Category: Kelly Field
Local Immigrant Families Face Potential Hunger
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, April 26–Mary Nguyen is worried. The State Supplemental Food Stamp Program is out of money, and she knows she could lose her benefit any day. If the legislature doesn’t come up with $1.2 million to fund the program through the end of June, she and 8,000 other poor Massachusetts immigrants will soon be forced to find other ways to feed their families.
“If the food stamps are cut, I will not be able to buy enough food for my family,” said Nguyen, a mother of two and the plaintiff in a law suit challenging the state’s plan to stop issuing food stamps on May 7. A judge has granted a preliminary injunction in the case, but Deborah Harris, Nguyen’s lawyer at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said the hold will probably be only a “temporary reprieve.”
Currently, 450 Lawrence immigrants receive an average of $90 a month in food stamps through the State Supplemental Food Stamp Program (SSFSP). If the state does not come up with additional funding for the program, they could lose their benefit through July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.
At local food pantries and soup kitchens, employees are preparing for the worst.
“We expect an increase in the number of people coming here,” said Rejeanne Keeley, executive director of Neighbors in Need, which operates seven food pantries in Lawrence and one in Haverhill. “(The imminent cut) is almost draining the life out of people.”
The scheduled cut comes at a time when the food stamp caseload is the highest it’s been since 1998. Since November, the program has grown from 6,377 cases to 8,137 cases, an increase of 28 percent, according to Dick Powers, spokesman for the state Department of Transitional Assistance. Powers blamed the economy and rising unemployment for the increase.
Meanwhile, food pantry use is already higher than normal in the Merrimac Valley. Last year, Massachusetts food pantries served 16 percent more children each month than in 2000, according to a Project Bread survey of 18 food pantries. Advocates worry that eliminating the state’s food stamp benefit could put an even greater strain on these private organizations.
“People are saying: ‘What am I going to do, how am I going to feed my children if anything is cut back?’ ” said Sister Mary Ellen Broderick of the Good Shepherd Center Soup Kitchen at Lawrence’s Lazarus House emergency shelter.
Passing the Buck
When Congress reformed the welfare system in 1996, it removed virtually all immigrants from the federal food stamp rolls. Though it subsequently restored the benefit to roughly a third of non-citizens, this eligibility cut resulted in a huge cost shift to states like Massachusetts, which opted to continue the benefit using state money. Since 1998, Massachusetts has appropriated more than $40 million to the SSFSP to cover benefits for non-citizens. This year, it appropriated $8.2 million, $1.2 million less than proved necessary this year because of the recession and the post-Sept. 11 economic downturn.
“They (the federal government) left states holding the bag,” said Sheri Steisel, director of the Human Services Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures. “Now, 45 states and DC are facing budget gaps and can no longer afford to make up the difference.”
But states may not have to bear the cost of providing food stamps to immigrants for much longer. President Bush has proposed providing food stamps to legal immigrants who have been in the United States for five years, and Congress is now working out a House-Senate compromise on the issue.
If Congress votes to restore food stamps to immigrants, Massachusetts could save more than $9 million next year. If it doesn’t, advocates fear, the SSFSP could face underfunding again next year.
“Massachusetts is facing a fiscal crisis, so it is really important for the federal government to bear the responsibility for federal benefits,” said Reshma Shamasunder, director of benefits policy and government affairs for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Coalition.
Under-enrollment Still a Problem
Even with the recent increases, current immigrant food stamp caseloads are much smaller than they were in the early to mid-1990s, before welfare reform. In 1998, the year Massachusetts took over the federal immigrant caseload, 9,358 people were on the rolls. By 2001, there were 5,549.
In Lawrence, participation in the SSFSP fell from 700 to 450 cases from 1998 to 2001, according to the DTA.
The federal program has also seen a dramatic decline, particularly among the citizen children of immigrant parents. From 1994 to 1999, the number of citizen children of non-citizen parents participating nationally in the food stamp program declined by 42 percent, according to an Agriculture Department report to Congress.
“It appears that parents who themselves are not eligible may make less of an effort to enroll their children,” said Paula Fromby, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University and co-author of a study that examined welfare participation rates among poor people in Boston, Chicago and San Antonio.
Fromby’s “Three City Study” found that over a two-year period, 51 percent of mostly Dominican households in Boston with citizen caregivers received food stamps, while only 37 percent of households with non-citizen caregivers received them.
While the immigrant caseload is now rising, experts caution that the numbers do not necessarily translate into increased enrollment rates. Ellen Parker, executive director of Project Bread, said that it is possible that while the “absolute numbers” of participants grew with the recession, the percentage of participating immigrants remained the same.
“I’m not sure if (the growth) means that we have an increase in our success rate,” she said. “It may just mean that the (eligible) population is getting bigger.”
What Accounts for Under-enrollment?
According to surveys of immigrants, the No. 1 reason immigrants don’t participate in food stamp programs is that they don’t think they’re eligible.
“There is an enormous amount of confusion as to what immigrants are and aren’t eligible to receive,” said Marcela Urrutia, policy analyst for the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Latino advocacy organization.
Jorge Santiago, who has studied Lawrence-area Latina former welfare recipients at the Institute for Community and Workforce Development at Northern Essex Community College, said that “at the time welfare reform was being implemented,” there was “a lot of confusion among even the case managers about who was eligible.” In some cases, he said, local field offices deliberately withheld information about available benefits to save money.
“The vast majority of Latinas (in my study) weren’t even told” that they remained eligible for food stamps after leaving welfare, he said.
Some immigrants also believe they would jeopardize their chances of achieving citizenship by accepting food stamps. In reality, the Immigration and Naturalization Service can consider cash assistance, but not non-cash assistance like food stamps, in determining whether an applicant is a “public charge,” and thus, legally, a “burden” to the country.
“When welfare reform passed, people got scared and stepped away,” said Catherine D’Amato, CEO and president of the Greater Boston Food Bank. “They went from government support to private support.”
Onerous application processes also discourage enrollment. In Massachusetts, the process begins with an eight-page form and can require up to 20 forms of documentation, according to Project Bread. Eric Bost, Agriculture undersecretary for food nutrition and consumer services, acknowledged in testimony before Congress last June that “the complexity of program requirementsámay deter participation among people eligible for benefits.”
Meanwhile, some immigrants say they feel degraded and demeaned by the welfare office experience.
“We treat people with respect, and we sometimes hear that they don’t get that same treatment from the welfare office,” said Frank Cortez, director of Merrimac Valley Catholic Charities Food Programs, which runs food pantries in Lowell and Haverhill.
The effects of declining food stamp participation can be seen in food pantry use over the last five years. Since 1997, there has been a 13.5 percent increase in the number of individuals seeking assistance from the feeding programs served by the Greater Boston Food Bank, according to communications manager Janet Zipes. The Food Bank now serves 58,301 individuals weekly, roughly equivalent to the population of Haverhill.
In Lawrence, Cortez said, his pantries have experienced a 25 percent increase in use each year since the 1996 welfare reform legislation became law. Keeley of Neighbors in Need said she has seen an increase in the number of “working poor,” people making a living but still not making it.
And at Bread and Roses, a soup kitchen in Lawrence, executive director Linda Monroe said, “Most of the people we provide services to are working at a minimum wage.”
Susan Hofer, Second Harvest’s spokeswoman, said that the umbrella hunger relief organization now provides service to 23 million Americans, 6 million more than receive food stamps.
“We’re now providing more assistance than the food stamp program is, and that’s a problem,” Hofer said.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Rich Get Richer, Poor Get Poorer in Mass.
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, April 24--The earnings gap between rich and poor has grown more in Massachusetts in the last 20 years than it has in all but two states in the country, according to a report released yesterday. Only New York and Oregon experienced more growth in "economic inequality" over the last two decades.
"The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer," said Elizabeth McNichol, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities State Fiscal Project and a co-author of the report.
Massachusetts also has the fifth-largest gap between rich and poor, with the top fifth of earners making an average of $165,700, more than 10 times what the bottom fifth of earners make ($15,700). This translates into an income disparity of $150,000
Twenty years ago, the gap was not nearly so large. At the end of the 1970s, Massachusetts was ranked 24th in the country in its ratio of rich to poor; at the end of the 1980's, it was ranked 23rd.
"We went from the middle of the pack to near the bottom," said Jim St. George of the TEAM Education Fund, a non-profit research and advocacy organization based in Boston.
Massachusetts economists attribute the growing gap largely to the economy and changes in the labor market. As manufacturing jobs have moved out of state, low-skill, low-paid workers have either been laid off or moved into less lucrative service jobs, explained Paul Harrington of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. In the services industry "the distribution of income is much broader" than in the manufacturing industry, he said.
"Many of these jobs are minimum wage or less and part-time, not full-time," added Marguerite Kane, an associate professor of political science at Merrimack College. "Though they have unions, they tend not to get contracts that provide as much salary or benefits as they had in the manufacturing sector."
According to the study, Massachusetts is one of only two states where the bottom fifth of earners lost a significant share of their income over the last 20 years. Since the early 1990s, the average income for the bottom fifth of Massachusetts workers has fallen by 7 percent, St. George said.
Another factor contributing to the change has been the surge in bonuses and stock options given to high-paid executives, Harrington said. Such extras have "substantially altered the distribution of income in the state," he said.
Though experts differ on how to redress income inequality, some suggest raising the minimum wage, strengthening unemployment insurance, removing barriers to employment and implementing supports such as transportation and child care for low-income families. Local economists, meanwhile, emphasize the importance of job skills training.
"People with modest skills will do well if we find ways to enhance their skills," St George said. "We need to invest in community colleges across the state."
He suggested that the state pay for these programs by raising income taxes for the upper-income people, increasing the tobacco tax and sales tax and closing corporate tax loopholes.
Kane agreed that "Massachusetts needs workers who are trained for the new economy, particularly an economy that is driven by technology."
But Roger Taylor, a professor of economics at Northern Essex Community College, said it is unfair to blame the government entirely.
"A lot of (economic inequality) is (the result of) initiative," he said. "There are opportunities out there, but unless someone pushes you, you aren't going to take advantage of them. We have to reward people like Bill Gates, Drew Bledsoe and Oprah Winfrey."
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Bringing Home the Bacon
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, April 10--New Hampshire received nearly $100 million in "pork-barrel" spending this year, an increase of $35 million over 2001, a private watchdog group reported yesterday. The spike places New Hampshire 11th in the nation in per capita pork.
"This yearáCongress porked out at record levels," said Thomas A. Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the author of the annual Congressional Pig Book. "As the nation pays its taxes this monthá.Americansáshould think about what they're paying and what they're getting for their money."
According to CAGW estimates, it took the federal income tax payments of 2,128,110 households at $9,445 each to cover Congress's 2002 "pork bill" of $20.1 billion.
The Pig Book, which profiles the 602 "most egregious" examples of pork, includes several appropriations for New Hampshire. They are: $6 million for the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, $3.35 million for the Institute of Politics at St. Anselm's College, $650,000 for the Mount Washington Technology Village, $500,000 for the Mount Washington Observatory and $230,000 for weather radio transmitters.
The book includes no itemized entries for Massachusetts, which received only $125,000 less than New Hampshire, but ranked 49th in the nation in per capita pork.
According to the CAGW, New Hampshire's high ranking is due to its delegation: Two of its four Congressmen-Rep.John E. Sununu, R-Bedford, and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH--serve on Appropriations Committees. Of the 71 New Hampshire projects included in the 13 appropriations bills, 21 were introduced by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, on which Gregg is the senior Republican. Sununu's Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee introduced an additional 11 projects.
In total, 47 of the earmarks originated in committees on which either Gregg or Sununu served. Gregg's three subcommittees accounted for $58 million of the pork--$45 million of it going to Commerce, State and Judiciary, $9.3 million to the Interior and $4.3 million to Labor, Heath and Human Services, and Education. Sununu's Veteran's Affairs, Housing and Urban Development subcommittee got $4.8 million. (see sidebar for top 10 expenditures)
Massachusetts, with its delegation of 12, has only one member on an Appropriations Committee, Rep. John W. Olver, D-1st.
"If a state doesn't have appropriatorsá.its share [of pork] will be less," said Kerrie Rezak, a research associate with CAGW. "They could ask for one project, but there is a small chance they could ask for 20 projects."
But Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Salem, said the fact that Massachusetts is short of Appropriations Committee members hasn't hurt his district. He said he and other Massachusetts Congressmen are able to work with Olver and other New England appropriators to secure funds for local projects. Last year, Olver helped get nearly $22 million in funding for transportation projects in Massachusetts, including $100,000,000 for the Merrimac Valley Regional Transit Authority.
"We don't have any complaints, nor do our cities and towns, about the way we've been treated by appropriators," Tierney said. "Would we love to have more? Sure we'd love to have more."
Critics say "pork"-money inserted into appropriations bills outside the normal appropriations process-enables Senators and Representatives to increase their clout by sending federal money to their home districts.
But one man's pork is another's jobs program, and Congressmen reply that the local spending targets critical needs in their states. Sununu, who helped secure $3.5 million for a combined sewer overflow project for Manchester and $1.9 million to create more exhibition space at the Alan B. Shepard Discovery Center, said that all the projects he introduced were vital. He conceded that "an awful lot of spending in the budget is not well used or mismanaged," but said he did not see any problems with New Hampshire's priorities.
Asked whether the massive local spending was consistent with the Republican message of fiscal conservatism, he said, "Simply because a member of Congress makes a request for a local priority, it doesn't mean that the funding isn't going to be well used or well spent."
Bass, who does not serve on an Appropriations Committee, said that the New Hamsphire delegation should be congratulated, not excoriated, for bringing home the bacon.
"This is a clear indication of how effective the New Hampshire delegation is and how worthy the projects are that are submitted," he said. "To say that somehow we should be ashamed of it is absolutely wrong."
Gregg, who inserted $3.35 million for the Institute of Politics at St. Anselm's College and $6 million for Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering, did not return calls requesting comment on his add-ons. However, he did issue an unapologetic press release, which read:
"To rephrase the words of Daniel Webster, 'It is, sir, as I have said, a small state. And yet there are those of us who love it!' Federal support of local initiatives is important, and I will continue to support and fund worthwhile projects in New Hampshire from my position on the Appropriations Committee here in the U.S. Senate."
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Profile: Kelly Keehan
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, April 07--For a week, she was a celebrity, hounded by the press, approached by strangers, feted by ambassadors.
Now Kelly Keehan of Danville is back to being a student.
"It was my ten seconds of fame," joked Keehan. "Now I have to copy notes and get caught up."
Keehan, the daughter of Edward and Cathy Keehan, was Princess New Hampshire, the state's representative in the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC. Last week, she joined princesses from the 49 other states and 14 countries to dine with the First Lady, tour NASA, visit with Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and meet members of Congress.
"The diplomatic opportunities were very exciting," said Keehan, who hopes to work for the State Department and eventually become an ambassador.
Unlike Miss America, the Cherry Blossom Festival is not a beauty contest. The Queen is chosen by the random spin of a wheel, and State Societies-essentially, booster clubs for residents of various states in Washington, D.C.-are free to elect their princess however they want.
Keehan, a sophomore international studies major at George Washington University, was picked because she stood out as "motivated, interested in foreign affairs, and well-spoken," said Virginia Wilbert of Nashua, secretary of the New Hampshire State Society and last year's state princess.
"She's mature enough to go abroad and represent us as an ambassador," said Wilbert, an aide in Congressman Charles F. Bass, R-Peterborough's office. Keehan spent last semester in Hong Kong, did a High School exchange with Germany and speaks French, German, Spanish, and a little Chinese. At age 13, she served as a student ambassador to Australia and New Zealand through a "People to People" exchange.
Washington's two-week Cherry Blossom festival celebrates Japan's gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees to Washington, D.C. in 1912, and the Queen travels to Japan for two weeks to meet with national and local dignitaries.
Wilbert said the "princess" name has been maintained out of respect for a sister festival in Japan. The Japanese Cherry Blossom Queen attends the Washington festival, and many of the events-such as the lantern lighting society, the sake and sushi reception, and the reception at the Japanese ambassador's home-are centered around cross-cultural exchange.
"There is such a rich tradition behind this, with the history of diplomatic relations between us and Japan, said Martha Marrapese, a member of the New Hampshire State Society and New Hampshire's 1986 Cherry Blossom Princess.
But while the Festival bulletin explicitly states that the Festival is NOT a beauty pageant, the distinction is lost on many tourists, who would see the sashes and ask "are you Miss America, are you Miss New Hampshire," Keehan said.
"There are a surprising number of people asking for photographs," she said.
Keehan, with her small entourage of local reporters and photographers, looked like even more the celebrity than the average princess. "Everybody kept asking me 'why are people following you, what did you do.'"
Then there was the police escort. Like the President's motorcade, the princess' twin tour buses were escorted everywhere by officers on motorcycles and cars. The escort "lets us run red lightsáand drive in the wrong lane," Keehan reported enthusiastically.
"I brought a video camera to film it" she said.
From Sunday through Thursday last week, Keehan and the other princesses were rushed from meetings, to luncheons, to tours. On Friday, they were primped and pampered, prepared for the evening's ball. Keehan, who has short hair, was given what her stylist calls a "funky" do, spiky and tousled, with twists embellished by pearls.
"You are going to be our funky princess," stylist Dawn promised. "Very, very modern."
Later, Keehan confided that "My mom is going to ask 'what happened to your hair.'á.But I like it."
According to Keehan, there were few prima donnas at the festival, though "some of the girls are deb," means debutante. "You can tell who is being nice because they've been taught to be nice, to be Miss Congeniality, and who is sincere," she said.
Friday night, Keehan attended the ball with Sung Lee, a fellow sophomore from George Washington University. Other princesses were escorted by military dates from the US Naval Academy. The program provided them with a form that allowed them to specify height and any other criteria for their military date.
One princess asked for "Prince Charming," the princesses reported.
In the end, the Queen title went to Elizabeth O'Connor, the princess from Connecticut. She and runner-up Leslie Braitsch of Virginia rode on the honorary float in Saturday's closing parade. .
"We all wanted to be runner-up so we could ride on the float," said Keehan, who walked with the other princesses. "Our feet hurt."
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Pats Honored in White House Ceremony
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, April 02--One day after they threw out the first pitches at the Red Sox season opener, the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots traveled to the nation's capital for an even greater honor: a presidential reception.
"This is what it's all about," strong safety Lawyer Milloy said. "When I dreamed about winning the Lombardi Trophy [which goes to the Super Bowl champion], I knew I would have a chance to meet the President."
In a half-hour ceremony in the White House's Rose Garden, President George W. Bush likened the Patriots' win to his own presidential victory, saying that both he and the team started out as underdogs.
"I can remember when they were down on you a bit-I know how you feel," he said, standing on a podium next to the Lombardi Trophy. The Patriots, he said, "learned what I learned, that in politics and sports, the experts are often wrong."
Bush praised the team's character, saying he was impressed by the way the Patriot players, before their improbable 20-17 Super Bowl victory over the St. Louis Rams, took the field together instead of coming out individually as each was announced..
"I thought that was a pretty clear signal to America that teamwork is important; that the individual matters to the team and that the team is bigger than the individual," he said.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who presented Bush with a team jersey and made him an honorary team captain, said he felt the team represented "in a very humble wayáwhat the President's inspirational leadershipáhas meant to our country."
"We're a team of underdogs, we're red, white and blue, we put team first, but most of all, in the end, we're winners," he said.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick then presented the President with an autographed ball from the Super Bowl. He later joked that it was a personal "thrill" to "be up there with another Andover grad," even though Bush was "more of a baseball guy."
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, who attended the ceremony with U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords, D-Vt., said he hopes to be back in the Rose Garden after the World Series.
"The Red Sox have picked up the mantle of the Patriots in presenting themselves as a team," he said.
Kennedy said he hadn't bet on the game with the President, but offered to wager him on Dallas "any time he wants."
The players, for their part, seemed as excited as kids to meet the president. Many of them brought automatic cameras for photos with the president, and several had video cameras as well.
"This is one of the perks that comes with winning the Super Bowl," said wide receiver Troy Brown. "I could get used to this."
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Meehan Celebrates Passage of Campaign Finance Reform
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, March 20--Nine years of hard work paid off for Congressman Marty Meehan, D-Lowell, yesterday, as the Senate voted, 60-40, to pass a campaign finance reform bill he called "the most significant rewrite of our election laws in a generation."
"This is the final nail in the 'soft-money' coffin," said Meehan, who sponsored a companion bill the House passed on Valentine's Day. "It has been a long battle. There were many times I thought this moment would never come."
Meehan first introduced a bill to fundamentally reform campaign finance reform in 1993. Over the years, his bill underwent several revisions to make it more bipartisan and less objectionable to opponents. The Shays-Meehan bill, which passed yesterday, would ban unlimited, unregulated soft-money donations to the national political parties and prevent interest groups from running so-called issue ads in the final days before an election. Though "issue ads," unlike "campaign ads," cannot mention candidates' names, they can strongly and indirectly urge a vote for or against a candidate.
The bill would also increase the amount individuals can contribute to campaigns from $1,000 to $2,000 per election, or $4,000 per election cycle.
The legislation will now go to President George W. Bush, who is expected to sign the bill soon. Opponents to the Shays-Meehan legislation, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, vow a court challenge over the constitutionality of the issue ad limitations in the bill.
"We fully intend to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court," said Ian Welters, communications director for the American Conservative Union, one of the groups that oppose the legislation. "This bill would outlaw or criminalize speech that every American has always believed to be protected."
The National Rifle Association, which has given generously to the political parties in the past, also objected to the issue ad restrictions.
"This creates a black-out period on issue advocacy," said Chuck Cunningham, the NRA's director of federal affairs. "It leaves six weeks in which citizens and their organizations would be vulnerable to bad legislation because they've been silenced."
Meehan countered that so-called "issue ads" are often little more than thinly veiled campaign ads and said that he expects the bill to withstand any legal challenges.
"I know our day in court is coming, and I welcome that," said Meehan in a speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday, where he was introduced by student Charles Daher, son of Lawrence businessman Charles Daher. "But I think the limits are going to be upheld by the US Supreme Court." He said the Court has allowed rare restrictions on speech in cases of "compelling government interest" and cited laws banning child pornography or requiring truthful advertising and product labeling.
Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook acknowledged that "armies of political lawyers will surely try to carve out new loopholes," but she predicted that "the Court will sustain the measure approved today."
But Charlie Cook of Cook's Report, an expert on congressional elections, was less optimistic, saying that "there are only two ways to reform campaigns: clean up the Constitution or kill all the lawyers. They are going to find the holes; it's like water running down the hill. The advocacy ad [provision] has no chance of surviving a constitutional challenge."
Supporters of campaign finance reform contend that the Shays-Meehan/McCain-Feingold bill will restore confidence in democracy by limiting the ability of wealthy individuals, corporations and unions to "buy access" and favorable treatment from politicians through soft-money donations to the political parties. They say the ban on soft money would make parties and candidates more responsive to individual voters by forcing them to rely more on smaller "hard money" donations from individuals and political action committees to get out the vote and get their messages across on television.
"The [current] system has fostered cynicism about politics [and] has had an insidious impact upon our democracy," Meehan said on Tuesday. "Parties spend all their time romancing big donors."
Common Cause president Scott Harshbarger said of the Senate vote, "Americans have won an historic victory to help bring our government back to the people."
But some opponents-interest groups excluded-argue that the bill would do more to empower interest groups than to reduce the amount of money in politics. They say the bill would weaken the parties and shift control to special interests, which can still raise-and spend--as much money as they want.
"This bill doesn't take money out of politics, it just takes the parties out of politics," McConnell said during debate yesterday. "Make no mistake about it, soft money will exist and it will thrive under Shays-Meehan."
Daniel Manatt, associate director of the Campaign Finance Institute, said that he doubted "anyone could say with a straight face that it will reduce the overall amount of money. Clearly, there are many ways to spend money on politics."
If upheld, the law would go into effect on November 6, the day after the congressional elections. Yesterday, at a news conference before the vote, Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, praised Meehan, calling him an "incredible leader."
"He challenged the power structure," Wertheimer said. "Some of his colleagues didn't like it, but he never flinched, not even when people tried to take his congressional district away from him. He never flinched."
Three New England Republicans: Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine joined eight other Republicans and Independent James Jeffords of Vermont in voting for the measure.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Smith Introduces Segway Legislation
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, March 20-- If Senator Bob Smith, R-N.H., has his way, Dean Kamen's Segway scooters may soon be zipping along sidewalks, trails and bike paths across the nation.
Yesterday, Smith introduced a bill that would enable "personal mobility devices" to travel on federally built or federally financed sidewalks and bike paths-but not highways. The bill builds upon a law passed by the New Hampshire legislature last month.
"This broadens the scope" of the state law, Smith said. It would give users, particularly the handicapped, "a little more mobility, a little more flexibility."
Current federal regulations prohibit the use of all motor vehicles, except wheelchairs, on sidewalks.
Asked if he could envision people cruising up the White Mountains on a Segway, Smith said he wants to "see people have the flexibility to use the devices as they might a bicycle or a wheel chair."
Kamen, the Manchester-based inventor of the Segway, agreed, calling his scooter "an important alternative transportation solution that could help solve many of the pressing problems facing urban transportation around the world."
Supporters of the Segway, formerly known as "Ginger," say that it will help reduce congestion and fuel consumption nationwide. Opponents worry about the safety of allowing the devices--which can travel up to 12 miles per hour--on the sidewalks. Segway maintains that the damage from a collision with a pedestrian would be no greater than if two people collided, but a recent Wall Street Journal article reported that the devices have not been crash-tested for safety.
Asked about this, Brian C. Toohey, Segway's vice president of international and regulatory affairs, said that it "depends on what you define as testing."
"We have done a tremendous amount of in-house testing, and we believe it is extremely safe. We are undertaking more extensive testing."
Toohey said the product is now being sold exclusively to postal workers, police and other professionals to "prove its safety" to consumers before it goes on the public market.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Kerry’s CAFE Standards Killed in Senate
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, March 13--Senator John F. Kerry's pet project died in the Senate yesterday, after the Massachusetts Democrat's colleagues rejected his tough vehicle fuel-economy standards in favor of a more auto industry-friendly proposal.
Kerry, who chose to drop his amendment to the energy bill after a less stringent alternative passed by a 62-38 vote, credited "shrewd and well-crafted" advertising with killing the plan. Opposition ads had warned "soccer moms" and farmers that the new regulations would mean the end of their minivans, truck, and SUVs.
"It was the most extraordinary spending on phony advertising I've seen since the tobacco debate," Kerry said.
If the plan Kerry had co-sponsored with Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., had passed, it would have required automobile manufacturers to increase their fleet-wide fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon by 2015, an increase of about 50 percent. Instead, the Senate passed a plan that would direct the Transportation Department to develop new fuel-economy rules but set no specific increase for the automakers to meet.
Senators Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., voted against the alternative, while Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H. voted for it.
In defending his proposal, Kerry argued that it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimize America's dependence on foreign oil, "sending OPEC the message that we won't stand for anti-competitive, manipulative price increases." Senators Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo., sponsors of the alternative, replied that it would eliminate auto industry jobs, jeopardize safety and compromise consumer choice.
In comments before the vote, Bond appealed directly to "soccer moms," evoking the image of a "string of subcompacts and golf carts towing kids to soccer practice." During debate, he and other Senators referred repeatedly to a poster of a two-seater, bubble-like European subcompact they called the "purple people eater," warning that Kerry's plan would convert all cars into "plastic coffins."
A Virginia mother who challenged Kerry to "come drive a mile in my minivan" said his proposal would be "very bad for the mom business."
"I can't fit all six kids in a Yugo; it would look like a clown car," said Martha Gaudet in a press conference before the debate.
Kerry dismissed these assertions as "extraordinary, ridiculous scare tactics," promising that "no American will be forced to drive any different vehicle." Calling the ads "insulting to the intelligence of Americans," he cited a National Academy of Sciences study last year concluding that significant fuel-efficiency improvements are possible without reductions in car size and weight.
Though Kerry called the Bond-Levin amendment "an artful dodge, a great escape" from true action on CAFE standards, he said yesterday that he still believes the energy bill is "worthwhile" even without his amendment. The bill also contains tax incentives for the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles, and other environment-enhancing initiatives. Kerry expressed guarded optimism that the Transportation Department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would choose to tighten fuel-economy standards after its mandated 15-month review of the current rules.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Meehan Proposes Graphic Warning Labels to Reduce Teen Smoking
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, March 12--In an effort to reduce teen smoking in the Merrimac Valley and beyond, Congressman Martin T. Meehan, D-Lowell, has introduced legislation that would require tobacco companies to put large, graphic, warning labels on their packaging and advertising.
The labels, which will be modeled after prototypes created by local teenagers, could include pictures of diseased mouths, damaged hearts, cancer-ridden lungs or, to suggest impotence, limp cigarettes. Meehan called the labels "part of the answer to Big Tobacco's spin machine."
"Big tobacco is the master of marketing," said Meehan, co-chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Tobacco and Health. "Health advocates need to match fire with fire."
The warning labels, he said, are more candid and honest than current labels and would "truly hammer home what smoking does to your health and your children's health."
Johanna Ortolaza, a member of the Lawrence Teen Coalition, an anti-tobacco youth advocacy group, said that better warning labels would help combat teen smoking by "showing what people go through." Ortolaza's package design-a diseased lung superimposed over a photograph of a beautiful model-was one of only 6 chosen out of 150 submitted to the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program for portrayal on three-foot tall mock cigarette packages that will be displayed throughout the northeast this spring. The text reads: "Smoking hurts you in ways you cannot see."
"Pictures would be more effective at motivating people to quit smoking," said Ortolaza, a junior at Greater Lawrence Technical High School. She said teens today smoke because of "stress from September 11," and family problems.
"They just want to get away," she said. "It calms them down."
According to the North Shore Tobacco Control Program, 34 percent of Massachusetts high school students smoke, and 24,000 area residents under 18 become daily smokers each year.
Adult smoking rates in Lawrence and Lowell are at 25 per cent, or 3 percentage points higher than in the rest of Massachusetts, according to the most recent Department of Public Health Behavior Risk Factor Survey. From 1994 to 1998, 183 Lawrence residents and 366 Lowell residents were diagnosed with lung cancer, according to the department's newest cancer registry.
Current warning labels on cigarette packages in the United States are weaker and less conspicuous than those in other countries, according to a report on reducing tobacco use issued by the surgeon general of the United States in 2000. The new labels would include pictures and occupy 50 percent of the front and rear panels of a cigarette or smokeless tobacco package or advertisement. The text might read "Children see, Children do," "Cigarettes are a heart breaker," "You're not the only one smoking this cigarette" or "Each year the equivalent of a small city dies from tobacco use."
"The current warning labels are so small, they're easy to overlook," said Ralph Hingson, a professor of public health at Boston University who teaches a course called "Strategies to Reduce Tobacco Use."
"Smokers don't pay attention to [current] warning labels," said Dr. Michael Siegel, a former tobacco control officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and author of the book Marketing Public Health. "There is strong empirical evidence that it has no effect on smoking rates."
There is, however, some empirical evidence that the larger, more graphic ads do. Since Canada replaced its black and white text warnings with larger picture-based warnings a year ago, more adults have quit or tried to quit smoking, a study by the Canadian Cancer Society found. According to the study, 43 percent of smokers said the ads made them more concerned about the health effects of smoking and 38 percent said the warnings were a factor in their decision to try to quit. The study also found that 17 percent of smokers had asked for a different package of cigarettes because they did not like the warning label on the first one.
"We are very encouraged by the findings," said Ken Kyle, director of public issues for the Canadian Cancer Society. "The warnings are having an impact on a significant segment of the smoking population."
The Canadian regulations have already inspired international action. Brazil recently implemented a law requiring picture-based warnings to cover 100 percent of the front or back of the package, and the European Union has adopted a directive giving its 15 member countries the option of using pictures. And next week in Geneva, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization will continue examining the possibility of making picture-based warnings a worldwide minimum requirement.
Each year, 10,000 Massachusetts residents die from smoking, according to the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids. Annual statewide health care expenditures related to tobacco use are $2.4 billion.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Kerry and McCain Reach Compromise on CAFE Standards
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, March 07--In a last-ditch effort to bolster Republican support for his fuel- efficiency proposals, Senator John F. Kerry yesterday introduced what he called a "bipartisan compromise" on measures to reduce dependence on foreign oil and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
The compromise, which came as debate over the omnibus energy bill continued in the Senate, keeps most of Kerry's initial proposal intact, but incorporates a Republican-backed plan to allow automakers to trade up to 10 percent of the credits they earn for exceeding fuel efficiency standards to companies that fall short of the standards. The addition was designed to meld Kerry's proposal with a competing proposal being offered by Republican Senator John McCain, R-AZ.
"This marries the two proposals and increases the chances for passage," said David Wade, Kerry's communications director. "It makes the new approach on CAF° [corporate average fuel economy standards] bipartisan."
Wade said the compromise would be offered in place of the competing proposals as the energy bill is debated in the coming weeks.
Both Senators had proposed substantial increases over the current fuel-efficiency standards of 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and 20.7 for light trucks. The compromise bill would give automakers until 2015 to reach 36 miles per gallon for their combined fleets.
"The provision will provide for large oil savings and greenhouse gas savings," Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, said. "We should save more than 1 million barrels of oil per day by 2015."
But the proposal could still face opposition from colleagues representing states with auto, oil and natural gas and agriculture interests, who fear that the tightened standards could hurt industries in their districts. A coalition of senators from Michigan and Delaware are working behind the scenes on an alternative amendment that would replace fuel-efficiency requirements with incentives for manufacturers, according to Tara Andringa, press secretary to Sen. Carl Levin, D-MI.
Senator Bob Smith, R-N.H, is among those who believe that "incentives would be more effective than mandates," according to Genevieve Erny, a spokeswoman for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The House-passed energy bill includes no change in CAF° standards.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
