Category: Jeanne Amy
Wait for H1N1 Vaccine Continues to Frustrate Congress
VACCINE
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
11/17/09
WASHINGTON—Lawmakers Tuesday pressed federal officials about the impediments to distributing H1N1 vaccine to those most at risk.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard from officials that vaccines are slowly catching up with the demand, but lawmakers said that there is still too much confusion surrounding who should be vaccinated.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the committee, called the hearing “on the backdrop of two crucial numbers going the wrong way – more flu deaths than previously realized and fewer vaccine doses than originally promised.”
Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, had told the committee on Oct. 21 that there would be enough vaccine by early November for every American who needed to be vaccinated.
Connecticut was set to receive more than 500,000 doses by mid-October and has only seen a fraction of the targeted amount, according to the office of Gov. M. Jodi Rell. The vaccine was prioritized to go to children ages 2 to 4 and to health care workers and caregivers who work with children younger than 6 months old. The second tier of priority included pregnant women and persons under 18 with high-risk medical conditions.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that nationwide 120 to 160 million doses could be supplied for the at-risk population. To date, 48.5 million doses are available for the states, according to center officials.
The delays were attributed to there being five companies supplying the vaccine, only one of which is in the United States, and to equipment failures. Employees of the Department of Health and Human Services are monitoring the situation, according to Dr. Nicole Lurie, the department’s assistant secretary for preparedness and response.
“What we heard pretty consistently was the need for flexibility for state and locals, let them decide whether to self-prioritize in a number of ways or go broader,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
While state and city officials were charged with distributing the vaccine from the beginning, Lieberman called for more federal involvement in directing the distribution of the vaccine.
“This is a national problem, and there was a focus on national alerts about this, so the fact that you gave the states some latitude didn’t really sink in nationally,” Lieberman said. “I think this is a case really where it would have been better to have a national answer.”
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Lawmakers Propose Emergency Legislation for Paid Sick Days
SICK DAYS
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
11/10/09
WASHINGTON—Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said Tuesday that he will introduce emergency legislation to provide paid sick days to workers who miss work because they or their family members have H1N1 or seasonal flu.
The legislation, to go into affect 15 days after being signed into law, would allow for seven paid sick days to be used at the employee’s discretion. It would apply only to businesses with 15 or more employees.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, said at a hearing by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families, which Dodd chairs, that she has been working to obtain paid sick leave for the past five years. In May, she reintroduced the Healthy Families Act, which would require employers to provide such leave. Dodd co-sponsored an identical bill in the Senate in May.
“We work in the public sector, we go to the head of the line when we’re ill and probably when our families are ill,” DeLauro said of members of Congress. “We can take as much time as we want and there’s no one saying that your job isn’t going to be there, your salary isn’t going to be there or you can’t do it.”
DeLauro said that she hoped the Healthy Families Act would become law to “let us have a national policy that meets the needs of working families today” for the estimated 57 million American workers who do not have paid sick leave.
Dodd said of his narrower bill that the H1N1 flu pandemic poses new threats to the work force.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that a person with H1N1 flu will, on average, infect 10 percent of his or her co-workers. An official of the agency testified at the hearing that an infected worker may need to stay home for three to five days.
Desiree Rosado of Groton said she personally understands the need for paid sick days. Rosado, a mother of three young children, testified that when all three contracted flu this fall, she had to take two weeks off from her job as a special-education assistant for theGroton public schools to care for them.
“It is a hard road, and it’s made a lot harder because whenever we get sick or when our children get sick we have to decide whether to stay home without pay or to disregard doctor’s orders and risk getting sicker and infecting others by going to work or school,” Rosado said.
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World War II Veterans Visit Their Memorial in Washington
WARRIOR
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
11/07/09
WASHINGTON – It was a tearful hero’s welcome for 102 World War II veterans from New England, many from southeastern Connecticut, who arrived at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Saturday morning.
Two water cannons flowed full blast as their airplane rolled underneath the ceremonial water arch and a brass quintet played. Scores of people waiting in the terminal began clapping in time.
The members of the “Greatest Generation” walked or, with the help of a volunteer guardian, were wheeled into the terminal. The veterans, who were here to see the National World War II Memorial, made their way through the crowd, thanking those who turned out to greet them. But with every handshake or kiss on the cheek, those waiting repeated, “Thank you for your service.”
The trip was made possible by American Warrior, a Norwich-based nonprofit. The group’s founder, State Rep. Christopher Coutu, R-47th, said that in four trips more than 425 veterans have seen the memorial in the last two years. The memorial, between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, was dedicated in 2004 to honor the 16 million men and women who served in the military during World War II.
As the veterans filed off the plane, Coutu said, “I think, actually I know, in many ways this is their final wish in life to see their memorial.”
The day-trip is free of charge to the veterans. Dozens of guardians travel with the group at their own expense, eager to push wheel chairs and listen to stories about their assigned veteran’s time in the service.
American Warrior must raise $40,000 to fund each trip, Coutu said. The group’s goal is to take at least two trips each year.
“It’s recognizing us where the government didn’t recognize us 60-some-odd years ago,” said Eddie Insalaco of Willimantic.
“I’ll tell you, I was so impressed with the reception we got here, I could go home right now, I almost cried,” the former Army staff sergeant said.
Insalaco, 85, was serving as a translator in Italy when he was captured by the Germans and held as a prisoner of war. He was able to escape, he said, and was helped by an Italian family who fed him. He had not eaten in 30 days.
“Two numbers I won’t forget – my military number and I was 118 pounds, I was losing at least a pound a day,” he said.
Insalaco said he has just started to talk about his experiences in the war and has given several lectures to school groups.
One trip volunteer, Rich Buzon of Stonington, has been on every American Warrior trip. The trip is always an emotional experience for him and quite a respite from his job as a chemist at Pfizer, he said.
“Time is the enemy, we’re trying to beat time,” he said about bringing veterans to the memorial. Each day more than a thousand World War II veterans die.
Jack Hogan, who was a petty officer third class in the Navy during the war, is quick to crack a joke or sing a song. Hogan was born in 1928 in New London, was stationed there during the war and still lives there. During the war he made eight dives each day teaching servicemen how to operate submarines.
In a coat and tie, Hogan approached the day in Washington with a smile. He said he is grateful for having served the country. Hogan was a high school drop-out, but was able to go to Mitchell College after the war.
Hogan said his brother, who also served in the war and now lives in New York, has not been to the memorial.
“My brother was the real hero of the family, shot down in Germany, prisoner of war and all that stuff,” he said.
Insalaco, as he was sitting at the memorial, said making the trip to Washington has given him a new take on life. “I love it – it makes me want to keep going,” he said.
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Ocean Zoning is on the Horizon for the Government Agencies
OCEAN GOVERNANCE
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
11/04/09
WASHINGTON—Federal officials told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that they are developing a framework for cooperative use of the oceans that would bring the United States one step closer to a new national policy to address American stewardship of the oceans.
The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, which President Obama established in June, submitted an interim report in September that called for a new interagency National Ocean Council and supplied the government with a list of priorities in using the oceans, the nation’s coastline and the Great Lakes.
One priority is to set rules for coastal and marine spatial planning, which many officials refer to as ocean zoning.
The task force is now focusing its efforts on creating a framework for zoning that would coordinate decision making by the various users of the oceans, including energy producers, the shipping business, recreational and commercial fishers and aquaculture interests, said Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, during a hearing by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard.
Subcommittee members questioned a panel of agency officials on what the policy will be and which agency will implement it.
Officials said that leadership across agencies, accountability, visibility and access were all important to implementing their proposal.
“I don’t believe that any single agency can fully execute all of the qualities that I just articulated as being required,” said Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But her agency, she added, “has the scientific expertise and the ocean and coastal management experience to be an important leader in the process.”
Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, testified that streamlining government agencies would be helpful in moving ahead with ocean zoning.
“The Coast Guard is always going to be a supporting player, not a lead on this, but we are looking for the ability to go to a single point in government to merge the policy issues and frankly ultimately make very, very difficult resource decisions on how we’re going to proceed with implementation,” Allen said.
The task force will release another report addressing ocean zoning in the next few months and allow 30 days for public comment.
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Sen. McCain, Rep. Courtney Propose Enhancement for Troops to Teachers Program
TROOPS
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
10/27/09
WASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, proposed Tuesday to expand a program that enables former members of the military to become teachers in high-need school districts.
Since 1994, the Troops to Teachers program has helped military retirees or persons who left the military with six or more years of service receive certification and become teachers in school districts identified as high need. The bill offered on Tuesday would decrease the number of service days required to qualify for the program and increase the number of former members of the military who could qualify for financial assistance to receive certification.
It would also create a cross-agency advisory board to promote awareness of and significantly increase funds for the program.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is sponsoring the legislation in the Senate and Courtney is introducing it in the House. During a press conference Tuesday, McCain said he believes the bill will have few opponents.
“It’s been a very successful program, there’s no doubt about that, but unfortunately it hasn’t been as successful as it can be because of the glitches that were unanticipated, such as eligibility and time and service in the military,” McCain said.
The legislation would cut the required six years or more of continuous active-duty service to four years and also make eligible any member of the military who has served at least 90 days of continuous active duty since September 11, 2001.
The proposed bill would do for Troops to Teachers what the post-9/11 G.I. Bill amendments did for the G.I. Bill, Courtney said.
“There is no more public-spirited or idealistic group of Americans” than service men and women, Courtney said. “I think they will bring a thoughtful, broadminded view of the world that no college or university could ever teach to people who are training to be teachers or professors.”
The Post 9/11 Troops to Teachers Enhancement Act would authorize $50 million annually for the next five years. The program is currently authorized at $30 million annually, but the Department of Education usually allocates about $15 million for Troops to Teachers each year.
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Lawmakers Challenge Administration Officials on H1N1 Response
FLU HEARING
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
10/21/09
WASHINGTON—Three cabinet secretaries told lawmakers on Wednesday that they have learned a lot since the H1N1 flu virus surfaced in April.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing to monitor the nation’s response to H1N1 flu. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the committee, expressed his concern that Americans who want to receive the vaccine may not be able to due to shortages.
“I’m worried that the virus is getting ahead of the public health system’s capacity at this moment to prevent it and to respond to it,” Lieberman said. “We’re facing an enemy whose movement is unpredictable.”
Eleven million doses of the H1N1 vaccine have been ordered by the states as of this week and are being delivered directly to 150,000 sites across the country as they arrive, said Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services.
“We are better prepared to deal with the current challenge than ever before in history,” Sebelius maintained.
The number of doses available is significantly lower than government officials originally projected and cannot accommodate current demand, Sebelius said. Vaccine production was delayed because of production glitches, she said. State and local governments decide how much to order and where to distribute the vaccines when they arrive.
“We have assumed a lag time between the flu spiking and vaccine availability,” said Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that the federal government has streamlined a tracking system for school dismissals and closures. It hopes to better monitor schools, provide information to teachers and work to keep schools open, he said.
Duncan added that his two children will receive the vaccine.
“By early November, we are confident that vaccine is going to be far more widely available,” Sebelius said. “There is enough vaccine and will be to vaccinate every American who wants to be vaccinated, and we are pushing it out as quickly as we can.”
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Lawmakers Aim to Extend First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
HOUSING
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
10/20/09
WASHINGTON—Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., called Tuesday for an extension and expansion of the $8,000 tax credit for homebuyers.
The law now covers only first-time homebuyers, but Dodd and Isakson want it to cover all homebuyers and would raise the income limits, significantly expanding eligibility for the credit.
“Whether they’re renting, hoping to own a home or looking to use their equity to build a more secure financial future, the American people need a stable housing market,” Dodd said in his opening statement at a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on the state of the housing market.
The tax credit, implemented as part of the economic recovery package approved in February, is set to expire at the end of next month. Dodd and Isakson seek to extend the program to the end of next June.
Nearly two million first time homebuyers have already taken advantage of the credit, said Dodd, chairman of the committee.
But Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan expressed doubt about the need, testifying that the housing market is stabilizing. The administration, he said, tempered the decline of the market with federal programs such as Making Home Affordable and through the work of the Federal Housing Administration.
Isakson, in testifying before the committee, cited his 33 years of experience as a real estate broker. He said the tax credit has helped to stabilize the housing market.
“The one thing that we can reliably point to that’s made a positive change for the country is the tax credit, and it’s the smallest expenditure,” he said.
The proposed extension and expansion of the tax credit would cost $16.7 billion over five years. Isakson said he would work to come up with the funds to pay for it. “I think it’s our way out,” he said.
Diane Randall, executive director of the Hartford-based Partnership for Strong Communities, also testified, asking Congress to act immediately to spur the rental market rather than focusing solely on home ownership.
“The opportunities for Congress to intervene with solutions for the low-income rental market are immediate and can have dramatic benefits, not only for the nation’s economy but also for people who need the security of an affordable rental home,” Randall said in her opening statement.
Her recommendations ranged from renewing federal rental assistance to financing the National Housing Trust Fund. Describing Connecticut as “a wealthy state that nonetheless has deep pockets of poverty,” Randall said each local market has individual needs.
“Our organization hasn’t taken a formal position on this tax credit proposal,” Randall said in response to a question from Dodd. “As much as we try to help create a fix for homeowners, we’re creating a fix for renters as well. I would hope that we could do both.”
The tax credit issue is also building momentum in the House. Reps. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, and Ken Calvert, R-Calif., led a bipartisan initiative to extend the $8,000 tax credit by writing a letter to the House leadership. The letter, with 165 signatures from members of Congress, will be delivered on Wednesday.
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Courtney Leads Charge Against Excise Tax on Health Care Benefits
COURNTEY LETTER
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
10/07/09
WASHINGTON – Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, delivered a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Wednesday urging the Democratic leadership not to support a health care bill that includes an excise tax on insurers of expensive employer-sponsored health care benefits.
The Senate Finance Committee is considering a bill that would impose the tax on high-value insurance plans beginning in 2013. Insurers would pay a 40 percent tax on the portion of plans that exceed $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families. Many middle-income Americans have insurance plans that surpass this threshold.
“The middle class has borne enough of the burden of the economic struggles of this country for the past 10 years that they should be shielded from the issue of who pays for health care reform,” Courtney said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The excise tax would offset part of the cost of the Finance Committee bill. The bills three House committees have approved would rely on other revenue sources to ensure that the legislation would be deficit-neutral.
Courtney’s letter to Pelosi included 157 signatures from members of the House; that’s 62 percent of all House Democrats.
“Any effort to try and tax health benefits along the lines of what the Senate Finance Committee has proposed is a non-starter for a supermajority that exists in the House Democratic Caucus,” Courtney said.
None of the House bills includes an excise tax, but many members are concerned that it will become a point of negotiation when the legislation reaches a House-Senate conference committee.
“There’s not many letters with 157 signatures; that’s what speaks volumes here,” Courtney said.
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Long Island Sound Restoration Asks for More Federal Aid
SOUND BRIEF
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
10/06/09
WASHINGTON—Long Island Sound will need more federal aid and more formalized public education to continue to make it cleaner and safer for fishing, a panel of officials and activists from Connecticut and New York told a House subcommittee Tuesday.
In addition to money, the panel told members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, efforts to restore the Sound would require a federally led multi-state approach and more guidance from Washington in educating people about their impact on the Sound.
The subcommittee was meeting to discuss legislation to reauthorize the Long Island Sound Restoration Act. The law, enacted in 2000 and renewed in 2005, expires next year.
“When those pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, you don’t think they survived on turkeys they found on the beach that winter, they were lobsters,” said Nicholas Crismale, president of the Connecticut Commercial Lobstermen’s Association of Guilford.
Crismale told the subcommittee about the struggles lobstermen face in the region today and about the Sound’s diminishing habitat for shellfish.
The water, experts on the Sound say, is being sapped of oxygen because of excessive amounts of nitrogen from wastewater treatment plant discharges, from urban area runoff and from the natural settling of the element on the water’s surface.
Officials became more aware of the nitrogen problem in 2001, when a study of the water in the Sound was completed, and began working on extracting the nitrogen from the Sound. They hope a new study set to be released in the next year will help them assess the effect of their efforts.
“Sometimes signs of progress come in unusual ways,” said Amey Marrella, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. “This past June a pod of nearly 200 bottlenose dolphins passed through the Sound for the first time in at least 30 years. We think this is an important symbol of the Sound’s improved water quality.”
Even with some measurable progress, some organizations believe there is still work to be done.
“Give us more, you’ll get more,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, testifying on behalf of its members in New York and Connecticut.
Esposito wants more funds, but she is also looking for more systemic change. Rather than yearly allocations of government funds, she said, “we need it in three-to-five-year increments, not year-to-year, because that has acted as a roadblock to the larger holistic programs that need to be implemented.”
Educating residents of the watershed area is important, she and many other panelists testified. Esposito suggested a marketing campaign. “I can tell you that the most challenging thing to do is to change public behavior; it’s very difficult,” she said. “However, it also reaps the best and the biggest rewards because then you have sustained change.”
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Connecticut Dairy Farmers may see Relief
DAIRY
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
10/01/09
WASHINGTON – Members of the Congressional Dairy Farmer Caucus met withAgriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday in the wake of congressional negotiators’ approval a day earlier of $290 million in direct payments to dairy farmers and $60 million in indirect support.
The money, which House and Senate conferees inserted into the department’s appropriations bill for the new year, is intended to aid ailing dairy farmers across the country through the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) federal subsidy program.
The subsidies go to dairy farmers when the price of milk falls below a value that can be adjusted month-to-month for variations in feed costs.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D- 2nd District), a co-chairman of the recently revived caucus, said at a press conference following the caucus’s meeting with Vilsack that Connecticut dairy farmers need help immediately.
“It’s as bad as anyone can remember,” Courtney said. “Every day dairy farmers are getting up and going to work and losing money.”
In addition to the $290 million set aside for direct payments, the Agriculture Department will buy $60 million worth of surplus dairy products, which would go to food banks and similar programs.
The dairy industry has also taken a hit from imports in the past year, Courtney said.
Most of the 151 dairy farms in Connecticut are small, Courtney said. The subsidy program is intended to help smaller farms.
“There was an immediate short-term cash-flow problem, [and] an allocation of the new money towards the MILC subsidy program is the most effective way to get help out quickly,” he said.
The Agriculture Department will determine how the direct payments will be divided among the states. No breakdown of funds is available yet.
Many large dairy-producing states such as California, New Mexico and Wisconsin also seek support for their dairy farmers. A majority of the 88-member caucus supports the subsidy program, Courtney said.
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