Category: Matthew Negrin
Sununu and McCain: A Pair of Mavericks
MAVERICKS
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
1 May 2008
WASHINGTON — When John McCain traveled to the Middle East in August 2003 after the United States invaded Iraq, John Sununu was at his side.
Two years later, when McCain briefly visited Uzbekistan to condemn its totalitarian regime, Sununu was again right behind him.
And in January 2006, when the Arizonan addressed free-trade issues in New Zealand, Sununu flew along.
Since coming to the Senate, Sununu has tried to model himself after McCain as an independent lawmaker and political maverick. He has sought a mentor who is heralded for voting his mind and is running for president on that message.
“Any politician would want to be seen as an independent voter,” said Andrew Smith, the principal professor of the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire. “What both McCain and Sununu are doing is something that every good politician tries to do.”
The question for the New Hampshire Republican, who is seen by many as one of the sharper minds in the Senate, is whether these traits will help or hurt him as he faces one of the toughest Senate reelection bids in the country in November.
When John met John
Sununu was a House freshman when he first met McCain in 1997. After he was elected to the Senate in 2002, Sununu, then 38, immediately began forming a friendship with the man he calls a “role model” for successful leadership. His motivations were both political and personal.
“I found that I could learn a tremendous amount by watching the way he worked in the Senate,” Sununu said in an interview. “Whether you agree or disagree with him on a particular issue, he’s effective.”
Since then, the two have flown together to more than 15 countries — from Lebanon to Iceland to Kyrgyzstan — and have sometimes sparred on the floor of the Senate chamber. They also have joined hands in the Commerce Committee to write legislation barring Internet taxes and have called for detainee rights for military prisoners and less earmarked spending.
McCain, in an interview, said he took Sununu along on international trips with him early in his Senate career because he saw him as “the future of the Republican Party” and believed he would be helped by exposure to that type of travel.
“I think he’s the smartest person in the United States Senate,” McCain said.
At 43, Sununu is the youngest member of the Senate; McCain is 71, a political veteran and the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting. McCain has speculated on a number of younger GOP lawmakers as potential running mates, and has mentioned Sununu’s name.
“They’re friends in the true sense of the word, not just political friends,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., McCain’s close buddy who traveled with McCain and Sununu to Beirut and Uzbekistan in May 2005. “You have political friends, and you have real friends.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says the friendship between Sununu and McCain is “grounded in their interest in political reform and democracy.”
Graham, 52, joined the Senate the same year as Sununu. Along with Collins, they became the core of McCain’s entourage shortly after.
“There is a camaraderie among the four of us,” said Collins, 55, who went to New Zealand and Antarctica with Sununu and McCain in 2006. “We have a common thirst for knowledge and a desire to learn firsthand about the public policy issues that we’re facing.”
Sununu and McCain also share a dry sense of humor and a taste for casual banter, Collins and Graham say.
“He’s got a New Hampshire sense of humor,” Graham said of Sununu. “From a South Carolina view I find it intriguing, a bit dry and witty. You have to listen close or you’ll get zinged.”
Independence in the Senate
In the Senate, Sununu has voted about 85 percent of the time with the GOP in the current Congress, basically in line with his fellow Republicans’ voting patterns. Democrats are using that statistic against him in the race with former New Hampshire governor Jeanne Shaheen.
“His record doesn’t show really any independence whatsoever,” said Alex Reese, a spokesman for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. “That shows that he’s just kind of rolling over for George Bush.”
The state’s Democratic Party accuses Sununu of failing to act on the three biggest issues facing New Hampshire: opposing help for middle-class families in the face of the sluggish economy, favoring a continuation of the Iraq war and voting against increased health care spending.
Nevertheless, Sununu has bucked the Republican Party and the Bush administration in his opposition to reauthorizing major parts of the Patriot Act in 2005, his efforts to block energy bills in 2003 and 2005, his call for former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to be fired and his support for giving legal rights to detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
“He has positioned himself as a maverick, meaning he’s pissed off both Republicans and Democrats in Washington,” professor Smith said.
Sununu does have somewhat of a reputation in the Senate for intellectual arrogance. He is persistent like McCain. “He has strong views and doesn’t hesitate to express them,” Republican Senator Judd Gregg said of Sununu.
But Sununu did not back off from remarking about McCain’s temper. “I’ve seen him very frustrated, even angry at times, but it was always over issues of principle, issues he felt passionate about, felt strongly about,” like earmarked spending, he said.
Standing up to the party to stick up for the state is what politicians should do, according to Sununu’s father, a former New Hampshire governor and chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush. “Politics is more fun when you do it that way,” John H. Sununu said.
“I think that’s why John likes being a senator so much,” he added. “He’s comfortable with the positions he’s taken.”
Those stances are more or less inspired by the advice McCain has given the first-term senator. When Sununu opposed the White House during the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, McCain warned him that he would be pressured to back down by his Republican colleagues but Sununu should do what he thought was right. “Those are the most difficult moments,” Sununu said.
“It’s quite obvious to me that John Sununu looks up to John McCain as a guy who’s really had a fascinating life and a great record as a U.S. senator,” said Warren Rudman, a former Republican senator from the Granite State who served with McCain and considers both senators friends of his. “And John McCain looks at John Sununu as a real up-and-coming guy with potential for the future.”
That may be why McCain hand-picked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained engineer just a few months after Sununu entered the Senate in 2003 as a travel companion to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel and other Asian countries. After that trip, the two flew on four other world tours from 2004 to 2006 to promote democratic ideals.
If the Arizonan is elected president this November, Sununu predicts, he will remain the same kind of person in the White House.
For Sununu’s own ambitions, he is young enough to postpone running for higher office for several years. As for a Cabinet position in a McCain presidency, Sununu said, “Look, if the president of the United States calls you and asks you to do something that he or she thinks is important to the country, you at least listen.”
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Supporting Obama, in Public and in Silence
PRIMARY
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
17 April 2008
WASHINGTON — New Hampshire’s two Democratic House members are marching down opposite paths in showing their support for presidential contender Barack Obama as the Pennsylvania primary looms.
Rep. Paul Hodes, who endorsed Obama in July, wants the contest between Obama and Hillary Clinton to be over. He said he has been wooing his fellow unpledged superdelegates, among them undeclared House Democrats who may ultimately decide who gets the party’s formal nod in August.
His counterpart, however, has been mute. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter has for two weeks declined to comment on the fierce battle for the Democratic nomination, even as supporters of both Obama and Clinton have made public their backing of the candidates leading up to the April 22 Pennsylvania vote.
Shea-Porter’s silence is not unheard of in this race. Last year, she vowed not to endorse any candidate unless a compelling reason surfaced. Both candidates vigorously sought her support, and she even dined with Bill and Hillary Clinton over the Labor Day weekend.
But she broke her neutrality in December when she backed Obama, citing his ability to inspire the “largest number of Americans to turn out for this critical election.”
To Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, the behavior of Hodes and Shea-Porter “is kind of consistent with the way they’ve been all along.”
Both Granite State freshmen were named national co-chairs for Obama’s campaign after their endorsements. What that nebulous role means is up to each of them. Whereas Shea-Porter has stayed in the shadows, Hodes has brought the competition to the corridors of the House.
“I’ve talked to numerous members, many of my colleagues,” Hodes said. “Press statements confirm a softening of Sen. Clinton’s superdelegates.”
Shea-Porter, meanwhile, issued this statement on April 17: “Like everybody else, I am watching this race closely, and I know that whichever Democrat emerges from this will make an excellent president. It is my hope that this will be determined before the convention.”
Clinton leads Obama in superdelegates, 254 to 230, a much narrower lead than she held months ago, according to the Associated Press. Including the pledged delegates, Obama is ahead of Clinton, 1,644 to 1,504.
When asked how he is persuading the uncommitted superdelegates, Hodes said, “Those are trade secrets.”
Shea-Porter’s reluctance to discuss the race may be indicative of her vulnerability in November. “She’s got other things to worry about, frankly, like keeping her seat,” Scala said.
The Pennsylvania primary may not determine the nominee immediately, but it could cast a bleak pall over the Clinton camp if she merely scrapes by in a state she was once expected to take in a landslide. The fight for the nomination may well come down to the party’s convention in August, where Clinton would have to persuade the superdelegates to choose her over Obama even if she trails him in both popular votes and pledged delegates.
“I have great respect for Sen. Clinton, who is a tough campaigner,” Hodes said. “I know how difficult it would be for her to end her campaign.”
The heated battle for the nomination reached a new point of tension in late March as Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, a party elder and Obama supporter, called for Clinton to quit. “There is no way that Sen. Clinton is going to win enough delegates to get the nomination,” Leahy told Vermont Public Radio. “She ought to withdraw and she ought to be backing Sen. Obama.”
The New Hampshire Democratic Party, like its counterparts across the country, is staying out of the fistfight and anxiously waiting for a clear leader to emerge. On Jan. 8, Granite State voters narrowly chose Clinton over Obama, though they each earned nine pledged delegates in the primary.
“It’s still very early,” Ray Buckley, chairman of the state’s Democratic Party, said recently. “Very rarely in the past have we known the nominee at this point.”
When asked if it is right for Obama supporters to urge Clinton to quit the race, Buckley said, “Everyone has their own reason for what they have to do.”
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GOP Senators Call for Stronger Economy Instead of Higher Taxes
TAXES
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
15 April 2008
WASHINGTON — While Americans finished filing their tax forms by Tuesday’s deadline, Republicans in Congress were filing statements slamming the Democratic budget they say would hit millions of people with $1.2 trillion in taxes.
Using the credit crisis and weak economy as talking points, Senate Republicans said Tuesday that Americans need a stronger economy instead of higher taxes.
“Instead of trying to generate more revenue at the expense of the family budget, the Democratic Congress should focus on tax incentives to stimulate the economy, address the housing credit crisis and create jobs,” Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said in a statement issued before a press conference.
Republicans also are attacking the Democratic plan by highlighting the amounts millions of taxpayers will pay beginning in 2010 if the tax plan is included in the budget that becomes law. They point out that each year, on average, 43 million families would pay $2,300 more, 18 million seniors would pay $2,200 more and 27 million small businesses would pay $4,100 more.
“It’s very expensive for the American people to have this Democratic Congress,” Gregg said.
Democrats say the tax increases that would result from letting current tax cuts expire as scheduled are targeted at the rich, though Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said they also would hurt single workers making at least $34,000 and couples earning at least $60,000.
“It makes no sense that they’re rich,” McConnell said.
Republicans have been calling for tax relief to stimulate the economy in light of the credit crisis and the drop in consumer spending. “We should be helping the economy,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, adding that tax increases will be a major issue leading up to the November elections.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., called for a new tax code with simple rules instead of the current system that changes each year and has different instructions for taxpayers who itemize deductions, those who don’t, and those who pay the alternative minimum tax, which was originally targeted at rich people and businesses eligible for many tax benefits but which now casts a far wider net.
Echoing conservative concerns on spending, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., called for a federal flat tax that would give taxpayers the option of filing a one-page tax return with a 19 percent rate for two years and a 17 percent rate thereafter.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats assailed the war in Iraq for sucking tax dollars away from the economy. The war has cost more than $500 billion since 2003, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and is estimated to total $1 trillion to $3 trillion or more by the time it ends.
“Taxpayers think their money is going to Washington, but it’s really going to Baghdad,” said Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill., at a press conference.
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Renewable-Energy Tax Credits Pass in Housing Bill
RENEWABLES
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
10 April 2008
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday passed a bipartisan bill to ease the strain of the housing crisis on homeowners while giving tax breaks to consumers of renewable energies.
The energy provisions would give $6 billion in tax incentives for the purchase of alternative energy sources like solar, wind and biomass. Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., backed the measure last week and added a provision that would give tax credits for buying wood pellet stoves, which are more efficient than gas heaters and are popular in New England.
Many senators supported the legislation as a way of moving the country away from its reliance on foreign energy. The Senate bill includes extension of a deadline through 2009 for consumers to claim credits on clean energy sources.
The 88 votes for the energy amendment, added to the broader bill that addresses the current housing crisis, “shows there is a lot of consensus,” Sununu said in an interview outside the Senate chamber.
The entire bill is expected to be rehashed in the House, where a different plan is being considered. Despite overwhelming support in the Senate, critics say its version is tilted toward home builders and other businesses, and not borrowers, inadequately addressing the housing crisis.
Even supporters of the bill have said it has flaws. “It is not a perfect bill,” Sununu said, adding that its most important provision modernizes the Federal Housing Administration and requires homeowner counseling.
“Information is of enormous value,” said Sununu, who has held several workshops in New Hampshire to educate homeowners about financing homes and the risk of foreclosures.
At a press conference after the bill passed, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the energy amendment can stay intact in the House if it is considered as a second economic stimulus, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has favored. Cantwell, one of the authors of the amendment, said the supporters of the legislation would be happy with “any vehicle” to move it quickly through the House.
The energy amendment passed, 88-8, and the larger housing bill by 84-12. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., voted for the energy measure but against the housing bill, saying it would create billions of dollars in federal debt for “ineffective programs” and “special-interest handouts.”
“Considering the billions in debt it will pass onto the backs of our children, this bill does very little to stimulate the economy and address our nation’s housing problems,” Gregg said in a statement. “I cannot support this bill in spite of its positive aspects and will continue working on more effective solutions for our economic slowdown.”
The White House also opposes the bill, saying it would lower home values and aid lenders who are blamed for a dramatic spike in foreclosures.
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U.S. Office Needed in Tibet, Gregg Says
TIBET
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
9 April 2008
WASHINGTON — Sen. Judd Gregg on Wednesday urged the secretary of state to consider opening a U.S. consulate in the capital of Tibet, where China has cracked down on protests and jailed demonstrating Buddhist monks who are calling for human rights and the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.
Gregg, R-N.H., pressed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a Senate hearing to open an office in Lhasa and to bar any new Chinese consulates in the United States.
“It just seems to me that with all this going on there, it’s reasonable that we should open a consulate office there and maybe limit the ability of the Chinese government to open further consulate offices in the United States until they give us the right to put a consulate in that part of their country,” said Gregg, a member of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
Rice said the administration is “looking at the possibility of a consulate in Tibet.”
Gregg said in an interview that he has been closely following what is happening in Tibet.
“I can remember when I was in grade school, in fact, when Tibet was invaded by the Chinese and the Dalai Lama fled,” he said. “If we want to make a statement, and I think we should, about opposing the oppression that’s going on in Tibet and putting the Chinese on notice that we feel its wrong, one way to do that is by saying we want a consulate open there.”
Monks began demonstrating near Lhasa in March as they condemned China’s 57-year rule of Tibet, bringing attention to a country that has tried to combat criticism from human rights groups as it prepares to host the Summer Olympics.
“The United States has been very active in making the case to the Chinese that they are going to be better off to deal with moderate forces on Tibet, like the Dalai Lama, that they should open dialogue with him,” Rice said at the committee’s hearing on the State Department’s budget.
Rice said she had asked for access for diplomats in Tibet and was given limited access. “But, frankly, it wasn’t good enough,” she said.
Meanwhile, three senators put forth a resolution on Monday saying China should not be allowed to operate diplomatically in the United States until a U.S. office is opened in Lhasa.
And in the House Wednesday, Congress almost unanimously passed a resolution demanding that China stop quashing protests in Tibet and asking for the release of jailed Tibetans. The resolution, authored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., passed 413 to 1. Ron Paul, R-Texas, voted no.
Activists are using the August Olympics as a platform for railing against China’s human rights record. On Monday, protesters scaled the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and hung signs reading “Free Tibet” from the national landmark.
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Durham Soil Scientist Likes the Challenges of Working in Afghanistan
DOMIAN PROFILE
New Hampshire Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
April 9, 2008
WASHINGTON — This isn’t the first time Gary Domian has seen the suicide bombings, the starving children and the void in education that pervade war-torn Afghanistan.
And it might not be his last, either.
Domian, a 58-year-old soil scientist from Durham working for the U.S. Agriculture Department, has spent the past year creating civic projects and rebuilding the agricultural infrastructure in Farah, a province in western Afghanistan, and Kabul, the capital. In 2004, after volunteering, he spent six months doing similar work in the southern Kandahar Province.
In Afghanistan, he has worked with local farmers who are adapting to new methods but are restricted by a rigid social system in which many men are uncomfortable with women contributing anything to society that is outside their traditional roles.
Tragedy has struck at least twice while Domian has been in Afghanistan on his second tour, which was to end in December but was extended until the end of April. A 20-year-old agricultural adviser with whom Domian and other civilian workers had become friends, Tom Stefani, died after an explosion hit his convoy in October. The impact of the loss extended beyond the Americans — “the Afghans were absolutely heartbroken when we lost this guy,” Domian said in a telephone interview from Kabul.
Domian also learned of his 89-year-old father’s death last April. “My dad and I said ‘goodbye’ when I left,” he said. “It’s just something else you have to be prepared to deal with when you’re here. Life is different here.”
At the same time that services for his father were held in New Hampshire, Domian and his friends in Afghanistan held private services and readings.
Domian said he talks occasionally with his mother in Manchester, where he was born and raised with his two brothers and sister and attended Bishop Bradley High School, now Trinity High School.
“Every night I go to bed and pray that he’ll be safe the next day,” said his mother, Gloria Domian, 88.
It was around the seventh grade, she said, that she noticed her son’s interest in the environment. She remembers his observing the dirt outside their house and asking his father, Walter, “Can you see how different this soil is from that?”
“My husband used to come in shaking his head, saying, ‘I don’t know about that,’ ” Mrs. Domian said.
Domian graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1973 with a degree in soil and water sciences — not exactly a diploma that guarantees adventure. But in is career at the Agriculture Department, his life has not been dull.
He has helped rebuild communities in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina left the city practically destroyed. In 1998, he volunteered to aid communities in the Dominican Republic after Hurricane George. He also has spent six years in Indonesia and worked in Taiwan and Thailand.
“I like the challenges,” he said. “I’m 58 years old, and this makes me feel like I’m 18. It’s that good.”
The Agriculture Department has 32 advisers like Domian in Afghanistan and Iraq, though it anticipates 15 will be added this year. Each reconstruction team the advisers are assigned to contains between 50 and 100 people — half providing security and half working on projects.
Those who have worked with Domian say they weren’t surprised when he volunteered to help rebuild Afghan communities. “Gary is a very impressive fellow, but he doesn’t try to be impressive. He is because of his knowledge,” said Otto Gonzalez, 52, a team leader among the economists and specialists who work in the Foreign Agricultural Service. Gonzalez worked with Domian in the Dominican Republic and has flown to Afghanistan several times to work with the reconstruction teams there.
“This is in Gary’s heart,” said George Cleek, his supervisor in Durham: “to take what we do as an agency to those who don’t have that access, and offer them that basic technical help to sustain themselves. This is his nature, his true calling.”
Domian said he always wanted to be a forester. At UNH, he became a student trainee in soil science, in part because he enjoys the outdoors. “It is the one thing that I’ve been able to capitalize on in my entire career,” he said.
Some of the projects in Farah involve teaching women how to keep bees and store honey, and educating high school students on the importance of irrigation by building greenhouses and growing crops. He has taught women raising poultry how to build chicken coops out of mud.
“It gets women working together and really does something for the community,” Domian said. “In the backyard, these coops — all painted white, with chickens all running around in the yard — they’re proud as heck to show you their coop.”
Domian also told President Bush of his progress with those projects in a video conference in mid-March, along with 10 other military and civilian leaders. “I was proud as hell,” he said. “It just makes me proud to be here.”
When Domian told Cleek he was volunteering to go to Afghanistan for a second time, Cleek said he could not say no. “If you were to listen to Gary, he’s like a 24-year-old graduating from college and eager to start a new job. His eyes just light up, he glows, he has this unbelievable aura,” Cleek said. “This is what he wants to do, and you can’t say ‘no.’”
Cleek, 44, described Domian’s role in Durham as his “right-hand person” who advised him on countless decisions.
“Gary knows the who, what, where, when and why of New Hampshire and gave me the right advice to make the right decisions,” he said. “Whether it’s local partners, right staffing decisions, who to send to the right training, Gary has that in-depth knowledge that I didn’t have.”
As much as he has given to those he has worked with, Domian may not know the extent to which people thank him.
“It’s a pleasure to get e-mail and communications from Gary to know that he’s still safe and he’s still alive,” Cleek said. “It is a grave concern for me, and I ask him every time that we communicate to keep his head down and come back safe to New Hampshire, because that’s really what we want.”
He added, “Right now, I want Gary to come back in April. Right now.”
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Sununu Backs Tax Credits for Renewable-Energy Use
ENERGY
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
3 April 2008
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. John Sununu on Thursday threw his support behind a bipartisan bill aimed at encouraging the use of renewable and efficient energy sources by offering billions of dollars in tax incentives.
The bill’s sponsors also agreed to accept a Sununu provision that would give a 10 percent tax credit for the purchase of wood-pellet stoves — heaters that burn more efficiently than gas stoves and are becoming increasingly popular in New Hampshire. Sununu had advocated the tax break in previous legislation.
The bill, sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and John Ensign, R-Nev., also would extend the existing tax credit for renewable electricity generated from alternate sources, including solar, wind and biomass. At a Senate press conference, Cantwell said the bill would cost $6 billion over 10 years.
“The bill makes good sense for New Hampshire, where our wood, biomass and wood- pellet industries here have provided jobs across the state,” said Sununu, who added himself as a co-sponsor of the legislation, which he called “commonsense.”
The Granite State needs the incentives for the wood pellets, Sununu said, because it cannot benefit as much from other energy sources as other states do, such as western states that make ample use of wind energy.
Wood pellets, a form of biomass, are a dense fuel made from sawdust that can be efficiently combusted because of their uniform size and shape. They have gained popularity in Europe, which burns 8 million tons of pellets a year, because they are seen as a practical way of limiting the effects of climate change.
The provision for the wood-pellet stoves was praised by Steve Walker, president of New England Wood Pellet in Jaffrey, who said he is “grateful for Sen. Sununu’s dogged determination in securing a modest tax credit provision for high-efficiency, clean-burning biomass heating appliances,” according to a release from the senator’s office.
Many senators said the legislation is necessary to move the United States off of its dependence on foreign energy sources. If it is passed, an existing deadline would be extended through 2009 for taxpayers to claim credits for using renewable and clean energy sources, which also include geothermal, small irrigation power, landfill gas, trash combustion and hydropower.
What makes the legislation somewhat unusual is its support from both parties; six Democrats and 14 Republicans have added their names to it. Cantwell and Ensign, flanked by a handful of senators from both parties on Thursday, praised the support and said it represents an overdue cause.
“The legislation provides an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to work together
and enact legislation to further extend incentives for individuals, families and businesses to use renewable energy sources,” Sununu said.
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Congress’s Pork Spending Revealed in Pig Book
PORK
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
2 April 2008
WASHINGTON — New Hampshire’s lawmakers brought home the bacon — or pork — last year, sending millions of dollars to the Granite State as Congress continued to use taxpayer money to fund 11,610 pet projects, a watchdog group announced Wednesday.
Congress spent $17.2 billion on pork, a 30 percent increase from last year, according to the Citizens Against Government Waste, which unveiled its annual “Pig Book” detailing the biggest ventures of the 2008 fiscal year.
Tom Schatz, president of the citizens group, said this year the good news is that most of the bills have more information about the projects and the names of members who sponsored them. Yet 464 undisclosed projects still totaled $3.4 billion, he said.
Schatz and six Republicans (and a person in a bright-pink pig suit) who flanked him at a press conference all called for more transparency in the earmark process. “Legislation may not make this happen as soon as shame and embarrassment,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
The Pig Book defines pork as spending that meets at least one of seven criteria: requested by only one chamber of Congress; not specifically authorized; not competitively awarded; not requested by the president; greatly exceeds the president’s budget request; not the subject of congressional hearings; and serves only a local or special interest.
For New Hampshire, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg was the biggest porker with $93.8 million for 63 projects. Gregg, the senior minority member of the Budget Committee, joined 70 senators last month in rejecting a resolution, proposed by DeMint, that would have prohibited earmarked spending for a year.
“Earmarks for New Hampshire that I have supported have consistently fallen within the terms and requirements of strict budgetary discipline,” Gregg said in a statement to the Union Leader, touting his efforts to fund university research and conserve wetlands and forests. “I have worked hard to keep taxpayers informed about where their dollars are being spent, which is why I am committed to full transparency in the earmark process.”
The state’s other Republican senator, John Sununu, secured $69.4 million in 36 projects, including some for improving information technology at hospitals and providing housing for homeless veterans in Manchester and Nashua. Sununu, the newest member of the Finance Committee, voted with 28 senators in favor of the nonbinding resolution.
“We should have rules that prevent items from being inserted … at the last minute,” Sununu said in an interview. “Requests should be made early, vetted through the process and go through bills on either the House or Senate side.”
In per capita spending, New Hampshire placed near the middle at 28th, a significant drop from its 11th-place spot last year. The book totals the state’s pork at $42 million, but that figure does not include multiple-state and some other projects.
New Hampshire’s freshman House members — Democrats Paul Hodes ($35.5 million for 35 projects) and Carol Shea-Porter ($41.9 million for 29) — brought home more than the average representative but not nearly as much as their Senate counterparts.
“New Hampshire’s tax dollars should be spent in New Hampshire, and I will continue my work to bring greater transparency and accountability to the earmark process with further reform,” Hodes said in a statement to the Union Leader.
Among Hodes’s earmarks are funds for BAE Systems in Nashua to improve the missile-warning systems in Army helicopters and money to help Franklin revitalize its downtown area with sidewalks, lighting, fencing and trees. He also gave credit to Gregg for helping secure funds for economic development, education and jobs.
The arguments seem to be made every year, with most members of Congress denouncing wasteful spending but at the same time siphoning off money in the federal budget for home-state projects. President Bush has called earmarking a “secretive process” and has urged changing it. All three presidential candidates have vowed to fight earmarks if elected.
As two live pigs scuffled next to reporters at Wednesday’s press conference at the National Press Club, Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., said it is the responsibility of citizens “outside the beltway” to demand that Congress be more accountable with taxpayer dollars. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., said there is a “lack of congressmen and senators who want to stop wasteful spending.”
And Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee, said the 2008 Pig Book shows “the priorities of Congress are to pick pork over paychecks.”
Republican Jeff Flake, however, admitted it was his party that “built earmark into what it is,” referring to the 12 years the GOP ran Congress. “We’ve been awful at this,” the Arizona representative said.
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Office of Congressional Ethics is a Win for Hodes’s Cause
ETHICS
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
27 March 2008
WASHINGTON — Before he was elected to Congress, Democrat Paul Hodes ran on a message of wanting to rid Capitol Hill of corrupt politics. More than a year into his first term in the House, Hodes has acted on that message and helped pass a resolution that will create an independent panel to investigate actions of House members.
It will be the first time non-members will get to review misconduct of those who make up Congress. Hodes spoke in favor of establishing the office before Congress took a two-week recess in mid-March. He said it represents “another step that the Democrats have taken to clean up Washington.”
The new Office of Congressional Ethics, slated to be functional in July, will include three members appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and three by Minority Leader John Boehner. None may be current House members, federal employees or lobbyists.
The resolution was passed the night of March 11 as Democrats, led by Pelosi, scrambled for just enough votes to win on a parliamentary procedure allowing them to avoid Republicans’ efforts to thwart the proposal. The final vote was 229-182, as several GOP members threw their support behind the Democrats so they would not appear to have opposed an ethics office come Election Day.
Hodes, a former prosecutor, had asked Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., the legislation’s sponsor, to give the panel the ability to issue subpoenas, but his request was denied. Hodes argued it would strengthen the authority of the panel, which will make recommendations to an already-established House Ethics Committee, which has subpoena power.
“We didn’t believe that the power was necessary,” said Capuano, the chairman of a task force that considered the new office’s creation. He said the House may consider adding the power after reviewing the panel’s actions in about a year.
Both Capuano and Hodes said the members of the new panel could include former House members (who must be out of Congress one year before being eligible to serve), professors of law or politics and current and retired judges.
“The important factors are experience with the realities of political life, ability to understand the ethical rules and the landscape on Capitol Hill, and fairness and objectivity,” Hodes said.
Ethics in Washington has long been a lightning rod for critics who say some of the country’s elected officials are corrupt. Recent investigations have involved former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, former GOP Rep. Mark Foley and Democratic Rep. Alan Mollohan, once the senior Democrat on the Ethics Committee.
Nearly two dozen current members of Congress are under investigation for charges that range from roles in the firings of U.S. attorneys to ties to Jack Abramoff, the convicted lobbyist and businessman.
“We need to show the American people that we are serious about cleaning up Washington,” Hodes said. “An outside ethics panel is a good step in doing that.”
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No Easy Solutions Seen For Financial Crisis
CRISIS
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
20 March 2008
WASHINGTON — Brought on by a shaky housing market and subprime mortgages, the financial crisis — which may force thousands of New Hampshire residents from their homes over the next year — has no easy solution, economists and politicians concede.
Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., and Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., in an effort to spread information about mortgages and regulations, have held separate meetings in the state that have attracted handfuls of homeowners worried about the spiking number of foreclosures.
In Washington, meanwhile, Congress has passed a bill designed to boost the economy by giving families quick cash this spring.
“It is a one-time shot in the arm for the economy,” said Hodes, who sits on the Financial Services Committee. “That’s the design of an economic stimulus package.”
But more needs to be done, Hodes said, such as passing another stimulus bill that would give aid to state governments experiencing “tremendous contractions” in revenue and increasing costs for state-run programs like Medicaid. Extending insurance for the jobless also would inject money into the economy quickly, he said.
Sununu, who said the country is in a recession, is calling for Congress to pass bills that would let the Federal Housing Administration extend programs to eligible homeowners and help consumers refinance their credit. Tax credits for families who purchase troubled homes would help move the market as well, he said.
“In an economic slowdown, the worst thing we can do is raise taxes,” said Sununu, the newest member of the Finance Committee.
It is difficult to predict an end to what many economists are calling a recession, though some estimate the crisis could continue for 12 to 18 months.
“History says we’ll come out of this,” said Ross Gittell, a University of New Hampshire professor who analyzes 10-year projections of economic development in the state and New England. “Not to say people won’t suffer, but it’s not the end of the economy.”
“Everybody is going to be affected by what seems to be a recession in the U.S. economy, the slowdown,” Gittell said. “Retail sales, and consumer spending, that’s affecting employment in the job market, and people’s economic prospects.”
The economic downturn began when the housing market was strong and consumers took on improperly regulated loans created to expand buying, Gittell said. The assumption was that housing prices would go up forever, especially in the last few years of the strong market, he said.
Now lawmakers in Washington are trying to ease the burden on families hurt by subprime mortgages by passing legislation designed to boost the economy. “Policy can help alleviate suffering and pain and help certain segments,” Gittell said.
Although New Hampshire families may fare better than those in other parts of the country because of the state’s “frugal approach” to spending, Hodes said, the middle class took a hit when wages remained stagnant and housing prices began to drop.
“What we’re experiencing in some ways is what you’d call a perfect storm,” he said, adding that about 4,300 homes in the Granite State will be foreclosed by the end of 2009.
Congress’s role in solving the credit crisis, however, is debatable. The House and Senate can pass bills to force federal agencies — like the Securities and Exchange Commission — to change mortgage and finance policies. but the legislation could have unintended consequences, Hodes said.
“Legislation is the tool of last resort in some ways,” he said, though he said the regulatory roles may have to be defined for the SEC and the Treasury Department.
Congress should, however, deal with parts of the problem, like giving better health insurance prices to small businesses and confronting the housing crisis, Sununu said. “They’re all different situations we face, and we can find different solutions in each of these areas,” he said.
To stimulate the economy, lawmakers should address the “roots” of the problem, like helping families facing foreclosure and creating jobs by “investing in tax and regulatory relief efforts,” said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., in a statement.
New Hampshire’s other Democratic House member, Carol Shea-Porter, was on a trip to Iraq and did not respond by press time.
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