Category: Victoria Ekstrom
Collins Urges Baldacci to Request Real ID Extension
Real ID
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/29/2008
WASHINGTON – In a letter Friday, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, urged Gov. John Baldacci to request an extension for the state’s complying with the federal Real ID Act, which establishes national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses.
“Unless Maine requests this extension, thousands of Maine residents will experience substantial delays at airports and may have difficulty accessing federal buildings,” Collins said in the letter.
Maine is one of four states – the others being Montana, South Carolina and New Hampshire – that has not applied for an extension. States have until March 31 to seek an extension. Nationally, the switch-over to the new IDs would not be complete until 2017, but stringent rules would apply as early as May 11 to driver’s license-holders from states that do are not complying with the law and have not sought a waiver. Such an extension would give states until the end of 2009 before they would need to start issuing new licenses.
The stakes for many Mainers include personal privacy concerns versus potentially having to go through extra layers of security when traveling by airplane or entering federal buildings.
The Real ID Act has sparked debate throughout the country since it was signed into law three years ago, but more so leading up to its official release of the rules of implementation from the Department of Homeland Security on Jan. 11.
“It took two years and eight months to draft the rules and we participated in that process,” Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said. “But they didn’t heed any of the advice, so it’s not like it was that productive of an exercise. The final rule is not that different from the outset.”
There are many points everyone agrees on, Collins said, making it clear that some form of secured driver’s licenses is necessary, but states are still concerned over privacy and cost.
In terms of privacy, Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, said she questioned the tracking technology that will allow states to cross-check if a cardholder has a card in more than one state. Despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security said the system was very secure and the federal government does not collect the information, Bellows said she has doubts.
“The federal government has a horrible track record in data security,” Bellows said. “It has allowed, either by accident or fraudulently, people’s identity to be exposed.”
Dunlap said that privacy concerns have played an important role in Maine’s opposition to the act.
No matter what assurances are given by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Dunlap said, “Once you create that concern, Secretary Chertoff saying it’s not one doesn’t make it not one.”
For example, Dunlap said, if a man buys a gun in Maine he would need to swipe his ID card, which would create a record of his purchasing the gun. Then, if on his way to Massachusetts to a Red Sox game he got pulled over by police for speeding, the Massachusetts police would swipe his card and see he’s a gun owner and if they asked where he was going would know that he is on his way to Fenway Park.
“Is that reason to search?” asked Dunlap. Dunlap said he thinks it is and that situations like this show the privacy concerns Maine’s legislature is considering.
Even with the privacy concern addressed, there is still the issue of cost.
The Homeland Security Department recently re-estimated the cost of the program to be nearly $4 billion over 10 years, $10 billion less than its original estimate. Congress appropriated $90 million to implement the program. States argue that the administration and Congress are not doing enough to help states with the cost.
“Taxpayers in Maine alone would have to pay $180 million to comply with its requirements,” Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, said.
Governors at the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington in February voted unanimously for full federal funding of Real ID. While Homeland Security says the issuance of driver’s licenses is a state responsibility, the governors say that because it is a federal mandate it should be paid for by federal dollars.
Laura Keehner, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the federal government is not making the Real ID a requirement, but “citizens in states that have not filed for an extension can expect to spend a lot longer in line at the airport.”
Maine’s state legislature passed a bipartisan resolution last year prohibiting the state from implementing Real ID. The resolution passed 171 to 4, making Maine the first state to pass a measure against the act. Five states followed Maine’s lead.
Now, Maine officials are not sure they can legally apply for an extension because of this resolution, although they aren’t sure they would want to apply for the extension regardless because of the overwhelming sentiment against the act in the state legislature and because the two major problems – cost and privacy concerns – have not been solved.
“Given the interest in the legislature in staying out of this, I want to be careful how we proceed,” Dunlap said “Members are still quite comfortable with their vote against Real ID.”
The act stemmed from recommendations by the Department of Homeland Security’s 9/11 Commission report urging the federal government to make state driver’s licenses more secure after finding that some of the 9/11 terrorists had acquired multiple driver’s licenses and different forms of identification under false names and were able to board the planes that flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In response to the commission’s recommendations, Collins and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which she then chaired, drafted the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 that would have implemented the commission’s recommendations by establishing a committee of federal and state representatives and technology experts to set mandates.
But before the legislation could be passed, the House put through legislation that repealed the Senate’s language and set the standards for the Real ID Act. There were no hearings or debates in the Senate in regards to the House bill. In fact, the House brought the bill to the Senate floor through an emergency defense spending bill, giving the Senate no opportunity to revert to the original Senate language or repeal the act.
“I don’t think Real ID was the solution. I think the solution was the language I wrote and I think it was wrong of the House to slip this into a defense spending bill,” Collins said in an interview. “But there is an immediate crisis looming on the horizon. If the state doesn’t take advantage of the extension as of May 11 Mainers who have only driver’s licenses, who don’t have passport or some other form of identification, are going to have a very difficult time traveling on airplanes because they’re going to have to undergo a secondary screening, causing increases in waiting time.”
Allen said that the Department of Homeland Security needs to be stopped from enforcing secondary searches. “I don’t believe they’re going to do that,” Allen said, “but what it takes is the entire delegation fighting for that proposition.”
Allen, who is challenging Collins for reelection in November, introduced legislation in the House in February of last year to repeal Real ID and begin the process again to better involve the states.
“Here’s what we should be doing,” Allen said. “We shouldn’t be postponing implementation until 2017. We should be working now to develop regulations through working groups consisting of state officials. We need to protect national security and the civil liberties of Americans. Pushing off Real ID doesn’t do that. We need to buckle down now.”
Allen said his legislation is “the same sort of idea” as the one Collins had originally proposed, but, he said, she now wants to “kick the can down the road and deal with it later,” by applying for an extension, he said. “I believe we should deal with it now.”
But Collins said that starting all over will take more time. “I don’t think it makes sense to pretend we can wind back the clock to four years ago when we do have a problem with people who are not in this country legally and people who are not residents of Maine who can get driver’s licenses and board planes and enter federal buildings,” Collins said. “There is a real problem here and it’s a problem that needs to be fixed.”
An example of the “problem” both Allen and Collins refer to occurred in Maine in 2006. Niall Clarke, an Irish citizen on a visa in the United States obtained a driver’s license, bought a gun, pointed it at Bank of America bank tellers in Bangor on Oct. 4, 2006 and stole $10,000.
Dunlap said it appears the extensions are Homeland Security’s way of pushing off Real ID to the next administration and Congress is going to have to deal with Real ID whether they deal with it now or in 2009.
“Homeland Security knows it won’t work because they forecast it will take until 2017,” Allen said. “So they’re tacitly recognizing it’s not working.”
By requesting a waiver, Allen said the state will lose the position to object and refuse to comply in the future.
Collins said requesting the extension does not commit Maine to the program and will save citizens from “aggravation, inconvenience, and frustration.”
Bush Greets World Series Champs
White House
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/27/08
WASHINGTON—A Marine Corps band’s rendition of “Sweet Caroline” set the tone as baseball’s 2007 World Champs reunited on Wednesday. It was no Fenway Park, but the team smiled just as proud as President Bush greeted them at the White House.
“Red Sox Nation extends beyond the South Lawn, extends beyond New England,” Bush told more than 1,000 boisterous fans far from home but just as cold on this chilly February afternoon. “It obviously goes to the Caribbean and even the Far East.”
In good spirits, Bush welcomed some players individually.
“We welcome Japan's Daisuke here to the South Lawn,” Bush said. “His press corps is bigger than mine. And we both have trouble answering questions in English.”
“And how about Jonathan Papelbon. The guy pitches almost as well as he dances,” the president said, referring to the pitcher’s notorious jig wearing underwear after the team won the American League East. “And I appreciate the dress code. Thanks for wearing pants.”
Excited to have this “once in a lifetime” experience, was center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who began his 2007 baseball season with the Portland Sea Dogs, a Red Sox minor league affiliate, before being called up to the major league mid-season. Ellsbury playedwith the Sea Dogs in 2006 and for17 games in 2007.
“From the moment he joined us in 2006 he had major league all-star written all over him,” Sea Dogs spokesman Chris Cameron said.
Ellsbury and six playoff teammates are former Sea Dogs, including Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester, Manny Delcarmen, Kevin Youkilis and Josh Beckett, who played in 2001 when the Sea Dogs were owned by the Florida Marlins.
The players went from the White House to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It was starting pitcher Jon Lester’s first time at the facility.
“I'm only 24 years old and I'm seeing kids younger than me with no legs and one arm. It definitely opens up your eyes,” Lester said in a telephone interview. “It wakes you up and makes you realize that everything there is real and there's a war going on.”
It’s the team’s second trip to the White House in three years, following the World Series victory in 2004. Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, Tim Wakefield, Curt Schilling and Jason Varitek are among those who made their second visit on Wednesday.
Boston University Washington News Service reporter Matt Negrin contributed to this story.
Senate Passes Bill to Improve American Indian Health Care
Native Americans
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/26/08
WASHINGTON— The Senate Tuesday passed an act aimed at improving health care programs and facilities for American Indians, bringing help to more than 7,000 in Maine alone.
“This is finally a step in the right direction,” said Patricia Knox-Nicola, health director for the Penobscot Nation. “We’ve spent eight years working hard nationally to get this passed.”
The Indian Health Care Improvement Act was originally passed in 1976 and acknowledged that the United States had a legal obligation to provide health care for American Indians. The act expires every 10 years and last expired in 2000. Though the programs within the act were funded since then through annual appropriations of about $3 billion, there have been no changes or updates to the law.
The changes are “long overdue,” said John Dieffenbacher-Krall, executive director of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission.
The bill reauthorizing the act, sponsored by Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chair Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., adds scholarships to encourage American Indians to become doctors, nurses and health care workers; improves access to health care and to local clinics; expands drug, mental health and sexual abuse programs; and creates and updates health clinics, substance abuse centers and sanitation facilities in tribal communities.
“This legislation is very important to the health and well being of Native Americans,” said Dorgan, “It is also an important step in meeting our obligation to provide adequate health care for American Indian and Alaskan Native communities.”
American Indians have a lower health status when compared to other Americans. Nationwide, the number of American Indians who die from alcoholism is 550 percent higher than other Americans, diabetes is 200 percent higher, homicides is 100 percent higher and suicides are 60 percent higher, according to the federal Indian Health Service.
The life expectancy for American Indians is 74.5 years but life expectancy for all other U.S. citizens is 76.9 years. Maine’s American Indians die on average at the age of 60, as opposed to the state-wide average of 74, according to a study by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The report points to inadequate funding and a lack of accessibility to health facilities as possible explanations for the problems American Indians face in Maine.
“The health disparities that Indians across the country experience are huge and that isn’t any different in Maine either. In fact, we may be higher,” said Elizabeth Neptune, a Passamaquoddy tribal council member and the tribe’s former health director. “A lot of our population is under 35. Only 10 percent is elderly.”
Neptune explained that “elderly” means 55 or over. The age was lowered from 65 to 55 because so few tribal members make it to their 65th birthday.
Yet while Maine’s American Indians experience is equal to, if not worse than, such health disparities nationwide, Neptune said, they receive less money to build new facilities.
The facility-funding formula used by the Indian Health Service allots money based on the age and condition of a health care facility, costs of repair, location of the facility and the number of persons being served. Using these factors as guidelines, the Indian Health Service places tribal areas on a priority list, forcing them to compete for facility funding.
Maine is in one of four tribal areas that have received no facility funding from the Indian Health Service since 1991, according to an Indian Health Service funding chart.
There are five health clinics in Maine and more than 600 in the United States. The ages of Maine’s clinics range from 30 to less than five years, but the number of people using them is increasing. Maine’s American Indian population has increased from about 4,000 in 1980 to more than 7,000 today, according to the Census Bureau.
“The tribes are going out and getting loans to expand or renovate facilities because IHS [Indian Health Service] is so far behind in allocating for construction,” said Knox-Nicola of the Penobscot tribe.
This may change with Monday’s 56-38 passage of an amendment sponsored by Sens. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that provides an alternative method for funding the building and renovating of health care facilities for those having trouble gaining funding from the Indian Health Service.
“I am extremely pleased that the voices of over 400 tribes were heard today in an effort to end the inequity in the distribution of construction funding for Indian health care facilities,” Smith said in a statement. “With passage of my amendment, regardless of where a tribe is located, the government will fulfill its responsibility to improve access and care throughout all of Indian Country with the fair and equitable distribution of facilities funding.”
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, both voted for the act and Smith’s amendment.
The cost of the reauthorized 2008 Indian Health Care Improvement Act is about $118 million for direct spending and $35 billion in discretionary spending from 2008 through 2017, according to Dorgan’s office.
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Baldacci Tackles Education Issues at National Governors Meeting
NGA
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/24/08
WASHINGTON— Gov. John Baldacci, D-Maine, along with governors from throughout the country, tackled education issues at a national meeting of governors on Sunday.
“I think as governors we have a very big responsibility when it comes to education,” Baldacci said in an interview. “It really can have an impact both in terms of our states’ and our nation’s future.”
Baldacci is a member of the Education, Early Childhood and Workforce Committee within the National Governors Association, which held its annual winter meeting this weekend in Washington.
At the meeting of the committee Sunday morning, the governors heard from Pedro Noguera, executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University. Despite mandates enforced by No Child Left Behind, Noguera told the panel, “we are still leaving kids behind.”
The common problem that all failing schools encounter is poverty, Noguera said, and inadequate healthcare, social problems and a lack of support at home impact education.
“These children don’t see education as a way to get out of poverty because it hasn’t worked for their parents,” he said.
But poverty shouldn’t be an impediment because poor-area schools are excelling, Noguera said. “If we put kids in an environment that affirms their dignity and affirms their pride they really can overcome.”
Education is the single best factor in raising the poverty level, Gov. Bill Ritter, D-Colo., said. But the key, Baldacci said, is parental involvement and early education.
“You can teach them how to brush their teeth at school, but if they don’t practice at home it doesn’t do anything,” he said. “Many students don’t have that support in the home and the community to encourage them on, to give them the inspiration and perspiration when it’s necessary.”
One of the major initiatives Baldacci said he hopes to bring home to Maine is universal public preschool, championed by Gov. Brad Henry, D-Okla.
Oklahoma’s Educare is a voluntary, partially state-funded public preschool system. The majority of preschool students in Oklahoma attend.
Maine has a public preschool program, but unlike Oklahoma, whether to implement the program is decided by individual school districts. Almost 2,000 students attended preschool in Maine during the 2004-2005 school year, according to Maine’s Department of Education.
In addition to early education, Baldacci said he will look into Gov. Ritter’s initiative to revamp standardized testing and school curriculum in Colorado to make it more about learning and preparing students for college.
The purpose is “not making it about course titles or seat time, but making it about learning,” said Ritter, “and about proficiency.”
Baldacci is focused on increasing the qualitative of education in Maine.
“Forty percent of the high school graduates … require remedial education,” Baldacci said in an interview. “I remember my professors asking me when I went to college, what did you learn in high school?”
Investing more than $1 billion in education by the end of the year, Baldacci said the school restructuring plan passed into law last year will help improve the quality of education by reducing costs and providing students with more access and opportunities. The restructuring combined town schools into regional schools, reducing the number of school administrative units from about 290 to 80.
The governors also spoke about a federal mandate that will restrict state spending on education. Most of the governors at the panel disagreed with the mandate.
Taking a different perspective, Gov. Baldacci tried to put it in context, “I understand where they’re coming from,” he said, because the states often use creative ways to gain more education money from the federal government, taking advantage of the government’s aid.
The National Governors Association meeting gives governors an opportunity to “learn from each other,” Baldacci said, and to meet with federal government officials to discuss “pressing issues” in their states.
He said it is important if “I can get somebody to move even a half of an inch in these areas that are having a big impact on our state, like Medicare and Real ID. I need to just use this as an opportunity to do some one on one lobbying.”
“I’m having to make cut backs, make some people sacrifice,” he said. “Trying to protect the most vulnerable, it’s gut-wrenching and it’s hard some times for me to sleep when you’ve got these things that you have to do to balance the budget, to tighten the belt. You’ve got to know that a lot of small businesses and working families are struggling and you can’t add to their burden.”
Aside from education, a major focus of this year’s winter meeting was clean energy. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., who is chair of the association, introduced the Securing a Clean Energy Future Initiative that encourages governors to help make their states energy efficient through clean energy technology, research and alternative fuels.
The winter meeting will end on Monday with a send-off reception celebrating the 100th anniversary of the association. On Sunday night the governors and their spouses were scheduled to attend a dinner at the White House. An association meeting in July will take up state strategies for evaluating teachers and their salaries.
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New Law to Help Veterans Maintain Their Small Businesses
Small Business
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/15/08
WASHINGTON – President Bush signed into law Thursday a bill sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, that aims to aid National Guard and reserve veterans who own small businesses.
“As alarming numbers of our Guard members and reservists continue to selflessly answer their nation’s call to duty, we in Congress must similarly fulfill our responsibility to protect their livelihoods back home,” Snowe said.
The new law is intended to augment government spending on veterans and increase their access to procurement and franchising opportunities; increase the number of veteran outreach centers across the country, including specifically for small businesses; streamline and expand the loan program for veterans, including offering loans of up to $50,000; and improve outreach and business training available to women veterans.
Snowe, the senior Republican on the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, sponsored the measure along with committee chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., last year and it was passed earlier this year.
“This new law gives America's veterans and reservists some deserved economic security after they've put their lives on the line for our national security,” said Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, a member of the House Small Business Committee and a supporter of the new law.
The law includes a Michaud-authored provision intended to improve the Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, by increasing the time in which a returning reservist may apply for a loan from 90 days to one year.
“Extending the time our returning reservists have to apply for this loan is crucial. Many reservists are small business owners and they often need more than three months to get their small businesses back up and running,” Michaud said. “An arbitrary deadline shouldn't stand in the way of any returning soldier.”
In Maine, there are 142,205 veterans, according to the Census Bureau.
Reservists who own their own businesses lose 55 percent of their income when they go overseas, said Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., a member of the House Small Business Committee and the sponsor of the House bill. Often soldiers come home to find their businesses in debt because of their absence and they struggle to sustain their companies and their families. Others return to find that their company went belly-up while they were gone.
“Our veterans who put their lives on the line for our national security deserve economic opportunity when they come home,” Kerry said. “This bipartisan achievement is one small way we can repay them for their hard work and sacrifice.”
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Snowe Seeks to Stop Fraudulent Health Insurance Agents
Medicare
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/14/2008
WASHINGTON -- The federal government isn’t doing enough to protect Medicare recipients from aggressive and fraudulent marketing strategies by sales agents for Medicare Advantage plans, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday.
“Given the complexities of this program, and the material one must navigate – such as a 110-page Medicare guide – and all the marketing materials seniors are receiving, we must see prompt action to address the problems of these plans,” Snowe said. “One key aspect is the system must become more user-friendly. It is extremely confusing today, and that simply makes beneficiaries more vulnerable to unethical marketing.”
Medicare Advantage plans are privately marketed plans that replace Medicare’s Part A, which is hospital insurance, and Part B, which provides medical insurance. Some Advantage plans also include Part D, which provides prescription drug coverage.
“The story of sales by private Medicare plans is a tale of trust,” committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., added. “Seniors justifiably trust Medicare. But there are sales artists who are abusing that trust.”
Victims of the deceptive practices described their experiences for the Finance Committee last week, recalling salespersons misrepresenting themselves as Medicare officials and forging applications to enroll new members without their consent.
“I am hearing that seniors who are perfectly happy with their health coverage are getting a hard sell to change plans each year,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said at last week’s hearing. “I am hearing stories about agents visiting the homes of elderly people sick with flu and insisting on enrolling them in a private Medicare plan. I am hearing that health plans are buying beneficiaries lunches and dinners as part of the sales pitch. Some people feel obliged to enroll as a result.”
There are more than 8.9 million enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans nationwide, said Jeff Nelligan, spokesman for the Department for Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. There are almost 4,000 Maine citizens enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans.
Consumer complaints, along with a 2006 fraud case, prompted Maine’s legislature to pass a bill last April prohibiting insurance agents from making cold calls, door-to-door sales or engaging in cross marketing.
“We’ve heard anecdotally that these sales practices were occurring,” said Judith Shaw, deputy superintendent of Maine’s Bureau of Insurance. “These prompted us to pass the legislation.”
The 2006 case involved an insurance agent who persuaded a customer to withdraw from his current plan, which included independent prescription drug coverage, and enroll in a new Medicare plan, which did not include the prescription drug benefits. The agent said he did not know that switching plans would cause the customer to lose the independent coverage. The state ruled that the agent demonstrated incompetence and he was forced to take a course in ethics to settle the case.
Humana, a health care insurance company, offers a $10,000 bonus to agents who enroll 150 seniors into private Medicare plans by April, Baucus said at the hearing.
“Plainly, seniors should never trust these shady private Medicare sales artists,” said Baucus, “But we want to maintain seniors’ trust in Medicare.”
The insurance industry has been working with members of Congress since this issue was raised to assure that people are not falling prey to unscrupulous practices and is reacting immediately to any complaints, said Mohit Ghose, spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, a national association representing almost 1,300 insurance companies..
“I think we can all agree that it’s in everyone’s best interest to protect Medicare beneficiaries in the long term,” said Ghose. “While we must address unscrupulous marketing practices, we can’t overlook the fact that more than 9.5 beneficiaries were able to receive better benefits at lower costs because of the Medicare program.”
Ghose said the association hopes members of Congress will hear from their constituents about the importance of these programs.
“We are committed to reporting, monitoring and disciplining agents and brokers,” said Ghose, “along with providing better service at a lower cost to beneficiaries.”
The association made recommendations last year on how to improve the system and are working with Congress, Ghose said.One such recommendation is to require agents to arrange appointments to talk about their companies’ plans instead of making sales pitches over the phone. Many companies have begun to enforce this requirement.
Snowe questioned Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, regarding the department’s lax oversight of these private Medicare plans and where their subsidy dollars are being used. As federal subsidies directed to the private Medicare plans increased to $50 billion over the last five years, the department’s oversight declined by almost half in the same period, Snowe said.
Nelligan said the center, known as CMS for short, is committed to protecting people with Medicare from potential abuses. This has included penalties against non-compliant plans, a Medicare plan rating and a program designed to monitor the more than 200 marketing events.
“Acting Administrator Weems has made it his top priority for CMS to be more proactive and transparent than ever before in overseeing the Medicare Advantage program and in addition to actions already taken the center is considering additional administrative actions,” Nelligan said.
Snowe offered several suggestions at the hearing, including a post-enrollment “cooling off” period, allowing Medicare participants to give the plan a trial run before being locked in. In addition to avoiding the hassle of a long appeal process to be released from the plan, the “cooling off” period will prevent some private companies from engaging in deceptive practices.
“I know the difficulties seniors have to make in choosing their plans from year to year,” Sen. Snowe said. “It shouldn’t be that complicated – if a beneficiary finds out their coverage isn’t exactly what they wanted, then they should have the opportunity to cancel.”
Snowe also suggests lengthening the enrollment period, which occurs during the Thanksgiving to New Years holiday season, to give seniors more time to decide the right plan for them.
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Collins Questions Role of Military During Potential Domestic Crises
Guard
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/13/2008
WASHINGTON – A lack of coordination between National Guard units under state command and regular military units could pose a threat to national response in the case of a domestic crisis, Sen. Susan Collins, R- Maine, said Wednesday.
“There is an appalling gap in our nation’s preparedness for chemical, biological, or nuclear terrorism [that] underscores this committee’s long-standing concern and is a call to action,” said Collins, the senior Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The panel heard testimony from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, which issued a report in January that questioned the lack or cooperation between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense and its effect on the National Guard.
In times of domestic crises the governor has the authority to call up the National Guard to help. If more than Guard troops are needed, the president can send other military personnel. This leads to a situation where the Guard is commanded by the governor and the rest of the troops are commanded by the regular military chain of command, causing confusion and a lack of cohesion.
A delayed response during Hurricane Katrina first exposed the lack of coordination, said Collins, who led an investigation after the disaster. The head of the military’s response to Katrina, Adm. Timothy Keating, told congressional investigators that when he was sending military troops to the Gulf he had a limited understanding of where the region’s Guard troops were stationed and what role they were playing.
More than 70,000 troops, 50,000 of which were from the National Guard, were sent to the Gulf Coast, according to members of the commission.
“But to those stranded on their rooftops, or in the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate supplies or sanitation for days, those resources came too slowly,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said at Tuesday’s hearing. Lieberman is the committee’s chairman.
To prevent any future mismanagement of domestic crises, members of the commission suggested that the Department of Defense increase its role in homeland security matters and that state governors take charge of both state Guard units and regular military personnel during crises by appointing a “dual-hatted military commander,” as retired Marine Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, chairman of the commission, called it. This commander would lead a joint federal-state military task force to assure the coordination of both military and Guard troops.
The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing last week on the commission’s 400-page report and questioned the sustainability of the National Guard under its current structure. Last March Punaro said 88 percent of Guard units in the United States were not ready for a major disaster. The situation today is worse, because of the “treadmill of extended and repeated overseas deployments,” Collins said. Prolonged and repeated deployments overseas have worn down the Guard and reserve, they said.
“There’s the idea that if we’re ready for the away game, we’re ready for the home game. I don’t buy that,” said Punaro. “We need our Guard and reserve here in the homeland so we’re the most ready when our country is the least ready.”
Neither Punaro nor Collins advocates removing Guard troops from overseas duties. But, they both said, they want to assure that the Guard is equipped and ready to play the lead role in the time of a national crisis.
Collins and Lieberman said after the hearing that they plan to introduce legislation requiring the Department of Defense to step up its domestic attention of the National Guard and clarifying who would be in charge of the military and Guard troops during a national crisis.
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Born in Maine, Living in Exile: Mainers Convene for Capitol Breakfast
Breakfast
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/13/08
WASHINGTON -- In the seaside town of Bar Harbor and along Acadia’s mountain roads, politics is a side note to life, but in Washington, D.C., life is a side note to politics. Mainers exiled to the beltway can escape to the Maine State Society for a touch of home.
“In Maine, the tension that you have down here day to day is gone,” said Wayne Hanson, chairman for the society’s Arlington Cemetery wreath project. “The minute you hit New York your hands start to relax a little bit.”
That relaxed feeling is what Hanson misses most about home and it’s why he has become so involved in the society, which held its annual congressional breakfast on Wednesday.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, made brief remarks at the breakfast before rushing off to a hearing. She updated Mainers on the key pieces of legislation she has helped to pass since the year began, including the economic stimulus package.
Following Collins, Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, emphasized the pivotal role citizens will play in this year’s elections, alluding to his campaign against Collins for her Senate seat.
“You’re a lot more interesting than anything we do here in Congress,” Allen told the members of the society.
Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, also spoke about legislation. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was not able to attend the breakfast.
A raffle featuring Maine T-shirts, books and totes concluded the morning gathering. One item, a “Born in Maine, Living in Exile” bumper sticker brought laughter from the crowd of “Maineiacs,” as Hanson calls the society members.
With more than 1,100 members, the Maine State Society is one of the largest state societies in Washington. Members credit the size of their society to Mainers’ love for their state.
“There’s an affinity for the state and that includes the congressional members who show up when you ask them to,” said Lew Pearson, the society’s treasurer.
Then of course, there are the lobster dinners.
“You look forward to the little lobster dinners, the touches of Maine that you don’t get every day,” said Hanson, “Anything that’s a reminder of your hometown.”
Megan Winterson, last year’s cherry blossom princess for Maine, recently became a member because of her experiences at the festival.
“After being a cherry blossom princess and going to the state society dinner I just decided I wanted to be more involved because there was such a special Maine feeling at the dinner and I felt proud to be from Maine,” said Winterson.
Eight annual events keep members active and nostalgic for their home state, including this week’s congressional breakfast, a lobster dinner and a harvest festival.
Founded in 1894 by a group of Mainers searching for a touch of home away from home, the Maine State Society’s mission is “to foster and promote interest in Maine, develop and maintain a sense of loyalty and devotion to Maine, and provide for and strengthen the social contacts of its members,” according to its Web site.
More than 100 years later, Democrats and Republicans, Hill staffers and trade workers still join together. All who have a connection to Maine are welcomed to join the nonpolitical, nongovernmental and volunteer-based group.
“You see someone on the side of the road in Maine and you stop. It’s the same here at the society,” said Hanson, “You have a friend from Maine, you have a friend for life.”
Those living far from home can learn how to reunite with fellow Mainers and become a member of the Maine State Society by calling 703-237-1031 or visiting www.mainestatesociety.org
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Senate Expected to Vote Tuesday on Surveillance Bill
FISA update
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/8/2008
WASHINGTON – The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that assisted in illegal surveillance of suspected terrorists when it wraps up voting on the updated intelligence surveillance bill, according to the office of Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.
Snowe, who supports immunity, voted against two amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that were rejected by the Senate Thursday. The 1978 act allows government surveillance of suspected terrorists through electronic surveillance, wire-tapping and other techniques.
The first amendment would have allowed the court established by FISA to prevent the government from using information collected on a U.S. citizen if the procedures for gaining the information were illegal.
Snowe, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, opposed the amendment because it would have restricted access to vast amounts of intelligence information, according to a statement from her office.
“Rather than requiring only that procedures be corrected or collection ceased, this amendment would have prevented actual intelligence from being used,” Snowe said. “I was concerned that these inflexible, additional requirements could have a profound
effect on our ability to gather intelligence critical to protecting our homeland.”
The second amendment would have blocked the government from conducting surveillance on a foreigner if the true intention was to listen to a U.S. citizen on the other end of the communication.
Snowe said she opposed the amendment because “the underlying bill already explicitly states that a person in the United States cannot be targeted for surveillance without a warrant.”
Shifting from tradition, Senate leaders are supported by the White House in their quest to grant immunity to the private companies. The House version of the bill does not grant immunity. After the expected Senate vote on Tuesday the House and Senate will have little time to settle disagreements over the immunity before the current law expires on Saturday.
Some House Democrats have already expressed their support for immunity, including 21 Democrats who sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Jan. 28. The congressmen were all members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative and moderate Democrats.
Rep. Michael Michaud, D- Maine, is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition but did not sign the letter and is opposed to immunity. “In the end, if any laws were broken someone should be held accountable,” Michaud said.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, also opposes immunity because those who commit illegal acts should not be let off the hook. A trial is the only way there will be a thorough investigation of the administration’s activities, Leahy said.
Leahy supports an amendment proposed by Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., also a member of the committee, that would hold the government, not the private companies, directly responsible. Michaud said he would consider supporting this amendment.
Snowe said subjecting these private companies to lawsuits may endanger the government’s relationship with them in the future and that their cooperation in security and intelligence projects is crucial to the country’s national security.
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Collins Supports National Guard Report Urging Changes to Compensate for Iraq
National Guard
Bangor Daily News
Vicki Ekstrom
Boston University Washington News Service
2/7/2008
WASHINGTON – With more than 95,000 National Guard and Reservists currently serving overseas, Sen. Susan Collins, R- Maine, says there is a gap in the country’s capability to respond to national disasters or attacks at home.
The Senate Armed Services Committee, of which Collins is a member, heard Thursday from members of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, which issued a report last week calling for better training and support for members of the National Guard and Reserves.
“We have put too much stress on the National Guard and reservists, their families and their employers because of repeated and lengthy deployments overseas,” Collins said in an interview after the hearing. “I’m proud of our National Guard and reservists, but I think we’ve unfairly placed too much stress on them.”
In Maine, there are 210 Army National Guard soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maine has sent more than 2,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves to fight overseas since 9/11, one of the highest percentages of deployment in the United States.
Last March Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, chairman of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, said 88 percent of Guard units in the United States were not ready for a major disaster. The situation today is worse, he said at Thursday’s hearing.
With their soldiers and funding being drained from overseas fighting, Punaro’s report says, the National Guard and Reserves are due for a change in mission and structure to assure their future sustainability.
The 400-page report offers 95 recommendations to improve the way the National Guard and Reserves are “organized, trained, equipped, compensated and supported.”
Largely disagreeing with Punaro’s report, the Defense Department held a press conference last week defending the capability of the military.
“We want to communicate to our adversaries that we have superb capabilities, the best in the world,” Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, said. “And they will respond heroically and effectively in the event of such a catastrophic event, but not as fast, not as close to perfection as we human beings would like to achieve.”
McHale also said the Punaro report called for the National Guard and Reserves to exclusively protect the home front and not aid in the war against terror. Members of the commission said at Thursday’s hearing that this was not true. The report calls for the National Guard and Reserves to lead in protecting the home front, while also serving to support armed forces overseas.
The report emphasizes the necessity of the National Guard and Reserves as long as there is a volunteer army. But while they play a vital role overseas, the report said, the need for them at home continues to grow.
“Today, the homeland is part of the battlefield, and the federal government must use all elements of national power to protect it,” Maj. Gen. Gordon Stump, a member of the commission, said at the hearing. “Dangers to the homeland include traditional military threats, such as conventional attacks on people and property, and more unorthodox ones, such as terrorist attacks. As a result of these threats to the homeland and the new awareness of the danger, protecting the homeland has become a greater priority for all levels of government.”
Some of the changes the Punaro report suggests include altering the personnel and funding structure and enforcing more realistic training. The report also calls for improvements to the pay scale, health care and retirement system for National Guard and Reserve members to aid in recruitment retention.
The report comes after lawmakers contemplated ways to prepare the nation for a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, like hurricane Katrina.
During Katrina, active-duty soldiers and National Guard troops often did not know what the other was doing, according to Collins, the senior Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Coordinating the two and authorizing one person to control both branches during a crisis would eliminate such confusion, the report said.
“The lack of coordination between our active-duty officers and our National Guard and reservists is a real concern,” Collins said.
The report recommends giving state governors this authority, but Collins and other lawmakers oppose this. Collins said the Department of Defense would be likely to “fiercely oppose” having a governor, not ranking military officers, leading active-duty personnel.
The Department of Defense is evaluating the report and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs will hold a hearing on it next week.
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