Category: Erin Kutz
Support for Families of Deployed Soldiers Needed, Some Say
SOLDIERS
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
May 1, 2008
WASHINGTON – When Elizabeth Lilly Rivera’s daughter returned in October from her 15-month deployment in Iraq, she would often wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares and drive off in her car, never saying where she was going or what she was doing. Rivera would wait anxiously by the window until her daughter returned.
During the daytime, her 22-year-old daughter, Celia Crespo, exhibited panic attacks, bouts of extreme sadness and an intense, undecipherable anger, Rivera said. Even though her job at the National Guard’s armory in New London put Rivera in contact with families affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was difficult to understand her daughter’s behavior.
“It’s just a slew of emotions,” said Rivera, a New London resident. “Some of them are hard to ride the wave with.”
Crespo, an Army National Guard specialist, described her emotions as part of the “normal feelings some soldiers go through when they come home.” For a while she sought monthly counseling for posttraumatic stress disorder at one of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ community-based Vet Centers, but has since elected to stop the formalized treatment.
“Now I control it myself,” she said. “I just want to keep improving on my own. That’s just me and that’s how I am.”
The VA’s protocol does not allow the department to directly counsel the family members of veterans, leaving people like Rivera to draw support from friends, private clinicians or military unit resources.
“The VA is authorized to work with families when it is part of a treatment plan designed to benefit veterans,” said Dr. Ira Katz, director of mental health for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “People work within those limitations to do as much family work as possible.”
Since Sept. 11, 16,500 Connecticut residents have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, 55 percent to 60 percent of whom are National Guard and Reserve members lacking the support system of a military base, said Linda Schwartz, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs.
About 60 percent of military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are married, compared to 4 percent of those who deployed to Vietnam. Fifteen percent of those now deployed are women, Schwartz said.
With the mental, emotional and behavioral fallout of the war spreading far beyond the combat zones and into the homes of the deployed and returning troops, lawmakers, mental health professionals and veterans advocacy organizations say existing mental health services fall short.
Jim Tackett of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services cited depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, irritability, anger, substance abuse and hyper-vigilance as “a universal, predictable set of challenges” facing returning service members.
Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said veterans’ casework accounts for some of his office’s highest volume of business. Veterans who come to him aren’t aware of the services available to them, a problem further exaggerated with returning soldiers whose posttraumatic stress or traumatic brain injuries complicate even the simplest daily tasks, he observed.
The entirely voluntary force in Iraq and Afghanistan forces many soldiers already with mental health issues to reenter combat and make their problems go from bad to worse, Courtney added. “The system was clearly not prepared to deal with a major long-term conflict like the one our country is experiencing,” he said.
In anticipation of heightened problems among troops returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Veterans Affairs mental health budget has increased from $2 billion in 2001 to $3.5 billion this year, Katz said. Next year’s mental health budget approaches $4 billion.
The VA’s efforts in increasing its psychological staff is commendable, but may have not come in time, said Ed Burke, Courtney’s field representative and legislative aide on military affairs.
“They’re trying to gear up, but the problem is that the issue is here already,” said Burke, a Vietnam veteran.
Close to 300,000 of the 800,000 men and women who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan have come to the VA for care and are represented relatively evenly between regular active duty officers and members of the Guard or Reserves, Katz said. About 120,000 of them have been diagnosed with mental health problems, only half of which are posttraumatic stress disorder diagnoses.
But a study released by the RAND Corporation found 18.5 percent of the nearly 2,000 veterans surveyed exhibited signs of posttraumatic stress disorder or depression and 19.5 percent could have a traumatic brain injury, which effects mood and behavioral functions. The study estimates that if these numbers are proportionate for the 1.64 million deployed soldiers, 300,000 veterans are suffering from PTSD or major depression and 320,000 are facing a traumatic brain injury.
Matthew Cary, president of the advocacy organization Veterans and Military Families for Progress, noted the ability of state governments to step in when the federal system is overburdened.
“The VA doesn’t have the personnel to address all of these mental health issues,” Cary said. “But governors have moved rather quickly through their state veterans offices in putting their state money towards veterans services.”
In 2007, Connecticut used the profits from the sale of a state-owned hospital to establish the Military Support Program, which funds at least a dozen private counseling sessions for members of the Reserves and National Guard and their families, during and after deployment.
The program, run by the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, features a 24-hour hotline that provides emergency counseling or referrals to its more than 225 specially trained mental health professionals.
A measure before the Connecticut general assembly now seeks to expand the services to all active duty military forces, said Tackett, who directs the Military Support Program.
By February 2008, the hotline had received more than 300 calls and helped more than 180 families, Schwartz said.
Rivera said she has not used the Military Support Program herself, but recommends it to her clients as the family services center coordinator for the New London armory.
Rivera leads family programs for units deploying out of New London’s armory, which brief soldiers and families on the roller coaster of emotions to expect.
She also facilitates support groups for family members left at home, where she said she grew close with a member whose husband and daughter were deployed in Iraq.
It was in this friendship that Rivera said she could be honest about her own feelings and gain solace.
“We were able to break down in front of each other,” she said. “We got through it together.”
Rivera said she’s also drawn strength and support in her church, especially since Crespo’s return. Her daughter’s turbulent emotional displays have subsided and Rivera has learned how to anticipate coming storms.
“I get a sense of when she’s going to have a bad day,” Rivera said. “I kind of know when she’s OK and when she’s not.”
Crespo, who lives with her mother, noted the role her family has played in her improvement. “We clashed a couple of times but my family has been a big help,” she said. “They were mainly my help more than I was.”
For many returning service members, the inability to admit to any struggle can be the biggest roadblock to accessing the necessary care. According to 2007 study by an American Psychological Association task force on military deployment, returning service members cited embarrassment, fear of a damaged career and concern that their leaders and units would lose confidence in them as major barriers for seeking mental health services.
Schwartz said the Military Support Program’s family counseling services could directly aid veterans who are otherwise reluctant to ask for help.
“Many military members who might not go into treatment will go with their families to help work things out,” Schwartz said. “It’s not like they have the problem, they’re doing this for their family.”
Some legislators have argued that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has exhibited similar hesitation in admitting to struggles. In mid-April CBS News reported intercepting emails Dr. Katz sent to a colleague that indicated that suicide attempts among veterans were much higher than what the department reported publicly.
The VA did not release the suicide rate mentioned in Katz’s emails because it was unsure of the accuracy of the numbers, Katz told CBS in response to its reports.
Katz did not further comment on the numbers’ discrepancy, but is set to testify at a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing May 6.
At a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing April 23, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) questioned whether lawmakers could trust the VA. She said getting veterans the help they need, not public relations, should be the department’s priority.
“We are not your enemy, we are your support system,” Murray told witnesses from the VA and Department of Defense. “Unless we get accurate information, we cannot do our job.”
Increased transparency may help alleviate mental health epidemics among veterans. The RAND study showed that if 100 percent of returning service members exhibiting PTSD symptoms received treatment, $1.7 billion could be saved, through increased job productivity and decreased suicides. The costs of treating posttraumatic stress disorder and depression in the two years after deployment are estimated to be as much as $6.2 billion.
Rivera said she encourages all returning troops to meet with counselors immediately, even if they’re not yet feeling the weight of these mental health conditions.
“With them, it’s always ‘I don’t need that,’ ” she said. “But the bottom line is you need to take care of yourself to be there for your family.”
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Connecticut Expands Support for Military Families
SOLDIERS
Norwalk Hour
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 18, 2008
WASHINGTON – More than half of the military personnel deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have spouses or children and when they return from deployment, the transition can be hard not only on the soldiers but on their families, who often share the mental, emotional and social pressures of the war.
“This war is really, really different because we are relying so much on National Guard and Reserve forces,” said Linda Schwartz, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Schwartz said that 60 percent of members of the military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are married, compared to 4 percent of those who served in Vietnam, and that 15 percent of those serving are women.
The Reserve and Guard forces don’t have the continual flow of support from living on a military base or installation and the VA hospitals and counselors can be miles away, presenting a challenge to their transition into civilian life. Since Sept. 11, 16,500 Connecticut residents have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, 55 percent to 60 percent of whom are Guard and Reserve members, Schwartz said.
“There’s a universal, predictable set of challenges for soldiers coming home,” said Jim Tackett of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. He cited depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, irritability, anger, substance abuse and “hyper-vigilance.”
The Connecticut National Guard offers counseling to families with a deployed member in any branch, helping them understand the feelings of withdrawal and anxiety they may experience, said Michelle McCarty, youth coordinator for the Connecticut National Guard.
Linda Rolstone, the wife of a National Guard soldier deployed in Afghanistan, said the emotions she has experienced while her husband is deployed in Afghanistan have been a roller coaster and the National Guard’s family services helped prepare her for what to expect.
“When he first got overseas, there was a lot of anxiety as far as his safety,” said the Meriden resident about her husband, Army Maj. Kim Rolstone, who was deployed in July. “The other emotion was worry about my kids and how they were going to handle it.”
One of her most frightening moments came at 3 a.m. when the phone rang and she wondered who was calling and what the news would be. Her husband turned out to be OK but it was a rough few minutes.
Rolstone, a mother of four, said she’s managed to remain busy during the day but at night can be awake with worry. She said she can manage the feeling with her husband emailing almost every day and calling twice a week, but that a few weeks ago, not hearing from him for five days almost pushed her to the panic level.
In 2007, Connecticut created the Military Support Program to help returning soldiers in the National Guard and Reserve as well as their families - people like the Rolstones.
The program features a 24-hour hotline, referral services to more than 225 trained mental health counselors and funding for counseling sessions. A measure before the Connecticut general assembly now seeks to expand the services to all active duty military forces as well, said Tackett, who directs the Military Support Program.
As of this February, the hotline had received more than 300 calls and helped more than 180 families, Schwartz said, pointing out that the hotline can provide immediate counseling and around-the-clock services that ordinary VA clinics and hospitals cannot.
“If you’re having a crisis you don’t want to wait until Monday morning,” she said.
Nationally, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has anticipated the challenges created by deployments. The department’s mental health budget in 2001 was $2 billion, while this year’s was $3.5 billion, said Dr. Ira Katz, director of mental health for the VA. Next year’s mental health budget is close to $4 billion.
“The VA has been ramping up since the beginning of the war,” Katz said.
Veterans can receive free health care services through Veterans Affairs facilities within five years of their return from deployment, but the VA’s ability to directly treat families is limited, Katz said.
“The VA is authorized to work with families when it is part of a treatment plan designed to benefit veterans,” Katz said. “People work as much as possible within those limitations to do as much family work as possible.”
About 300,000 of the 800,000 men and women who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan have come to the VA for care, Katz said. About 120,000 of them have been diagnosed with mental health problems, but only about 60,000 of those diagnoses have been posttraumatic stress disorder. He also said the number who have sought VA care is split relatively evenly between regular active duty and Reserve or Guard.
The Military Support Program in Connecticut helps families, not just service members, get direct access to counseling and support. Schwartz said this cooperative counseling could even push members to seek counseling who normally wouldn’t because of the stigma associated in admitting to mental health difficulties.
“Many military members who might not go into treatment will go with their families to help work things out,” Schwartz said. “It’s not like they have the problem, they’re doing this for their family.”
The Department of Defense has also recognized the enhanced needs of Reserve and National Guard members and in March announced the creation of Deployment Support and Reintegration Office to monitor Reserve members throughout the several months after they return and help them readjust to everyday responsibilities.
Schwartz said during the immediate return from deployment, members are so enthralled with simple civilian routines such as driving a car or being able to shower every day that emotional difficulties don’t set in.
Any counseling done immediately falls on deaf ears because soldiers are consumed with the excitement and anticipation of getting back to their families, Schwartz said. But, she added that after a month or so back home, service members’ difficulties in adjusting to civilian life can really appear.
“When you’re living on the edge for a year, it’s really hard to come back down from that experience,” Schwartz said. “They like that feeling and try to recreate it on the highway or doing daring things.”
The need for an adrenaline rush comparable to the one found in war zones can push them to drive reckless or while intoxicated and can cause breaches of the peace and domestic violence charges, she said.
“I see we’ve come to a place in time where the VA and Congress are going to have to take stock of where we are,” she said. “We’re going to be doing war a lot this way in the future. Maybe it’s time to rethink the way in which we take care of families and treat them.”
Katz said both the VA and Congress have explored the idea of strengthening the network of support for families.
“We’re now exploring and Congress is exploring whether this is an area in which there could be regulatory changes or where new legislation may be of value,” he said.
Major Rolstone is scheduled to return around the beginning of May, and his wife said their family has already received information about the reintegration program for Reserves and expects to take an active part in its services. Their 20-year-old daughter is also in the Guard and is scheduled to leave for Iraq in May.
Rolstone has stopped working part-time as a registered nurse since her husband’s deployment and said that the logistics of his return may be a bit bumpy.
“I’ve gotten into a routine for a year,” she said. “Integrating him back into that routine I’m sure will be a little bit awkward. But he’s just really looking forward to it even if it’s a little nuts.”
The Military Support Program is also working on allocating money toward consulting teachers on how to support children with family members deployed, Tackett said.
The Military Support Program is so new that research on its effectiveness has not been conducted, but it has created awareness that more work is needed, Tackett said.
“What we do have is a deeper appreciation of the public health challenge we’re facing,” Tackett said. “I think our challenge is that when soldiers return, that we help their family members and all civilians understand the intense pressure cooker that they’re going through.”
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Courtney Inspirted by Pope’s Message of Compassion
COURTNEY
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 17, 2008
WASHINGTON – Pope Benedict XVI’s mass at the Washington Nationals stadium Thursday was an opportunity for Republicans, Democrats, civilians and military to come together, said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.
Though the clear markings of a baseball field could be seen from his seat, he said no reverence was lost on the 46,000-person crowd. “It really was being in church—people were really engaged,” Courtney said. “The Blackberrys were off. All eyes were on the altar.”
Courtney attended the papal mass with his wife, Audrey, who’s a member of the choir at St. Joseph’s Church in Rockville. He pointed out the pope’s themes of hope.
“There was clearly a message of compassion, something people in public office should really be attuned to,” Courtney said. “To me, at the end of the day that’s what public service is about.”
In addition to noting the impressiveness of the music at the mass, Audrey Courtney said the experience testified to the enormity of the Catholic faith. “That was the feeling I got from it—being part of something so big and so ancient,” she said.
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Pioneer North Pole Crossing by USS Nautilus Celebrated
SUBMARINES
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 11, 2008
WASHINGTON – Late on Aug. 3, 1958, the USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole, an event that was celebrated Thursday night in Washington with presentations by members of the original crew and some of the officers who participated in later Arctic sub explorations.
The Nautilus, built and launched at Electric Boat in Groton, was the first submarine powered by nuclear energy and now remains a vital component of the Submarine Force Library & Museum in Groton.
The celebration, complete with a birthday cake, was held at the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation's Heritage Center in Washington and was hosted by the Naval Historical Foundation, the Naval Submarine League and the Naval Historical Center.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, on April 2 introduced a resolution in the House to honor the 50th anniversary of the Nautilus’ Arctic crossing. Courtney, who spoke at the event, said he expects the resolution to be approved soon.
“The resolution is an important action by our country to recognize this historic occasion,” Courtney said, while pointing out that he had an “ulterior motive” in the symbolic resolution.
“I’m trying to get the spotlight on the importance of addressing the shortfall” of funding for submarines, he said.
Courtney pointed to that resolution as a way of continuing the momentum started last year, when $588 million was secured for construction of two Virginia-class submarines per year starting in 2011 instead of 2012, which was the Navy’s initial suggestion.
Last year Courtney went to the North Pole on the USS Alexandria, which was participating in Arctic exercises conducted by the U.S. Navy and British Royal Navy.
Though the Nautilus’ 1958 voyage—dubbed Operation Sunshine—paved the way for numerous Arctic voyages and represented a breakthrough in national security during the Cold War period, members of the Arctic crossing fleet did not originally see it as such a momentous trip.
Retired Vice Adm. Kenneth Carr, who was on the 1958 voyage, said, “When I look back on it, it looks a lot more important than it did at the time.”
Retired Navy Lt. Joe Degnan, another member of the North Pole voyage, said the significance of his assignment set in when the crew was celebrated with a ticker tape parade in New York.
“At the time it was just another assignment,” Degnan said before the event.
Navy Capt. Robert Perry, who spent 90 days under the ice in 1998 and 1999 while commanding the USS Hawkbill, pointed to the voyages as important opportunities for understanding the geography and science of the North Pole.
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Jackie Clegg Dodd Urges Increased Prevention Efforts Against Child Abuse
CHILDREN
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 9, 2008
WASHINGTON – Four children die each day in the United States because of abuse and neglect, a challenge to policymakers as well as a tragedy that could balloon in the current economic climate, Jackie Clegg Dodd said Wednesday.
The wife of U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., spoke at a legislative luncheon for Childhelp, an organization founded in 1959 that attempts to fight child abuse through programs such as a 24-hour abuse hotline, foster care services, an initiative that trains teachers in recognizing the signs of abuse and residential treatment facilities for abused children.
“We sort of have a triple whammy of things that could affect the stability in homes,” Clegg Dodd said after the event, pointing to the increase of abuse in homes facing posttraumatic stress from soldiers returning from war, stress from job loss and foreclosure and the incidences of drug abuse.
Each year Childhelp introduces a new initiative at the luncheon, called the National Day of Hope. This year’s initiative is a partnership with Crystal Darkness, a campaign that seeks to raise awareness of the increase of child abuse and violence caused by methamphetamine use.
Because of the potential that other types of stress have for triggering family violence, Clegg Dodd said Childhelp should be proactive in its efforts to prevent abuse “before the first hand is raised or the first unkind word is spoken.”
“I know how easy it is to get angry and frustrated with little ones,” Clegg Dodd said, telling the story of her youngest daughter, Christina, who has lately taken to saying a prayer for her “bad mommy” when she is put to bed.
The senator’s wife said she leaves her child’s room to laugh off her insolence, but that parents under stress may be likelier to respond with violence
Child abuse doesn’t get the same national attention and relief that very visible national disasters do, said Rebecca Cooper, a reporter for Washington’s ABC network affiliate, who was the emcee of the luncheon on Capitol Hill.
“Child abuse is a daily and insidious problem,” Cooper said, adding that abuse cases often have to reach large and catastrophic proportions before authorities step in.
Actor Rick Schroder, who’s actively involved in Childhelp, echoed Clegg’s calls for abuse prevention. He tearfully read a letter from a 6-year-old boy living in one of Childhelp’s residential treatment facilities who expressed anger at his mother for using drugs and leaving him to be abused by her numerous boyfriends.
“That’s a 6-year-old boy living in hell,” Schroder said. He urged men to step up their roles as sources of stability and protection.
Clegg Dodd pointed to the enhanced opportunity for protecting children, with the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act up for reauthorization this year. The law gives money to states and communities for services for abused children.
Sen. Dodd has a history in child advocacy as the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families. “It comes naturally to him,” his wife said. “He got me involved.”
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College Students Should Explore Loan Options Early, Courtney Says
COLLEGE
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 4, 2008
WASHINGTON – The sub-prime mortgage epidemic has required Americans to stay on guard in all areas of financing—even student loans, says U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.).
“The liquidity challenge to the financial markets really is still an issue for all kinds of lending,” he said in a telephone interview this week. “People are kind of sleeping with one eye open.”
Students should start exploring their loan options as quickly as possible, Courtney said he told students Monday at the University of Connecticut.
“We sing from that missal book every year, but it seems to potentially be more of an issue this year,” said UConn financial aid director Jean Main, who helped organize the event. “We wanted to be proactive and felt it was important to be out ahead of this.”
Some lenders involved in the Federal Family Education Loan Program, a network of private lenders who work with the government to give loans to college students and their parents, have pulled out, said Mark Valenti, president of the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation, an organization that guarantees loans made by the Federal Family Education Loan Program and issues loans itself.
Valenti said other companies are helping to fill the gap left by lenders who have left the industry. Private lenders not backed through the program also can offer student loans, but come with tighter credit standards and higher interest rates, Valenti said. This option may be virtually closed to students with poor credit, though.
Valenti said his organization was investigating other options for financing student loans.
Main had no figures yet on how the drop in lenders would affect UConn students, because the school typically processes loans in July and August. About 90 percent of its loans are through federal programs or the Direct Loan system, in which the U.S. Department of Education does the lending directly. The rest of the loans are made directly by private lenders.
“We don’t want to scare people,” said Judith Greiman, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges. “I don’t want people to say, ‘Oh my god, there’s no money to go to college.’”
There are still 2,000 lenders participating in the Federal Family Education Loan Program, but Greiman suggested students start exploring their lending options early so they can be prepared once their financial aid decisions arrive.
Lawmakers have begun exploring options for expanding the Direct Loan program in the event that the lenders who have pulled out of the student loan market are an indication of a broader trend.
In 1998, the U.S. Department of Education established a program to provide capital to lenders in need. In February Rep. George Miller (D-Calif) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairmen of their respective chamber’s education committees, sent a letter to the Department of Education requesting the administration take similar action “so that recent activity in the credit markets does not adversely affect students’ ability to secure federal student loans in a timely manner.”
“At this point, we’re not happy that the administration is coming up with solutions,” Courtney said. “It’s not like we’re asking them to do something unprecedented.”
Kennedy introduced on Thursday legislation that would allow the Department of Education to provide capital for Federal Family Education Loan Program lenders that are struggling, expand federal loan amounts for students and guarantee lenders on a college-wide basis. Miller and Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas) introduced a similar bill in the House Thursday, legislation Courtney said he supports.
With the country unsure of how far into an economic downturn it truly is, it is hard to say whether student lenders will be forced out of the market, Courtney said.
“From our perspective, we’re in pretty good shape for the fall,” Valenti said. “I do have concerns that if it goes well beyond the fall we’ll struggle.”
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Senators Examine Bear Stearns Intervention as Reason for Reform
BANKING
New London Day and Norwalk Hour
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 3, 2008
WASHINGTON --The federal intervention in fronting $30 billion to save nearly bankrupt investment bank Bear Stearns was defended on Capitol Hill Thursday by administration officials, but senators wanted to know how things went so wrong and what they indicate for reforms in financial oversight and regulation.
The federal action toward Bear Stearns has previously drawn criticism as representing willingness to help the most powerful with little assistance to Americans in foreclosure, a point not ignored in the hearing.
But committee members revealed a deeper complexity to the issue, with some expressing concern that the decision doesn’t merely represent a divide between the weak and the strong but offers evidence as well about financial regulatory inadequacies that could allow a market to be so weak that the collapse of one institution would have such a sweeping effect.
“How do we let the system become so fragile that it cannot tolerate one failure?” asked Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. He called the rescue of Bear Stearns an act of socialism.
Robert Steel, the undersecretary of the treasury for domestic finance, defended the Bear Stearns rescue as a buffer to catastrophe in the broader economy, saying that a plunge in credit would affect average Americans in addition to Wall Street giants.
“When our financial system is under stress, all Americans bear the consequences,” he said.
Committee chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) indicated support for the federal intervention but questioned whether it could have been done sooner.
“As a bottom-line consideration I believe this was the right decision considering everything that was on the table,” he said. “I don’t question that ultimate decision, but I think it’s important we look at the rationale leading up to it.”
Dodd and other committee members challenged the time taken before the government stepped in and whether it was known earlier that Bear Stearns was in such grave danger.
Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz said the firm did not appear to be at a significant risk until the public lost confidence in it at the beginning of the week of March 10 because of rumors swirling about amidst the credit crisis.
“Because of the rumors and conjecture, customers, counterparties and lenders began exercising caution in their dealings with us—and during the latter part of the week outright refused to do business with Bear Stearns,” Schwartz said.
“I want to emphasize that the impetus for the run on Bear Stearns was in the first instance the result of a lack of confidence, not a lack of capital or liquidity,” he added.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) pointed to the Bear Stearns crisis as indicative of the inability of the Securities Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve to properly oversee financial markets.
“Was someone asleep at the switch or is it that our regulatory structure doesn’t work?” Schumer asked.
Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) expressed concern that lawyers for other financial institutions would jump on the Bear Stearns rescue and argue that their clients require the same solution in the face of turmoil.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke rejected the description of the Bear Stearns intervention as a bailout, saying, “It’s not a situation a firm would choose to endure.”
The near-collapse of Bear Stearns attested to the gravity of the economy’s problems, said Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, noting that in a healthier overall market, the government would be likelier to let the investment bank’s problems resolve themselves.
Dodd pointed to the epidemic of sub-prime lending as the source of the problem and urged action to prevent another Bear Stearns situation. He said Congress is in for a long road in developing solutions, and not merely to prevent a catastrophe on Wall Street. Solutions to the housing problems must be found, he said, because most Americans don’t rely on investing in stocks but in the equity from their homes that they hope to use as safety net for the rest of their lives.
This week the committee acted swiftly to develop housing stimulus legislation that would provide money to communities with high rates of foreclosure, increase counseling for homeowners at risk and provide tax incentives for those who purchase homes on the brink of foreclosure.
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Pig Book Puts Pork Spending at $17.2 Billion
PIG-CONNECTICUT
Norwalk Hour
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 2, 2008
WASHINGTON – Wasteful government spending grew 30 percent in the budget for fiscal year 2008, said government watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste when it released its Pig Book Wednesday.
The 2008 Pig Book listed $17.2 billion in what it dubbed pork-barrel spending on 11,610 projects—the second-highest number of such projects since the organization first compiled the Pig Book in 1991.
The group defines pork as spending that met at least one of these conditions: it was requested by only one chamber of Congress, it was not specifically authorized, it was not competitively awarded, it was not requested by the president or greatly exceeded the president's request, was not the subject of congressional hearings and served only a local or special interest.
This definition encompasses spending earmarks, the practice of designating money for local or special-interest projects.
In a press conference featuring two live pigs and a panel of legislators, Thomas Schatz, the organization’s president, lamented this year’s ballooned pig book. The 2007 fiscal year budget included fewer than 3,000 earmarked projects, totaling $13.2 billion.
This year, Connecticut ranked 27th overall, jumping eight spots from 35 in 2006. More than $134 billion in pork barrel spending was designated for the state, amounting to $38.37 per capita. The national average was $33.77.
Alaska and Hawaii ranked first and second, rankings they’ve maintained since 2000, when Citizens Against Government Waste started calculating pork per capita.
“It all seems pretty funny and amusing until you realize that this money don’t come from nowhere,” said Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., suggesting that taxpayers must pick up the bill.
In January of last year, Congress approved a resolution for fiscal year 2007 that called for sharply limiting earmarked spending. Some members of Congress also have pledged not to earmark spending.
Because members of Congress were recently required to attach their name to their earmarks, this year’s report is the first that totals each legislator’s earmarks, though 464 undisclosed projects still made it through. The five Senate members who garnered the most dollars in pork barrel spending are all members of the Appropriations Committee, as were the top three in the House, Schatz said, who added that pork barrel spending is not confined to one party.
The Pig Book cites Rep. Chris Shays, R-4, with 32 pork barrel projects totaling $67.3 million. Some of them include $5,608,800 for Norwalk Harbor dredging and more than $400,00 for facilities and equipment for St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport.
“I believe securing federal funding for local projects is an important role for a member of Congress, but it is important this funding be transparent and meet basic requirements,” Shays said in statement.
Shays said his criteria are that transportation projects have the support of the local chief executive and that projects meet the “community meeting test.”
“If I can't justify the funding to constituents, I know it’s not a project I should support,” he said.
“Unfortunately, projects like Alaska’s ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ taint views of all congressionally directed funding, which is why we need stronger earmark transparency,” Shays said of the bridge connecting sparsely populated Alaskan communities that cost hundreds of millions of dollars through earmarks a few years ago.
Shays has also made his fiscal year 2009 requests accessible on his Web site.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., brought in $149.4 million for 101 projects and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., pulled in $129.2 million for 75 projects.
“I support earmarks that promote the public good and provide much-needed services to Connecticut citizens,” Lieberman said in a statement. “The improved disclosure process has increased transparency and helped guarantee that the projects included in funding bills are responsible and beneficial. Any efforts to reform earmarks should include high levels of scrutiny and oversight.”
Some of the examples Citizens Against Government Waste highlighted as egregious were $1,950,000 put through by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., for a public service center named after him, $3 million that House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., earmarked in the defense bill for a golf program and $211,509 Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., inserted in a spending bill for research on olive fruit flies.
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Pig Book Pork Spending List Includes Money for Second Submarine
PIG-CONNECTICUT
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 2, 2008
WASHINGTON – Wasteful government spending grew 30 percent in the budget for fiscal year 2008, said government watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste when it released its Pig Book Wednesday.
Its listing of such spending includes money designated for spending in Connecticut to accelerate construction of a second Virginia-Class submarine.
The 2008 Pig Book listed $17.2 billion in what it dubbed pork-barrel spending on 11,610 projects—the second-highest number of such projects since the organization first compiled the Pig Book in 1991.
The group defines pork as spending that met at least one of these conditions: it was requested by only one chamber of Congress, it was not specifically authorized, it was not competitively awarded, it was not requested by the president or greatly exceeded the president's request, was not the subject of congressional hearings and served only a local or special interest.
This definition encompasses spending earmarks, the practice of designating money for local or special-interest projects.
In a press conference featuring two live pigs and a panel of legislators, Thomas Schatz, the organization’s president, lamented this year’s ballooned pig book. The 2007 fiscal year budget included fewer than 3,000 earmarked projects, totaling $13.2 billion.
This year, Connecticut ranked 27th overall, jumping eight spots from 35 in 2006. More than $134 billion in pork barrel spending was designated for the state, amounting to $38.37 per capita. The national average was $33.77.
Alaska and Hawaii ranked first and second, rankings they’ve maintained since 2000, when Citizens Against Government Waste started calculating pork per capita.
“It all seems pretty funny and amusing until you realize that this money don’t come from nowhere,” said Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.), suggesting that taxpayers must pick up the bill.
In January of last year, Congress approved a resolution for fiscal year 2007 that called for sharply limiting earmarked spending. Some members of Congress also have pledged not to earmark spending.
Because members of Congress were recently required to attach their name to their earmarks, this year’s report is the first that totals each legislator’s earmarks, though 464 undisclosed projects still made it through. The five Senate members who garnered the most dollars in pork barrel spending are all members of the Appropriations Committee, as were the top three in the House, Schatz said, who added that pork barrel spending is not confined to one party.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) had 40 pork barrel project, totaling $69 million, listed in the Pig Book. In addition, the Pig Book cited his success in including in the defense budget $588 million to accelerate construction of a second Virginia-class submarine, even though the project was technically undisclosed.
Courtney said he went through the appropriate subcommittees, committees and both chambers to get the funding. “We totally played by the rules,” he said.
“I am passionate in my conviction that we produced a budget that is not only good for Connecticut but for the American taxpayer and the American Navy,” Courtney said of the fiscal year 2008 submarine budget.
He also pointed to the dredging grants the Old Saybrook and Mystic harbors garnered through earmarking. Although he said he’s “not a fan of earmarked spending,” the much- needed projects, he added, could not be achieved in the normal operating budget and the “earmarking process was the only safety valve.”
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) brought in $149.4 million for 101 projects and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) pulled in $129.2 million for 75 projects.
“I support earmarks that promote the public good and provide much-needed services to Connecticut citizens,” Lieberman said in a statement. “The improved disclosure process has increased transparency and helped guarantee that the projects included in funding bills are responsible and beneficial. Any efforts to reform earmarks should include high levels of scrutiny and oversight.”
Some of the examples Citizens Against Government Waste highlighted as egregious were $1,950,000 put through by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) for a public service center named after him, $3 million that House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) earmarked in the defense bill for a golf program and $211,509 Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) inserted in a spending bill for research on olive fruit flies.
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New Sub Group 2 Commander Returns to Submarine Life
GROOMS
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
April 2, 2008
WASHINGTON – When family and friends are asked to describe Navy Rear Adm. Bruce Grooms, one of the first words out of their mouths is “leader.”
”Humble” or one of its synonyms quickly follows.
The first makes sense. Grooms, a 1980 United States Naval Academy graduate, was captain of the school’s basketball team, captained the USS Asheville submarine, was commandant of midshipmen at his alma mater and worked as the virtual chief financial officer of the nation’s submarine fleet.
On March 22, he became commander of Groton’s Submarine Group 2, a position that puts him in charge of the East Coast’s attack submarines and of construction of all Virginia-class submarines, among other things.
But still, Grooms, 50, is quick to praise the officers around him and rarely indicates the importance of his achievements to those who don’t already understand naval ranks, childhood friend Craig Johnson said.
“When he tells me about all these moves, I don’t know quite how significant they were until I read about them in a magazine, months later, and I’m like, ‘Bruce, why didn’t you tell me?’ ” Johnson said.
Grooms, who grew up in the Cleveland area, can boast of additional achievements, particularly in the context of his race. He is one of just seven blacks who have commanded a submarine in the first hundred years of the submarine fleet – an elite group dubbed the Centennial Seven – and was the first black commandant of midshipmen at the Naval Academy, a position akin to dean of students at a civilian college.
But he’d rather not look at those as achievements in and of themselves.
“I guess it’s nice to have been a part of something special, but what will really make it special is that some day it won’t mean anything,” Grooms said, noting his hope for a force diverse enough that black leaders are not a rarity.
The husband and father of two sons has also garnered numerous Naval leadership awards, an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering, a graduate degree in national security from the Naval War College and a stint at Stanford as a national security fellow. Perhaps Grooms’ humility and willingness to give credit to others is his position as the youngest of four children, where he was quick to seek counsel from his basketball coach, his parents and his older brother and hero, Gilbert, said Grooms’ oldest sister, Aloi Hill.
For Grooms, the most exciting aspect of leading Sub Group 2 is not the authority, but the ability to get back to his first love in the service: submarines.
“I joined the Navy to become a submariner,” he said. “I guess you always come back to what it is important to you.”
Prior to his March change of command, Grooms served as the director of submarine warfare in the Pentagon, an on-shore desk job that required him to create annual budget requests for the country’s submarine system.
The submarine force has played an increasingly vital role in national security, from launching missiles to gathering intelligence internationally, Grooms noted.
This most recent post gave Grooms the connections necessary for an advocate of the submarine force, said his former executive aide at the Pentagon, Navy Capt. Stuart Munsch.
“He was exposed to all the cutting-edge technology that’s developed in the Navy,” Munsch said. “He knows where to go in the Washington establishment to plug in what he needs.”
The Sub Group 2 commander is a vital and frequent representative of the force in Washington, said Lt. Joe Petrucelli, executive assistant to the group’s former commander, Rear Adm. Cecil Haney.
Petrucelli said the main qualification of the position is the “ability to deal with and remember a huge amount of people, a huge amount of facts, and multi-task your brain.” In a single day, the commander could go from a meeting on construction of submarines to a conference on housing in Groton, Petrucelli added.
Petrucelli will serve as Groom’s executive assistant for a few months until the routine is more well established and then will go to the Pentagon to serve under Haney – who has virtually swapped roles with Grooms as the new director of submarine warfare. Petrucelli said the success of the shift of commanders depends on how each responds to those under him.
“Admiral Haney was very low-key in his manner and never made you feel stressed out,” Petrucelli said. “He put people first.”
Grooms fits the bill for an easy transition. Co-workers and friends alike noted his sability to connect to people.
“He was always reaching out to the younger people and getting to know them and counseling them on career options,” Munsch said. “He was always careful to write a note of congratulations or a thank-you note when something significant happened.”
Grooms certainly gained experience in dealing with people while serving as the commandant of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy for a year and a half starting in 2005.
Chet Gladchuk, the Academy’s athletic director, said he has seen five commandants leave in his time at the school, but has “never been more heartsick than when Bruce left.”
Though military academies are known for their rigidity compared to other universities, Grooms said, “You can’t forget that these are young people who have a lot of growing up and maturing to do.”
The job often required him to distinguish the difference between students’ honest mistakes and intentional failures and respond accordingly.
To Gladchuk, this patience underscored Grooms’ ultimate ability as a leader.
“As he delegates, he trusts in others, and people are motivated not to let him down,” said Gladchuk, who served on a senior leadership team alongside Grooms.
“He deals with issues—good, bad and ugly—consistently, confidently and with a high level of intelligence,” Gladchuk added.
Outside the Naval Academy, Grooms has seen firsthand one of the ugliest issues the country has faced—the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. At the time, he worked as the senior military aide to the undersecretary of defense for policy and was two corridors down from where the plane struck the Pentagon, he said.
“We felt the shock and heard the collision,” he said. “It immediately felt like a bomb was exploding.”
Grooms said that while he entered the service with the expectation of an international conflict resembling the Cold War, the 2001 attacks proved the demand for flexibility.
“We have to react to what the event is and gear up and do the best we can,” Grooms said. “We can’t know what’s on the horizon."
This outlook represents the way he’s handled the 15 moves his family has weathered.
“Even though he’s pretty much moved every year his older son has been alive, he’s been able to keep his family balanced and together,” longtime friend Johnson said. He credited Grooms’ wife, Emily, for the consistently smooth transitions.
In addition to a strong support system, difficult decisions are required in making the numerous moves. Grooms will move to Groton this week, but his wife, 15-year-old son Jeoff and 11-year-old son Jared will stay at their home in
Dumfries, Va. until the end of the school year.
“That’s one thing that’s difficult to sugarcoat,” Grooms said. “There’s no easy move.”
Another move should be on its way, sure enough. The Sub Group 2 commander position typically stays for two years, Grooms said. And then, probably back to the nation’s military hub, he speculated.
“Once you’ve successfully survived the Pentagon, the chances of coming back to it are pretty high,” he said.
Even though it could lead him away from firsthand contact with submarines, it should still keep him in touch with his ultimate forte: people. Even when he’s crunching numbers at an office rather than being at sea, Grooms said he wouldn’t have taken any other path.
“I love what I do and I love the people,” he said.
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