Iraq. Meehan said he hopes United States can get "other countries to share that cost with us."
The New Hampshire delegation backed the war budget without question, with Bradley calling the $74.7 billion price tag "appropriate" and Sununu labeling it a "common sense package."
"This spending is needed now," Sununu said in a statement.
"We really have to move forward with paying for our troops to be over there," said Bradley, a freshman this year.
Congress is likely to massage the war budget when it goes before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees next week, but Gregg pledged to make sure "our brave men and women have the resources they need to be successful in Iraq."
"They are doing a tremendous job, and I expect Congress to approve these funds," Gregg said in a statement.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Meehan has $1.8 Million in War Chest
WASHINGTON-- He earned a national reputation by battling the influence of big money on politics. But being the king of campaign-finance reform has not hurt Congressman Martin T. Meehan's ability to raise money for his own campaigns: his $1.8 million year-end war chest was larger than that of any other member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts.
Unlike most members of Congress, Meehan doesn't take money from corporations or special-interest groups. To keep his campaign coffers brimming, the Democrat from Lowell relies on his roots.
"It seemed that a better way to raise money would be from individuals back home rather than individuals inside the (capital) Beltway," Meehan said in an interview.
Of the nearly $600,000 that Meehan's campaign raised for his re-election last year, almost all of it -- $597,438 -- came from individual donations, rather than from political action committees, or PACs, according to campaign finance reports Meehan filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors federal campaign spending, reported that 79 percent of Meehan's contributions came from Bay State residents during 2001-2002. The independent, Washington-based center analyzes FEC reports and posts summaries on its Web site, www.opensecrets.org. According to the site, Meehan received $10,500 from New Yorkers and $25,000 from his Washington-based supporters.
Unlike his opponents in last year's election - Republican Chuck McCarthy Jr., and Libertarian Ilana Freedman - Meehan did not take any money from political action committees.
Meehan said he doesn't want to run for Congress on the backs of interest groups that lobby him on legislation. He said he returns any PAC contributions that might slip through; and the Center for Responsive Politics confirmed that he returned $2,000 from communication and technology PACs during his last campaign.
Instead of rubbing elbows with lobbyists at cocktail-party fundraisers, Meehan goes home.
"I never realized that not taking PAC money would keep me so plugged in to the people in Massachusetts," he said. "It keeps me in Massachusetts more than most members. I think that's a good thing. It keeps me in touch."
Most other Massachusetts Congress members also receive the majority of their campaign money from residents of the state, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Democratic Congressman John Tierney topped the list for 2001-2002 with 95.9 percent of his money coming from Bay State residents. Meehan ranked sixth on the list with 79 percent, and Democratic Congressman Edward J. Markey was last with 39 percent.
Meehan's press secretary, Stacy Kerr, said Meehan wants most of his money to come from Bay State residents because "those are the people he represents.
"He comes to Washington to vote, but he spends his time in the district," she said. "The contributors are people who see him at home, and who share their problems with him when they see him on the street."
Even reformers need money
Meehan worked for more than seven years to convince Congress to reform the way campaigns are financed because he wanted to remove the influence of special-interest money on politics, Kerr said.
Last year, after several false starts, Congress passed sweeping legislation that banned the use of so-called "soft money," previously unlimited contributions to political parties. The bill increased from $2,000 to $4,000 the amount individuals can donate to a candidate.
The law, which took effect the day after the November 2002 election, was sponsored in the House by Meehan and Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and in the Senate by John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold, D-Wisc.
Soft money was supposed to be used for generic purposes, like voter registration drives, but it became common practice for the national parties to spend it on campaign ads for their candidates, said Steven Weiss, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics. The fight for campaign-finance reform was one of the most bitter for many years on Capitol Hill - after all, it affects every member of Congress - and some lawmakers have filed lawsuits claiming it is unconstitutional.
Members of Congress also have complained that the legislation has many unintended consequences that could affect elections, and that even Meehan and the other authors of the reform measure don't fully realize all of the things it could do.
Reform advocates say the new law will not harm candidates' ability to raise money.
"What's interesting about Meehan and the other supporters of campaign-finance reform is that they still have to raise money, and they do it entirely legally," Weiss said. "And among those who are trying to remove money from the system, you find those who are very good fundraisers."
A knack for bringing in the cash
People who know Meehan well say he has a knack for fundraising. A former teacher of his, Marie Sweeney, said people are drawn to his down-to-earth personality and candid demeanor.
"People gravitate toward him because he's pretty direct," said Sweeney, who lives in Tewksbury. "He's smart about representing the community. He understands the big issues and the small issues."
Sweeney has attended many Meehan fundraisers and political events. She said her former English student delivers A-list guests, such as former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. His most recent fundraiser, a two-day event in conjunction with St. Patrick's Day, included John Hume, who shared a Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 for working for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. The event, in Haverhill and Dracut, drew 1,200 people.
Because he doesn't take PAC money, Meehan said he has to be a more aggressive fundraiser than some of his colleagues and it can be more difficult and time consuming to raise money. He typically holds five fundraisers a year, and said he tries to make the events entertaining. One of his most popular events is a whale watching cruise, which he booked out of Newburyport last year. Meehan plans to set sail again this summer and, with tickets priced at $50 apiece, he hopes to bring in at least $15,000. He also is planning a golf tournament and a comedy night this year.
Leon C. Asadoorian, president of Methuen Construction, is a large donor to Meehan's campaigns. A resident of North Hampton, N.H., Asadoorian gave $2,000 to Meehan's 2002 election and made another $1,000 donation in December for the 2004 race.
Asadoorian said he supports Meehan because he works hard for his district.
"Lawrence needs a lot of help, it needs a strong presence in Washington," he said in a phone interview. "Past congressmen have done OK, but Marty's doing an outstanding job."
Meehan is especially popular with members of the business community, which Kerr said is no surprise since "economic development is his top priority." Lawyers gave Meehan, a former prosecutor, $57,014 for his 2002 campaign; real estate agents donated $35,475, and contractors gave him $16,700, according to a list of top industry donors compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
When asked why he thinks Meehan gets so much support from the business community, Asadoorian said the congressman has continually supported local businesses like Malden Mills, which supplies the United States military with Polartec uniforms.
Giving back to the community
Meehan also maintains visibility in his district by donating excess campaign money to charities and civic groups. Last year, he gave $200 to the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell and $100 to the Haverhill Chamber of Commerce, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
With the next election more than a year-and-a-half away, Meehan has more money socked away than his House colleagues from Massachusetts. After Meehan, Congressman William Delahunt, a Democrat representing the 10th District, had the largest war chest, with $1.37 million. Congressman Richard Neal, a Democrat representing the 2nd District, had $1 million, according to the center.
Political insiders speculate that Meehan is stockpiling money to prepare for a possible future bid for the Senate. Massachusetts democratic Sen. John F. Kerry is running for president next year, and if he wins, his Senate seat will open in 2006. Meehan told the Eagle-Tribune last October that he can't predict what he'll be doing in four years, but said he would consider running if there was an opening "some day down the road."
When asked recently what he's saving for, Meehan said he wants to be prepared for the possibility of a closely contested House re-election race.
"Sometimes," he said, "millionaires run."
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts, New Hampshire Lawmakers Urge Bush to Order Emergency Oil Release
WASHINGTON-- Citing rising oil prices and the possible disruption of oil supplies now that the United States is at war with Iraq, lawmakers from Massachusetts and New Hampshire are urging President Bush to release oil from the country's emergency fuel reserves.
In a joint letter to Bush Wednesday, the Bay State congressional delegation said the war with Iraq, coupled with this winter's harsh temperatures, have caused oil prices to skyrocket, forcing some residents in their districts to choose between paying for heat or for groceries. The New Hampshire delegation wrote to Bush in February with the same concerns.
Congressman Martin T. Meehan, D-Lowell, said in an interview that it was senseless to wait until supplies are disrupted before dipping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the emergency supply of crude oil stored along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. When Iraq seized oil fields in Kuwait in 1990 - a move that spurred the first Gulf War - Meehan said the price of crude oil jumped $21 per barrel. He said he expects that history will repeat itself in this second war with Iraq. Oil prices peaked last month at $39 per barrel, falling just shy of the record $41.15 per barrel set during the Gulf War, he said.
The president is the only person who can authorize a draw from the reserve, which currently holds 600 million barrels of oil. According to the federal Office of Fossil Energy, the reserve has been used for emergency purposes only once since its inception in 1977 - during the first Gulf War in 1991, when 13 companies were allowed to buy 17 million barrels from the reserve. Now that the United States is at war with Iraq for a second time, lawmakers fear that the country's oil supply is in danger again.
"There are already reports of oil fields on fire, and it doesn't make sense for us to wait," Meehan said Thursday. The reserve is "a safety valve so that prices don't go up any higher."
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said government officials do not know the extent of the damage to Iraqi wells or how many wells have been targeted by Saddam Hussein's regime. But he said that worldwide oil supplies "are more than adequate to compensate for any disruption these acts may cause." In a statement Thursday, Abraham said that oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia have significantly increased production in recent weeks and have pledged to work with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to prevent an oil shortage.
In addition to asking Bush to tap into the national reserve, the Massachusetts and New Hampshire lawmakers have also requested that he release fuel from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, a smaller stock of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that was set aside specifically for that region. The Northeast's 2-million-barrel supply is stored in tanks in Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Congressman Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., said in an interview that while he has adopted a "wait-and-see attitude" about the need to draw from the national supply, the government should continue monitoring oil and gasoline prices and consider using oil from the Northeast supply to help residents who have been hit hard by fuel bills this winter. Bradley said that oil prices have dropped recently but that the price of gasoline at the pumps remains "pretty high."
"Higher energy costs are draining family budgets," Sen. John F. Kerry said in a statement. "And with gasoline prices soaring and home heating costs through the roof, New England's economy is getting whacked with a two-by-four."
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
States Could Get More Money to Help Put Rapists Behind Bars
WASHINGTON-- Fourteen years ago, Virginia resident Debbie Smith was brutally raped in the woods behind her home. Smith wouldn't learn her attacker's name or whereabouts for six and a half years - the time it took before the authorities tested her rape kit, which held critical DNA evidence gathered after her assault. Her attacker was already behind bars for another offense. But every day until then, Smith said she lived in fear.
She doesn't want rape victims to have to wait that long for closure again.
Smith's story helped spark legislation now moving through Congress that would give state and local police departments $400 million over five years to test rape kits. The bill would also provide $150 million to train forensic nurses and $50 million to train police officers on the proper collection and handling of DNA evidence. Another $10 million would go toward expanding the FBI's national DNA database.
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., who introduced the bill in the Senate last year and reintroduced it in January, said he "can't think of any other single piece of legislation that could pass that could as radically and profoundly impact issues of sexual assault and rape."
Biden said there is a massive backlog of rape kits sitting on crime lab shelves across the country, with some 500,000 kits still waiting to be tested. Rape victims are kept waiting for justice while rapists are free to strike again, said Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who introduced a similar bill, called the Debbie Smith Act, in the House last year. Congressman Mark Green, R-Wis., is sponsoring the bill this year and introduced it Tuesday.
The Senate last year unanimously passed Biden's bill, called the DNA Sexual Assault Justice Act, but the House did not act. Biden and other supporters held a news conference Tuesday to rally colleagues to make the bill a top priority this session.
"It is almost unimaginable that here in the 21st century we would keep a rape kit on the shelf, unexamined," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said Tuesday as she urged Congress to act quickly. "This falls into the category of 'shame on us' if we don't finally act to make this tool available across our country to catch those who have terrorized women and to give peace of mind to people like Debbie Smith who have done so much to bring us to this point."
Lawmakers say that money is the only thing that stands in the way of processing the rape kits. DNA analysis can range from $500 to $1,500 per kit.
In Massachusetts, Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said there isn't enough money to process all of the cases that come through his office. The bill would enable prosecutors to process more evidence and cross-reference DNA with an even broader national database, he said.
"This would give us the tools we need to do serious prosecution in serious cases," Blodgett said.
The bill is now under review by the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and is expected to gain bipartisan support.
Congressman Martin T. Meehan, D-Lowell, said he would support the legislation.
"We have a difficult enough time getting rape victims to come forward that when they do, we have to make sure the authorities know how to process the kits effectively," Meehan said.
Congressman Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., said he was "virtually certain" to support it but wanted to see how much the bill would cost taxpayers before pledging his vote.
"I want to see, when it gets to the floor, what the price tag is," Bradley said.
Lifetime Television has an on-line petition that people can sign to support the Debbie Smith Act. For more information, go to www.lifetimetv.com.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Lawrence Folks Visit Nation’s Capital to Gain Support for Local, National Education Programs
WASHINGTON-- Members of the Lawrence community stopped by Congressman Martin T. Meehan's office on Capitol Hill Thursday to gain support for educational programs.
Dawna Perez, who runs Lawrence Literacy Works, was here for a conference on adult literacy and wanted to brief Meehan, D-Lowell, about Lawrence's effort to help immigrants learn English. Five language-based organizations came together under the umbrella of Lawrence Literacy Works, and pledged last year to work together to increase the number of English-as-a-second language courses offered in the community. Currently, Perez said, there are 1,573 people waiting to take a course, up from the 1,200 listed last May.
"And in the meantime, what are they doing?" she asked rhetorically.
Most of them are probably working low-wage jobs because they speak poor English, said Shaw Rosen, executive director of the Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board.
"People are stuck," said Rosen, whose board is part of the literacy initiative. "They can't be promoted."
And with unemployment on the rise, Perez and Rosen say the classes are needed now more than ever. The community-based plan aims to add 60 courses over the next three years at an estimated cost of $2 million, Perez said. The short-term goal is to open five classes. Perez said she hoped Meehan would be able to point her in the right direction for federal and state grants.
"Adult literacy programs are critical in my district," Meehan said, adding that nearly 42 percent of adults in Lawrence don't have high school diplomas. "Proper funding for adult literacy programs is essential in educating adults who use English as a second language and helping them find jobs. In today's economy, this is now more important than ever."
While Perez met with Meehan, members of the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council headed to a conference on Head Start, the federally funded preschool program for low-income children. Under his fiscal year 2004 budget, President Bush wants to move the program from the Department of Health and Human Services to the
Department of Education, thereby giving states more control over the program.
Critics of Bush's proposal say they fear that the health and social services components of Head Start would be lost for good because the president wants to replace the program's traditional mission with an emphasis on literacy. Council members met with Meehan earlier Thursday to voice their concerns. Charles "Chick" Lopiano, assistant director of the Lawrence action council, said what Bush wants to do "would mean the end of Head Start as we know it."
"If it ain't broke, why fix it?" Lopiano said.
Meehan told the council members that he favors keeping Head Start where it is.
"Under HHS, Head Start receives an array of essential services… that prepare low-income children for kindergarten," he said. "I fear the Department of Education does not have the experience nor the ability to provide some of these services."
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Local Residents Will Take Part in National Anti-War Protest Over The Internet, Phone Today
WASHINGTON-- Lawrence resident Arthur Brien doesn't have a computer, but he didn't let that stop him from participating in a virtual anti-war protest set to take place in the nation's capital Wednesday.
A national anti-war group, Win Without War, mobilized dozens of organizations and thousands of people across the country in an attempt to flood government phone lines and e-mail in-boxes Wednesday with pleas for a peaceful resolution in Iraq. People who wanted to be part of the protest had to register at the group's online headquarters, www.moveon.org/winwithoutwar. Brien, 72, asked a friend with a computer to sign him up and e-mail his letter to the White House.
"I heard that if we do strike, thousands of bombs will be dropped within a short period of time," Brien said in a phone interview from his home Tuesday. "I think the bombing of a city like Baghdad is immoral. We would be needlessly killing civilians."
That's the type of message that protest organizers want President Bush and members of the United States Senate to hear. Protestors plan to inundate the White House and Senate offices with e-mails phone calls or faxes every minute Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Actor Martin Sheen, who plays a fictional U.S. president on the NBC television show "The West Wing," has appeared in a Win Without War television ad, encouraging people to participate in this virtual march on Washington.
"Political leaders need to know we are serious, we are organized and we are growing in strength," said former Maine Congressman Tom Andrews, the anti-war group's national director. "We will let our fingers do the marching and demand that our voices be heard."
Shelagh Foreman, program director of the Cambridge-based Massachusetts Peace Action, called the unconventional protest "clever." She said she signed up to call Bay State Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry's office and the White House.
"The people of the world and in this country are beginning to change and many are beginning to feel that (war) is not a wise thing to do," she said. "Hopefully, we can make them think again."
Foreman said she plans to target Kerry because he has changed his views on the war. Kerry had blasted the president for his "unilateral" approach to the war and said United Nations weapons inspectors should be allowed to keep doing their jobs. After Secretary of State Colin L. Powell revealed what he said was evidence that Iraq was hiding nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Kerry said Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein should be given one last chance to disarm or face the possibility of military force. Foreman said she wants Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, to revert to his tough, anti-war position.
"We counted on him," Foreman said. "We would like him to represent our opposition to the war."
And what about Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy? If Foreman calls his office today, she said it would be only to thank him.
"He is standing up very courageously about a number of Bush's foreign policies," she said. "I feel like Kennedy is on our side. He is a leader."
New Hampshire Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu, both Republicans, said their offices are prepared to handle a lot of calls and e-mails. Barbara Riley, Sununu's communications director, said Sununu "strongly encourages" questions, comments and concerns from his constituents. Gregg, too, said that he always encourages residents to contact him and that Wednesday was no exception.
"I value the opinion of every Granite Stater who expresses their point of view regarding the possibility of armed conflict in Iraq and all other issues," Gregg said in a statement Tuesday.
Both Sununu and Gregg have been staunch supporters of the Bush administration's position on Iraq.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Congressman Meehan to Host Event on Foreign Policy for Cyprus
WASHINGTON — Congressman Martin T. Meehan, D-Lowell, will host a community forum this weekend to discuss Cyprus - the tiny, embattled Mediterranean island at the heart of the decades-long conflict between Turkey and Greece.
The event, which begins Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Hellenic Cultural Center in Lowell, is free and open to the public. Konstantin Bikas, the Greek consul general in Boston, and state Sen. Steve Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, will attend the forum as Meehan's guests.
Meehan said that he, Bikas and Panagiotakos plan to discuss the United States' recent initiatives on Cyprus, the new United Nations peace plan, the status of negotiations and prospects for a settlement between Turkey and Greece. Meehan said it's important for local residents to be aware of the situation in Cyprus and to be educated about U.S. foreign policy in that region.
According to the Web site www.cyprustourism.org, Cyprus became an independent republic and joined the United Nations in 1960. Fourteen years later, Turkey invaded and captured about a third of the island. The invasion uprooted nearly half of Cyprus's Greek population. Despite repeated rounds of talks, there has been no solution.
The Bush administration endorsed the most recent U.N. peace plan to end the conflict and reunite the island, The New York Times reported in December.
"Over the last 20 years, we have seen regional disputes draw in outside nations and escalate into major international crises," Meehan said. "Since 1974, the unlawful division of Cyprus has been a dangerous powder keg for the United States and NATO [the North Atlantic Treaty Organization]. Greece and Turkey have gone to the edge of war three times in large part over tensions over Cyprus. Even now, Cyprus is one of the most densely militarized places in the world."
The Bush administration wants Turkey to become part of the European Union and has been encouraging Turkey to settle the Cyprus dispute. It also is seeking Turkey's backing for a potential war with Iraq.
Meehan said unity on the isle is "very important" to Greek Americans, a group that has a large presence in Massachusetts's 5th District. Given the relationship between Turkey and Greece - both members of NATO - Meehan said the United States has an "interest in making sure two important allies find a resolution."
"It's not in the United States' interest to have allies at odds with one another," said Meehan, a member of the Congressional Hellenic Caucus.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
Money Secured for New Transportation Center in Lawrence
WASHINGTON — The federal government is giving $500,000 to the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority to help build a new transportation center in Lawrence. The new center, which is the final planning stage, would have a five-level parking garage, retail stores, shuttle service to Manchester and Logan International airports, a police substation, and a new location for Lawrence’s commuter rail.
Congressman Martin T. Meehan, D-Lowell, and Democratic senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry pushed for the funding because they said a new, more modern transportation center would stimulate the local economy. In addition to Lawrence, the transit authority serves Merrimac, Andover, North Andover, Amesbury, Haverhill, Methuen and Newburyport.
“In order to attract economic development, it is now more important than ever that we improve public transportation,” Meehan said Thursday.
Joseph Costanzo, transit authority administrator, said he was pleased to hear the state delegation landed money from the Federal Transportation Authority for the project, which he expects to cost $20 million. Most of the construction will depend on state and federal grants, he said.
“Anytime you go into the earmarking process, you have to work with your congressional district,” Costanzo said. “You’re up against every transit system in the country.”
Kennedy said that in addition to stimulating the economy, the new center would also make public transportation more accessible and improve air quality by reducing auto emissions. In a statement Thursday, Kerry said that better public transportation “can have an enormous economic and environmental impact on our communities, making them better places to work, live and raise a family.”
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
