Category: Kelly Field
Hispanic Business Leaders Protest Cuts in Programs to Aid Minority Businesses
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, March 06–Hispanic business leaders from Massachusetts met with members of Congress yesterday to protest cuts and changes in federal programs that provide loans and contracts to minority small businesses.
“Hispanic businesses are doing very well in Massachusetts, but we need to continue supporting programs that are going to take us to the next level,” said Edgar R. Cintron, owner of a small construction company and a regional representative on the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce board of directors, at a USHCC legislative briefing proceeding the visits.
“These [cuts] would impact small business who depend on [federal] money to grow,” said State Representative Jose Santiago, D-Lawrence, in an interview.
President Bush’s budget proposes to slash funds for the Small Business Administration’s 7A loan guarantee program by 50 percent, according to Senator John F. Kerry, D-Mass. The program provides secured loans to small businesses unable to borrow through normal lending channels. Demand for these loan guarantees increased by 16 percent last year as banks cut back on lending to small businesses in the face of the recession.
Kerry, who has introduced legislation that would make it easier for businesses affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to qualify for 7A loans, said that such loans are important to “ensure that existing businesses are not left behind and aspiring businesses get started.”
The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee that Kerry chairs is asking Congress to increase funds for 7A loans to $11 billion. Last year, Massachusetts received 1,785 such loans, which added $231 million to the economy, according to the committee.
There are 622 Hispanic-owned firms in Lawrence, and 12,725 in Massachusetts, according to a 1997 U.S. Census Bureau Economic Census. The Lawrence firms took in over $50,000 in receipts that year.
Also at risk this year is Lawrence’s Small Business Center, which could be affected by “under funding” of the nation’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), Kerry said. The Lawrence center, which opened two years ago, includes the first-in-the-nation bilingual Business Information Center, which provides business information, counseling and training to Lawrence’s Latino residents. Last year, 24 states, including Massachusetts, lost SBDC funds because their populations did not grow as fast as the national average during the 1990s.
Latino business leaders also denounced proposed SBA changes that would make it easier for businesses to qualify for contracts awarded on the basis of location, rather than ethnicity. The changes, they say, would place the Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HubZones) program-which provides federal contracts based on business location-on equal footing with the SBA’s 8A Minority Enterprise Development Program, whose contract awards are based on ethnic background.
“This change would rob minority business of contracts and pit minority business owners against low-income communities,” said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-Brooklyn, the senior Democrat on the House Small Business Committee.
Contracting opportunities for minorities fell 20 percent from 1995 to 2000, said Velazquez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress.
“They are sending the message that minorities need not apply,” Velazquez said.
Cintron, whose construction business is designated an 8A firm eligible for government contracts, said the government is shifting its priorities, increasingly directing its resources away from minority-owned business.
8A spending has been reduced by $1.3 billion in the past five years and $700 million in the past two alone.
“Little by little they are diffusing it,” said Gerardo Villacres, president of the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce in Boston.
Kerry, who yesterday introduced legislation that would make more businesses eligible for 8A funds, agreed that the government is “playing games with the regulatory process,” and vowed to fight the proposed change in committee.
Villacres said that the Enron scandal points to the need for the government to “level the playing field” for small businesses that cannot afford “to fill the pockets of politicians.” He said the 8A program makes it easier for small businesses to compete with larger companies that, he said, could “buy” government contracts or favorable legislation.
“It is not that we expect the government to do everything; we are willing to take charge, to not wait for someone to open the door for us,” Villacres said.
“But,” added Juana Horton of the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce of Providence, “this helps them get their foot in the door. And that’s all the help small businesses need.”
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Reeve Joins Kennedy in Support for Bill Allowing Therapeutic Cloning
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, March 05--Quadriplegic actor Christopher Reeve joined Senator Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, yesterday to endorse a bill that would allow human embryonic cloning for medical research.
The "Cloning Prohibition Act," introduced by Kennedy and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Cal, would ban reproductive cloning, but permit "therapeutic cloning," the transfer of cell nuclei into egg cells whose nuclei have been removed. Scientists believe that these "reprogrammed" cells could eventually be used to provide treatment for the millions of Americans who now suffer from cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, ALS and spinal cord injury.
"Some people are able to accept living with a severe disability," said Reeve, who has been unable to eat, wash, go to the bathroom or get dressed by himself since being thrown from his horse and paralyzed in 1995. "I am not one of them."
Therapeutic cloning, Reeve said, could give "hundreds of millions of people around the world who are afflicted withá.diseases and disabilities exactly the kind of chance that we need."
Proponents of therapeutic cloning, or "somatic cell nuclear transfer," (SCNT) as it is called in scientific circles, argue that it is necessary to create replacement cells and tissues are that are compatible with patients own immune systems. They maintain that therapeutic cloning could be used to create new stem cells that would be perfectly matched to the DNA code of the target patient.
"We must not confuse human cloning with regenerative medicine," said Kennedy, at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee which he chairs. "One creates a person, and should be banned. The other provides a cure, and deserves our strong support."
Reproductive cloning involves the development of a full individual from a body cell. It is the technology used by Scottish scientists in 1997 to create Dolly the sheep and more recently by Texas scientists to create CC the cat. Kennedy's bill would outlaw this type of cloning, making it a federal crime to implant a cloned embryo into a woman's uterus.
But opponents of the Kennedy bill insist that there are safer methods of medical research that don't require the destruction of human embryos. They suggest that comparable medical advances could be accomplished through the human genome project and research on adult and embryonic stem cells, and raise the specter of a new era of eugenics and made-to-order, designer babies.
"The idea that you would use science to produce a human being to specifications flies in the face of some fundamental beliefs. The fact is cloning humans is wrong," said Senator Judd Gregg, R-N.H., at the hearing.
Gregg is a co-sponsor of an alternative piece of legislation that would ban all human cloning and create strict penalties for those who violate the ban. That legislation, introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-LA., resembles a bill passed by the House of Representatives last year and is expected to be considered by the Senate in the next couple of weeks.
"Creating human life simply for the purpose of destroying it is immoral, unethical, and should be illegal," said Landrieu at the hearing.
Landrieu said that cloning research would put women-particularly poor women-at risk by subjecting them to undue pressure to donate eggs. Some studies suggest that the ovarian stimulating drugs that women take to produce larger number of eggs can pose a risk to future fertility.
"The exploitation of women in this process is inevitable," said Landrieu. "In this brave new world, women's eggs and wombs would be commodities sold to the highest bidder."
Judy Norsigian, Executive Director and Founder of the Boston Women's Health Collective, agreed that "the reality is that women with limited financial resources will be the primary providers of human eggs" if therapeutic cloning is allowed.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Minorities Still Discriminated Against in Lending
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28-- The majority of blacks and Hispanics surveyed in a national poll believe that white men are favored in the lending process, according to a poll made public yesterday by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) at its annual conference.
The poll, which surveyed 1,258 Americans, also showed that 26 percent of blacks and 20 percent of Hispanics believe that they have been discriminated against in getting a loan.
John E. Taylor of Boston, the president and chief executive officer of the NCRC, said that the findings prove that discrimination in lending persists and that increased oversight is needed to ensure that poor and minority communities are served. Taylor and several Massachusetts members of the coalition are in Washington this week to build support for legislation that would extend the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to mortgage and insurance companies and require insurers and lenders to provide demographic data, with the applicant's consent.
This would make it easier to gauge whether lending institutions and insurers are providing loans to minority and women-owned businesses, Taylor said.
The CRA rates banks on the number of loans, investments and services they offer to residents of low and moderate-income communities. In the past 25 years, the law has been credited with increasing home and small business ownership and lowering crime.
The poll also addresses the issue of so-called "predatory loans", defined by the NCRC as "a subset of sub-prime loans·.designed to exploit vulnerable unsophisticated borrowers." These can include loans that charge exorbitant interest and fees, carry higher rates than the applicant's credit history would justify, and that do not take into account the borrowers ability to repay. According to the poll, 76 percent of all respondents believe that lenders deliberately steer women and minorities towards unsuitable loans.
Often, said Florence Hagins of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, the victims are people with poor or no credit ratings who are desperate for a loan--any loan.
"People that are strapped for cash think of it as a way out. They don't read the fine print," she said.
Immigrants-who may have little or no credit history--are also frequent targets said Kristin Harol, deputy director of Lawrence Community Works. Harol, whose organization runs a home ownership program, said she is accustomed to seeing immigrants come in with loans with 14 and 15 percent interest rates.
"The Latino population is hungry for home ownership and may be willing to take on a bad loan to pay," Harol said. "Rents in Boston are so exorbitant that it seems like a good deal."
According to Lawrence's Len Raymond, head of Homeowner Options for Massachusetts Elders, Lawrence has the second-highest rate of sub-prime loans in Massachusetts. Only Springfield has a higher rate.
A "certain segment" of these loans are "undoubtedly predatory," he said. "These guys are not interested in [applicants'] ability to pay. There are a lot of them that are equity strippers."
Harol said she also sees banks "overqualifying" homebuyers, providing them with mortgages they can't afford and then threatening to repossess their homes if they can't make payment. With the current recession and resulting layoffs, many borrowers are worried that they will not make their high interest payments and will default on their homes, she and others said.
"There is some growing fear of increased default and disclosure," particularly in Lawrence, Chelsea, Dorchester and Brockton, said Andrea Luquetta, director of housing and community investment at the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.
Members of the NCRC are working to build support for a Predatory Lending Consumer Protection Act that would expand the number of high-cost loans that are subject to consumer protections.
"As we have seen with Enron, there may be room for more oversight of sleazy businessmen," said Al Franken, a former Saturday Night Live producer known for his political impersonations and his Stuart Smalley persona; he backs the legislation.
At the conference, members of the banking and lending community disputed these criticisms, saying that they are charging only what's required to make a profit and protect themselves against risky clients.
"We are in the lending business; we do need to make money," said Steve Nadar of Option 1 Mortgage. "We may not be as fat a business as people say."
Liz Hall Ortiz of Citigroup said that the fact that only 10 percent of bank branches are in low and moderate-income neighborhoods belies accusations that lenders are "targeting" the poor.
And James Valentine of American Banking Association said that passing new legislation would only add more paperwork to an already overburdened process.
"People getting loans already don't understand any of this," he said. "This will double the amount of paper."
When Taylor suggested that lenders could simply explain the terms orally, Valentine replied "This is Washington; you know that doesn't happen."
Answered Taylor, "I'm from Boston, not Washington."
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Massachusetts Congressmen Could Profit From Proposed Changes to Federal Campaign Finance Law
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25--Massachusetts Congressmen could profit from proposed changes to federal campaign finance law, according to experts on the Shays-Meehan bill.
"This is only going to improve their situation," predicted Patrick Basham, a senior fellow at the Center for Representative Government at the Cato Institute, a conservative Washington think tank.
Ray LaRaja, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said that incumbents of both parties would benefit from the bill's increase in individual contribution limits because they typically have broader fundraising bases and better name recognition than challengers. Shays-Meehan, if passed, would raise the limit on individual contributions to House, Senate and presidential campaigns from $1,000 to $2,000 per election cycle.
"Incumbents have bigger Rolodexes, and can rely more on individuals," LaRaja said. "Challengers don't have that luck."
In the past, soft-money spending by national party committees has supported challengers in the form of advertising that indirectly advocates their election without saying so directly. This form of assistance has been considered necessary because wealthy individuals and interest groups generally prefer to give money to incumbents, who may have clout on congressional committees. Shays-Meehan would ban donations of unregulated soft money to the national parties in an effort to restrict the ability of wealthy donors to "buy" access and favorable treatment from members of Congress.
With the new limits, Congressmen are likely to ask large donors to double their giving. Asked whether he would encourage previous $1,000 donors to give more, Will Keyser, senior adviser to Congressman Marty Meehan, D-Lowell, said, "Some contributors who gave the maximum will give the new maximumá.But the law won't change our focus" on low-budget annual fundraisers.)
Since the last election, Meehan has received $1,000 or more from 54 donors, while Congressman John F. Tierney, D-Salem, has received that amount from 46. Meehan has the fourth-most cash on hand of any member of the House --$2,154,223--much of it left over from when he was considering a run for governor, Keyser said.
The contribution limit increase would also allow challengers to raise more money, and could help them reach the $250,000 to $300,000 necessary to "even get into play," said Anthony Corrado, a political science professor at Colby College and author of a text on campaign finance reform. Both incumbents and challengers raise approximately 20 percent of their money from $1,000 donors, Corrado said.
But "the incumbents didn't entirely forget about themselves" in writing the bill, he said, citing the so-called "millionaires amendment." The amendment would triple individual contribution limits for candidates whose opponents spend more than $350,000 of their own money, thereby shielding incumbents from wealthy self-financed challengers.
Daniel Manatt, associate director of the Campaign Finance Institute, said that the provision "really empowers candidates in facing a millionaire opponent."
At the same time, the amendment could place John F. Kerry, D-Mass., and other potential presidential challengers in the difficult position of having to decide whether to accept public financing. Bush, who raised more than $100 million in regulated hard money for the 2000 primary, is expected to refuse taxpayer subsidies in 2004 and could raise twice as much hard money under the new limits.
"Kerry has always been a supporter of the public financing program. The problem he'll now face is that he may be facing competitors who decide not to take public funding," Corrado said.
Kerry has raised more than $4 million in the 2002 election cycle, placing him third among Senate incumbents. He has also spent the most of all Senate incumbents-$1,594,793, according to the Center for Responsive Politics
If Kerry chose to accept the federal funding, he could reach the spending limit before the federal funds for the general elections came through and be left with no soft money for advertising while Bush had plenty of money for television ads.
When the assets of Kerry's wife Teresa Heinz are included, it makes Kerry the Senate's wealthiest member. Douglas Weber, a researcher for the Center for Responsive Politics, said Kerry might be inclined to reject public subsidies and avoid the spending restrictions.
"He has also got quite a bit of personal wealth," Weber said, adding, "though we're talking a couple hundred million," that Bush will be able to raise.
As for the state parties, they will probably not be adversely affected by the removal of soft money at the national level. Soft money transfers from national to state parties were banned under the Massachusetts election reform law passed four years ago, said Ken White, executive director of Massachusetts Common Cause. So while New Hampshire state parties have received $256,550 in soft-money transfers so far in the 2002 election cycle, Massachusetts has received nothing, the Center for Responsive Politics reports.
The pending bill, if it becomes law, "will have less of an effect [in Massachusetts] because we closed that soft-money loophole four years ago," White said.
The state and local parties could even benefit if the wealthy donors and PACs who now give to the national parties decide to shift their focus to state and local campaign committees and interest groups. Massachusetts residents and PACs gave $2,159,589 to the national parties last year, the 12th highest amount in the nation.
"Look for big donors to try to shift some of their giving to political committees at the state level," writes Larry Makinson in "Life After Soft Money," a Center for Responsive Politics report.
A provision of the Shays-Meehan bill would allow soft-money donations to state parties of $10,000 per donor, provided the funds are used for get-out-the-vote drives and not candidate advocacy. The bill would ban state and local parties from spending soft money on activities that directly influence Federal elections, but allow them to spend a 50/50 mixture of soft and hard money on get-out-the-vote and voter registration activities. Hard money transferred from the
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Kennedy Feted on His 70th Birthday
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24--Yesterday, in the midst of a partisan election reform debate, Senators of both parties took a break to honor the man Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass called "the lion of the Senate," "the most prolific legislator in American history" and "the very embodiment of a great citizen:" Edward M. Kennedy.
"Ted has always believed you can put aside partisanship-push away division-and that faith has mattered most in some of the most trying and divisive times our nation has endured," said Kerry during a Senate acknowledgement of Kennedy's 70th birthday, which was Friday, and his years of service to the Senate and the country.
Best known for his trademark liberalism and emphatic tirades on behalf of the poor, disabled, unemployed and underpaid, Kennedy has nonetheless established himself as a pragmatic, practical politician who reaches across the aisle to get things done. Over the years, he has forged unlikely but productive partnerships and close friendships with such conservatives as Dan Quayle, Alan Simpson and Orrin Hatch.
Yesterday, Hatch, R-Utah, joked about his friendship with Kennedy, saying that one of the reasons he ran for the Senate 26 years ago "was to get the modern face of liberalism-Ted Kennedy-out of office."
"As the past 26 years have amply indicated, I have certainly failed," Hatch said. "Ted Kennedy is one of the most effective-if not the most effective-legislators in the country."
Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1962 to fill the seat held by his brother John F. Kennedy before he was elected to the presidency and he is now third in seniority in the Senate. He is perhaps as famous for being a part of the Kennedy political dynasty as he is for his record on civil rights, health care and fighting for services for the underprivileged.
Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., whose father served in the Senate from Connecticut, joked about Kennedy's famous lineage, saying that Kennedy often reminds Dodd "that he deeply resents that someone can get elected on the basis of their last name."
Kennedy later said that he has "been enormously blessed with my heroes being members of my family." He said his parents taught him the importance of public service, and instilled in him the conviction that "politics is a noble profession."
As for his age, he quipped "I could run four more times and still be younger than Strom Thurmond."
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Kaman Cruises for Support for Segway Bill
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14--Dressed in his signature work clothes-jeans and a button down shirt-a pager by his side, Manchester's Dean Kamen zipped through Congress' ornate halls this Wednesday, cruising for support for a law that would allow his Segway "human transporter" to travel on sidewalks and roads.
Kamen, who met with legislators and cabinet members yesterday, said he was "not sure" what sort of regulation his self-balancing "Ginger" would face, since the scooter doesn't fit into any existing transportation category.
"It is neither car, nor sneakers," observed Kamen after a meeting with Washington-area high school students at the Commerce department. "I'm down here to try to figure it out."
There is currently no law regulating the use of electric scooters such as the Segway on sidewalks and roads, but Congressman Charles Bass, R-Peterborough, has said he plans to reintroduce legislation to ensure that the Segway is classified as a consumer product and not a motor vehicle.
Bass, whose district will benefit from growth at the new Bedford assembly plant and the Manchester Millyard Segway LLC headquarters, said he will work to shield the scooter from "unnecessary and burdensome regulations" and to "enable the use of Segway on sidewalks and other public ways."
Bass also said he would "work to ensure that Segway qualifies for any tax credits for buyers and manufacturers of environmentally friendly products with low emissions."
Last month, the New Hampshire Senate passed an act designed to integrate scooters with pedestrian traffic. The act was supposed to be heard in the New Hampshire House yesterday, but the vote was postponed upon request by Representative Paul M. Mirski, R-Grafton.
If approved, the bill would require Segway scooters to be fitted with reflectors and lamps for use in the dark.
Kamen hopes that his 60-80 pound scooters, which can travel up to 15 to 20 miles at a time, will ultimately become as mainstream as their manual counterparts. Currently, the scooter is only being marketed to industrial and commercial users like Police Departments and the United States Post Office. The Boston Police Department will begin a six week test of the scooters the third week in March, Deputy Superintendent Bill Casey said.
"We're trying to see whether they make sense for policing," said Casey. "I've been on them, they're fun." Casey said the six prototypes will be used to police downtown Boston, including the Boston Common, Boston Gardens and Fanueil Hall, as well as walking areas in East Boston.
Police hope the scooters will help officers travel further and respond to emergencies more quickly.
"We believe this may enable our officers to have far-reaching contact and access toá.residents, visitors and businesses," said Police Commissioner Paul Evans.
Another pilot program will be conducted at the Concord New Hampshire Post Office, where the test scooters will be outfitted with snow tires for winter travel. Jim Adams, District Manager at the Manchester Post Office, said that five Concord mail deliverers will "conduct their usual route delivery" to see if the scooter will make their route faster and less exhausting.
Brian C. Toohey, Vice President of International and Regulatory Affairs for Segway, said that the company will begin marketing to individual consumers in about a year. The company first wants to establish the scooter as "a serious transportation alternative," Toohey said.
But the cost of the Segway could be prohibitive. Asked by one honor student yesterday how much Ginger cost, Kamen said that his company hoped to get the cost down to $3,000 once demand increases.
"Maybe it will be just like cell phones. Ten years ago, nobody had heard of them," said Kamen.
The students, for their part, were only moderately impressed by the scooter.
"I'd like to have one, but I'd rather have a truck," said Knycos Ferguson, an honor roll student at a Washington science and technology charter school.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Shays-Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Clears the House
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13--The Shays-Meehan bill-Congressman Marty Meehan's sweeping overhaul of campaign finance law-survived a series of 11th hour challenges yesterday, clearing the House by a vote of 240 to 189.
Forty-one Republicans, including Congressman Charles F. Bass, R-Peterborough, broke ranks to support the bill. Twelve Democrats opposed it.
Proponents said that the vote, combined with the failure of all of the "poison pill" amendments offered by Republicans, means the bill will most likely pass in the Senate. In revising their bill, Meehan and co-sponsor Congressman Christopher Shays, R-CT, had attempted to bring their bill into line with the McCain-Feingold bill, which passed in the Senate last year. The day before the vote, they made several other last minute changes including delaying implementation until after the election.
If passed, the Shays-Meehan bill would ban the unregulated soft money donations to political parties and prevent interest groups from running so-called "issue ads" in the last months before an election. It would also cap soft money contributions to state and local parties at $10,000, and restrict state and local party spending on Federal elections (see sidebar).
The Republican leadership has strongly opposed the bill, saying it would disadvantage their party in elections.
Rep. Charles Bass, R- N.H., a moderate Republican whose vote was targeted by both sides, said he did not feel pressured to vote the Republican party line.
"Once I make up my mind, I think people realize its not going to be productive to try and make me vote the other way," said Bass who voted in favor of the Shays-Meehan bill.
Bass was one of 20 Republicans, and one of the last four House members, who signed a discharge petition to force the bill to a vote last month after House Speaker Dennis Hastert refused to schedule the bill for debate.
In floor debate, Meehan repeatedly thanked his Republican colleagues for their support for his "bipartisan, bicameral" bill, calling on Congressman to "look within themselves to show courage, independence and commitment to true reform."
"There is a cloud over the capital and the White House because of the Enron scandal and the American people are demanding that this cloud be removed," Meehan said.
"We have a historic opportunity here in this House to fundamentally change the way elections are held in this country," said Meehan later on the House floor.
At approximately 10:30 p.m. last night, Meehan vowed to continue debate until "4 a.m. if necessary" to defeat amendments being offered to scuttle the bill. The final vote came shortly before 3 a.m.
The Republicans offered two alternative bills and more than a dozen amendments to the Shays-Meehan bill. Four amendments were passed by the House. Among other things, they would increase the limit on individual hard money contributions to House candidates from $1,000 to $2,000 per election; increase fundraising limits for candidates running against wealthy self-financed opponents; and eliminated language from the Shays-Meehan bill that would have given preferential rates to political candidates for buying television advertising time.
During a day of highly contentious debate, Republicans blasted last minute changes to the bill, including delaying implementation until after the November election. Republicans unsuccessfully offered an amendment to have the legislation take effect as soon as it is signed by the president.
"This bill is a sham," said Bob Ney (R-OH), whose alternative to Shays-Meehan would have totally eliminated soft-money contributions, was rejected 377-53. Ney said there were so many loopholes in the Shays-Meehan bill that "you could drive an Enron limousine" through it.
President Bush also criticized the change in the effective date of the bill, telling the Associated Press it "ought to be in effect immediately." His spokesman, Ari Fleisher, added that the White House found the change to be "unfair, unwise and unwarranted."
Bush has indicated to Congressional Republicans that he could not be counted on to veto Shays-Meehan if it passed in the House.
Meehan and other supporters of his legislation said it was impractical to try to implement a major change in election law just a few months before an election, when the bill would likely be ready to be signed by the president.
"By then, we would be three quarters of the way into the election," said Meehan in an interview.
Republicans also questioned the constitutionality of the bill's advertising restrictions, saying that they silence free speech.
"People should not be gagged in this country," said Ney (R-OH).
Supporters argued that the bill would not restrict free speech, since it will still permit ads paid for with limited contributions.
"This bill is balanced and fair to both parties," said Meehan. "The American people get it. The American people are watching the debate to see who is for real reform."
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Congressmen Bet on the Super Bowl
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30--For Congressman Marty T. Meehan, D-Lowell, there is more at stake in Sunday's football game than honor, glory and a Super Bowl title. There is a case of beer as well.
Meehan, an avid Patriots fan and 22-season ticket holder, took up the gauntlet House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-MO threw down yesterday, waging a case of Sam Adams beer and a gallon of Legal Seafood's New England clam chowder that the New England Patriots will win on Sunday in New Orleans. Gephardt countered with a case of Budweiser beer, a supply of Gus's Pretzels-made in his district--and toasted ravioli on behalf of the favored St. Louis Rams.
"The Republican House leadership underestimated our ability to get 218 signatures on the campaign finance reform discharge petition," Meehan said. "I went to Pittsburgh and watched as the Steelers underestimated the Patriots. And I will be there to watch the St. Louis Rams make the same mistake."
Referring to Rams general manager Charley Armey--and implicitly to House Majority leader Richard K. Armey, R-TX--Meehan quipped that it "really hurts to see the Minority Leader working with Armey."
Gephardt assured him that the game "was probably the only issue I've ever been able to agree with Armey on."
Meehan, in turn, said he hoped that the pretzels "aren't the ones you sent to the President."
Meehan wasn't the only Congressman to bet on the Super Bowl. Senators Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, and John Kerry, D-MA, took on Missouri Senators Kit Bond and Jean Carnahan yesterday, waging a traditional New England clambake from Legal Sea Foods that the Patriots will triumph. If they win, they'll get Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, a St. Louis specialty.
"The Rams have an excellent team, and their quarterback was the league MVP," Kennedy said, "but we all know that having two great quarterbacks is better than one."
Said Senator Kerry: "Custard?"
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Tales of Lost Life Savings Deja Vu for One
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, Feb. 07--For Karl Farmer, a former Polaroid Corp. employee, the tales of devastated employees losing their life savings in a company's catastrophic collapse were deja vu. He lost $210,000 in similar circumstances not too long ago.
Farmer's story, which he told to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday, resembles that of many Enron employees. He joined the company 30 years ago, picking it for its progressive attitudes toward minorities and its reputation as a "family company with a caring upper management." Until 1998, he invested 2 percent of his pay in the Polaroid 401(k) retirement plan, receiving a matching contribution from the company.
Then, in 1988, Polaroid began a mandatory employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) plan that required him and other employees to contribute 8 percent of their salary to the plan. Before long, all of his retirement money was tied up in Polaroid's ESOP shares and in Polaroid stock.
But it wasn't until last August, when he was laid off, that Farmer realized the dangers of not diversifying, he said yesterday. The day after he was supposed to receive his first severance payment, Polaroid declared bankruptcy. He was left, as he said, "unemployed, with no benefits."
"I had to break a lease and vacate my apartment," Farmer recalled. "I had also taken out two loans on my 401(k) plan, and I will now be unable to pay those back." A few days later, he said, Polaroid decided to liquidate the ESOP plan. His 3,500 shares, worth $210,000 at their peak, were sold for about $300. A letter signed by Gary DiCamillo, Polaroid's chief executive officer, said the liquidation was "in the best interest of participants in the fund."
Now, Farmer and other disenfranchised former company stockholders are doing what many Enron employees are doing: trying to get back what they can. They've made some progress: The entire Massachusetts delegation has sent a letter to DiCamillo denouncing Polaroid's actions, and recently, the Official Committee of Retirees of Polaroid, which Farmer chairs, was recognized by the bankruptcy court.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Local Congressmen Work to Strengthen Retirement Account Protections for Workers Nationwide
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, Feb. 07--As former Enron Corp. employees struggle to recover savings they lost in the company's financial implosion in December, local Congressmen are working to strengthen retirement account protections for workers nationwide.
U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., is one of several Congressmen who are crafting legislation to safeguard pensions against another Enron. At a hearing yesterday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he called the Enron debacle "a crisis of corporate values" that "demonstrates the urgency of reforming 401(k) [pension] plans."
"It is wrong--dead wrong--to expect Americans to face poverty in retirement after decades of working and saving," Kennedy said.
Massachusetts has experienced similar catastrophes in recent years, Kennedy said, citing bankruptcies at Lucent Technologies and Polaroid Corp. In both cases, workers lost millions in retirement funds because they had over-invested in company stock, he said.
"Enron is not an isolated example," Kennedy said. "The retirement security of workers at many other major companies has been similarly undermined."
As evidence, Kennedy produced Karl Farmer, a former Lawrence resident and Polaroid employee who lost $210,000 in Polaroid's collapse last summer. In testimony, Farmer described how he lost his retirement savings by being forced to invest too heavily in company stock and urged the committee to change the pension law "to allow employees some control of their destiny." (See sidebar.)
Senator Judd Gregg, R-N.H., the committee's ranking minority member, committee, agreed that reform was needed, but admonished Congress not to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" and impose too many restrictions on employee investments in company stock. Senators Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., have proposed legislation that would prevent employees from investing more than 20 percent of their 401(k) retirement funds in company stock. They say a 20 percent "diversification requirement" would have saved much of the retirement money of Enron employees.
"Why should we arbitrarily tell employees that they have to sell company stock?" Gregg asked yesterday. "I thought sound financial principle was that we allow investors to make their own decisions."
On average, Enron stock made up about 62 percent of its employees' retirement portfolios. At some companies, such as Procter & Gamble Co., company stock makes up as much as 94 percent of employees' pension plans. About 42 million American workers own 401(k) accounts with about $2. in assets.
Congressman John F. Tierney, D-Salem, also participated in Enron pension reform hearings this week before the House Education and Workforce Committee, on which he sits. And Senator John F. Kerry, D-Mass, is a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that has subpoenaed former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay. Lay had been expected to testify on Monday, but backed out late Sunday, citing "prosecutorial" and "inflammatory" statements about Enron by some committee members on Sunday news shows.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Kennedy is a member, also weighed in on Enron this week, considering legislation that would make it easier for shareholders to sue to recoup losses. Critics say the law unfairly shields accounting firms like Enron's accountant, Arthur Andersen, from liability in civil lawsuits.
At the Kennedy, Gregg and Tierney pension hearings, the bulk of the conversation centered around President Bush's proposed Retirement Security Plan. It would give employees greater freedom to sell company stock and require that employees be given 30 days' notice before the beginning of any blackout period during which stocks in a 401(k) account could not be traded. It would also bar senior corporate executives from selling company stock during times when workers are unable to trade in company-contributed stock they hold in their 401(k) plans. At Enron, company executives cashed out on millions of dollars in company stock while Enron workers were forced to sit idly while their stock devalued and their savings were lost.
Bush also urged the Senate to pass the Retirement Security Advice Act, which Tierney's Education and Workforce Committee passed last year. The act would encourage employers to provide their workers with qualified financial advisers, according to Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao, who testified before the committee Wednesday. Bush has charged Chao, Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans with leading a task force on retirement security.
"As the President said, a good job should lead to a secure retirement," Chao said.
Yesterday, before Tierney's committee, Cindy Olson, Enron's executive vice president of human resources and Mikie Rath, Enron's benefits manager, both endorsed the proposed reforms while saying that they could not comment on the reasons for Enron's collapse.
Tierney said that Bush's plan was "good so far as it goes" but called for additional steps to offset the "asymmetrical effects of corporate mismanagement: Executives vote themselves huge raises while workers' benefits go down the drain."
Tierney also said Bush's plan didn't go far enough to ensure that workers are able to obtain unconflicted advice about investing their retirement funds.
Kennedy criticized Bush's plan for not requiring the investment diversification that the Boxer-Corzine bill would mandate.
Meanwhile, Congressman Charles F. Bass, R-Peterborough, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, spent the week interviewing William C. Powers, the author of a scathing report by an Enron internal review committee and attempting to interview Enron employees. The Powers report blamed Enron's collapse on a "fundamental default of leadership and management" extending up to former chairman Lay and Andersen managing partner Joseph Berardino.
Yesterday, the subcommittee invited several senior Enron employees involved in crafting the controversial partnerships that led to the company's demise to testify, but most of them declined, invoking their constitutional protection against possible self-incrimination.
During opening statements yesterday, Bass said of the Enron collapse, "The more we learn, the more nauseating the whole story becomes." The subcommittee, he said, was charged with determining "how much illegality occurred and what we can do to ensure that the tragedy perpetuated by these business cowboys never happens again."
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
