Category: Sara Hatch
State Waits for Word on Storm Cleanup Funds
By Sara Hatch
Washington, April 28 – In early March, Gov. Jodi Rell asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to declare a state of emergency for all of Connecticut to deal with the after-effects of the severe winter storm of February 11 and 12. If granted, the declaration would clear the way for the federal government to help the state and its municipalities pay for the storm cleanup costs, estimated to be $15 million.
If FEMA’s track record in recent years is any indication, the governor has good reason to expect approval. Emergency declarations for winter storms in Connecticut and the rest of New England have dramatically increased in the past four years. The state has received more than $30.2 million in federal reimbursement funds from FEMA since 2003, including approximately $880,000 to reimburse for administrative costs.
Emergency declarations in Connecticut, not to be confused with major disaster declarations for hurricanes, flooding and severe storms, have in particular seen an upswing since 2003. There was an emergency disaster declaration in 2003, again in 2004 and again in 2005. Disaster declaration funds reimburse up to 75 percent of the total costs for the state, with special occasions warranting more funds.
This has been repeated across the New England region. In 2003 to 2005, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire had emergency declarations each year for snow, sometimes more than one in the same year. In the five years before that, in only one year did any of these states receive an emergency declaration for snow.
Connecticut, according to the governor’s office, has consistently applied for aid. From 1951 to 2003 there had been only two emergency declarations: in 1978 and 1993. But in the past four years there have been three as well as another emergency request now pending with the federal government for 2006.
If the request for 2006 is approved, the total could rise to approximately $41.5 million for winter storms since 2003, not including the administrative costs for 2006.
“It’s almost unexplainable,” said Barry Scanlon, a former FEMA official who is now senior vice president and partner at James Lee Witt Associates.
“We set up pretty strict and tight parameters by which you would support someone during a winter incident,” he said, but “now it seems that those purse strings have been opened quite a bit, loosened quite a bit…. I’m very surprised to hear this is the case.”
Scanlon was also careful not to assign blame. He said FEMA has “terrific people” who work well when they have good leadership. When Scanlon worked at FEMA it was a separate agency, but in March 2003 it became a part of the newly created Department of Homeland Security.
James McIntyre, a spokesman for FEMA, said that if there is a change in why declarations are being granted it doesn’t come from FEMA.
“FEMA’s criteria for recommendations has not changed and has not liberalized the rate at which FEMA recommends approval of declarations to the president,” he said. “When FEMA reviews any declaration request under the Stafford Act, there are several primary factors the agency considers in making a recommendation to the President whether assistance is warranted.”
That law, revised in 2000, says that the federal government may reimburse up to 75 percent of storm costs. On certain occasions, depending on the severity of the storm, a higher percentage will be allowed.
There are many criteria FEMA uses to determine whether emergency assistance is merited, including estimated cost of assistance, localized impacts, insurance coverage in force, hazard mitigation, recent multiple disasters and other federal assistance.
There has not been a policy change in the state of Connecticut, according to John Wiltse, a spokesman for Gov. Rell’s office.
“The State of Connecticut…carefully evaluates all requests,” Wiltse said. He added that the state “aggressively takes advantage of any opportunity” for federal assistance.
He said the state has been applying for storm assistance all along, and he had no answer as to why the requests in the past three years had been granted.
Often there are other motivations for giving out money. Russell Sobel, a professor of economics at West Virginia University who has long studied disaster declarations, said that determining what a disaster is more often has to do with who’s on the FEMA congressional oversight committee and whether it’s an election year.
“One of the consistent explanations with this is that it’s political favoritism and manipulation,” Sobel said.
Sobel highlighted the fact that the director of FEMA is a political appointee. James Lee Witt, the director during the Clinton administration, is the only one of the past few FEMA heads to have had experience in disaster relief. Witt is now chairman and CEO of James Lee Witt Associates, a crisis and emergency management consulting firm based in Washington.
Emergency assistance funds are awarded through a distinct process that starts in the states. After any snowfall, states must determine whether it is a “historical” snowfall, according to Wiltse. If there is significant snowfall, the governor then requests help from the Region 1 FEMA office in Boston, which is responsible for Connecticut.
According to FEMA’s official snow policy, there must be a significant amount of snowfall for FEMA to consider reimbursement.
“Requests for emergency or major disaster declarations for winter storms that cause substantial infrastructure damage resulting from snow, ice, high winds and other blizzard conditions shall cite ‘severe winter storm’ as the incident type, the policy reads. “Eligible work will not include snow removal unless ‘record’ or ‘near record’ snowfall criteria are met. Rather, only a very limited level of snow removal, incidental to the recovery, will be eligible for assistance.”
If the regional office approves the request, the governor then sends it to FEMA headquarters, and the president will decide which disaster cleanups deserve federal reimbursement. At that point, an emergency declaration will be issued and funds made available.
Since 1990, the amount of snowfall in Connecticut has been “bouncing around,” according to Kathryn Vreeland, a climatologist with the Northeast Regional Climate Center.
In the New Britain area, which she used as an indicator for statewide snowfalls, snow ranged from as high as 55 inches and as low as 12 inches during the 2000-01 and 2004-05 seasons, she said.
Vreeland said one consideration is that winter storms are much better reported than they were 40 years ago. She said that with people driving everywhere, even a “three-inch storm” can have an impact.
Scanlon, who held many positions at FEMA, including director of corporate affairs, during the Clinton Administration, said the process of emergency assistance “evolved throughout the ’90s.”
After 1995 and 1996, FEMA set strict standards for handing out emergency assistance. Scanlon said FEMA even adapted the slogan “no dough for snow” in the period following 1996.
Scanlon said that state and local agencies should be able to handle and “should plan for” these disasters. He also said that FEMA, at least during his tenure, did not recommend reimbursement for “business interruptions.” A March letter from the Connecticut congressional delegation to the President supporting the governor’s request specifically mentions the closure of Bradley International Airport for three and a half hours during the February storm as one justification for granting funds.
As of now, it is a waiting game for Connecticut on whether it will receive funds for the February storms. In the past year, according to Wayne Sanford of Connecticut’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Department, the federal department has been very responsive to the state’s requests for emergency assistance funds, generally answering within 30 days of the first request. Currently, he said, the state has been waiting more than 45 days to get a response from Washington.
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A Tale of Two Deputies
By Sara Hatch
WASHINGTON, April 20- If you want to work in the nation's capital you've got to love politics, have a passion for policy and be willing to work long hours. Two Connecticut natives who work for the state's junior senator have brought all of these attributes to their jobs on Capitol Hill.
Siobhan Oat-Judge and Catherine McKenna Ribeiro are deputy press secretaries to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). Oat-Judge is on his staff at the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and McKenna Ribeiro is part of the press team in his personal Senate office.
McKenna Ribeiro, 27 had internships with both Congressman John Larson and former member of Congress Barbara Kennelly while still in college. After school she started with Lieberman in his Hartford office, working there for three years before coming to Washington last September.
Oat-Judge, 26, worked in 2003 for Lieberman's 2004 presidential campaign bid and then moved to EMILY's List as communications director. Following stints with the Democratic National Committee and a public relations firm she joined Lieberman's committee staff three months ago. Oat-Judge also spent time with ABC News as an intern.
They both say they knew they loved politics from an early age.
For Oat-Judge, it started when she watched her mother work on school board elections and referendums in her hometown She remembers helping her mother by making phone calls while she was still in elementary school..
"I saw on a very local level how my mom and her friends could make a difference," Oat-Judge says.
McKenna Ribeiro, like Oat-Judge, was drawn to politics through close relationships with people. "I've had a lot of great mentors," she says.
"I love the idea of democracy," she says. "I think it's fantastic, and I've always thought it would be great to be a part of it," adding that she loved politics in high school.
A typical day for a deputy press secretary begins with reading the news of the day and seeing where Sen. Lieberman has been featured as well as looking for stories that deal with issues on which the senator and his committee are working. They also field calls from the press and prepare press releases and statements. Some days they will work on publicizing an event Lieberman is holding or a committee hearing.
Both women are on call all the time depending on what's happening in the news, but they say they understand that's part of the job.
"It's a 24-hour news cycle," McKenna Ribeiro says, but she says she knew going into her job the pressure that was inherent in it.
"[Lieberman] never gets to shut off," Oat-Judge says. She said it helps that she knows she's part of a team.
The job of the press team is "to make sure that the trains run on time," McKenna Ribeiro says.
Both women say they are rarely off-duty and even in their free-time politics is not far from their minds.
"We read The Economist," Catherine McKenna Ribeiro says, describing what she does after a long day, adding, after a pause, "We're not kidding."
"No it's true, it's in my bag. I'm reading it on the Metro home tonight," Siobhan Oat-Judge adds, laughing along with McKenna Ribeiro.
McKenna Ribeiro and Oat-Judge are remarkably similar. They grew up in towns 15 miles apart-McKenna Ribeiro in Wethersfield and Oat-Judge in Farmington.
Oat-Judge went to Farmington High School, and received a bachelor's degree from Yale and a master's from Cambridge. McKenna Ribeiro attended Wethersfield High School and Pennsylvania State University and got her graduate degree at the London School of Economics.
Oat-Judge said when she was abroad her foreign friends would ask her about American politics which made her want to come back and "contribute" to the political system.
After graduate school in England, both women wound up working for Lieberman and eventually coming to Washington.
Like most people on Capitol Hill, they always have at least one eye on their ever present BlackBerry devices ready to respond to an urgent press request or staff issue. They also can finish each other's sentences. When McKenna Ribeiro gets pulled out of an interview to handle an "emergency," Oat-Judge picks up for her in mid-answer.
Both have said that one of the things that brought them back to politics is going to England and living there.
When asked what they miss about England, McKenna Ribeiro replies "good chocolate."
"We were just talking about Cadbury's eggs yesterday," she says, laughing along with Oat-Judge.
They may joke about their love of all things chocolate, but McKenna Ribeiro and Oat-Judge are quite serious about politics.
Because they are working for a high-profile senator, Oat-Judge and McKenna Ribeiro get to experience things on a national scale.
In the months following Hurricane Katrina, Lieberman, who is the senior Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, initiated a series of committee hearings on what went wrong during the response to Katrina.
In an e-mail message, Oat-Judge said the work of the committee following the hurricane has had a big impact on her.
"Watching those gut-wrenching images [of Hurricane Katrina] last August was heart-wrenching for me, as it was for most Americans," Oat-Judge said.
"Sen. Lieberman has personally been very dedicated to this investigation, and it's been an honor to be part of a team that is working so hard to help protect Americans from future disasters," she said.
Leslie Phillips, who is the Democratic press secretary for Lieberman's committee, said Oat-Judge has been extremely helpful in the past few months.
"She's been a pillar of support," Phillips said in an interview. "I could always rely on her to do what needed to be done."
Oat-Judge is the fifth assistant who has worked for Phillips on the committee. Phillips said that Oat-Judge is "overqualified" for the job and she feels "lucky to have her."
Right now, neither woman has plans for the future, and each seems content right where she is.
McKenna Ribeiro says she "would never want to say to no" to being a communications director or a press secretary but isn't sure what her future will hold.
"I want to work as hard as I possibly can work and make sure I take every opportunity," she says. "You know, all the doors that open I want to be able walk through them."
If she did move up to press secretary, she would be following the path of Rob Sawicki, Lieberman's press secretary, who previously had been deputy press secretary.
Both of their families still live in Connecticut. McKenna Ribeiro is the daughter or James and Gloria McKenna of Wethersfield and is married to Mick Ribeiro. She has two older sisters, Beth Renach and Sue Merino. Oat-Judge is the daughter of Jim Judge and Patty Oat-Judge of Farmington. She has three sisters and one brother.
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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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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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More Submarines Not On The Way
By Sara Hatch
Washington, March 28 - Representatives of the Department of the Navy matched words Tuesday with members of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Projection Forces over building Virginia-class submarines.
Members of the Connecticut and Rhode Island delegations, where of Electric Boat Corp., one of two companies that manufacture Virginia-class submarines, has facilities, were vocal about doubling production from one to two subs a year before 2012, the Navy's current target date.
Currently, Electric Boat produces one Virginia-class submarine a year in partnership with Northrop Grumman in Newport News, Va.
Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.) expressed concern over the loss of jobs for approximately 900 ship designers over the course of the year, bringing the total of designers to its "lowest level in the last 50 years," he said.
Allison Stiller, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for ships, acknowledged the concerns of Simmons and others and said RAND is conducting a study of the design force for the Navy, which will be ready later in the year.
Adm. Charles L. Munns, commander of naval submarine forces, said that while the number of submarines available in the coming years will be fewer than earlier predicted, the Navy feels confident in the reduced number of subs-from the current 53 down to 48 and later to 40 ships-that would be available, even though he acknowledged that there will be risks involved.
The subcommittee members made much of the risk that the Navy would face but did not broach the subject of finding new funds for the Navy in the congressional budget. But they said the subject deserved future discussion in Congress. Just two weeks ago, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said that while he would like to ramp up the research and development budget, that would be difficult in the current budget climate.
John P. Casey, Electric Boat's president, said in a statement to the subcommittee that while the company is working to lower costs on its own, it cannot do more without the help of the Navy.
The Navy's Stiller said earlier that she feels confident the industry base is safe and that "at one a year, they're still producing for us."
Doubling production to two ships a year could reduce the cost of each ship from $2.4 billion to $2 billion, the ship builders say.
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Despite Investment, Connecticut Misses High Marks For Preschool Programs
By Sara Hatch
Washington, March 23-While Connecticut ranked fourth nationwide in spending per child for preschool programs in the 2004-2005 school year, it was not in the top ten for access to preschool programs for either 3-year-olds or 4-year-olds, according to a report released Thursday.
The study, done by the National Institute for Early Education Research, rated Connecticut 5 out of a possible 10 in a quality standards checklist, which includes such areas as teacher training, class size, teacher-student ratio and site monitoring. The institute is a non-partisan research organization based at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
The study found that while more children are being served in preschool programs nationwide less money is being spent for each individual child, after inflation is taken into account. While state spending per child in Connecticut was at its highest in 2001-2002 it has been on the rise since 2003, with the state spending $6,663 on each child in 2004-2005.
Joyce Staples, the Connecticut school readiness program manager, said in an interview Thursday that the state is putting more money for preschool education in the budget this year, with an ultimate goal of having universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds in Connecticut.
In 2005, $48 million was budgeted for state-financed school readiness programs; spending is slated to increase to just over $50 million in 2006. Staples said that Gov. Jodi Rell also has inserted $3.5 million in extra preschool funds for the neediest communities.
Currently, only 28 percent of communities have state-financed programs, according to the report, but Staples said that 12 of the 19 priority school districts-those with the highest needs-have preschool programs in the public school system. In New London, which is a priority school district, Staples said that there are community preschool programs as opposed to ones based out of the public schools.
"We like the programs to be distributed throughout the community," Staples said.
Staples said that although Connecticut is one of the states that does not have a requirement that all preschool teachers have a bachelor's degree, 75 to 80 percent have either a bachelor's or an associate's degree and the state is moving toward having all preschool teachers have a bachelor's degree by 2015.
Susan Urahn, of the Pew Charitable Trusts, which supports the institute financially, said at a press conference to release the report that "Pre-K should be a critical part of K-12 education."
She said that nationwide only 17 percent of 4-year-olds and 3 percent of 3-year-olds currently attend state-financed preschool programs.
Steve Barnett, the director of the institute, said that state-financed programs should work in tandem with federally financed Head Start, which he said had never had enough money to help all eligible children.
In Connecticut, Staples said that some Head Start programs actually receive grants through the state's school readiness program. She said that in all of Connecticut's school readiness grants go directly to the community and are based on plans that must be signed off on by the mayor and the school superintendent.
Gov. Rell also has been active in bringing more widespread preschool education to Connecticut. The Early Childhood Cabinet, which Gov. Rell requested and the legislature created, is working to create a plan for to prepare children better for kindergarten.
Janice Gruendel, Gov. Rell's senior adviser on early childcare and the co-chairwoman of the Early Childhood Cabinet, said in an interview Thursday that the plan is to have all children born this year fully prepared for kindergarten when they enter in 2011. The plan they are drawing up is targeted to be ready in June, and then delivered to the Early Childhood Research and Policy Council, which the governor established last month, to cost it out.
Gruendel said that the report produced by the Institute for Early Education Research does not take into account the children who are in private preschool programs and that when the state has surveyed parents, 75 percent have said their children had formal preschool training before kindergarten.
Gruendel also said that the governor and the Early Childhood Cabinet are not just committed to preschool programs but also want to make sure kids are healthy and ready for kindergarten.
She said that Gov. Rell has "had three priorities, and this is one of them."
New London, Gruendel said, is grouped with similar communities with the greatest need so that when spending is being considered more effort and more resources can be directed to those communities. The other towns in the group with New London are Bridgeport, Hartford, New Britain, New Haven, Waterbury and Windham.
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Show Your Senatorial Pride
By Sara Hatch
WASHINGTON, March 22 - For women out there who've been searching for a way to show their political pride and avoid VPL (for those not in the know, that's visible panty lines), the solution is here.
Thanks to cafepress.com, an online retailer marketing everything from political t-shirts to books, magazines and other interesting merchandise, you can now purchase thongs emblazoned with "I ? Joseph Lieberman" or "I ? Christopher Dodd." Or you could choose any other senator, governor or even your favorite Supreme Court justice.
Thongs cost $14.99 and camisoles are available for $21.99. And for the men out there, boxer shorts with slogans supporting their favorite politician are available for $17.99.
For those who like to show their pride on something other than undergarments, there are several t-shirt and sweatshirt designs and even a trucker hat and tote bag for sale.
Dodd spokesman Sean Oblack said his office had no comment. Lieberman's office did not respond to calls for comment.
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Simmons, Dodd Ask for More Submarines in 2009
By Sara Hatch
WASHINGTON, March 16-Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Robert Simmons Thursday joined submarine industry representatives in calling for doubling the production of submarines by 2009. Currently the Navy wants to increase the number of subs built each year from one to two by 2012.
John Holmander, vice president of programs at Electric Boat, said that getting two ships a year will help to create "stability in the market." Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman, at its Newport News, Va., facility, together produce one ship a year,
The "sooner we get two ships a year, the lower the cost will be," Holmander said.
The goal is to bring down the cost of building a sub from $2.4 billion to $2 billion.
Holmander was one of more than 50 executives attending the Submarine Industrial Base Council's annual congressional breakfast meeting on Capitol Hill.
At the current time, Electric Boat, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, trades off building two-thirds of a ship each year with Northrop Grumman. The sub is then sent to the other company to finish the final third. The new plan, which the companies want to move up to 2009, would call for two subs to be built a year, one at each base.
One of the positives that has come out of the cooperation between the two companies is that it has streamlined the practices used to build the ships, said Matthew Mulherin, senior vice president of programs at Northrop Grumman. He said the two shipbuilders been able to combine the "best practices" of both companies to create a better way of making submarines.
One of the goals of Electric Boat is to "engage the vendors in the same process" to bring the costs down, Holmander said, adding that "our vendors are part of our team."
Terry O'Brien, the northeast regional director for Ocean Design Inc., who is based in Pawcatuck, Conn., said that the main reason to move up production is jobs. Ocean Design, which deals in electrical and fiber optics, does electrical work for the subs built by Electric Boat.
O'Brien said the main problem was that at the current rate of producing ships Ocean Design can't "keep the lines running" and thus employs one-third fewer employees than it did four years ago.
Simmons, who spoke about the need to revitalize the submarine industry because of competition from China, which is building up its own sub fleet, said in an interview that the goal of building two ships a year by 2009 is an "attainable goal."
"Who are we going to go to? China?" Simmons told the council, saying that the submarine industry needs to start working toward the future now or it will face the same problems Great Britain faced when it let its submarine industry decline.
Dodd spoke to the council about improving the research and development capacity of the submarine industry in coming years. He was somewhat skeptical of getting advance procurement money in the fiscal year 2007 budget, which he described as "tight," but it may be possible to get $120 million for research and development, he said in an interview.
In his remarks to the council, Dodd said the submarine industry needs to increase its "intellectual capacity" to produce "a new generation" of submarines. He added that the industry has the capacity to build boats for less money if the Navy authorizes it to build more boats.
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Connecticut Delegation Meets with Local Officials
By Sara Hatch
WASHINGTON, March 15 - The Connecticut congressional delegation promised representatives of Connecticut municipalities Wednesday to bring federal money to state municipalities through all possible means.
During a meeting Wednesday morning at the Capitol with representatives of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, Rep. Robert Simmons, R-Conn., acknowledged that "yeah, the president submitted a lousy budge."
"They always submit a lousy budget," Simmons said. "The President submits his budget, we decide what it's going to be. It's up to the Congress to decide what it's going to be."
He added that the way to address the problem is by earmarking funds specifically for Connecticut. He said Connecticut paid more in taxes to the federal government per capita than any other state but is 48 th in the percentage returned.
"The way we make up the difference is through earmarks," Simmons said, adding that he plans to work to reform earmark spending.
The delegation promised to work to preserve Community Development Block Grants, which the budget has targeted for steep cuts. According to the nonpartisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, Connecticut could lose up to $9.3 million in such grants under President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2007.
"There has really been a tremendous amount of good that has come out" of the grants, said Paul Duarte, the deputy mayor of the City of Groton.
Duarte said his city's Community Development Department has used the grant money to revitalize one of the city's neighborhoods. He estimated that more than $10 million has been funneled through the Town of Groton, which comprises all of the area between the Thames River and the Mystic River. The city is a political subdivision of the town.
Duarte added that a lot of the money had been used to provide low-interest loans that have been used to renovate homes and have by extension promoted home ownership.
"All I know is that the Community Development Block Grant is very important to Southeastern Connecticut," Duarte said.
Simmons' district director, Jane Dauphinais, said New London and New London County rely on Community Development Block Grant funding and get "a tremendous value for it." She added that preserving Community Development Block Grants and the Community Services Block Grants are one of Simmons' priorities this year, as well as increasing education grants.
Town of Groton Mayor Harry Watson said that he has felt that Simmons "is on our side in Southeastern Connecticut." He praised Simmons' work in saving the Navy's submarine base there and said that town officials have always been able to get access to Simmons' office.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said that he hopes to continue funding for all the Community Development Block Grant programs.
"These are great programs," he said. "We're going to try to restore the cuts."
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said even now the state is not getting all the money it needs to fund the No Child Left Behind Act.
"Funding is an issue; we're $12 billion short" nationally, Dodd said.
Dodd also stressed that because Connecticut is such a small state-smaller, he said, than San Diego County, Calif.-the entire delegation needs to work well together and local officials need to feel comfortable approaching anyone in the delegation.
"We need to start thinking more cohesively and together," Dodd said.
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