Category: Washington, DC
Letters of Support for Shipyard Delivered to Washington
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, April 12 – With the Pentagon’s announcement of suggested base closings little more than a month away, four members of the Seacoast Shipyard Association traveled to Washington Tuesday to deliver letters of support for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to members of the Maine and New Hampshire congressional delegations.
All four senators and four House members were on hand to receive the more than 10,000 letters, which they said would be passed along to the Pentagon later in the day. The shipyard is in danger of closing as the Department of Defense reduces the number of military bases in the United States.
“These are not just computer print-out letters,” said Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.). “Every single one of these letters has a handwritten note.”
The letters, which are printed on Seacoast Shipyard Association’s letterhead, have been published in local newspapers for community members to clip and mail. They also are available on the group’s Web site, www.saveourshipyard.org , said Pat Dowaliby, office manager, secretary and treasurer of the association. The bottom of the letter has blank space for senders to write a personal note, and each letter was signed.
The association has spent the past few months collecting letters to show community support for the shipyard, which it says has been recognized as the safest, most efficient and least expensive shipyard in the country.
As other members of the delegations chatted before the presentation, Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-N.H.) quietly read through a few of the letters.
“They express the same sentiment that I think we’ve been expressing,” including noting the quality, speed and efficiency of the shipyard, as well as community support for it, Bradley said in an interview after the presentation of the letters.
Collins noted that the letters are not only from the shipyard workers but also are from business leaders and other members of the community.
“We have to give credit to the community for responding to it [the letter-writing campaign],” Ginny Griffith, business development manager for the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce and an executive board member of the Seacoast Shipyard Association, said after the event.
Collection of the letters will continue until an April 23 rally in several communities surrounding the shipyard, Griffith said. Members of the congressional delegations are expected to attend, she said.
Dale Gerry, who worked with the delegations and the shipyard in the three rounds of base closings in the 1990s and is a consultant for this round, said this is the most “concerted effort” he has seen from the members of each delegation.
“When you’ve got eight members of Congress together in the same room at the same time, that is a statement” of support, he said.
On May 16, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will reveal his recommendations for base closings. A nine-member presidential commission will review the list and submit its recommendations to President George W. Bush, who in turn will send his proposals to Congress. The legislative branch must then accept or reject the recommendations on an all-or-none basis.
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Cherry Blossom Princess Meets First Lady, Makes Contacts
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, April 8 - In the past week, Sarah Gamble has been mistaken for a contestant in the Miss America, Miss USA and Junior Miss pageants.
But Gamble has not worn the pink "Maine" sash during her travels around Washington for a pageant. Instead, the sash signifies Gamble's participation in this year's National Cherry Blossom Festival.
After being selected by the Washington-based Maine State Society, the 20-year-old Bethel native took a week off from her sophomore year at the University of Maine in Orono to represent her home state in the festival.
On Friday night, the Cherry Blossom Queen was to be chosen by the spin of a wheel. The queen will act as a U.S. ambassador, traveling to Japan for that country's own Cherry Blossom Festival. Both festivals are held each year around the time cherry blossom trees bloom. The trees in Washington were a gift from Japan in 1912 to signify friendship between the two countries.
During her time in Washington, Gamble said she and her fellow representatives have visited countless museums and lunched at several embassies.
"I have a new favorite pretty much every evening when I get back to the hotel," she said. "I'm studying to work in museums, so pretty much every museum has been exciting for me."
Gamble is majoring in history, with minors in museum education and dance.
The princesses also had their photo taken with First Lady Laura Bush and were given a tour of the White House by the head curator.
"I harassed him with questions the entire way around," Gamble said Thursday night during her remarks to the Maine State Society at a reception honoring her and Massachusetts princess Jennifer O'Halloran.
Between her fellow princesses - some of whom currently are working in Washington - and the museum trips, Gamble said she has made a number of contacts who will come in handy if she decides to attend graduate school in the area.
But Gamble does not expect to live in the nation's capital forever.
"I'm a Maine kid," she said. "I don't think I could live in a city for the rest of my life."
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Mainers Meet in Washington
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, April 8 - As soon as she walked into the room, Joan Boos was greeted by a smiling Charlotte Seamans.
"There's my neighbor!" Seamans said.
But the two were not in their hometown of Calais, Maine. They were at a reception at the Fort Myer, the Army base across the Potomac River from Washington.
Though the women lived two streets away from each other while growing up in Calais, they did not meet until years after they both moved to the D.C. area and joined the Maine State Society.
"It was a small world back there," said Seamans, 72, who was a student in one of Boos' sister's classes while in school in Calais and now lives in Alexandria, Va., and works as a receptionist.
Boos' and Seamans' away-from-home meeting is not an uncommon society occurrence, members said.
"Everyplace else there's six degrees of separation and I think in Maine it's two and a half degrees," said Lewis Pearson, the 73-year-old society treasurer and newsletter editor.
Boos, who moved to Silver Spring, Md., in 1943, said she enjoys reconnecting with fellow Mainers.
"Maine people, we're not from big cities, and I think the small towns keep you kind of close," the 80-year-old said.
THE MEMBERS
The Maine State Society is a social organization that was founded in the 1890s and has remained one of the nation's most active state societies, currently boasting a membership of more than 1,000. The society is made up of Mainers who moved to the D.C. area and want to socialize with fellow "Mainiacs."
But not all of the members still live in Washington. About 60 members reside in Maine and a number of others are scattered across 26 states and two other countries, Pearson said.
"A lot of people pass through here for one reason or another - for work, military, what have you - and they maintain their membership," he said.
With the annual $10 individual or $15 family membership, all members, regardless of their current residence, receive "The Maine Event," the society's monthly newsletter, enabling them to stay up-to-date with local news. Pearson said he and his wife, Marjorie, find local tidbits to include in the newsletter by reading their subscriptions to the Bangor Daily News and the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, as well as by receiving news tips from members.
"By reading the newsletter and talking to the people, going to the events, you hear about different things going on that you probably wouldn't have heard about otherwise," Seamans said.
THE EVENTS
In addition to keeping up with the happenings in the state, society members get together to socialize about eight times per year at events that include a Congressional Breakfast with the full Maine delegation, a lobster dinner, a baked bean supper, biannual cleanups of Maine Civil War gravesites at Gettysburg National Cemetery and Thursday's Cherry Blossom Princess Reception.
The society also awards the annual Big "M" Award to Mainers who have made significant contributions to the state and its citizens. A separately chartered nonprofit organization that is run by society members has provided, through 2004, 60 scholarships totaling more than $66,000 to Mainers studying at colleges in the state.
In the late 1940s, the society also had a Halloween party, remembered Don Larrabee, an 81-year-old retired journalist from Portland who now lives in Bethesda, Md.
"Sen. Margaret Chase Smith came out to the party and she was participating too, I remember, bobbing for apples too," he said in a telephone interview.
The society has had a number of special events over the years, including a concert by country star Dick Curless, which was arranged by then-president and former Maine governor John Reed.
"He [Dick] was brought up in my hometown and he came with his band and it was one of the best events we ever had," Reed said. "It was kind of the highlight of my three years as president."
This year's May 14 lobster dinner (which, it was announced on Thursday, will include blueberry pies for a real at-home feel) will feature entertainment from author, radio host and "Yankee humorist" John McDonald, Pearson said.
The lobster dinner is the society's most popular event, usually attracting a few hundred people each year, Pearson said.
The Congressional Breakfast is also well attended, particularly by the Maine congressional delegation.
"An incentive for them to show up is a lot of people in the society have maintained their voting registration back in Maine," Pearson said.
The delegation is involved in other events as well, Pearson said. Rep. Mike Michaud (D) escorted this year's Maine Cherry Blossom Festival Princess, Sarah Gamble, to the festival's congressional reception Wednesday night.
THE APPEAL
Since Dave Moulton left Scarborough and moved to Washington in the late 1970s, he has traveled around the world and heard many accents. But going to society events allows the 57-year-old retired security director to hear the accent that is most familiar to him.
"I don't particularly have an accent but I like to hear that accent every once in a while," the Mitchellville, Md., resident said in a telephone interview.
Dee Dee Fusco, the 1981 Maine Cherry Blossom Princess, said she enjoys other classic characteristics of Mainers.
"The people from Maine are fun, they're loving, they're intelligent and they've accomplished great things historically," she said.
"We must have good genes," she added with a laugh.
Fusco was born in Washington but lived in Maine for part of her childhood and also vacationed there.
The 42-year-old, who now lives in Stafford, Va., and is director of development for the main campus libraries at Georgetown University, said she always feels comfortable at society events.
"This is almost like coming home," she said.
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N.H. House Members Opposes Arctic Drilling
WASHINGTON, March 17-New Hampshire's two House members oppose a Senate budget provision that would permit oil companies to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in search of crude oil believed to be located there, they said Thursday in separate interviews.
That puts Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley in conflict with their fellow New Hampshire Republicans in the Senate. Sen. Judd Gregg, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Sen. John Sununu voted Wednesday in favor of drilling, a position President Bush also supports .
"I am pleased that the budget on the House side, that we're about to approve, does not have the same provision that permits it," Bass said. "I am hopeful that when the bill comes from back from conference it will not include that language."
While the House has supported this provision in the past, ANWR drilling was not included in the House version of the 2006 budget resolution, which could cause problems in the reconciliation process.
In recent years, differences between the House and Senate budget resolutions prevented Congress from enacting a final budget. The two chambers disagree on several key spending issues, including Medicaid cuts, which were removed from the Senate bill on Thursday.
"I don't think it does enough to solve the issue of the supply," Bass said of ANWR drilling. "I don't think it's appropriate, on the basis of a possibility of there being oil and gas resources there, to desecrate this wilderness."
Bradley, who sits on the House Budget Committee, agreed, saying, "I have said all along that we ought to be producing more energy in this country.and we need to do it in a way that protects our environment.
"I think that ANWR would not see oil for about 10 years," he continued. "I think that it would be an area that if we can preserve it from drilling we should."
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Coalition, Senators Oppose “Nuclear Option”
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, March 16 - Maine's two senators should continue to oppose changes to Senate rules that would eliminate filibusters to block confirmation of federal judges, an ad hoc coalition said at two media events in Maine Wednesday.
The Fair and Independent Federal Courts Coalition is an informal group of organizations formed last year to monitor judicial appointments, inform citizens of the importance federal appellate court decisions can have for their everyday lives and encourage Senators Olympia Snowe (R) and Susan Collins (R) to uphold the right of the Senate to debate the appointments, said Sarah Standiford, executive director of the Maine Women's Lobby, the founding member of the coalition.
"What many folks don't understand is the vast array of areas where the federal court system can have an impact in our lives," Standiford said, citing legal decisions by appellate court judges on such subjects as reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, disability rights and sexual harassment. "People from every walk of life in Maine should be concerned about this issue."
About five people attended the Bangor event and about 20 attended the Portland event, those in attendance said. Representatives of women's rights, health, labor, environment and other groups spoke at both events, which were held in front of the federal court buildings in both cities.
The coalition opposes the so-called nuclear option, which Republican senators have threatened to use to win approval of President Bush's judicial nominees. Under current rules, 60 votes are required to break a Senate filibuster, under which opponents of legislation can prevent a vote by speaking for hours, if not days, and refusing to yield the floor-or merely threatening to do so.
Under the nuclear option, Republicans would object to the constitutionality of the filibuster, obtain a favorable ruling from the presiding officer-presumably Vice President Dick Cheney-and vote to uphold that ruling, a vote on which a simple majority of 51 would be sufficient, in effect, to end unlimited debate of judicial nominees.
With 55 Republicans in the current Senate, Bush's court nominees would be likely to move through more easily. But Democrats, expressing fear that the nuclear option could stifle the voice of the minority forever, threatened Tuesday to all but shut down Senate proceedings.
Sen. Snowe, a moderate Republican who has long opposed use of the nuclear option, said she also was concerned about the impact a change could have on her party in the future.
"I believe that the 'nuclear option' is short-sighted and that Republicans should remember that some day we will again be in the minority and will want to have the filibuster available to protect our rights," she said in a statement.
Sen. Collins spoke out definitively on the issue for the first time Tuesday.
"I am very concerned about the overuse of the filibuster, but I am also concerned that a rule change will further charge the partisan atmosphere to the point that we will not be able to conduct business," she said in a statement.
Standiford said the coalition will continue its work with the two senators and plans to publish an advertisement in the Portland Press Herald next week signed by hundreds of local lawyers who are against use of the nuclear option.
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Senators Get Educated on Social Security
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, March 3 - As the debate on the future of Social Security continues, a bipartisan group of influential, moderate senators are taking an active role in educating themselves on the intricacies of the program and possible solutions for ensuring its solvency in the future.
Since the 109 th Congress convened in January, the Senate Centrist Coalition, an informal group of center-leaning senators, has met three times to hear presentations from groups with differing views on Social Security.
On Tuesday, six senators, including co-chairpersons Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), heard a presentation by Al Hubbard, President Bush's assistant for economic policy, on the White House's stance on Social Security. Previous meetings included discussions with three Washington-based policy think tanks: the Brookings Institution, a liberal-leaning policy organization; the Cato Institute, a libertarian group and the Heritage Foundation, which promotes conservative policies, to hear their views on the issue. Specific information about the presentations was not made public because the meetings were held behind closed doors.
The coalition was started after partisan conflicts between a Republican Congress and President Bill Clinton over balancing the federal budget briefly shut down the government in 1995. Since then, the group has generally met weekly to "exchange ideas" and have "open and frank conversations" in a civil manner about complicated issues, said Antonia Ferrier, Snowe's press secretary. The group does not have an official membership, but a core group of about 15 senators usually attends, she said.
In past years, the coalition has come up with alternative budget programs, Ferrier said. The group also exerted influence in helping to push for enactment of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, said Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
Maisel said the members who frequently attend the coalition's meetings "have the potential to have a great deal of influence" in the current Senate which is closely divided with 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and Jim Jeffords, a Vermont Independent who usually votes with the Democrats.
"All they need is a swing group of about six or seven, and then they can be very influential," he said.
But Ferrier said the coalition's influence on the Social Security debate remains to be seen.
"The group is not coming up with any shadow Social Security policy or anything like that," she said, noting that no Social Security proposal exists yet. "At this point it's really an educational process."
Still, that educational process could have a powerful impact on the senators' decision-making.
"I think many of us will formulate our conclusions on any reform plan that emerges using the ideas and information that spring up in our meetings," Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), a co-vice chairman of the group and frequent coalition attendee, said in statement.
Snowe has vocally opposed creating private accounts for retirement and serves on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over Social Security. She also expects the information the coalition gathers to have an impact in the debate.
"As the Senate moves forward on this crucial issue, I am confident that members of the Centrist Coalition will provide the Senate with the careful consideration and reasoned debate necessary in the effort to strengthen Social Security," she said in a statement.
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Sox Meet and Greet Bush on South Lawn
By Tim Heaney
WASHINGTON, March 2 - While the expansion Washington Nationals were winning their first spring training game in Florida, Beltway baseball fans got a taste of the game's apex Wednesday as President George W. Bush honored the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox at the White House.
"I want to welcome the world champs. and I'd also like to welcome Red Sox Nation," Bush said in front of hundreds of Sox fans who had been invited by the White House for the ceremony. "Some have said it would be a cold day when the Red Sox made it here."
The team that broke an 86-year World Series championship drought took a break from its Florida training camp to travel to the cold winter weather of Washington for the South Lawn ceremony.
CEO/President Larry Lucchino and chairman Tom Werner, both longtime friends of the president, stood with the players as Bush commended the Sox' teamwork and skill during their storybook championship run.
"I appreciate the way this team played baseball. It took lots of guts, and lots of hair," Bush added, referring to the famously shaggy look worn by Red Sox centerfielder Johnny Damon throughout the season.
The Red Sox performed the greatest comeback in baseball postseason history, becoming the only team to win a seven-game series after losing the first three games. The Sox won four straight games in the American League Championship Series against archrival New York Yankees, then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.
"No one really expected the answer to the curse of the Bambino would come from a group of players that call themselves 'idiots,' except for maybe idiots who don't understand baseball," Bush said. "This is a heck of a team."
Pitcher and playoff hero Curt Schilling gave the 43 rd President a white home jersey reading "Bush 43." Schilling, a major Bush supporter who campaigned for the President days after the Sox won the Series, sported a periwinkle blue tie similar to Bush's choice.
Catcher and new team captain Jason Varitek gave Vice President Dick Cheney a red away jersey reading "Cheney 2." Varitek said that the players were honored to meet with Bush,and that they appreciated the support they received during their championship season.
"In Boston, things are different," Varitek said after the ceremony. "Everywhere else people would say 'congratulations,' there, they'd say 'thank you.'
Bush, former owner of the Texas Rangers, commended the charitable work of the Red Sox players, including designated hitter David Ortiz, whom Bush labeled "Mr. October" in Spanish for his many clutch performances in last year's playoffs.
The President, who grew up in Midland, Texas, also praised relief pitcher and Midland native Mike Timlin, saying, "Someone from Midland finally amounted to something."
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Boston mayor Thomas Menino and Major League baseball commissioner Bud Selig attended the event. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) arrived at the event late, scurrying into the front row. He had come straight from a Capitol ceremony in which the Congressional Gold Medal was posthumously awarded to baseball legend Jackie Robinson.
Bush wasted no time in greeting Kerry.
"Senator, welcome. Good to see you.. I like to see Sen. Kerry, except when we're fixing to debate," Bush quipped.
Fans displayed their love for the Sox and their hatred for the rival Yankees, with one fan sporting a sign saying "Jeter and A-Rod Wish They Were Here," referring to Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter and third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Chants of "Who's Your Papi?" and "Here We Go, Red Sox, Here We Go" echoed throughout the crowd before the ceremony started.
In addition to relishing the moment, the players said the team's pitching staff had improved and guaranteed this would not be their last trip to the White House.
"We're definitely going to try to get back here next year," Damon said.
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A Budget is Nigh
WASHINGTON, March 1-The Senate Budget Committee could vote on a spending proposal for fiscal year 2006 as early as the end of next week keeping the Senate on track for meeting April's budget deadline, Sen. Judd Gregg, the committee's chairman, said Tuesday.
The spending in the budget will be in line with President Bush's recommendations, the New Hampshire Republican said in a telephone interview.
"The president has written the initial memo here, and I think he sets responsible goals, which is to have fiscal responsibility and reduce the rate of growth of the entitlements and basically freeze non-defense discretionary spending," Gregg said. "That's been our goal."
In addition to asking Congress to freeze funds for programs that are neither defense-related nor mandatory, Bush also slashed 150 programs. Some senators may try to save those programs, which include 48 education programs, Gregg said, but he would not comment on which ones, if any, he would personally try to preserve.
"We have to set priorities. We're like a family that has an income and we're spending a lot more of that income," he said. "To keep that up, we're going to have a bankruptcy in the family, and we don't want to go in that direction."
One priority the president set in his Feb. 7 budget proposal was to reduce the costs of the Medicaid program.
"I think what we should do is basically what the president suggests, which is reduce rate of growth, use the money we have for Medicaid for delivering services for people who need health care who are poor and give governors a lot more flexibility," the former governor said. "With more flexibility, the governors, I suspect, can do a lot more, even if they may not be getting as much money."
He added: "You are talking about a program that will spend.next year.approximately $190 billion and talking about reducing the rate of growth by less than $500 million. That's not radical surgery, that's a reasonable reduction of the rate of growth, especially when you consider that so much of the money in Medicaid doesn't actually end up in health care, it ends up in the general operating accounts of the state governments."
Not on the to-do list for 2006 is Medicare, in part because of the planned Social Security overhaul, Gregg said.
"The reason we're not doing them together is because even getting Social Security done has become a major problem, and Social Security is a much more solvable problem," Gregg said. "The substance of the issue of fixing Social Security is fairly simple; it's the politics which are very difficult. Whereas in Medicare, the complexity of the Medicare issue is exponentially larger than the Social Security issue because there are so many moving parts to our health care system."
New devices, procedures and medications cost more but add health benefits, which Gregg said makes them difficult things to balance. In addition, he said, "unlike Social Security there is no clear way to resolving the problem."
Despite there being a "clear solution" to Social Security in Gregg's mind, there is still disagreement on Capitol Hill over the president's desire to introduce personal savings accounts. The transition from the current system to the account system could add more than $1 trillion to the deficit. At the same time the government is attempting to cut the $427 billion deficit in half, something Gregg highlighted as a key goal of the budget in a speech to the Senate on Monday.
"It's as if you were starting a restaurant and you had to put some money down to get it started, but you knew in four or five years you were going to make that money back, plus a lot of money. That's the way you look at the Social Security fix," he said Tuesday. "You put money down to fix it today, but in the long run you will be getting that money back as you will have resolved your liability."
Despite the contentious debates sure to follow the proposed entitlement changes this year, Gregg said he hopes to pass a budget for 2006. "We haven't had a budget two out of last three years, so I think it's fairly obvious that getting a budget is not an easy exercise. I don't know that we'll be able to pass one, but I certainly hope to," he said.
"But I see no point in passing a budget that is superficial," he added. "I think it's got to be substantive and has to be willing to control spending, and so I'm going to push for a strong, fiscally responsible budget. And if I don't get it, so be it, but I am not interested in window dressing."
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Michaud’s Actions for Social Security Preservation Lead to Campaign Contributions
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 - Rep. Mike Michaud's consistent voting record against creating private accounts for Social Security recipients and against major changes to Medicare led to several campaign contributions last year from a group whose announced purpose is to preserve both programs.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a political action committee (PAC) that raises money to contribute to the campaigns of candidates who share its views, gave the Maine Democrat a total of $4,000 in the last election cycle, $3,000 of which went toward the general election. During his first run for office, in 2002, the committee contributed $1,000 to Michaud's campaign. The maximum amount a PAC can contribute is $5,000 per race per candidate.
Nationally, the committee contributed $494,000 to 219 House and Senate candidates during the 2003-04 election cycle.
The committee's PAC board compiles a scorecard listing how candidates voted on Social Security and Medicare issues, said Max Richtman, the committee's executive vice president and the PAC board's chairman. The board also looks at the role the candidate has played in moving or stopping such legislation, as well as how competitive the race will be.
Michaud scored a nearly perfect score in the board's analysis, Richtman said, and his introduction last year of a proposed constitutional amendment to prevent the establishment of private social security accounts also made the board look favorably upon him.
"His voting record was extremely good, and after looking at the politics . we thought he had a very competitive race and we wanted to help as much as we could," Richtman said.
Michaud won a second House term in November, defeating Republican challenger Brian Hamel, 58-40 percent.
The board analyzes incumbents differently from challengers because incumbents have a voting record, Richtman said. Challengers, he explained, must fill out questionnaires stating their stances on issues that concern the committee and must meet with the PAC advisory board, which then makes recommendations to the full PAC board.
The committee's contributions did not have any effect on Michaud's position on Social Security or Medicare because he has been opposed to changes in those programs for years, said Monica Castellanos, Michaud's press secretary.
"We've been talking about this for a very long time," she said.
Michaud will continue to fight President George W. Bush's plans to create private Social Security accounts, Castellanos said. He reintroduced the proposed constitutional amendment to ban the accounts last week and is holding seven town hall meetings across the district this week, actions that are likely to ensure the continued financial support of the committee.
"We're basing our support on his demonstration of his commitment to our issues," Richtman said.
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Rice Speaks to Int. Relations Committee
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 -Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke on a variety of issues Thursday ranging from Monday's assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister to the recently certified Iraqi election results during her first appearance before the House International Relations Committee.
Rep. Tom Lantos, the committee's senior Democrat, called for an international investigation focusing on Syria's possible involvement in the death of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister.
"The Syrians have created an environment in Lebanon which allowed for this despicable act to occur," the California Democrat said.
Rice said although she has not seen proof that Syria was involved, she agreed with the need for an investigation and added, "We have unfortunately a growing list of difficulties with the Syrian government."
In response to questions from Rep. Edward Royce (R-Calif.) about efforts to fight the war on terror, Rice said she "believed very strongly" that the war would be won in ways similar to the Cold War by "winning hearts and minds" rather than through military efforts.
She later called American efforts in Iraq "critical to national security" and defended President George W. Bush's supplemental budget request Monday for $82 billion, most of it to continue work in Iraq.
"We can't fight this war on the defense; we're trying to fight on the offense," Rice said.
Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) also commented on Bush's budget proposal for the State Department, which would increase by 13 percent, telling Rice it would take a "strenuous effort" to push the requested $33.63 billion through Congress.
"You are going to have an enormous battle on your hands to preserve anywhere near that number," Berman said.
When asked about the Iraqi election results, Rice said she did not believe the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance that won a majority of the seats in the new parliament in the Jan. 30 election would create a government dominated by their religious beliefs.
She added that the Shiites are "people who suffered tremendously" under Saddam Hussein's regime, something she felt they were not likely to pass onto others.
Rice also addressed North Korea's recent declaration of nuclear weapons, saying, "The North Koreans are succeeding, unfortunately, in further isolating themselves."
Rep. William Delahunt, who did not get a chance to ask Rice a question, said after the hearing while there are "a lot of unanswered questions," the committee's hearing structure "doesn't provide ample opportunity to fully explore the questions; we need days after days of hearings to really accomplish that."
Delahunt, expressing concern about reports of misuse of the United Nations-supervised oil for food program, said he had planned to ask Rice about "the United States government's role in allowing during the course of the Iraqi sanctions some $9 billion of illicit revenue to go into the coffers of Saddam Hussein."
"That in my judgment sustained Saddam's Hussein's regime for years," the Massachusetts Democrat continued. "It probably provided him with the funding that was necessary to sustain his military and to secure weapons that most likely are now being used against American military forces."
Delahunt said he believes that "we as the government of the United States and the administration has to explain to the American people why they allowed that to happen."
He added that "this has nothing to do with the United Nations, but there was a sanction program that was endorsed by the United Nations, we were part of it, we were aware of it and that we allowed it to continue."
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