Category: Spring 2006 Newswire
More Money Spent on Pork in 2006 than Ever Before
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, April 5 – Two live pigs who recently abandoned the comfort of their home in Georgia showed up in Washington Wednesday to help publicize the release by Citizens Against Government Waste of its15th annual Congressional Pig Book.
The Pig Book, its sponsors say, details all pork-barrel projects listed in the federal budget. Its publisher, Citizens Against Government Waste, is a private, non-partisan, non-profit organization whose announced goal is to erase waste and mismanagement in the federal government.
The group identified 9,963 projects as pork in the 11 appropriations bill for fiscal year 2006, costing a record $29 billion. While the number of projects is down 29 percent from last year, the cost is up 6.2 percent.
“It is clear that our representatives and senators are shamelessly pursuing their pork once again,” Tom Schatz, president of the organization, said during a press conference as the two live pigs – Dudley and Winnie – circled the podium munching butter-flavored corn cakes.
The group also handed out its “Oinkers of 2006” citations aimed at members it has labeled big spenders. Recipients included Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who received “The Cold Shoulder Award” for earmarking $325 million in pork for Alaska, and Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., who was awarded “The Flushing our Money Down the Toilet Award” for earmarking $1 million to the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative.
The organization equates pork projects with so-called earmarks and defines such a project as “a line item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures.”
In a ranking of all 50 states and Washington, D.C., Connecticut placed 35 th , spending $87,247,000, or $24.85 per capita, according to the report. Last year Connecticut was ranked 38 th . Nationally, pork spending this year amounted to $30.55 per person.
Alaska and Hawaii, the top two recipients of federal pork this year, received $489.87 and $378.29 per person respectively, according to the report.
Rep. Chris Shays, R-4, said “that an earmark is valid if it is requested by a municipality or nonprofit in the Fourth District.” He said he will not support an earmark if he cannot “explain its value to constituents in a community meeting.”
Shays was responsible for such projects as $1 million for the Norwalk Center/West Avenue Corridor Development and Academy Street Extension, $900,000 for dredging of the Norwalk harbor and $1 million to enhance economic links between Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stanford and encourage job opportunities and housing development in the region, according to the congressman’s Web site.
The Pig Book listed 92 specific projects in Connecticut that that the organization considered pork. Items such as $1.3 billion for maintenance of the Bridgeport Harbor, $900,000 for maintenance of the Norwalk Federal Navigation Project and $250,000 for Community Oriented Policing Services in Stamford all made the list.
A majority of the projects the group singled out in Connecticut are earmarked for transportation.
To be considered pork, a project has to meet at least one of seven criteria, the organization said. An item that “serves only a local or special interest” is one of the criteria.
Republican Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., attended the press conference at which the Pig Book was unveiled. The senators said they hope to gain support for legislation that calls for more transparency in earmarking funds.
Both senators called for reform of “a broken system” in which members can earmark money in order to appear as champions of the needs of their home districts.
“Earmarks are the gateway drug to overspending” by the government, Coburn said.
“My constituents deserve better,” McCain said.
But some experts offer a more moderate view when it comes to earmarking and so-called pork barrel spending.
Former Rep. Bill Frenzel (R-Minn., 1971-91) and a current member of the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank based in Washington, said in a telephone interview, “I think that pork sort of lies in the eye of the beholder.”
But while acknowledging the positive aspects of earmarks, Frenzel was critical of the lack of transparency and oversight in the appropriations process.
“Just because it’s for a good purpose doesn’t mean it’s a good expenditure of the public money,” he said.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Faces Criticism from Shays, Blumenthal
By Sara Hatch
WASHINGTON, April 4 - Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal accused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tuesday of being too cozy with the nuclear industry in determining the level of threat that nuclear facilities must be designed to withstand if the plants are to receive federal operating licenses.
Members of the commission, the Government Accountability Office and Blumenthal testified before the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations about how the commission adopted the so-called design basis threat and their concerns with the process.
The Government Accountability Office criticized the commission in a report issued Tuesday for consulting the industry, including the individual nuclear facilities, before publishing the final draft of the design basis threat, saying it created an appearance of conflict of interest.
Blumenthal, in a criticism that Shays and others echoed, said the commission did not use a specific set of criteria and it did not do enough to enforce conditions that would have defended against an air attack.
He said an air attack was not simply a speculative possibility but a "clear and present danger."
Nils Diaz, the chairman of the commission, said that all of the facilities that the commission is responsible for are prepared "to deal with the consequences" of an air attack, such as large fires.
Edward McGaffigan Jr., a member of the commission, said that the weapons needed to defend against an air attack are "entirely inappropriate for a private-sector regulated force to have."
Shays, the chairman of the subcommittee, was extremely critical of the perceived conflict of interest that took place while the commission reviewed the nature of the design basis threat.
He said the Government Accountability Office, in its new report, "also found that stronger security standards did not necessarily mean that the NRC has sufficiently fortified itself against the dangers of an overly cozy relationship with the industry."
Jim Wells of the Government Accountability Office, while saying that the commission's process showed an "appearance" of support for industry concerns, declined to say whether this carries over into the final report.
But he pointed out that after industry representatives were allowed to view the preliminary report by the commission staff, the staff's threat level recommendations were lowered in four of five categories in the final report.
Blumenthal, in his testimony, also asked the commission for increased protection for whistle blowers especially in light of complaints of changes in perimeter security policies at the Millstone nuclear power plants outside New London, and to look at how the commission deals with spent nuclear fuel.
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Analysts Skeptical of Navy Plan
By Sara Hatch
WASHINGTON, March 30 - Analysts criticized the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan Thursday, asserting that its goals are unattainable and that the proposed rate of production would in time be a greater threat to national security.
Officials from the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office and the independent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments testified before the House Armed Services Projection Forces Subcommittee that the Navy would not be able to meet the goals of its long-term plan, including reaching a level of 313 ships, because of over-optimistic planning and further losses in the design and industrial base.
All of the analysts agreed that it was almost totally certain that the plan would not work and that it would in many cases produce a high level of risk, the third-highest category of risk. These estimates go counter to the generally accepted moderate risk that the Navy presented in testimony earlier in the hearing.
Various causes for failure were proposed by the analysts but they were widespread and addressed many issues.
Robert Work, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the current plan was prepared "by surface warriors for surface warriors," leaving out a great part of the naval force, including the Virginia-class submarines produced at Electric Boat in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Ron O'Rourke, a specialist in national defense for the Congressional Research Service, said the plan "does not contain enough ships" and called into question the reliability of the Navy's past proposed budgets.
Some of the analysts pointed out that the total number of ships produced during the 30-year period would in fact fall below the 313 mark that the Navy has established in its plan. Submarines in particular would at one point fall as low as 40, a full 8 ships below the plan's required 48.
Work said this was particularly a problem in terms of national security, reaching the highest in the four levels of risk, the "red line" category of risk, for submarines. Part of this he attributed to the loss of the design base, because at this point there are no new design plans being executed.
One of the proposed answers to this problem is a plan Congressman Rob Simmons, R-Conn., has introduced that would allow designers to begin plans for small diesel submarines that would then be sold to Taiwan, a plan the Taiwanese defense ministry supports.
O'Rourke said at the hearing that this could benefit Electric Boat in terms of preserving the jobs of designers. But in an interview after the hearing, he said he was concerned that the diesel subs planning would not maintain all of the skills critical to building nuclear submarines, a point echoed by other analysts at the hearing.
He said another solution would be to advance production of other kinds of submarines as a way to shore up the design base.
Some of the analysts also backed the long-claimed assertion by the submarine industry and some members of Congress that moving up the deadline for doubling yearly production to two submarines would reduce the cost per submarine and do something to offset the low number of ships that would be in service.
O'Rourke said the Navy would be able to save half the cost savings it is seeking by doubling the total number of submarines produced each year. He also made the point that for every year that two-ship production is advanced prior to 2012,the total number of ships would bottom out at one boat higher.
Eric Labs, the principal analyst for the national security division of the Congressional Budget Office, agreed with O'Rourke. He said that by spreading the costs over two ships would be better.
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Shays-Meehan Lawsuit Deals Blow to ’04 Soft Money Spending
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, March 30 - Reps. Christopher Shays, R-4, and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., scored a legal victory Wednesday against so-called 527 organizations-tax-exempt, unregulated issue-advocacy groups-when a federal district court judge ruled that current Federal Election Commission practices do "not reflect reasoned decision making."
The 527 groups, organized under section 527 of the U.S. tax code, spent large sums during the 2004 election. They are unregulated by the election commission because their expenditures, in the commission's view, do not directly advocate the election or defeat of any particular candidate.
The 527 groups focus mainly on issue advocacy and voter mobilization. One of the groups, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, aroused controversy in 2004 when it challenged John Kerry's record in Vietnam.
Labeling the court's decision "a great ruling," Shays said in an interview that the "bottom line with 527s was that "we won in the court today and we think we would win in the appeals court and the Supreme Court, if the Supreme Court ever heard it."
The Shays-Meehan lawsuit, filed in September 2004, directly challenged the commission's regulatory stance and sought to implement a concrete policy on 527s. The suit was consolidated with the Bush-Cheney '04 Committee lawsuit.
The suit mainly questioned the Commission's 2004 decision not to issue rules requiring 527 groups to register as federal political committees, arguing that the money they spend influences nationwide campaigns.
The commission said it prefers to operate on a case-by-case basis rather than issue a blanket rule covering 527 groups. But in the lawsuit, Shays and Meehan asserted that the commission acted arbitrarily and contrary to the law when it failed to adopt such a rule during the 2004 presidential campaigns.
The commission "can take years to complete an administrative action, and penalties, if they come at all, come long after the money has been spent and the election decided," the court stated in its decision.
In his ruling, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, sent the case back to the commission, ordering it either to "articulate its reasoning for its decision to proceed by case-by-case adjudication or to promulgate a rule if necessary."
A commission spokesperson said of the ruling, "We've received it, we're reviewing it and we'll take appropriate action."
The commission's central argument was that it was not required to issue a guideline forcing 527 groups to register as political committees. It said it could diligently enforce clean practices on a case-by-case basis.
But Judge Sullivan disagreed.
"Judging from the FEC's track record in the 2004 election, case-by-case adjudication appears to have been a total failure," he said.
"Cases arising from the 2004 campaign have languished on the commission's enforcement docket for as long as 23 months, with no end in sight, even as the 2006 campaign has begun," Sullivan said. "This merely demonstrates the patent inadequacy of the case-by-case approach."
Fred Wertheimer, one of the lawyers for Shays and Meehan and the president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization, said in a statement he was "very pleased with Judge Sullivan's opinion." Wertheimer said he would like to see the commission recognize "it has no choice now but to issue new rules to regulate 527 groups."
In February 2005, Shays and Meehan joined with Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Russell Feingold, D-Wis., Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in an attempt to close what a press release termed "the 527 loophole."
Their bill would bring 527 groups "working for the election or defeat of a federal candidate under the same set of rules by which every other political committee has to abide," by implementing three new rules, according to a Shays press release from February 2005.
It would require 527 groups to register with the commission as political committees. It would set a formula for allocating spending by 527 groups between regulated federal accounts and unregulated non-federal accounts. And it would cap annual contributions to non-federal, or "soft-money" accounts at $25,000 per donor.
Shays said the bill would be on the House floor Wednesday and that an amendment will be offered to allow increased coordination between 527 groups and candidates' committees. Shays said while he is not advocating the amendment, he is "comfortable with it."
Bradley Acquires Funds for Veterans
WASHINGTON, March 29-The House Budget Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a measure that would add $795 million in health care funds for veterans next year and a total of $3.9 billion over the next five years.
"I think that people recognize, on a bipartisan basis, that for people that have served our country, we should be funding a health care system that works for them," said Rep. Jeb Bradley, the New Hampshire Republican who sponsored the legislation, an amendment to the Department of Veteran's Affairs budget. The amendment would remove the proposed $250 enrollment fee veterans would have to pay to receive medical benefits and eliminate a proposed increase in prescription co-payments from $8 to $15 per prescription.
"It will add $795 million to the health care line of the veterans' function of the budget, and it is to replace what was assumed would be revenue from the drug co-payment and instituting a $250 deductible," said Bradley, who opposes President Bush's proposed fees for veterans seeking health care benefits. "The whole point of the amendment was to make it clear that we did not want to, especially in a time of war, increase the drug co-payment or implement a deductible for care, and so it makes sure that there's enough money."
Bradley, who sits on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee as well as on the Budget Committee, told the latter committee that the purpose of the amendment was to make it clear that the "vast majority of members on the committee do not support the administration's proposal to increasing the co-payment fee or institute an enrollment fee."
The amendment would transfer money from the international affairs budget to the Veterans Affairs Department for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 and ensure that there is additional funding over the next five years.
"Over the last number of years, this Congress has dramatically increased the amount of funding for veterans' health care," Bradley said. Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, the committee chairman, suggested that the Veterans Affairs Department's budget be increased to $36.1 billion from $33.6 billion this year, an increase of 7.4 percent. Bradley's amendment would instead increase funding to $36.9 billion, a 9.8 percent increase.
The amendment was added without opposition, but Rep. Chet Edwards D-Texas, said it may be a topic to revisit next year when the addition of more veterans to the program may create a need for additional funds.
Edwards said Democrats have opposed the president's proposed enrollment fees in the last two budget proposals because many of them felt "that veterans paid their enrollment fee when they put on our nation's uniform and many of them went into combat to risk their lives to serve our country."
The amendment is similar to one Bradley was successful in adding to the budget last year that increased budget authority for veterans by $229 million in fiscal year 2006 and by $1.15 billion over the next five years.
The Budget Committee approved the budget resolution on Wednesday, and the House will vote on it next week. The Senate has yet to act.
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Collins Amendment Fails to Make It Into Senate Reform Bill
WASHINGTON, March 29-Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that the lobbying reform bill that the Senate passed Wednesday by a vote of 90-8 was the most significant reform of ethics rules in a decade, but she added that the bill would have been stronger had her amendment to create an independent office to investigate ethics complaints passed on Tuesday.
The amendment to create an Office of Public Integrity, proposed by Collins and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), failed, 30 to 67.
"I'm disappointed," Collins said at a press conference following the Wednesday vote. "I still think an Office of Public Integrity is a good idea, and it would have strengthened the enforcement leg of this bill and complemented the increase of penalties."
She said her amendment failed because "members were very uneasy at having an independent entity do investigations of allegations of wrongdoing."
Collins added that it often takes years for organizational reforms to go through.
The proposed office would have had an independent director who could conduct investigations and refer them to the Senate Ethics Committee. The proposal would have allowed investigations to be launched by a member, an outside party or the office itself. But the amendment would have allowed the Ethics Committee to overrule the office by a two-thirds vote.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R- Maine, who voted for the Collins amendment on Tuesday, said in a statement that while the Ethics Committee was doing its job, recent scandals have eroded the public's trust in Congress.
"I believe the creation of an independent Office of Public Integrity will alleviate the genuine concern the American people have about the ability of Congress to address possible ethics violations, and I am disappointed that the Senate rejected this amendment today," Snowe said.
Common Cause, a nonpartisan lobbying group promoting open government, supported the amendment, said Mike Surrusco, the director of ethics campaigns for the organization. But Surrusco said the amendment did not go as far as he would have liked and that Common Cause had favored an amendment by Obama that would have established a more independent office, incapable of being overruled by the Senate committee.
"People don't want this independent office because then they can't control it," Surrusco said.
"We feel like the whole process of investigating their colleagues for members is just inherently conflicted," he said.
Paul Miller, the president of the American League of Lobbyists, disagreed. He said the fact that Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who sparked the recent ethics debate, was caught was proof that the old system was working.
"These folks can police themselves and their colleagues, and I think they're in a position to do so," Miller said of members of Congress. "I know you hear the stories that, well, one side won't issue a complaint because there is an agreement that both sides have that they're not going to do that. I think this is a new era that we're entering into and I think you're going to see that change."
Surrusco said that the House and Senate Ethics Committees had been emasculated over the last 10 years. While the House committee has taken two complaints in the last decade, Surrusco said, the Senate committee has done more. Common Cause has filed several complaints, he said, but had not heard back on any of them.
Miller said that the ethics committees had not started looking into ethics complaints against Reps. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and Tom DeLay (R-Texas) because the Justice Department was already investigating them and "they did not want to reinvent the wheel." Miller said an improved electronic filing system for lobbyists would help the current situation.
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New Hampshire Delegation Praises Card, Welcomes Bolten
WASHINGTON, March 28-The New Hampshire delegation praised Andrew Card's dedication after he resigned from his position as White House chief of staff on Tuesday.
"The chief of staff is the toughest job in Washington," Sen. John Sununu, whose father held that post for two years under President Bush's father, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. "Andy has worked very effectively, as long or longer than any chief of staff in recent history; it's understandable that he would want to spend more time with his family and more time on other pursuits."
President Bush announced that budget director Josh Bolten will take Card's place but has not announced who will fill Bolten's position. "I think that [Card} will be difficult to replace, but Josh Bolten is very capable," Sununu said. "I think Josh has skills that are weighted more toward policy and budget, and I think that will be very helpful during the budget debate coming up and very helpful in dealing directly with members of Congress."
Sununu said that although Bolten does not have as much management or administrative experience as Card, he will do a fine job. "It's a change in personnel, it's a change in management styles, but both people have the confidence of the president and both have very good relationships with members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans."
It was not unheard of for Card to put in 16- or 17-hour days, and Sen. Judd Gregg agreed that Card handled the tough position well. "This position is probably the most difficult in the government, and Andy handled this job with an extraordinary ability that will be the standard for all who follow in this unique and important position," he said in a statement on Tuesday, wishing Card and his wife, Kathleene, good luck in the future.
"Andy Card has been an exceptional public servant who has unique and special ties to New Hampshire, where he managed the first President Bush's campaign in 1987 and 1988," Gregg said. "I have greatly enjoyed working with him over these many years and have always been impressed by his selflessness and humility and his total commitment to the two Presidents he worked with, especially President George W. Bush."
Gregg called Bolten a strong choice to follow Card. "I have had the pleasure of working with him since the beginning of this administration and especially over the last few years during his time as director of the Office of Management and Budget," said Gregg, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee.
"He is extremely capable, smart and open to input from others, and he has a wonderful sense of humor, which he will need in dealing with the extraordinary tension of the chief of staff's job." Gregg, who has close ties to President Bush and the administration, said he continued to look forward to a close working relationship with Bolten.
The new chief of staff will have big shoes to fill on April 14, when Bolten officially takes over the position. In a phone interview, Rep. Jeb Bradley said that he knew Bolten a little bit from his appearances before the House Budget Committee, on which he sits. "He's a very solid person, and I think he is going to do a good job, in a very high-pressured job, being the chief of staff in the White House, I think he'll do a fine job."
Bradley also agreed with Sununu and Gregg on Card's merits during his tenure at the White House. "I think that Andy Card has been a longtime loyal public servant of both Bush administrations, but before that . a member of the Massachusetts legislature, secretary of transportation; so he has really served our country well, and I certainly wish him well, and it's been a pleasure to have worked with him all these years," he said.
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New Hampshire Delegates Push for Wilderness Protection
WASHINGTON, March 28- Rep. Jeb Bradley, an avid hiker, said Tuesday that he and Rep. Charles Bass would introduce a bill in the House later this week to preserve thousands of acres of New Hampshire wilderness. The Senate bill was introduced Tuesday by Sen. John Sununu and is cosponsored by Sen. Judd Gregg.
"I've hiked all of the 48 four-thousand footers in New Hampshire and including hiking all way through the Wild River, the proposed wilderness, by going from route 16 out. to route 2 up in Maine," Bradley said in a telephone interview. "It's a very, very wild area.absolutely gorgeous, so I'm pleased to be able to support this proposal."
The New Hampshire delegation is pushing for permanent wilderness designation of 34,500 acres of White Mountain National Forest land in the Wild River and Sandwich Range areas. The New Hampshire Wilderness Act of 2006 would designate 23,700 acres in the Wild River area and an additional 10,800 acres to the Sandwich Range Wilderness.
This legislation comes after the U.S. Forest Service recommended last November the need for additional wilderness designation in its management plan for the White Mountain National Forest. Wilderness areas are permanently closed to mining, logging, road construction, traffic and construction, and since these are federal lands, new wilderness must be approved by Congress. Bradley said that the proposal is consistent with the Forest Service plan, which he thinks is a balanced plan in terms of multi-use of the White Mountain National Forest.
"Logging interests are protected, recreation and the beauty of the White Mountain National Forest are protected, so I think it's a well-balanced plan and I'm really thrilled to be promoting a wilderness area," Bradley said. "In particular as somebody that has hiked through both areas, they're very significant, they're worthy candidates for this designation."
Although logging may not be a concern in the Sandwich area, which consists mostly of steep slopes, the Wild River area, according to Bradley, would benefit from this status. "It's a very remote area; however, it is accessible from the northern part-from route 2, and it has been logged in the past," Bradley said.
Currently, four designated wilderness areas in the White Mountain National Forest are located in New Hampshire: the Presidential Range/Dry River Wilderness, the Great Gulf Wilderness, the Sandwich Range Wilderness and the Pemigewasset Wilderness. The fifth area, the Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness, is located in Maine.
"Some of the nicest areas for hiking and just getting away from everything are protected by this designation, and I've had just a wonderful experience of hiking through all of them," said Bradley. who has begun to climb all of the 4,000-foot peaks in the winter. "This is a great, great balanced plan, and I'm pleased to support it."
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Teens Are Cranky From Lack of Sleep
WASHINGTON, March 28-If your teen talks back, it may be due to sleep deficiency, according to a new study the National Sleep Foundation released Tuesday on adolescent sleep habits.
"One of the key findings is that many adolescents that get insufficient sleep are sleepy, cranky and falling asleep in school," Dr. Mary A. Carskadon, a sleep specialist at Bradley Hospital in East Providence, R.I., said at a press conference.
"Think about our typical sense of what an adolescent is-this unhappy, cranky, irritable individual," Carskadon said, citing lack of sleep as a cause for these moods. The study of students from 6 th grade through 12 th grade also showed that adolescents with insufficient sleep were most likely to report being depressed.
According to the study, sleep habits also affect performance in school. "Adolescents who get insufficient sleep were more likely to report getting lower grades," Carskadon said. "Those getting optimal sleep were much more likely to report that their grades are mostly A's, whereas those getting insufficient sleep were more likely to report getting worse grades."
Another problem is when students are tired and get behind the wheel. "Adolescents are driving drowsy, and this is of course a major concern for the National Sleep Foundation and it should be for all of us, because now we come to what may be a potentially lethal outcome of insufficient sleep," Carskadon said.
Fifty-one percent of students in 11 th and 12 th grades reported that they had driven drowsy at least once in the past year, and 15 percent report that they drive drowsy at least once a week. "So here we have these tired teens, just learning to drive with not much experience driving and suffering this drowsy driving effect," Carskadon said.
On average, the study showed, only 20 percent of students were getting nine hours of sleep a night, which is the optimal amount for teenagers. The study found that 31 percent were getting a borderline amount of sleep-between eight and nine hours-and 45 percent were getting less than eight hours of sleep, which is considered insufficient.
The environmental factors that the Foundation blamed for lack of sleep were caffeine and technology. The study showed that adolescents with four or more technological items in their bedrooms, including televisions and computers, are getting 30 minutes less sleep a night and are twice as likely to fall asleep in school or while doing homework as students with fewer than four such items.
The study surveyed 1,602 adolescents across the country and was administered separately to students and their parents. One of the most drastic differences between the two sets of responses involved sleep habits..
According to the study, 90 percent of parents believe that their child is getting enough sleep, but only 44 percent of adolescents report that they are getting enough sleep. Also, only seven percent of parents believe that their child has a sleep problem, whereas 16 percent of adolescents believe they experience a sleep problem.
According to the foundation, warning signs that adolescents are not getting sufficient sleep are that the child needs caffeine to wake up, naps for 45 minutes or more on a daily basis, sleeps two or more hours later on weekends and is difficult to wake for school. Carskadon said parents can help by making sleep a positive priority, enforcing regular bedtimes and wake-times and removing technology from bedrooms.
The study compared middle school students, starting in sixth grade, and high school students, ending in 12th grade, and found that the older students are the less sleep they receive. According to the findings, sixth grade students get an average of 8.4 hours of sleep on a school night, going to bed at 9:24 p.m., and 12th grade students get an average of 6.9 hours of sleep per night, going to bed at 11:02 p.m.
The study also shows that students are not catching up on sleep during the weekends, because although they are sleeping in, they are going to bed later.
"On any given school day in our public middle schools 127,000 students will fall asleep," Carskadon said. "In our high schools we have what I call the 'slack-jaw droolers,' 737,000 of them each day falling asleep in school."
"Sleep learning has not proven to be effective," she added.
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Bush’s Chief of Staff Receives Praise From Two Massachusetts Democrats
WASHINGTON, March 28- Two members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation commended Andrew H. Card Jr. shortly after he announced his retirement from his position as President Bush's chief of staff on Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, said that Mr. Card had always been accommodating to the needs of both of Massachusetts citizens and members of the congressional delegation.
"I kind of regret that he's leaving because I do have a great admiration for him, and my problems with this White House have not been with him, they've been with his boss, the President of the United States," Mr. McGovern said in an interview.
Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., praised Mr. Card's political career in Massachusetts, saying he "set a high standard" when he served as a state representative from 1975-1983. Mr. Card was named legislator of the year by the National Republican Legislators Association in 1982.
"From Holbrook to the White House, Andy Card has spent nearly three decades doing what he believed was right for Massachusetts and our country," Mr. Kerry said in a statement. "After so many years at such a breakneck speed he'll be able to relax with Kathleene and their children and grandchildren."
While speculation begins on the future of Mr. Card's political career, Nathaniel Gonzales, a political editor at the Rothenberg Political Report, an organization that analyzes political races across the country, said he did not expect Mr. Card to run for Massachusetts governor this fall.
"As far as down the line, I'm sure that he will be asked by folks in the state to look at various offices," Mr. Gonzales said in an interview. "Andy Card is very smart and very political, and he will look at opportunities as they come."
Mr. McGovern said Mr. Card would be "highly regarded by both parties" if he decided ever to seek a higher office.
"He's somebody that if he wanted to, he would certainly be a contender," Mr. McGovern said. "He's regarded highly by members of both parties, and I don't know what his plans are, but I suspect that he may want a rest from politics."
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