Category: Spring 2005 Newswire
“Pig Book” Attempts to Fry Earmark Spending
By Tim Heaney
WASHINGTON, April 6 – New Hampshire is living high off the hog again this year-though not as high as a year ago. That’s the conclusion of Citizens Against Government Waste, which issued its annual Congressional Pig Book at a press conference Wednesday.
Pork, as the nonpartisan organization defines it, is money tucked into congressional appropriations bills that lawmakers earmark for local projects without routinely going through the full appropriations process.
In its 15th and current edition, the Pig Book identifies 13,997 such “wasteful” projects, up 31 percent from last year. These projects will cost $27.3 billion, or 19 percent more than in fiscal 2004.
“This is legalized bribery in its worst form, and it’s with our money,” said Tom Schatz, the organization’s president.
The non-partisan, non-profit private advocacy group, founded in 1984, analyzes the 13 annual appropriations bills and picks what it calls “the most glaring and irresponsible” projects passed each year.
According to the report, New Hampshire ranks 15th among the 50 states in pork-per-capita-$65.07 this year, or almost double the national average of $33.03. The state is to receive $84,555,000 for projects that meet the organization’s definition of pork.
But that’s much better, in the group’s view, from New Hampshire’s fourth-place finish just a year ago.
Vermont has the highest pork-per-capita rating among New England states, with its $56,522,000 in earmarks translating into $90.96 per capita. Last year, it ranked 12th.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who attended the press conference, plan to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to restrict the earmarking procedure. Their proposal would eliminate last-minute earmarks.
“Most congressmen want pork that they can cut a ribbon on,” Flake said. “It looks better than directly putting money toward helping something important, like a highway. That’s not very sexy.”
According to the Pig Book, New Hampshire received $8 million for the Great Bay Partnership to protect the Great Bay Estuary, and a total of $5.6 million in various programs for the University System of New Hampshire to develop environmental research facilities.
Sen. Judd Gregg (R), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and, since January, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, worked on the legislation for each of these programs.
“I am very proud of my work on the Senate Appropriations Committee to secure needed funds’ for those programs, he said. “These projects were all funded within the spending caps set forth for each appropriations bill.”
Rep. Charles Bass (R), said in a statement: “One of my highest priorities in Congress is reining in our increasing deficit and slowing the growth of government spending. However, the projects that receive federal funds in New Hampshire bolster the economies of our state and local communities and improve the lives of our citizens. As in the past, I will continue to work closely with state and local officials to make sure New Hampshire’s valuable programs get their fair share of funds available.”
Citizens Against Government Waste’s Schatz said the Senate and House negotiators on the congressional budget resolution need to address earmark abuses in the Department of Homeland Security. Spending for the department jumped from $423 million last year to $1.72 billion in 2005, a 306 percent increase. President Bush, he added, needs to reject any budget with such an extensive list of earmarks.
“It’s accepted as commonplace,” Schatz said. “You can call it ‘greasing skids,’ but it is still buying votes. This adds to the cynical views Americans have of Congress. How can we get a hold on entitlement spending when we can’t control this?”
Alaska was the highest-ranking state on the pork list for the fourth consecutive year, bringing home $645.5 million in bacon, or $984.85 per capita.
The organization also handed out its “Oinkers of 2005” awards, citing appropriations of $6.3 million for wood utilization research; $100,000 for the Tiger Woods Foundation and $100,000 for a Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center Museum in honor of the well-known groundhog.
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Bill to Fund Research for Lyme Disease Moving Through State Legislature
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, April 6 - As Lyme Disease Awareness Month approaches, a bill to request federal funds for research of the disease is expected to pass in the New Hampshire legislature - and the idea is gaining support in Congress.
Sen. Joseph Kenney (R-Wakefield) sponsored the bill (SCR4) in the state legislature. The Senate approved it on March 10, and the bill remained in the House Subcommittee on Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs on Wednesday. Kenney said that he expects the House to pass the bill soon and that Gov. John Lynch (D) told him Tuesday that he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
Kenney said he has not been in contact with members of the New Hampshire congressional delegation, calling it "a little bit premature" for a bill to be introduced in Congress.
Spokespersons for Sens. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and John Sununu (R-N.H.) and Reps. Jeb Bradley (R-NH) and Charles Bass (R-NH) said that the state bill would be reviewed if it passes and that it was too early to comment on any legislation that might be introduced in Congress.
Pat Smith, president of the Lyme Disease Association, a New Jersey-based national nonprofit organization devoted to research, education, prevention and patient support for Lyme disease, said she thinks the chances of getting federal money for Lyme disease research are better this year than ever before.
"We're hoping this year that all of them [members of Congress] are going to be a lot more receptive because the disease is really spreading all over now," Smith said, adding that every state except Montana has reported cases of the disease.
A quarter of a million cases of Lyme disease are reported each year, Smith said. In New Hampshire, there were 226 cases reported in 2004, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted to people through bites by deer ticks, which can travel on animals other than deer. Most patients are treated successfully with heavy doses of antibiotics if the disease is caught in the early stages, but if left untreated, the disease can cause neurological problems, memory loss and arthritis, among other chronic problems.
"It's no longer something that can be swept under the rug," Smith said. "Everyone knows of someone or some animal that has Lyme disease."
She said a few federal legislators themselves have contacted her after members of their own family contracted Lyme disease.
The growing number of local chapters of the Lyme Disease Association - now at 15 or 16 - have helped educate state legislators about the disease, Smith said.
New Hampshire does not have a chapter, but Kenney said he is encouraging the state's affected constituents to form a chapter to raise public awareness of the disease.
Even if federal funds are not provided, Kenney said, his bill has been successful in educating Granite State residents about the disease.
"In many ways, we've already accomplished what we've set out to do," he said.
But Smith said federal money is needed to run tests to help those already infected with the disease, as well as to find ways to stop the spread of the ticks that carry the disease.
"Nobody knows the answers to those questions, and we need research directed to that," she said.
In 2002, Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) co-sponsored a bill aimed at raising awareness and increasing research into Lyme disease. The Senate passed the bill unanimously, but it was not considered in the House.
Smith said she hopes a bill will be introduced this year similar to the 2002 bill but with "stronger language" and more emphasis on research.
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Child Well-Being Index Shows Improvement
WASHINGTON, March 31 - Youth violence and teen pregnancy rates have plummeted since they reached their peaks in the early 1990s, according to a study released Wednesday.
The study - called the 2005 Foundation for Child Development Index of Child Well-Being - cited the baby boomer parenting style as one of the possible contributing factors for the improvements.
The child well-being index shows that the average live birth rate of adolescents dropped from 20 births per 1,000 females from the ages of 10 to 17 in the peak year of 1991 to a projected 10.9 births in 2004. Meanwhile, the violent crime victim rate fell from 121 per 1,000 people from the ages of 12 to 17 in 1994 to a projected rate of 47 in 2003. The study also projects that the violent crime offenders rate dropped to less than 4 per 1,000 adolescents in the same age range, which is down from 51 in the peak year of 1993.
While experts attending a panel discussion on the study at the Brookings Institution Wednesday talked about programs and policies that could help these long-term improvements continue, many of them agreed that no single factor could be isolated as the cause of these trends.
"Parents who grew up during the '70s and early '80s saw firsthand - and possibly even experienced - the harmful effects of marijuana and cocaine use," panelist Kenneth Land, the developer of the index and a sociologist at Duke University, said in a press release.
Because of this, they might be more willing to talk to their children about the negative consequences of such actions and perhaps be stricter when it comes to controlling their children, Land said during the panel discussion.
"Parents are scheduling their kids' after-school hours much more regularly then in the past," Land said. "And when the kids are not programmed into one of the after-school activities, what are they doing? Well, we all know they are likely to be playing video games inside the home, which does protect them from violent crime.and other types of risky behavior outside the household."
Aside from the generational changes, Land said that the decline of the crack cocaine epidemic of the early 1990s, the strengthened economy of the late 1990s and an increase in community policing could have accounted for the improvements.
Gil Kerlikowske, the chief of police in Seattle, said the federally funded Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which distributes money to local and community police departments, significantly helps cut back on violent crimes committed by children. He said the technology and training grants given by COPS allow local police departments to find new ways of fighting crime, such as Boston's Operation Night Light, which curbed youth crime by making surprise visits to the homes, schools and worksites of high-risk child offenders.
Under President George W. Bush's proposed budget for 2006, appropriations forCOPS, would be cut from $499 million to $22 million. Bush, in his budget, said the program is "not able to effectively demonstrate an impact on reducing crime."
In 2004, the Essex County Sheriff's Department received a technology grant for $98,948 from the COPS program to implement a facial recognition program. Once finished, the program will enable more than 30 police departments in the area to access an electronic database that would include photos of people who were previously arrested or incarcerated, said Paul Fleming, the spokesman for the Essex County Sheriff's Department. Police officers could use the program to confirm the identities of people they bring into their departments, he said.
"This is going to be a great benefit to the law enforcement community once this program is on line," Fleming said. "We know that money is tight from the local perspective.so that any time we can secure grants that will help us construct programs that are forward-thinking and that aid in the protection and safety of residents in the region, we're always going to push to do that."
Rep. John Tierney helped the Essex County Sheriff's Department secure the grant, according to Fleming. "In my district, you won't find a community that will say it didn't help," said Tierney of the COPS program during an interview in February. The sheriff's department is still trying to find additional funds to cover the cost of the project, Fleming said.
Several of the panelists also noted that participation in school readiness and pre-kindergarten programs can decrease the chances of teen pregnancy and youth violence.
"Pre-K programs are not only among the most powerful weapons against crime, but are the most powerful weapon against teen pregnancy," said Sandy Newman, the president of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a bipartisan, non-profit anti-crime organization.
The federal government should invest more in such school readiness programs, which are low-level investments in time and money in comparison to putting people in jail, Kerlikowske said.
Money for the Head Start program, a federally financed pre-kindergarten program for needy children, is also in jeopardy of being reduced, Newman said.
Whenever programs at the local level receive federal grants, whether they are community block grants or other types of grants, they use the money to do something "new and different," according to panelist Jeffrey A. Butts, the director of the Program on Youth Justice at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization.
"In the past few years, there's been a decline in federal funding, which basically reduces innovation, experimentation and new ideas," he said.
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Connecticut Republicans in Middle of Social Security Debate
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, March 24 -The AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one its largest affiliates, have been leaving voice mails for Connecticut residents in the 4 th and 5 th districts, urging them to ask their congressional representatives to oppose the White House plan to "privatize" Social Security.
Meanwhile, a Progress for America television ad running in the 2 nd District shows the Social Security program careening into bankruptcy. The ad instructs residents to contact their representative to "help President Bush save Social Security."
"It's just like the middle of a campaign," Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-5 th District, said at the National Press Club in March. "I've gotten two calls to my own home telling me to call myself."
Neither Johnson nor Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4 th District, has publicly supported any proposal "privatizing" Social Security, but both have said that individual savings accounts may provide benefits for future generations. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2 nd District, said he has opposed "privatizing" Social Security but that since he first ran for Congress in 2000 he has supported individual accounts as a "second tier" of retirement security.
"Both sides are pressing vulnerable candidates," said Jeffrey Ladewig, an American politics professor at the University of Connecticut. "Bush is pressing vulnerable Democrats and these interest groups are pressing vulnerable Republicans."
Simmons, Johnson and Shays and were all named "mavericks" by National Journal magazine in February, ranking them among the 10 most liberal-voting House Republicans.
These moderate Republicans, who fill the majority of House seats in Connecticut, could be key players in passing measures to overhaul Social Security, Ladewig said.
Republicans do not have enough support in Congress to pass measures that would overhaul Social Security, so they will have to compromise with Democrats, Ladewig said.
"As a moderate Republican, Simmons is well-suited to lead a compromise," he said.
AARP, an interest group representing people aged 50 and older, is confident it can convince Connecticut Republicans to preserve Social Security without resorting to a system of private accounts, said John Erlingheuser, AARP Connecticut associate state director of advocacy.
Erlingheuser, who coordinates meetings between AARP volunteers and members of Connecticut's congressional delegation, said no Democrats support private accounts, but some Republicans have indicated support for accounts as an "add-on" to the program.
"It's a mixed bag in Connecticut," Erlingheuser said.
In March, Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joe Lieberman signed a letter along with 40 other Senate Democrats urging President Bush not to use Social Security dollars to fund private accounts. However, investment accounts separate from Social Security deserve "serious consideration," if they do not put benefits at risk, the letter said.
Establishing personal savings accounts is a "viable and responsible solution" to the challenge of preserving Social Security for future generations, Shays said after the president's State of the Union address in February.
However, in a March statement, Shays said he is reserving judgment on a Social Security overhaul until more details are available. He scheduled Social Security town hall meetings on April 2 and 3 with AARP President Marie Smith and Jim Lockhart, deputy administrator of the Social Security Administration.
"Add-on" accounts are a likely compromise in overhauling Social Security, Ladewig said, adding that investment accounts "carved in" as a central fixture of the program have less chance of passing in Congress.
"Congress members are backing off, and it has dismal support," he said. "It would be very electorally risky for members to vote for a plan for that."
Groups on both sides of the issue, such as the AARP and the conservative advocacy organization Progress for America, which supports personal accounts, have launched national advertising campaigns to get their message out.
Bush has held town hall meetings of his own to rally public support for his proposal. He began touring states immediately after his State of the Union speech and has visited almost two dozen states and initiated a "60 stops in 60 days" tour for administration officials to tout his Social Security ideas.
Keith Miller, an economic policy adviser from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, said creating ownership is a driving principle behind a Social Security system with personal accounts.
Miller said investing in personal accounts would not be as risky as critics claim because individuals could choose from "good, conservative" stocks and bonds selected by the Social Security Administration.
"You couldn't just take your account and buy all shares of Enron or all shares of Wal-Mart," he said. "The only significant risk to the system would be if the entire economy entirely collapsed . and then Social Security wouldn't be your biggest problem."
While some Republicans have criticized Democrats for opposing individual accounts and not proposing another solution to the problem, Democrats do have a plan: traditional Social Security, with some minor adjustments, said Barbara Kennelly, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
"Democrats aren't going to sit at the table [to negotiate] until they [Republicans] get personal accounts off the table," the former Democratic Connecticut congresswoman said.
Rep. Johnson has said that she believes reform is possible but that reforming Social Security "at a time when our debt is very high is hard, and maybe unwise."
Most Democrats, including Sen. Dodd, have said the Social Security system needs to be strengthened, but not through individual accounts that may involve investing in stocks.
"What [seniors] don't deserve, however, is a risky roll of the dice on Wall Street," Dodd said in a statement after the State of the Union address. "The president shouldn't monkey with a safety net for our seniors that for decades has provided them peace of mind in their twilight years."
Boston University Washington News Service reporter Liz Goldberg also contributed to this story.
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Shining Sea Bikeway May Be Extended
WASHINGTON, March 24 - Cape Cod bike paths, including the Shining Sea Bikeway's winding path that dips down along the coastline, may receive $4 million for extensions totaling 8.6 miles..
The bikeway, which was named after the line in Falmouth native Katharine Lee Bates's "America The Beautiful," currently winds four miles from Falmouth to Woods Hole along the Vineyard Sound shoreline.
Legislation to extend the bike paths and connect the lower Cape to Wellfleet and the Cape Cod National Seashore passed the House of Representatives as part of the Transportation Equity Act on March 10 by a vote of 417 to 9. The Senate must now pass it before funds can be distributed and changes can be made.
The six-year, $284 billion measure would provide federal funds for highways, highway safety programs and mass transit.
The bill calls for $4 million to link "outer Cape communities and heavily visited national sites" by extending the bike trails.
"This legislation shows again that creativity and perseverance can help make southeastern Massachusetts an even better place in which to live, work and visit," Rep. William Delahunt said in a statement.
The Massachusetts Democrat secured $1.2 million last year to extend the Cape Cod Rail Trail from Dennis to the National Seashore. That money is being appropriated this fiscal year.
The Shining Sea Bikeway also was extended in 1998 when 0.7 miles were added to the 3.3 miles at the time, stretching the path to Skating Lane.
According to a survey conducted in August 2004 by Falmouth's Bikeway Committee, the Shining Sea Bikeway is used by about 80 to 100 people per hour in the summer, with cyclists accounting for two-thirds of the users.
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Fallen Norwalk Soldier Portrayed in Washington Exhibit
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, March 21 -With his dark eyes peering out from under his camouflage hat, the portrait of Army Pfc. Wilfredo Perez Jr. now rests in a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery alongside the images of the other military men and women who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Perez's portrait appears in the Faces of the Fallen exhibit, opening Wednesday in the Women In Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The exhibit consists of more than 1,300 portraits of American military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Perez, a 24-year-old soldier from Norwalk, was killed in July 2003 when a grenade was thrown from the window of the Iraqi hospital he was guarding.
Annette Polan, the Washington portrait artist who conceived the project, said the portraits are intended to honor military personnel who died serving their country and to provide comfort to their families.
"I wanted to give the families something more permanently than 20 seconds in your memory," she said. "That was my hope, that these men and women won't be forgotten."
The idea for the exhibit came from pages of thumbnail-sized photos of military personnel killed in Iraq printed in The Washington Post last spring, Polan said. Nearly 200 artists, both professionals and students, created the eight inch by six inch portraits from published photographs.
The photographs used to generate the portraits were mainly from Military City, a military Web site, and the Post Web site. When no photo was available a mounted silhouette was displayed.
The only specifications for the project were the size of the portraits, and requirement that the portraits "honor and respect" the memory of the soldiers, Polan said. The portraits, attached to rows of metal posts, are arranged chronologically by the date of death.
Perez's portrait, painted by Carole Bosley, shows the soldier in uniform in front of an American flag. Other artists used wood, glass and images of flowers for the portraits.
Those involved with the creation of the exhibit said it was not a political statement about war but a statement about grief and sacrifice. Peter Hapstak, a Washington architect who developed the exhibit's design, said at a press conference Tuesday that the exhibit was "beyond politics."
"I wasn't for the war, but it didn't matter. We were honoring men who had served us," he said.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Warner (R-Va.) were chosen as honorary chairs for Faces of the Fallen. Warner also spoke to the family members of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan at a private reception Tuesday.
However, she said, sponsors of the exhibit decided not to extend a general invitaqtion to politicians to the opening of the exhibit, Polan said. "We did what we could do to keep it as apolitical as possible," she said.
The exhibit will be on display in Arlington until Nov. 11, Veterans Day. The exhibit may go on tour, said Anne Murphy, co-chairwoman of the exhibit. The families of the military personnel depicted in the exhibit will eventually receive the portraits, she said.
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N.H. House Members Opposes Arctic Drilling
WASHINGTON, March 17-New Hampshire's two House members oppose a Senate budget provision that would permit oil companies to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in search of crude oil believed to be located there, they said Thursday in separate interviews.
That puts Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley in conflict with their fellow New Hampshire Republicans in the Senate. Sen. Judd Gregg, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Sen. John Sununu voted Wednesday in favor of drilling, a position President Bush also supports .
"I am pleased that the budget on the House side, that we're about to approve, does not have the same provision that permits it," Bass said. "I am hopeful that when the bill comes from back from conference it will not include that language."
While the House has supported this provision in the past, ANWR drilling was not included in the House version of the 2006 budget resolution, which could cause problems in the reconciliation process.
In recent years, differences between the House and Senate budget resolutions prevented Congress from enacting a final budget. The two chambers disagree on several key spending issues, including Medicaid cuts, which were removed from the Senate bill on Thursday.
"I don't think it does enough to solve the issue of the supply," Bass said of ANWR drilling. "I don't think it's appropriate, on the basis of a possibility of there being oil and gas resources there, to desecrate this wilderness."
Bradley, who sits on the House Budget Committee, agreed, saying, "I have said all along that we ought to be producing more energy in this country.and we need to do it in a way that protects our environment.
"I think that ANWR would not see oil for about 10 years," he continued. "I think that it would be an area that if we can preserve it from drilling we should."
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Sununu Named Senate’s Top Free Trade Supporter
WASHINGTON, March 16-The Cato Institute named Sen. John Sununu the Senate's truest free trader at a Capitol Hill luncheon Wednesday promoting the importance of a free-trade policy for the United States.
According to a Cato report on the trade voting record of the 108 th Congress, Sununu's votes were the most consistent with the libertarian think tank's views on free trade, which include opposition to trade barriers, such as tariffs on foreign agriculture goods, and to trade subsidies, such as government financial support of domestic agriculture.
Of the 10 Senate votes on trade barriers and the one Senate vote on subsidies, Sununu voted the free-trade position every time, Cato said. The report considered as free traders those members who voted against trade barriers and subsidies alike at least two-thirds of the time.
"Trade allows us, our country, our workers, our employers, to make investments and put capital in those areas where we are most productive and most capable, where we have the potential to earn the greatest return on that capital," said Sununu, who was one of the featured speakers at the luncheon. "We oppose barriers because they are inefficient. They set up costly and arbitrary hurdles to us.getting access to the inputs, the materials, the services, the information that will allow them to operate as efficiently as possible."
Sununu warned the overflow crowd about the "slippery slope of protectionism," saying that Congress's penchant for protecting jobs through trade barriers and subsidies poses an economic danger that will leave American companies producing buggy whips in a world economy producing combustion engines.
"The danger is that you are protecting a less-competitive, less-valuable area of economic activity, and if you protect it long enough and the barriers finally do fall, you have a catastrophe on your hands," he said. "The importance of knocking down these barriers is to allow the dynamic economy to operate, and that does mean that there will be companies that succeed and companies that manufacture buggy whips that slowly decline."
Daniel Griswold, the author of the report and director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, praised Sununu and Rep. Jeffery Flake, an Arizona Republican who was the most consistent free-trade voter in the House last session, saying that they "respect the judgment of their constituents to spend their own money, their hard-earned dollars, in any way they choose in a global economy."
Free trade allows individuals to invest money without government interference, allows the economy to grow at a faster rate by spurring innovation and productivity through competition, and allows developing nations to improve their economies and decrease poverty while improving labor standards and respect for human rights, Griswold said.
The report found that the congressional approach to trade policy is inconsistent, approving free-trade agreements and reducing tariffs while maintaining export and production subsidies, which Cato says draws resources away from "their best use."
"We look like hypocrites when America's political leaders complain incessantly that U.S. producers must compete against unfair subsidies and trade barriers abroad and this study shows that very few members of Congress are voting consistently for policies that would create a freer global economy, free from subsidies and trade barriers," Griswold said. "Most members of Congress have no standing to criticize other governments who deviate from free trade."
According to the report, few members of Congress voted consistently for free trade: 25 in the House, including Rep. Charles Bass, and 24 in the Senate. Only five of the free traders were Democrats.
In addition to the free trade category, the Cato study identified members whose votes put them in three other trade positions. "Internationalists" are those who opposed barriers and supported subsidies at least two-thirds of the time, with 157 House members and 24 Senate members falling in this category, including Sen. Judd Gregg. Of the internationalists 99 are Republicans.
Those identified as "interventionists," supporting both barriers and subsidies two-thirds of the time, comprised 16 House members and 15 Senate members. This group included just seven Republicans.
The last group, called "isolationists," supported barriers and opposed subsidies two-thirds of the time; that was the smallest group, with just two House members, both Democrats.
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Kennedy, Democrats Threaten to Shut Down Senate If ‘Nuclear Option’ is Imposed
WASHINGTON, March 16 - Sen. Edward Kennedy joined seven other Democratic senators Wednesday in promising to try to stop Republicans from changing Senate rules to eliminate filibustering on federal judicial nominees.
"This administration, they control the executive, they control the House of Representatives, they control the Senate and they want to control the judiciary, and I say, 'No way,' " Kennedy said while pounding his fist on the podium in front of about 500 people at a rally sponsored by the political action committee Move On.
The Senate Republican leadership threat, becoming commonly known as the "nuclear option," would involve a parliamentary procedural move to prevent filibustering of judicial nominees. Filibustering still would be allowed on legislation.
The leadership has accused Democrats of abusing the filibuster by using it to block confirmation votes on 10 appellate court nominations in the last session of Congress. President George W. Bush has renominated in this session seven of the ten nominees who were blocked by filibuster.
Senate rules require 60 votes to end a filibuster. If the Republicans change the rules to stop the filibuster on judicial nominees, 51 votes of the 100 members would be needed for approval rather than the 60 votes needed to defeat a filibuster. Republicans hold 55 seats.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats have threatened to slow the Senate's work by filibustering legislation should the Republicans employ the nuclear option. In an interview before the rally, Reid called the majority party's threat an act of "arrogance of power in changing the basic rules of this country" and said the Democrats "are not looking for a fight."
"We don't want to shut down the Senate, we want the rules of this country which have been in effect for more than 200 years to stay in effect," the Nevada Democrat said.
Reid sent a two-page letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) Tuesday formally threatening to "not be as cooperative" on the Senate's work. In the interview before rally he said he believes the nuclear option is "not about judges" and if used once will be used again.
"Whatever the issue of debate is they'll just change it to a simple majority and we will just be a unicameral legislature, just like the House of Representatives," Reid said.
Frist issued a statement Tuesday saying the potential Senate shutdown would be "irresponsible and partisan."
"Never before in the history of the Senate has a nominee with clear majority support been denied an up or down vote on the Senate floor because of a filibuster," he said. "The solution is simple: return to 200 years of tradition and allow up or down votes on judges."
But Reid said before giving his speech that it would take a bipartisan effort to stop the nuclear option and that Democrats were "begging for Republicans of goodwill to step forward and help us on this."
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) also said in an interview before the rally began that he did not believe the issue was "a partisan matter" and that Senate rules "should be changed in accordance with the rules that provide for the changing of the rules, they should not be rammed down the throats" of the Senate members.
Before giving the keynote speech, Byrd brushed his hand across his American flag tie to pull out from his breast pocket a tattered copy of the U.S. Constitution complete with post-it notes, thrusting it into the air amid cheers during one of the rally's many standing ovations.
The senior member of the Senate he shouted, "We must kill this dangerous effort to rewrite our precious Constitution," later declaring that the effort to impose the nuclear option would be a "gag rule for the United States Senate."
As the 87-year-old finished his speech, he pulled his pocket-sized Constitution out again with a smile, saying, "All you need is the Constitution."
During other senators' speeches, Byrd pumped his fist in the air, shouting encouragement. Before Kennedy spoke, Byrd got up from his chair to shake hands with the Massachusetts Democrat, reaching across the podium with one hand, cane in the other.
The eight senators offered similar messages to the audience and some, including Kennedy, listed by name the 10 judicial nominees who did not get through the Senate last year. One nominee mentioned was William G. Myers, who has been renominated and is scheduled to appear Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9 th Circuit.
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) told the audience that "no single person, no single judge, no single senator is more important than our duty to preserve the values of the Senate and the strength of our constitutional democracy."
Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said he would continue to oppose certain judicial nominees, saying he believes the Democrats "have a duty to stop these people" from becoming federal judges.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said it would be "a doomsday for democracy" if the nuclear option allows some nominees to get through the Senate, adding that some of the nominated judges "are off the deep end."
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Republicans are "throwing a temper tantrum" to try to get their judicial appointees confirmed, and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) said the nuclear option would "basically end minority rights" in the Senate.
"As bad as this is about judges and about the potential loss of an independent judiciary, one of the hallmarks of American democracy, it will not end there," Clinton said, adding that it could influence the Social Security debate. "If you can end debate with majority vote in order to get to a judicial nomination then you can end debate when the majority is trying to run you over on anything."
Clinton said she believed Republicans could be swayed to stop the potential nuclear option saying, "We have to persuade a handful of Republican senators that this is not what they signed on for."
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Coalition, Senators Oppose “Nuclear Option”
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, March 16 - Maine's two senators should continue to oppose changes to Senate rules that would eliminate filibusters to block confirmation of federal judges, an ad hoc coalition said at two media events in Maine Wednesday.
The Fair and Independent Federal Courts Coalition is an informal group of organizations formed last year to monitor judicial appointments, inform citizens of the importance federal appellate court decisions can have for their everyday lives and encourage Senators Olympia Snowe (R) and Susan Collins (R) to uphold the right of the Senate to debate the appointments, said Sarah Standiford, executive director of the Maine Women's Lobby, the founding member of the coalition.
"What many folks don't understand is the vast array of areas where the federal court system can have an impact in our lives," Standiford said, citing legal decisions by appellate court judges on such subjects as reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, disability rights and sexual harassment. "People from every walk of life in Maine should be concerned about this issue."
About five people attended the Bangor event and about 20 attended the Portland event, those in attendance said. Representatives of women's rights, health, labor, environment and other groups spoke at both events, which were held in front of the federal court buildings in both cities.
The coalition opposes the so-called nuclear option, which Republican senators have threatened to use to win approval of President Bush's judicial nominees. Under current rules, 60 votes are required to break a Senate filibuster, under which opponents of legislation can prevent a vote by speaking for hours, if not days, and refusing to yield the floor-or merely threatening to do so.
Under the nuclear option, Republicans would object to the constitutionality of the filibuster, obtain a favorable ruling from the presiding officer-presumably Vice President Dick Cheney-and vote to uphold that ruling, a vote on which a simple majority of 51 would be sufficient, in effect, to end unlimited debate of judicial nominees.
With 55 Republicans in the current Senate, Bush's court nominees would be likely to move through more easily. But Democrats, expressing fear that the nuclear option could stifle the voice of the minority forever, threatened Tuesday to all but shut down Senate proceedings.
Sen. Snowe, a moderate Republican who has long opposed use of the nuclear option, said she also was concerned about the impact a change could have on her party in the future.
"I believe that the 'nuclear option' is short-sighted and that Republicans should remember that some day we will again be in the minority and will want to have the filibuster available to protect our rights," she said in a statement.
Sen. Collins spoke out definitively on the issue for the first time Tuesday.
"I am very concerned about the overuse of the filibuster, but I am also concerned that a rule change will further charge the partisan atmosphere to the point that we will not be able to conduct business," she said in a statement.
Standiford said the coalition will continue its work with the two senators and plans to publish an advertisement in the Portland Press Herald next week signed by hundreds of local lawyers who are against use of the nuclear option.
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