Category: Spring 2006 Newswire
Congress’ Approval Ratings for Congress at an All-Time Low
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, April 13 – Lawyers are more trusted in America than members of Congress, according to a Gallup Poll that measures the public’s views of honesty and ethics in professions.
When asked how they would rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in different professions, 14 percent rated House members “very high” or “high” while 16 percent put senators in those two categories, according to the annual poll. But 18 percent ranked lawyers’ ethical standards very high or high.
Car salesmen were rated high or very high by eight percent, while telemarketers received the lowest rating at seven percent. All poll results were based on telephone interviews in November 2005 with a randomly selected national sample of 1,000 adults, aged 18 and older.
A separate Gallup poll released in March found that voter approval of the way Congress is doing its job rests at 27 percent. The ratings, while not unprecedented for an election year, “are among the worst Gallup has measured in more than a decade,” according to Jeffrey M. Jones, author of the report.
Congress’ approval ratings have been below 30 percent since last October and have slowly descended from a record-high post 9/11 approval rating of 84 percent, according to the report. The approval rating was at 23 percent in late October 1994, shortly before the Republican landslide that shifted majority control in Congress.
But Brian Darling, the director of Senate relations at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, said he doesn’t necessarily perceive a Democratic revolution.
“Many people are comparing this to 1994, when Republicans took over Congress, but I think it is a bit premature to make that kind of assessment from polls this early in the year,” Darling said in a telephone interview.
The lowest approval ratings Gallup recorded for Congress were 19 percent in 1979 and 18 percent in 1992, according to the report.
Gallup has conducted this nationwide poll since April 1974 – the year that Watergate came to a head – when 30 percent approved of the way Congress was handling its job.
“The reason why people have such a low opinion of politicians is because over the past few years we’ve lacked in this country a ‘Reaganesque’ vision of the future,” Darling said.
The poll lists President Bush’s approval rating at 37 percent, slightly higher than Congress’s, with 29 percent of those surveyed saying they were “satisfied” with the direction the nation is going.
In October 2002, before the last midterm elections, Congress had a 50 percent approval rating, down from a 63 percent peak earlier that year, according to the report.
In general, the lower the ratings are, the worse the incumbent party fares in elections.
Historically, this has been reflected in the average net change in U.S. House seats from one party to the other. In 1974, when approval ratings were below 40 percent, 29 seats in the House shifted parties, according to the report.
Conversely, in the three most recent midterm elections in which congressional approval ratings were more than 40 percent – 1986, 1998 and 2002 – the average change was only five seats, according to the report.
Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, a liberal think-tank based in Washington, said in telephone interview that “the public is conflict-adverse and the Congress usually sends out signals of conflict more than consensus.
“The public doesn’t accept James Madison’s view of American government-that is, there are diverse views and people have to argue about them in office as a way of trying to reconcile differences.”
Mann noted that “Mark Twain said a long time ago ‘Congress is our only native criminal class.’ The public has always had a sort of skeptical view of Congress in general.” But “of course they tend to think much more kindly, absent any evidence of the contrary, of their own elected representatives.”
A separate Gallup poll from January supports this view, with 68 percent of saying they did not think their own member of Congress was corrupt but 38 percent saying that most members of Congress were corrupt.
Darling said that historically, approval ratings have been so low because “people distrust Washington.” He said the American people don’t like big government because “they send a very high percentage of their tax dollars to Washington, D.C., and don’t see it being spent very well. Therefore they don’t have a great love of Congress.”
In fact, he said, “they have a healthy distrust of Congress.”
Darling, a lawyer, also said, “I’m happy to hear that lawyers are held in higher regard than politicians.”
IRS Hands Over Some Control
By Sara Hatch
WASHINGTON, April 12 - Rep. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., warned Wednesday that the Internal Revenue Service's plan to privatize delinquent tax collections will "increase the risk of wrongful disclosure" of taxpayer information.
Simmons spoke as the IRS prepared to turn over its first round of delinquency cases to private contractors for collection.
"If the IRS is to engage in such outsourcing, I am concerned about the possibility that millions of taxpayer files will be made available to private debt collection companies," Simmons said in a statement.
"And with 26 million Americans already finding themselves victims of identity theft over the past 15 years, furnishing more taxpayer data to dubious third parties will only increase the risk of wrongful disclosure of such data," Simmons said. "All of us want a system that efficiently collects federal taxes, but we cannot do it at the expense of taxpayers' rights or privacy."
Three companies were recently picked to carry out some of the services the IRS traditionally does but right now does not have the resources to do. The three are the CBE Group Inc., of Waterloo, Iowa; Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson LLP of Austin, Texas; and Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc. of Arcade, N.Y.
In a March 9 th statement, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson described the program.
"The vast majority of states use private firms to help collect delinquent taxes," he said. "The new authority that Congress gave to the federal government allows us to use private firms as well. We have carefully considered all of the concerns expressed about this project, which involves work traditionally done by the government."
The IRS will turn over the first of these cases this summer. In 2004, Congress authorized the IRS to outsource its delinquent tax collections under the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act. All employees of the private firms who work on tax collections will undergo a "mandatory, IRS-directed training program," according to Everson's statement.
But some groups said that the program puts taxpayers at risk and will not be effective.
Colleen Kelly of the National Treasury Employees Union said that IRS workers could collect more taxes than private firms could and that giving taxpayer data to private companies is dangerous.
She said the IRS should be doing more to "keep [taxpayers'] private information private" and that the debt collection industry has received the most complaints of all industries.
In its statement, the IRS said private companies will be assigned only to cases where the taxpayer "has not disputed the liability," leaving cases involving litigation, hardship, negotiated agreements and bankruptcy to IRS employees.
"Redirecting relatively simple cases to private firms will permit the IRS to focus its existing collection and enforcement personnel on more complex tax issues," Everson said.
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Vacationing Congress Creates a Legislative Vacuum
WASHINGTON, April 11 - Congress is taking more time off than usual this year. The House is on track to meet for 97 days this year, compared to 141 last year. The Senate is meeting more, having met for 16 more days than the House has so far.
Democratic Reps. Michael Michaud (2 nd ) and Tom Allen (1 st ) said they thought that the House should be meeting more this year, but pointed out that the Republican leadership made the schedule.
"I believe we should be spending more time in session because we have a lot of work to do," Michaud said in his Washington office. "Unfortunately Congress hasn't exerted its independence."
"Congress is a separate branch of government, and there's been a lack of oversight for federal agencies, whether it's the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, 9/11 Commission recommendations or high gas pricing," Michaud said. "There's a lot of work we should be doing in Congress that we're not doing."
During the Clinton administration, the Republican Congress was much keener on oversight, according to Allen. He said the House Government Reform Committee, which he sat on, went so far as to investigate President Clinton's use of the White House Christmas card list. The current lack of oversight, he said, was intended to protect a Republican administration.
The House is on schedule to meet for fewer days this year than it has in decades, Allen said. Many issues can not be addressed in a substantive way because of the light schedule, he said.
"Health care costs for small businesses, the threat of climate change and the rapid rise in energy costs-all of those issues just get lost because they're complex and they take a substantial amount of time," Allen said in an interview on Capitol Hill. "And when we come in on a Tuesday evening and vote for a couple of post offices and then work Wednesday and finish on a Thursday afternoon, we just don't have the hours down here for the committees to do their work."
The House has rarely voted on Mondays and Fridays this session, leaving the members travel days to get back to their districts and do work there.
Congress is responsible for naming post offices around the country, and such votes regularly take up voting time. Allen said there were not any more of these votes this year than normal, but that many more important issues were not being addressed by the Republican leadership.
Allen said that many of his more senior colleagues have told him that the House used to spend days on legislation like the defense appropriations bill and others, but now they are done in a day or less.
This year the House and Senate took off a week for St. Patrick's Day and are now on a two-week spring break. The House worked a mere two days in January while the Senate worked nine. Both Houses regularly take off the month of August and reconvene after Labor Day. This summer the House is scheduled to leave a week earlier than the Senate.
"Though we have plenty of work to do in the district, the legislation suffers immensely when we're not here," Allen said.
Last year Michaud said he and his colleagues had much of their August break eaten up by their attempts to deal with the closing of Brunswick Naval Air Station.
The two chambers' schedules are tentative and are subject to change when more legislating is necessary. Last week the Senate was supposed to adjourn on Thursday but stayed late into the night and into Friday to work on the immigration package.
One reason Congress is meeting so little this year is because of the November elections. The two chambers usually have a light schedule the last quarter of an election year so they can campaign. All the members of Maine's delegation said that despite a lighter legislation schedule, in an election year their work time remained about the same because they have to campaign and raise funds.
Even Sen. Susan Collins (R), the only Maine member who is not up for election this year, said that chairing the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee made her schedule much busier than it had been before she got the post.
"Maybe there are less scheduled days, but I'm not," Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) said. "I'm about seven days a week."
Snowe said that what Congress accomplishes is more important than how many days they meet. The Senate this year has confirmed Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, passed lobbying reform legislation and approved a budget resolution.
Michaud, who has been in the House two terms, said he took a vacation last year, but it was the first one he had taken in about 10 years. Before being elected to the House he served in the State Legislature for 22 years.
"Even though I took it off as far as scheduling meetings, with the BlackBerries nowadays you're always in constant contact with folks," Michaud said pulling out his communications device.
Other members agreed with Michaud, saying that their time off was often spent thumbing e-mail messages to their staffs on their BlackBerry devices or fielding calls from the press.
All of the members said they worked long days when in session. They come in early in the morning, from 6 to 8, and leave late at night, from 10 to 11. Their days are full of committee work, voting, meetings and press interviews.
Back in Maine, the members might not work into the night as often and are more likely to get a day off, but they are busy shaking the hands of voters, fundraising and attending meetings. They are also in constant contact with their Washington staffs while in Maine.
James Melcher, an associate professor of political science at the University of Maine in Farmington, said each member of Maine's delegation is hard working.
"In the House of Representatives in particular, people are campaigning for reelection pretty much constantly," Melcher said. He said the framers of the Constitution wanted the House to be "under the microscope" all the time.
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New Hampshire Names Its Cherry Blossom Princess
WASHINGTON, April 6 - It may still be a bit chilly in New Hampshire, but Washington is knee deep in cherry blossoms. Packed with sushi, sake and a whole lot of princesses, the annual Cherry Blossom festival is a celebration of states, and of everything Japanese.
The annual festival celebrating the blooming of the city's thousands of Japanese cherry trees draws tourists from all over the world. Akin to New England when the leaf peepers show up in the fall, Washington is overrun by those wishing to see the city in pastel pink. The three-week festival, which is almost 70 years old, opened on March 25 this year with the annual kite festival on the National Mall and ends Sunday with the closing ceremony.
Each year, the National Conference of State Societies sponsors the Cherry Blossom Princess program, honoring young women of accomplishment from each state. The granite state program is organized through the New Hampshire State Society in Washington, an educational organization that focuses on providing stipends to students from or studying in New Hampshire who are interning in the nation's capital.
This year, Kathleen Tobin, an office manager and scheduler in Rep. Charles Bass's Capitol Hill office, is New Hampshire's 2006 Cherry Blossom Princess.
The 21-year-old Newmarket native graduated from Boston University in December 2005 with a degree in journalism and political science. Tobin said academics have always been her focus, so it was a nice change to participate in the festival. "I never got to do anything that was completely out of my realm, different than anything I've ever done before, and this was," she said.
Michael McBride, the New Hampshire State Society's president, said that unlike other state societies that are more focused on social events, his group is education-oriented.
Christina Thornton, New Hampshire's 2003 cherry blossom princess, who now works in Sen. John Sununu's office as well as being involved with the society, said that the major recruiting for the cherry blossom festival is done through a press release. The society forms a princess committee that reviews the applications, which include an essay and biographical information, and the committee then holds interviews with finalists.
To be selected, Thornton said, a young woman needs "some sort of tie to the state where we feel they would represent our state well and are knowledgeable about New Hampshire and represent what New Hampshire is."
Sending in her application "was sort of on a whim," said Tobin, who came across a press release from the New Hampshire State Society while she was sorting e-mails in Bass's office. Tobin said she was joking about applying with another staffer, who suggested that she seriously consider it.
The essay topic that Tobin had to write focused on what New Hampshire meant to her. "I was born in New Hampshire, raised in New Hampshire, my family still lives in the same house I was born in, so for me, it is literally everything," Tobin said.
Thornton said she was very impressed with Tobin's essay. "She has a very strong academic portfolio and has been involved in several leadership organizations, and she just had a lot of enthusiasm for wanting to represent New Hampshire," Thornton said.
McBride, who joined Thornton on the selection committee, said that Tobin's application was fantastic. "She's very articulate, excited about the prospects of being the princess., and we just thought that she met the qualifications very well and that she would represent the society very well."
"It's not a beauty contest, which is one of the nice things about it," Thornton said. "It's based on their achievements and the leadership roles that they've had."
Tobin said one of the traditions she was looking forward to is the exchange of gifts between states. "Each representative brings a gift for all the other Cherry Blossom princesses. Being from New Hampshire, I have a little bottle of New Hampshire maple syrup," Tobin said. "But each state brings something, so basically I'm going to have something from every state."
According to the National Conference of State Societies, the blossoms history has been rooted in Washington since 1912, when Helen Taft, the wife of the president, brought her love of the trees to the city.
Having lived in Yokohama, Japan, for a short time, Mrs. Taft wanted to bring the blossoms to the swamp land that is now the Tidal Basin area. At her request, 3,000 trees, which are not native to North America, were donated to the city by prominent Japanese. The first two trees were planted by Mrs. Taft and the wife of the Japanese ambassador, Viscountess Chinda, on March 27, 1912, in West Potomac Park. Ninety-four years later, the two trees still reside on the Tidal Basin.
The Cherry Blossom Festival found its beginnings in the 1920s and 1930s, when school groups would sponsor informal ceremonies while the trees were in bloom. The princess program began in 1939, when some state societies in Washington began recruiting female college students to represent their states during the festival. During the Second World War, the festival was cancelled and did not resume until 1948.
Now, in addition to parades, dinners and public events, the princesses also visit congressional offices, embassies, national memorials and have a visit with Laura Bush in the White House.
"A lot of it's becoming familiar with the Japanese culture and building relationships with the individuals that are part of the festival," Thornton said.
At the Cherry Blossom Ball, held Saturday night at the Fairmont Hotel, a Cherry Blossom Queen was scheduled to be selected by spinning a wheel.
"What they do is spin the wheel and whoever it lands on is chosen to be the Cherry Blossom Queen," Thornton said. "If they're chosen, then they'll actually be sent to Japan for two weeks later in the spring to represent the United States and their state in Japan."
New Hampshire's never had a queen, Tobin said, adding that if she was the winner, she would have to get her passport renewed because it has expired.
Tobin originally came to Washington as part of Boston University's Washington Journalism Program, where she covered Capitol Hill for the Union Leader.
"When I came down here I was dead set on being a reporter in D.C., so I knew that. this would be a great way to get some experience, get some clips and make a lot of contacts that I need," Tobin said.
But she found that getting a job as a reporter in Washington was more difficult than she originally expected.
"When I was here last semester I really enjoyed being on the Hill, I really like being in the middle of it all, understanding why and how bills become law, how legislation is processed," Tobin said, adding that this was what led her to a job on Capitol Hill..
Although Tobin is enjoying her time in the Capitol, she said that she misses many aspects of the granite state. "I miss being with my family," she said. "Everything's so different there; just the whole lifestyle feels so much more relaxed there. You can have just as much stuff to do, but it's so much calmer that I feel much more relaxed."
Tobin will return to the region in the summer when she will be getting married across the border in Maine. But the reception, she said, will be in New Hampshire.
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Aquaculture Industry Research Thrives in New Hampshire
WASHINGTON, April 6 - The next time you order seafood you may want to ask whether it is wild or farm-raised because with aquaculture still in its infancy in most of the United States, much of the seafood consumed in the United States. is imported from countries where it is farm-raised.
"American consumers are enjoying more seafood every year, but to a large degree the increase in consumption is not coming from the wild," said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's National Ocean Policy Study, during a hearing on offshore aquaculture on Thursday.
"We are getting a great deal of this increase from overseas, and much of the increase in imports comes from fish farms far from the reach of U.S. environmental regulations," he said.
According to Sununu, over the past three years more than a billion pounds of shrimp have been imported each year, Atlantic salmon imports have doubled and tilapia imports have tripled.
The purpose of the hearing was to study the growing of fish in cages in the ocean, [an alternative to importing most of the nation's seafood. The committee is studying how to control and promote this industry. Without regulation, seafood can be imported with toxins, which is why the committee is interested in the creation of U.S. fish farms that could be regulated by federal law.
"The United States lags behind a dozen nations, including and as far away as China, Norway and Australia, and as close as Mexico and Canada, in developing offshore aquaculture," said Sununu, who along with other members of the committee has concerns about the environmental and health repercussions.
One of the witnesses at the hearing was Richard Langan, a proponent of aquaculture and the director of the University of New Hampshire's Open Ocean Aquaculture Program. The goal of the university program, which began in 1997, is to further develop commercial aquaculture throughout New England, to create employment opportunities and to contribute to community and economic growth, according to the program's Web site.
"Our project is looking at species that are native to our area, shellfish and finfish, and we sort of had a very early success with shellfish, in particular mussel culture; we saw that we had excellent production capacity," Langan said after the hearing. "We went out and did an economic assessment of it, and that came back very favorable, so we've done a great deal of outreach to fishermen in New Hampshire."
Langan said that the program also is assisting a New Hampshire fisherman with a commercial start-up in New Hampshire waters. The program hopes that the fisherman is successful so other local fishermen will attempt aquaculture projects.
Langan said mussel culture can be done part time to supplement regular fishing. "We're not asking someone to replace their fishing activities; it's something they can do in conjunction with fishing, so we think there's real economic opportunity there, for fishermen who can continue to use the boats that they already have," he said.
However, he said, for finfish there is still a way to go. "I think we still need a couple more years to answer some biological questions in terms of getting better growth rates," said Langan, whose program is looking at some small cage systems and studying if they will pay off economically.
"In terms of whether it's a large company producing seafood off the coast of New Hampshire or a small-scale commercial fisherman producing it, I think there's going to be some combination of direct benefit for New Hampshire citizens, plus they're going to have a nice local supply of fresh, high-quality seafood," Langan said.
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Snowe Opens Up About the Election
WASHINGTON, April 6-She's way ahead in the polls, and political experts tag her seat as secure. Nevertheless, Sen, Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, says she is going to keep on working hard as she attempts to win her Senate seat for a third time in November.
"Polls are just a snapshot in time," Snowe said. "I've been a veteran of numerous elections, and I'm well aware of the pitfalls and the risks that are associated any time you're on the ballot."
A recent poll has Snowe in the lead, with 63 percent of likely voters saying they would vote for her and only 21 percent saying they would vote for an as-yet- unnominated Democrat.
Elections are a long process, Snowe said in an interview in her Senate office, and she has never taken one for granted. "I have a great respect for the ballot box on election day," she said.
In 2000, Snowe won reelection handily with 69 percent of the vote. She has already almost tied her fundraising for the 2000 election, collecting $2.1 million this time through March, compared to $2.2 million for the entire 2000 election.
Her closest opponent in the money race is Democrat Jean Hay Bright, who has raised $13,000 so far.
Snowe said she would center her campaign on what she has accomplished in her many years representing Maine in Washington and on what she considers her "pivotal" role in the Senate.
"We need more individuals in the United States Senate that are prepared to work on a bipartisan basis to build a consensus and a centrist position," Snowe said during the interview. "And losing centrist voices in the United States Senate isn't good for Maine and it isn't good for America."
Pundits have often referred to Snowe as a RINO, a Republican in Name Only. Her voting record has been middle of the road at a time when the Republican Party nationally has veered further to the right.
Snowe said that politics and her position on Senate committees have enabled her to get things done in the Senate. She has reached out across the aisle and worked with members of her own caucus to help pass tax cuts, to get the Medicare prescription drug benefit, which she first backed in 1988, enacted into law, and to increase internet access and bandwidth in schools and libraries in Maine and across the country.
With her swing vote on the floor and her voice on the Finance Committee, Snowe went against her own party on President Bush's Social Security proposals last year.
"I've been able to prevent the diversion of revenues from the Social Security Trust Fund for the creation of personal savings accounts," she said.
Snowe said that she did not have any plans to campaign with administration officials, saying she prefers to campaign on who she is and what she stands for. "I don't run on anybody's coattails," she said.
The President's low approval ratings, and the several scandals that have rocked the GOP can have an effect on the election, Snowe conceded. But she intends to base her campaign on her centrist values and her plans for her potential third term.
"We understand that people are very concerned about the direction of this country, and it's a very volatile political environment," Snowe said.
This promises to be a tough election season for the Republican Congress. While Snowe's seat appears secure several Republican senators are in tough races, notably Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. There are also many volatile House races.
Snowe said that it was too early to call the election for either party. She said there are always constant shifts in sentiment, and things could change before November.
Her advice to colleagues in tough races, Snowe said, is that they should focus not on polls or the views of pundits, but rather on their messages and on building a strong organization.
Snowe refused to weigh in on the Republican gubernatorial primary in Maine, saying that her party had several strong candidates and that she would let the voters decide in June.
She said Republicans have many good opportunities this fall in state elections. Both Peter Mills and David Emery lead Democratic Gov. John Baldacci by small margins in polls. The legislature also is very tightly balanced, and Republicans could take it as well.
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Washington Holds a Festival, Maine Names a Princess
WASHINGTON, April 6- This town is infested with tourists, worse than anything seen on Mount Desert in August. Some 700,000 people have descended on the capital from across the country and around the world to take part in the 71 st annual National Cherry Blossom Festival.
One of the best places to see the cherry trees and their blossoms is the Tidal Basin, which the Jefferson Memorial sits beside and which is within walking distance of many of the Smithsonian museums and the Washington Monument. The banks of the large pool are lined with thousands of the trees.
The trees themselves are short, no taller than 20 feet and about as wide. Before the blossoms bloom, they are pink buds. When they open up into the five-leaf flowers they gradually turn white and fall to the ground after a few days.
During the two-week festival, which is set to wrap up on Sunday, there are more tourists than cherry trees lining the Tidal Basin. Some of the tourists are pushing baby carriages, others are snapping pictures and some are taking advantage of the 50 paddle boats that are for rent there, running them into the dock and getting a duck's eye view of the blossoms.
American families blend with Japanese ones and their next-generation video cameras. There are a lot of Japanese tourists here. The cherry trees-3,000 of them-were a gift from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo in 1912.
According to the festival's Web site, the United States returned the gift in 1915, giving Japan flowering dogwood trees. In 1965, Lady Bird Johnson, the president's wife, accepted 3,800 more cherry trees.
The two weeks of the festival are sprinkled with events, from a Japanese lantern lighting festival to a parade and to the crowning of the Cherry Blossom Queen.
The queen is chosen from the princesses. Each state is eligible to have a princess, but in reality only states with active state societies in Washington name a princess. Maine has one of the most vibrant state societies, with some 1,000 members in Washington and around the country.
This year's Maine Cherry Blossom Princess is Melissa C. Danforth of the Berwicks in York County. The 24-year-old lives in Washington, working in the executive office of the president as the deputy associate director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives.
Danforth did not want to talk too much about her experiences working for the President, but she did say that her long title meant that she worked on presidential events and that it was a great experience.
The princess graduated from Northeastern University in Boston in 2004 with a degree in political science. At Northeastern, Danforth was showered with honors and got her first experiences in politics, working for a Massachusetts Senate member and as a research assistant to a health committee in the Irish National Parliament in Dublin.
Danforth said that she was chosen to be the princess after submitting an application with biographical information, a résumé and an essay.
"It's very exciting," Danforth said. "I've known a variety of past Cherry Blossom Princesses from other states, and their experiences really led me to pursue the possibility."
Dee Dee Thibodeau Fusco was Maine's Cherry Blossom Princess in 1981; she was at the state society's dinner in honor of Danforth on Wednesday at the Officers' Club in Fort Myer, Va. Fusco lauded the new princess.
"She's a fabulous representative," Fusco said. "She's intelligent, well-spoken and clearly represents the state of Maine in a good way."
Danforth was honored at the Maine State Society's dinner, receiving a commemorative plate, a mug and a flower. More than 40 people were there, most from Maine but with a small contingent from the Massachusetts State Society, which piggy-backed onto Maine's event because their society did not have enough members to host its own.
There was a raffle with such Maine prizes as a six-pack of Poland Spring water, a can of B & M Brown Bread and a bag of redeye beans.
Chris Fortier, a 26-year-old Aroostook County native who is a Virginia contract lawyer, did not win any of the reminders-of-home prizes, but he did enjoy the dinner.
"It's a fantastic event to honor the state of Maine and the accomplishments its peoples have brought," he said.
Wayne Hanson, a Bangor native whose mother, Myrna, wrote for the Daily News, said that the Maine State Society has a number of other events throughout the year. In May there is a lobster dinner and a day to clean up Maine sites at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. In December they also lay out wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery thanks to a generous gift of more than 4,000 wreaths donated by Morrill Worcester of Harrington over the past 14 years.
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Pork Book Cites Wasted Government Spending
WASHINGTON, April 5 -Congress is flushing money down the drain, literally, according to the 2006 Pig Book released Wednesday by the Citizens Against Government Waste.
Surrounded by Winnie and Dudley, two pigs on leashes; Porky,someone in a full-body pig suit; and foam pigs and plastic snouts from the non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating wasteful spending, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., spoke out against pork barrel spending.
The annual report includes "oinkers of 2006," awards for what the organization considers the most egregious spending. Some of the projects cited were $1 million for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative, $500,000 for the Sparta (N.C.) Teapot Museum and $100,000 for a boxing club in Henderson, Nev.
"Money taken from defense appropriations still remains the highest number and still the most outrageous because it diverts money from our national defense and the men and women who are serving and fighting and risking their live," McCain said. His favorite spending project, he said sarcastically, was the glass-blowing museum in Ohio.
The Pig Book defines pork as spending that meets at least one of seven criteria: requested by only one chambter of Congress; not specifically authorized; not competitively awarded; not requested by the President; greatly exceeds the President's budget request; not the subject of congressional hearings; and serves only a local or special interest.
The national spending per person for pork is $30.55, according to the Pig Book. "Alaska this year has $489.87 per person and Hawaii has $378.29 per person," McCain said. "Those are my citizens' tax dollars that are being inappropriately allocated to states not by virtue or need for these tax dollars but through the earmarking process. My constituents deserve better."
Arizona, according to the Pig Book, received $228,076,000, or $38.40 per capita (20 th in the nation), in projects the group identified as pork.
Coburn said that it is important to recognize that not all earmarks are necessarily bad.
"It's not about whether a project may or may not be good, it's about whether or not elected leaders in this country have the courage to make the hard decision about where we spend money and where we don't; the process is broken," Coburn said.
"Earmarks are the gateway drug to overspending," he said. "We are overspending, and what we are spending is future opportunities for our children and grandchildren."
New Hampshire ranked 11 th in the nation for pork spending per capita at $62.36. It ranked 15 th last year. Some of the pork spending cited in the granite state was $1.1 million for Operation Streetsweeper, added by a Senate-House conference committee, and $1 million for a High Performance Brush Program, introduced in the House.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H, was one of a handful of senators from both parties who introduced earmark reform legislation in February along with McCain and Coburn. Sununu said in an interview Wednesday, that the senators were able to get some provisions included in the lobbying reform bill.
"There were a couple of other items that we would have liked to have seen in the bill.. I think we're going to come back to try to address those," Sununu said.
Disclosure and transparency are important in earmark reform, Sununu said.
"It should be part of either the House bill or the Senate bill so that it doesn't just appear magically in conference," he said. "We should know who's making the request, and I just think that would result in a better process."
"I don't think it's feasible to eliminate all earmarks, and in some circumstances it's not desirable," Sununu said. "Congress has the power.to write these appropriations bills, we need to recognize that, but more disclosure and transparency, I think, would really improve the process."
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Pig Book Finds Members of Congress Squealing for Money
WASHINGTON, April 5- As two snorting pigs duked it out over crumbs of buttered corn cakes, members of Congress were recognized for their pork-barrel spending Wednesday by the 2006 Pig Book released by Citizens Against Government Waste.
The event, similar in style and setup to a high school pep rally, featured, in addition to the real pigs, a mascot dressed as a pig, Oscar-variety pig trophies, and trinkets such as a pig-snout mask.
The "Oinkers" of 2006, those who are recognized for their pork spending achievements, included Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, winner of "The Cold Shoulder Award" for more than $300 million in spending in Alaska, and U.S. Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., "The Flushing Our Money Down the Toilet Award" for $1 million in spending for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative.
Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said he had hoped to see a change in congressional spending this year, especially after the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's prison sentencing.
"It is clear that our representatives and senators have shamelessly pursued their pork once again," Mr. Schatz said.
According to Mr. Schatz, the 2006 Pig Book "records a record amount of money" being spent in fiscal year 2006 on what the organization identified as pork projects-$29 billion, more than double the 1996 total of $12.5 billion.
The Pig Book defines pork as spending that meets at least one of seven criteria: requested by only one chamber of Congress; not specifically authorized; not competitively awarded; no requested by the President; greatly exceeds the President's budget request; not the subject of congressional hearings; and serves only a local or special interest.
Citizens Against Government Waste also ranks states based on "pork per capita," to show how much the federal government spends per person for pork projects in each state. While Alaska topped the list with pork per capita spending of $489.87, Massachusetts dropped seven spots, from 39 th to 46 th . Per capita pork spending in the state was $18.25. The national average was $30.55.
Pork spending in Massachusetts totaled $116 million for 143 pork projects, including $100,000 for the Cape Cod Memorial Statue Gateway/Walkway, $1.4 million for the Bass River Park Gateway in Dennis and $40,000 for the Coastal Massachusetts Ecosystem Restoration.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., an outspoken opponent of wasteful spending, joined Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., as guest speakers at a press conference to celebrate the 15 th annual release of the book.
"Earmarks are the gateway drug to overspending," Mr. Coburn said. "We are overspending, and what we are spending is future opportunities for our children and grandchildren."
Mr. McCain acknowledged that he has pushed for projects in his state in the past but now is trying to make the process more transparent.
"We're not saying all these projects are bad," Mr. McCain said. "We're saying that they haven't gone through a legitimate process."
Bill Frenzel, a former House member who currently serves in the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution, said that although "pork lies in the eye of the beholder," Congress has not taken enough action to make the earmark process crystal clear.
"They may be for wonderfully noble things," he said, "but Congress hasn't held hearings on them and because one member is highly placed, he can get them [earmarks] placed strategically in bills and voted on at the last minute."
Citizens Against Government Waste is a non-profit, non-partisan organization whose mission, according to its Web site, is "to eliminate waste, mismanagement and inefficiency in the federal government."
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Collins Pushes for More Port Security
WASHINGTON, April 5- Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is pushing for port security funds to be available to all ports, not just ones that are considered to be at a high risk for terrorist attack.
Her GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act includes a provision for a $400 million competitive grant program that all ports would be eligible to apply for. President Bush and the Department of Homeland Security favor disbursing $600 million to ports at higher risk, such as those in California, New Jersey and New York.
The head of the Portland Port agreed with Collins in testimony Wednesday at a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing..
Captain Jeffery Monroe said federal money for security initiatives should be given to all states; otherwise, smaller ports like Portland would be hard-pressed to cover all the security mandates the federal government has put in place since 9/11.
"Not everybody is as wealthy as many of the major port authorities," said Monroe, who is director of Portland's Department of Ports and Transportation. "And many times municipal ports like ours or state-owned ports have minimal resources. In regional centers such as Portland we would be unable to comply with the maritime security act without grant support. We're very fortunate to have received $3.5 million, which otherwise would have had to been borne by the taxpayers of the city of Portland."
Collins, who chairs the committee, said: "Seaports are more than waterfront facilities. They are crucial links in a supply chain that includes all modes of transportation around the world. They also are profoundly and unacceptably at risk."
Collins said that some 95 percent of U.S. foreign trade, worth $1 trillion, enters through the country's ports annually. Some 8,555 vessels make more than 55,000 calls on U.S. ports each year. About 800 million tons of goods are transported in more than 11 million containers.
Only 5.4 percent of those containers are scanned before they leave the port. Collins and the act's cosponsors, Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), want to see all containers scanned for nuclear material by the end of next year.
Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Michael P. Jackson said at the hearing that 100 percent inspection on such short notice was impractical. Scanning equipment could not be produced fast enough to meet those goals, he said. Jackson assured the committee that his department was working hard to improve the situation and that by the end of 2007 some 98 percent of all containers would be searched for radiation. The other two percent would be covered by more random inspection.
The "GreenLane" in Collins' act comes from an initiative to give incentives to importers who allow their products in foreign countries to be monitored from the time they leave the factory until they are loaded onto a ship. This would speed up the shipping process for participants, while heightening security, advocates say.
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