Category: Danielle Domkowski
Unemployment Benefits Amended, Extended
WASHINGTON – The House passed an amendment to the Community Services Block Grant Bill Wednesday night that if passed in the Senate and signed into law by the President, will extend unemployment benefits by six months to those whose benefits have expired.
The amendment, sponsored by George Miller (D- Calif.), was passed 227 to 179 with 27 members abstaining from voting. In arguing for support of the amendment Miller said, “This Congress stands by as 375,000 people lost their benefits in the month of January. We knew it was going to happen. We went home for Christmas. What kind of Christmas did these people have when they knew that their benefits were going to run out? What kind of Christmas did these hard working families have?”
“Most of them have worked their whole lives, played by the rules, tried to do it the right way, tried to raise their families; and now all of that is at risk and we sit with $17 billion in the trust fund, and they say go to the states.” A lot of the states, he said, are out of money.
On the other side of the debate, Rep. Boehner (R- Ohio ) replied, “.at the 11 th hour we get this cynical attempt to talk about extending unemployment benefits. It has no business on this bill. As I said before, this is an authorization. There is no money attached to it; and for goodness sakes, no unemployed worker in America ought to count on anything happening out of this bill because it will never be funded.”
Rep. Tierney (D – Salem ) said he didn’t think the Republicans had a good argument against the amendment. “Many of the Republicans that voted against it tried to make the point that they thought this was not the proper procedure to go about it,” he said. “We were forced to go this route because of their inability or unwillingness to help regular people that are unemployed.who want to work and just have not been able to but need those resources to survive.”
He also said that an added benefit of extending unemployment benefits is that America would gain 1.73 dollars in economic balance for every dollar that was put into unemployment.
“I think it’s a serious statement that finally we’ve got some members on the Republican majority side to recognize the economic situation. We’re just not creating jobs.”
He said that they voted for this amendment because they’re recognizing that the people who are making money in this country are people who own stocks and are CEOs of companies. “That doesn’t necessarily translate down to regular Americans. Regular Americans are the ones who haven’t gotten their jobs back,” he said.
BRAC Meeting Leaves Governor Feeling Optimistic About Bases in Natick and Bedford
WASHINGTON - Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney said he felt "encouraged" after attending a meeting here Thursday with members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation and a Pentagon official to discuss the defense department's plans for the closure of military bases around the country.
Romney and other state officials are most concerned about the fate of Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford and Natick Labs (officially, the Army Soldier Systems Center) in Natick under the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) plan for 2005.
Rep. Edward Markey of Malden helped to arrange the meeting with Romney and other Democratic members of the Massachusetts delegation including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Reps. Martin Meehan of Lawrence, John Tierney of Salem , James McGovern of Worcester and John Olver of Amherst . Also attending was Ray DuBois, Defense undersecretary for installations and environment, who discussed the criteria for the closing of military bases.
Following the meeting, Kennedy called Hanscom a unique and "indispensable facility" for national security. He said Hanscom has demonstrated through the coordination of targeting and weaponry and dramatic improvement in technology and firepower that it can help save American lives.
Romney said he came away feeling "much more encouraged" because he now had greater insight into the process for deciding which bases will be closed. "We had a very good meeting with Secretary DuBois and the members of the delegation," he said.
Meehan also said he felt it was a good meeting and the Massachusetts representatives were able to make their case. "The secretary listened and was responsive and we are going to continue this.We want to make sure the evaluation process includes the unique technical asset that Hanscom is," Meehan said.
Markey said the message the delegation sent to the Department of Defense was that "our military should work smarter, not harder" and that the brain power in Massachusetts makes the country much more secure when it is used by the American military. He said the delegation would be making the case that closing the bases would undermine American security.
Romney added, "Our concern has been in evaluating bases the criteria would not encompass the intellectual assets which are surrounding these bases." As a result of the meeting, Romney said he believes the process will include an evaluation of those kinds of capabilities. He said that though DuBois did not make any commitments about Hanscom or Natick , he was very encouraged about the reviews they will face.
Tierney said that DuBois indicated during the meeting that he "really understood the points that we were making."
Tierney also pointed out that the people who will be doing the first round of evaluations of the facilities are experts in the areas of technology and communications, which are specialties of Hanscom and Natick Labs.
The military base closing procedure requires that the Pentagon submit a list to Congress, which must either accept or reject the entire list.
Three Senate Buildings Close, Tierney Urges Constituents to use other forms of Communication, After White Powder is Found
WASHINGTON -Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem) said the deadly poison found in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was the result of a " deplorable act."
The white powder discovered Monday in Frist's Dirksen Senate Office Building mailroom has been identified as an "active" form of ricin, a poison derived from the waste of castor beans that have been turned into castor oil, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Dirksen, Hart and Russell Senate Office Buildings have been closed, and mail service to both the Senate and the House suspended.
"All constituents wishing to contact my office in the next few days are encouraged to use e-mail or fax if possible," Tierney said in a statement. "I appreciate the Capitol Police's efforts to protect the safety of postal workers, members of Congress and Capitol Hill staffers, and hope that the circumstances surrounding this deplorable act will be resolved swiftly."
According to the CDC, ricin can come "in the form of a powder, a mist or a pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid..
"Ricin works by getting inside the cells of a person's body and preventing the cells from making the proteins they need," the CDC reported. "Without the proteins, cells die. Eventually this is harmful to the whole body, and death may occur."
No one who was exposed to the substance showed any symptoms as of late Tuesday. There is no antidote for ricin. The CDC said symptoms, including fevers, respiratory problems, vomiting and diarrhea, would show up within eight hours of inhaling ricin or within six hours of ingesting it.
The ricin incident is reminiscent of the anthrax scare in late 2001, when two letters containing anthrax were sent to the offices of then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Rose Ann Soloway, associate director of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, said that ricin and anthrax are two entirely different kinds of poisons. Anthrax is an infectious agent, which can but is not likely to be spread from person to person. Ricin, which is not an infectious agent, cannot be spread this way.
In a press conference Tuesday afternoon Frist said that 16 people had been decontaminated the night before.
Daschle, now minority leader, said it was important to emphasize that the work of the government will go on. "We still don't have all the answers, so we ask everyone to be patient," he added.
Massachusetts Employment Rate Drops Significantly According to Bureau of Labor Statistics
WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts lost 42,600 jobs last year, more than all but two other states, according to figures released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The bureau reported that Michigan lost the most jobs, 78,800, followed by Ohio, which lost 66,900. Massachusetts was next, followed by South Carolina , which lost 40,900 jobs and Illinois, with 38,100.
Proportionately, Massachusetts also had the third largest drop in employment, at 1.3 percent, according to the bureau. Nationally, 22 states lost jobs in 2003, while 27 states and Washington , D.C. , showed employment gains. The largest job increases were in Florida , Georgia and Arizona , the bureau reported.
In November 2003, 500 people were unemployed in Newburyport , 1,249 people were unemployed in Salem and 1,056 people in Gloucester , according to the bureau. Those numbers, which, unlike the national numbers, are not seasonally adjusted, represented a significant increase from two years earlier.
From November 2001 to November 2003, Newburyport 's unemployment rate rose from 4.2 percent to 4.9 percent, Salem 's from 4.6 percent to 5.6 percent and Gloucester 's from 5.8 percent to 6.3 percent.
U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem) criticized the Bush administration for not doing enough to help the unemployed.
"After slashing job training and vocational education funding for the last three years, the administration's 'Jobs for the 21st Century' program amounts to little more than backfilling for their previous mistakes," Tierney said in a statement.
"I would like to hear the administration suggest a thorough plan that will replace the 3 million jobs lost out of the economy," he said. "Any job-recovery plan should replace the funds previously slashed for job training and vocational education, extend unemployment benefits to the millions who are currently going without, create tax incentives for manufacturers that choose to create jobs within the United States and support the reversal of a proposed Labor Department rule that would eliminate the overtime protection of 8 million people who are currently employed."
In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush proposed spending $500 million for education and job training programs.
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius responded that 80 percent of the fastest growing jobs in the country require some form of higher education and a strong foundation in math and science. He added that community college is a good way to provide that and that the President's plan included the seed money for job training between community college and good jobs.
Lisaius said that the President also proposes $33 million more in Pell Grants funds for college tuition, which could provide up to an additional $1,000 for low-income graduating high school seniors.
In an interview, Tierney said the rise in unemployment was "distressing." He also said that we "need to take positive action for people whose [unemployment] benefits are being exhausted." Massachusetts relies heavily on manufacturing and low- and high-tech industries, he said.
The state lost 77,900 manufacturing jobs since January 2001, according to BLS statistics.
Tierney said the federal government could boost employment rates by granting Defense Department contracts exclusively to American companies. The Bush administration was widely criticized after it prevented companies based in countries that did not join the Iraq war coalition from bidding on contracts to reconstruct the country.
Tierney also criticized the Bush administration for failing to extend unemployment benefits that expired at the end of the year. His office released a report, conducted by the House Government Reform Committee, that said 30,400 unemployed workers in the Boston metropolitan area, including his district, will lose their unemployment benefits in the next six months unless the President extends them.
"Jobless workers in communities across the country rely on these benefits to provide the most basic needs to their families," Tierney said in a statement. "Each dollar they receive in unemployment benefits is injected directly into the economy, providing a boost of $1.73 for every dollar spent. If the President would just work with Congress to extend unemployment benefits, the economy of the North Shore and the Boston Metro Area would stand to gain $246 million in economic stimulus."
