Category: Oliver Read
Maine Leads in Tightening Homeland Security and Maintaining Trade
WASHINGTON, April 25–Within two years, Maine’s 23 points-of-entry by land will boast a more efficient, more secure and more technologically advanced monitoring system. It will allow vehicles to cross the border from Canada into the United States more rapidly, and it is intended to ensure the safety of federal officials stationed at them.
The new system will cost the U.S. Customs Service $50 million to install. Among the improvements will be cameras that can detect contraband, biometric systems that identify people by their fingerprints and high-speed communication systems that allow guards – some working alone at virtually barren entry points – to contact help quickly in case of an emergency.
The system represents the federal government’s push to improve security throughout Maine, not just on the Canadian border, but also at the seaports sprinkled along the state’s long, rocky coast.
“Maine really is in the lead on this,” said Doug Doan, senior vice president of New Technology Management Inc., which has contracted with Customs to implement the new system. Refurbishing Maine’s ports-of-entry is a priority, Doan said.
Maine is at the forefront, literally, of the nation’s twin – and sometimes conflicting – missions of protecting its homeland and preserving its system of free international trade. There are “two competing ideas: free flow of goods and services, and at the same time keeping out the bad guys,” Doan said.
The enormity of the operation is a major obstacle to securing the U.S. homeland. “It is not possible to check every container that comes into this country.á That would kill the economy,” said Brian C. Nutter, Maine Port Authority administrator.
Because of its geographical location, Maine plays an important role as a throughway for trade. Maine felt the affects of Sept. 11 in unique ways, though only temporarily. In fact, economic prospects in the coming months look good. But homeland security experts say another incident of similar magnitude could seriously damage the economy, and that’s why there is a push to secure a better system of homeland defense in Maine.
Besides its unique geography – a porous, 611-mile border with Canada and a 1,000-mile coastline – Maine has been in the spotlight because it inadvertently played a role in the attacks of Sept. 11. Reports suggest that the some of the hijackers, who later drove two airplanes into the World Trade Center towers, initially and illegally crossed the Maine-Canadian border.
Almost eight months later, the U.S. government has employed New Technology Management. and other high-tech companies to improve homeland defense. But despite all of these technological upgrades for Maine’s numerous ports-of-entry, “perfect security isn’t ever possible,” Doan said.
How Maine fits into the equation
Maritime inspectors in the Italian port of Gioia Tauro last October discovered a suspected al-Qaida member stowed away in a shipping container headed for Halifax, Canada. The Egyptian man had with him airport maps and security passes. The incident exemplified the vulnerability of the international trading network – a system that security experts argue can be a vehicle to carry out terrorism.
Protecting the U.S. homeland while preserving the flow of trade has been a hot topic lately. Monitoring the massive amount of traffic that crosses U.S. borders and floats into its waterways is an awesome challenge. In fiscal year 2001, the Customs Service reported that 479 million people entered the United States by land, sea and air. The same year, 5.7 million maritime containers and 11.1 million commercial trucks passed through Customs.
Geography contributes to the role each state has in these national numbers, which is why Maine is a key component in the effort to tighten security while still inviting trade.
In 2000, $8.7 billion worth of imports – .7 percent of total U.S. imports – came into Maine by land, sea and air. A large portion of these imports, which range from petroleum to vegetables, is eventually shipped to Canada and to southern and midwestern states.
The Port of Portland, the second largest port in New England, is an active point of trade. It is the only seaport in Maine that accepts containers, which are motor-home sized, cargo-packed, steel boxes carried on vessels and trucks.
Each week, about 30 to 60 containers enter the seaport, which is small in comparison to the seaports in Boston and New York City. But the cargo that enters Portland supplies every county in Maine. Therefore a slowdown in cargo, which occurred after Sept. 11, subsequently damages commerce throughout Maine.
Portland is the state’s most diverse port-of-entry. Crude oil is its predominant import, which is directly siphoned to Montreal through a pipeline.
The second-leading import is refined petroleum, used to produce heating oil and gasoline. The huge tankers that carry these products could seriously damage the local fishing industry if the vessel were struck in the harbor, causing the petroleum to gush into the water.
To prevent such incidents from occurring, ships coming into harbor must inform the Coast Guard 96 hours in advance. The ships must tell the Coast Guard who and what are on board. That information is run through a database to check if everyone and everything could be dangerous. Inspectors scrutinize ships that originate in other countries.
The Coast Guard is, by in large, considered first in command. Other agencies, such as Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Agriculture Department, also participate in the inspections, but their roles depend on the type of vessel coming into port.
Inspectors usually comb the ship after it has docked Only when a ship has potentially dangerous cargo or comes from a hostile country do inspectors check its cargo outside the port.
Inspectors examine 2 percent of the cargo that comes into port. Said Lt. Mike McCarthy of the Coast Guard’s Maine safety office: “Hopefully we’re targeting the right 2 percent.”
On Sept. 11, inspectors in Portland slowed the pace of examinations significantly. In fact, the flow of the entire transportation industry slowed down, and Maine commerce felt it.
Trucking across the Canadian-Maine border ground to a halt in the face of an ill-equipped monitoring system. Companies awaiting these shipments lost money when cargoes didn’t arrive on time.
The fishing industry, lobstermen in particular, lost money because the planes that were supposed to be carrying their goods to other parts of the country were grounded. The fishermen were forced to sell their goods at a reduced price.
These days, commerce appears to be business is usual. Steven Levesque, commissioner of Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development, said that commerce was damaged by the slowdown of goods, but only for a few weeks. Most others agree. McCarthy said that the same number of containers is arriving at the Port of Portland as before Sept. 11.
But what would happen if there was another incident? Security experts such as Sean Burke, a research associate for Stephen Flynn, a security adviser for a think-tank based in New York City, contends that it would kill the economy.
“That’s bullshit,” said Levesque, who, like many, stressed that the ingenuity and diligence of Mainers would let them fight through the commercial industry’s woes.
But, in fact, what worries national policy makers and Mainers alike is how to maintain trade if you build walls around the borders.
Needed: Money
Money is the most obvious means for improving security and maintaining trade. It pays for the new gadgets that monitor ports-of-entry and the additional inspectors positioned at the border and seaports.
Since Sept. 11, Maine’s federal representatives have pushed for legislation and additional funds that would especially benefit the state.
The most recent legislation to clear Congress was the Border Security Act. It emphasizes better communication among federal agencies, including the CIA, the FBI, the Customs Service and the INS. The new law calls for updating a centralized database containing the names and backgrounds of potentially dangerous people and for strengthening biometrics technology.
Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are also lobbying the Senate Appropriations Committee to dole out enough money to triple the number of Customs, Border Patrol and INS agents stationed at the northern border.
“Increased funding for staffing and expanded use of technology for security and processing is essential to the economic vitality and physical security of á our northern states,” Snowe and Collins said in a joint press release.
Referring to the Maine delegation’s immediate call for beefier security after Sept. 11, Jeffrey Monroe, director of Transportation in Portland, said: “I don’t mean to blow smoke up anyone’s tuckus,” but Maine’s representatives “were right on the ball á as soon as the gates opened.”
Nevertheless, one Maine homeland security official called the amount of money “conservative.” that will go to improving security, especially in Maine. Others say that more money for more guards and more gates is a “short fuse approach.” Instead of more guards at the borders, they say, the entire system requires revamping.
Burke said the system needs to include the private sector, which is especially insistent about improving homeland security. “They’re going to pony up dough,” Burke said.
The Coast Guard, for instance, employs fishermen to report anything suspicious out on the water. The fisherman are part of the “9,000 sets of eyes” that McCarthy said the Coast Guard has asked to stay alert to dubious activity.
As Col. Mark Gilbert, Maine homeland security coordinator, put it, “Mrs. Johnson, who lives next door, knows what’s happening on her block.”
But whom does Mrs. Johnson call when she spots suspicious activity? And once she has called, say, the state agency, whom does it call? That the question is even asked points up the problem of creating an efficient system of homeland security: communication.
Monroe said there is a lack of communication among federal agencies working in the Port of Portland and that there are times when the Coast Guard doesn’t inform Portland officials of potential threats from some ships that come into port. “They city should be privy to threat assessments, and we’re not,” Monroe said.
McCarthy, however, said that communication between the federal agencies and the city of Portland is “excellent.”
Technology, Policy and Borders
Technology will have a major role in preserving trade while keeping dangerous contraband from entering into the city.
Maine’s first step has been to refurbish its border entry points, where, in addition to installing more lights to illuminate the stations and replacing battered signs, workers are implementing advanced biometric systems., thus pushing Maine beyond what Flynn calls the Customs Service’s typical “paper-based system.”
“If you are wanted in some way, and you are at a port-of-entry in Maine, you are in big trouble,” Doan said.
Other options include attaching a microcomputer to a truck’s motor control system. The microcomputer, which would receive signals from a global positioning system, would switch off a truck’s engine if the vehicle strayed from a designated path and automatically alert the police.
This same system could be used with containers carried across borders or shipped into ports. An electronic system would alert the police if the containers were tampered with.
Aside from high-tech face-lifts, which necessitate money and time to install, border adjustments have also been taken into consideration.
One idea is to place U.S. Customs inspectors at a checking point in Canada, thus relieving some of the congestion at the border crossings. But U.S. and Canadian inspectors use different security procedures, which could cause controversy among the inspectors.
An answer to that, said Wade Merritt, director of the Maine International Trade Center, could be to create a single border around North America, with the exception of Mexico. Canada supports this idea, he said, because it worries that the United States might establish a security system that would exclude its northern neighbor, thereby hurting the “symbiotic” trade relationship between the two countries.
Overseas inspection is another idea. U.S. inspectors would work at overseas ports-of-entry and would inspect cargo headed toward the United States. Overseas inspections, which would require somewhat of a global partnership, have been widely accepted as one of the best ideas to ensure security and relieve congestion along the borders.
There are other more conventional ideas as well, including Congressman John Baldacci’s proposal to impose stricter weight-limits on trucks that drive through towns on I-95 on their way to and from Canada. Inspectors could, examine the smaller cargoes more quickly..
Burke admitted that “there is no perfect system” and said that the goal should be to implement a system that would ensure that the economy could withstand another fatal incident. The obstacle isn’t just the money or the technology, he said; “the obstacle is the complexity of the system itself.”
Flynn put it this way: “A credible system would not necessarily have to be perfect, but it would need to be good enough so that when an attack does occur, the public deems it to be the result of a correctible fault in security rather than an absence of security.”
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Snowe Introduces New Child Care Bill
WASHINGTON, April 16--Senator Olympia Snowe, joined by a bipartisan threesome during a press conference yesterday, introduced a bill that would prevent low-incomers from "tumbling" into welfare because child care costs consume too much of their income.
The Dodd-Snowe bill, sponsored by Senators Snowe and Chris Dodd (D - Conn.), seeks to amend a law due to expire this September. Their bill would preserve parents' right to choose the appropriate child care facility and would offer incentives to states to promote early education readiness.
Snowe recounted the story of Mainer Sheila Merkinson, who appeared before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families, led by chairman Dodd and ranking Republican Senator Susan Collins, a co-sponsor of the Snowe-Dodd bill. Merkinson testified that the cost of child care accounts for 48 percent of her weekly income. As a result, she cannot afford child care even though she is eligible for it.
In devising the bill, Snowe said: "We used a two pronged-approach to address the two largest obstacles we found facing child care. The first is the fact that demand outstrips supply today and will only worsen as work requirements are increased. The second is the need to assure that the child care is quality care."
Snowe said that the bill, called the Access to High Quality Child Care Act, would affect Maine "positively," adding that the state has "tough standards" in maintaining quality child care.
Snowe also noted that Maine was the fourth state to expand child care eligibility beyond people on welfare to those who are coming off welfare. Therefore, Snowe said, the new bill would affect "a broader range of people."
In her statement, Snowe that the bill was devised in conjunction with the pending reauthorization of the welfare reform law.
"Welfare reform without additional child care funding is like a new car without any gas," Snowe said. "It looks good, but it's not going anywhere. Our bill is the fuel that will drive the next phase in welfare reform."
Dodd-Snowe will be offered as an amendment to the 1990 Child Care and Development Block Grant, which emphasizes that parents can choose appropriate child care providers, depending upon their child's needs.
According to a bill summary that Snowe's and Dodd's offices offered, their bill maintains this parental choice while adding some other key provisions:
The bill would set aside block grant funds to strengthen the child care workforce through scholarships and other benefits.
It would allow states to tap the block grant funds to reimburse parents who pay for child care, thus giving the parents more options in choosing child-care providers.
It would also allow additional state reimbursement for "difficult-to-find care," such as for children who have special needs or live in rural areas.
The measure would try to promote coordination among federal, state and local child care and early child care development programs, including the transition from early care programs to elementary school.
Education is a substantial component to the bill. The senators stressed that the development of a child's brain is most crucial in the years between three and four and that quality child care during these early years is critical to how the child performs when entering kindergarten.
"Just as a fighter prepares before jumping into the ring, we need to ensure that children are ready when the first bell rings," Dodd said.
Senators Jim Jeffords (I-VT) and John Breaux (D-LA) joined Snowe and Dodd at the press conference to endorse the bill.
Snowe said that she and Dodd intentionally left out any dollar amounts from the legislation. They said they submitted the bill for review to the Congressional Budget Office. When this is complete, Snowe and Dodd will make the appropriate changes. A spokesman for Snowe said the Congressional Budget Office should be ready with the number in three weeks.
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
U. Mainers Opt for Civil Service Over Tropical Spring Break
WASHINGTON, March 18--With four separate and deliberate strokes of her red magic-marker, Mary Conrad drew the letter "M."
"Great 'M' - good job," an energetic voice chimed in.
Conrad, whose thin hair is blond and whose wrinkled cheek is a rosy pink, had a more difficult time with the letter "A."
"Keep going - good," prodded the young woman sitting beside Conrad.
Two strokes have debilitated Conrad, 77, who sits in a wheelchair and lives at the Washington Home, a long-term care and hospice facility in the nation's capital.
"R" was an even harder letter for the older woman, who maneuvered the marker the way a five-year old would. It took her almost a minute to write the letter.
"Almost done," urged Conrad's supporter.
Then Conrad tried the letter "Y." Oh, how she tried. Her brow tightened. She held her hand to her lips in contemplation. She burned the paper with her eyes.
"One more line, Mary. You need one more line."
Conrad's helper, Lindsey Rice a 21-year-old student from South Portland, reached for a different pen and drew the single line that completed Conrad's first name. "You did it," Lindsey said, gently rubbing Conrad's shoulder.
Like a geyser, Mary erupted in smiles. Her eyes teared. She hid her enormous smile with her hand like a Japanese geisha. She had done it - She had spelled her name.
Lindsey, who spent only 10 minutes with Conrad that day, elicited laughter reminiscent of a child's. That was, among other things, Lindsey's job.
The elementary education major is also the site leader for a group of 11 students from the the University of Maine, Orono, who spent their spring breaks doing volunteer work rather than roaming the sandy beaches of Florida or sipping cocktails in Cancun with many of their college comrades.
In Washington, the students conversed with patients, performed administrative duties and helped with planned activities at the Washington Home for five days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The University of Maine sponsored what it calls the Alternative Spring Break, which is part of the national Break Away program.
Break Away is a nonprofit organization that promotes social service among college students by sponsoring volunteer programs. The Washington group is one of six from Orono, with the others traveling to Atlanta, Georgetown, S.C., New Orleans, New York City, and Ustes, Fla., for various volunteering programs.
Each of the Orono students was assigned to one of the seven programs. At the beginning of the semester, they met weekly to bond with each other, and raised $20,000 through fundraisers to finance the six trips - including the 18-hour bus ride to Washington and the one-room accommodations at a downtown-Washington hostel.
Lauren Fenney, the long-term care volunteer coordinator at the Washington Home, said she was worried at first because the students did not choose to work at the home. But she called the Orono students "self-motivated, creative and responsible," and in the future, she said, she would ask for 20 students instead of 11.
The students, who all live in Maine, were in the Washington spotlight. A reporter from the Washington Post followed them around for a day, and asked why they chose volunteer work over a tropical spring break. To them, the answer was obvious: Volunteer work is more rewarding.
"You can drink anytime," said Michelle LeClaire, a round-faced 21 year-old senior from Winslow. She devoted past school breaks to the Gay Men's Health Crisis Center in New York City, and the Save Our Sons and Daughters program in Detroit. "This is so much more rewarding than getting drunk on the beaches of Mexico."
Soon after Michelle said this, Holly Barter came into the room on the verge of tears. She sat down and cupped her face in both hands.
Referring to a resident who had been dropping in and out of coherence, the 19-year-old sophomore from Brewer said: "From Monday until now, I've seen such a huge difference - he's so brilliant."
Holly's connection with the residents is not much different from most of the other students in the group, who tell stories of playing cards, singing or just chatting with residents.
"We have all connected with one or two residents here," said the group's adviser, Silverio ("Ace") Barrero, 22, of Belfast.
The students stressed the importance of listening to the residents. "You need to learn how to communicate with them - and do it in a way so they don't feel lower," said Misty Smith, 22, a senior psychology major, who also participated in the Detroit program. Misty, from Winslow, said she was trying to overcome her discomfort with some of the residents.
In addition to increasing their listening skills, the program has been beneficial, some students said, because it helped them decide on future plans.
Kristy Townsend, a 22-year-old senior from Orono, said she now intends to study Alzheimer's Disease and pursue a doctorate in neuroscience after graduating with a degree in biochemistry.
At the end of each day, the students discussed their "highs and lows." Many said the same thing: the low was observing an uncomfortable situation, and the high was overcoming the discomfort.
Joe Kilch, 22, said that it's difficult when the residents' physical appearance does not mirror their mental capacity. But he said he respects their tenacity and is glad he can help.
The residents "are totally connected, and we're watching them deteriorate." It is "a transformation with such humility - it's a high and a low."
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
FDA Suppors “Antagonist” Idea to Combat OxyContin
WASHINGTON, March 20--The Food and Drug Administration will expedite the review process of a newly formulated version of the painkiller OxyContin if its makers mix in an "antagonist" additive that would deter the abusive use of the prescription drug, Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe said.
At a closed meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington Tuesday, Rowe and other state attorneys general discussed the process of adding an antagonist to the drug with Dr. Cynthia McCormick, director of the FDA's Division of Anesthetic, Critical Care And Addiction Drug Products. Rowe advocates such an additive, which would offset the potent pain-relieving effects of OxyContin if the pills were crushed.
If the prescription drug's manufacturer, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, submits to the FDA a reformulated version that includes an antagonist, the federal agency will - upon submission - spend six months testing the safety and efficacy of the final product. The FDA generally spends about 11 months reviewing new drugs before approving them, FDA spokeswoman Kathleen Kolar said.
There are potentially adverse effects from the addition of the antagonist to OxyContin, Kolar said. Adding the antagonist could make OxyContin less effective for people who need it, she said. Asked if creating a reformulated OxyContin is feasible without such effects, Kolar said: "It's definitely possible."
If the FDA accepts the reformulated OxyContin, it will become the second prescription drug that contains an antagonist. The first is Talwin, another painkiller.
According to Rowe, McCormick, the FDA official at the attorneys general meeting, saw bright prospects for the additive. She "acknowledged the explosion in prescription drug abuse," Rowe said. "This [antagonist] issue that I'm raising, she believes is an important point."
Nevertheless, Rowe said, adding an antagonist would not solve the OxyContin abuse problem - an issue that prompted a Senate committee hearing last month that attracted certified nurse and mid-wife Nancy Green from Calais, a rural Maine community that has suffered from such abuse.
Rowe called the effort to abridge the prescription-drug abuse problem an "ongoing saga," but said, "It is my belief that highly addictive opiates can be made tamper-resistant."
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Interest Groups Look for “Party-Building” Alternatives
WASHINGTON, March 17--Campaign finance reform is to campaign contributors what a dam is to a river: If you dam the river, it will eventually find a way around the dam.
The latest dam is the House-passed Shays-Meehan campaign finance bill that would ban "soft money" - the unregulated contributions to national political parties. The reform measures now await debate in the Senate, which passed a largely identical bill last year.
Politically persuasive interest groups, along with corporations and wealthy people, have been the principal donors of soft money to the parties because they could give large sums of money to try to influence lawmakers without being limited by regulations surrounding direct contributions - or "hard money" - to those lawmakers, which are given through political action committees (PACs).
If Shays-Meehan becomes law, they will either prowl for loopholes or enjoy the prospects of politics without the cash incentives.
More likely the new law will prompt interest groups to raise more money and spend it on their own advocacy advertising rather than contribute to the national parties. And it might cause them to increase their contributions to state parties, which would not be barred from accepting soft-money contributions under the proposed reform provisions.
What reform measures will finally emerge this session remains uncertain, but some argue that no matter the outcome, tenacious campaign donors will find a way around the reform dam.
"People won't lay down and play dead," said Jeff Weinstein, president of the Maine chapter of the National Rifle Association.
If the bill passes, groups such as the NRA, Sierra Club and AFL-CIO, all of which are active in Maine, are expected to look for alternative ways to influence public affairs, including raising and spending more on their own advertising and giving substantial sums of soft money to state political parties. The result could be massive interest-group fundraising, undisclosed contributions and First Amendment court battles.
The NRA, which opposes the proposed reform provisions, is already developing ways to get around the soft-money restrictions.
"People like us will likely reconfigure our fundraising and direct mail in light of more restrictions on soft money and less restrictions on hard money," NRA chief Washington lobbyist James J. Baker told National Journal, a Washington based weekly focused on federal policy and politics.
The AFL-CIO is also increasing its PAC activity. "I think this will force us to get more union members to contribute to their union PACs," political director Steve Rosenthal said in the in the same magazine article.
Currently, individual donators are restricted to giving $1,000 to a congressional candidate for each primary and general election, and PACs are restricted to giving $5,000 per election. These numbers would double if the pending campaign reform bill becomes law.
Hard-money contributors already use a loophole in the system called bundling, which allows individual contributors to pool their regulated donations and send them to a candidate at the same time. Bundling is effective because a block of contributions makes a larger impression on a candidate than single contributions from individuals and PACs.
American University history professor Allan J. Lichtman said bundling is a viable tool for interests groups. He added, "You may see interest groups doing more independent advocacy and spending their own money rather than giving it to parties."
Independent advocacy occurs when interest groups, who are not affiliated with candidates but support them, pay for their own ads instead of donating the money to national parties. The national parties are officially limited to using this soft money for party-building activities such as get-out the vote campaigns and issue advertising that supports or attacks congressional candidates without mentioning the candidates' names.
If interest groups were to replace national parties in these activities, they could become the new receptacles for large - and unregulated - individual and corporate donations.
Steven Weiss of the Center for Responsive Politics, contends, however, that banning soft-money would reduce the pressure on potential donors to give large amounts of money to influence legislation. Soft-money contributions totaled more than $500 million in the 1999-2000 election cycle.
"A lot of interest groups and corporations want to ban soft money because they're being shut down by politicians" if they don't give a lot of money, said Celia Wexler, a senior policy analyst at Common Cause, a nonprofit, nonpartisan lobbying organization.
On the other hand, if interest groups become the new receptacles for issue-ad donations, donors would no longer have to be identified.
Campaign finance reform would "create an interest in activism, quietly," the Maine NRA's Weinstein said, adding that he Some interest groups that support campaign finance reform say they won't necessarily look to its passing as a way to increase issue advertising.
"Issue ads are a small part of what we do here," said Dianna White, the Sierra Club's deputy political director. "We'll continue to do our grassroots activities," such as marshaling its members to urge action on Congress through e-mail messages, mailings, posters and door-to-door visits.
In the past, soft money donated to national parties have financed issue ads, which are used partially to attack other candidates or policies. But because the Sierra Club depends more on grassroots activities to promote its cause rather than issue-ads, it sees no problem with another question that the Shays-Meehan bill and the companion McCain-Feingold bill in the Senate raises: whether restrictions on such advertising infringes on the First Amendment.
One of the provisions would bar issue ads 60 days before an election and 30 days before a primary. Interest groups, who object that this provision impedes their right to express their views on issues, plan to sue. American University's Lichtman calls this "the most vulnerable part of the bill."
"The courts have obviously, in many ways, intertwined the spending of money with free speech," he said. "Depending upon how the court interprets the First Amendment, it could limit aspects of this bill - particularly ... any attempt to control the content of advertising, which this bill does."
Finally, while national parties would be barred from accepting soft-money contributions, state parties would not. The rationale is that soft-money contributions were originally intended for such party-building activities as encouraging people to vote. Soft money would play the same role on a state level if the campaign finance reform bill passes. Interest groups, therefore, could be expected to contribute soft-money to the state parties.
But even this also has its problems. The state parties that receive soft-money contributions from interest groups could turn around and give it right back to the national parties.
"The DNC [Democratic National Committee] practice is to transfer money to the state parties, and, within a matter of days, the state parties make payments to the DNC's media consultants, usually in exactly the amount of the DNC's transfer," wrote Lisa Rosenberg in an essay written for the Center for Responsive Politics.
Shays-Meehan advocates, such as the Sierra Club's White, admit that while the legislation is "an important first" step in reforming campaign finance, "it's not a perfect bill, and it won't be the end of reform."
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Shipbuilders Lobby for More Federal Funding
WASHINGTON, March 12--Layoffs and an ill-equipped Navy are the major weapons the U.S. shipbuilding industry and its unions are brandishing to get their point across: More money from the 2003 fiscal budget needs to be allocated to the industry -- or else.
President Bush's budget requests $8.6 billion to build five ships for the Navy, one of which Maine's Bath Iron Works would build. Those who argue that five ships are not enough point to a potential loss of skilled jobs and a weak Navy.
"We could lose skilled resources in our industry," said Daniel Duncan, executive director of the AFL-CIO's Marine Trades Department. What the President has recommended is not enough to maintain "a viable pool" of specially trained workers in the shipbuilding industry.
The Marines Trade Department, which oversees 30 unions, advocates a $50 million loan guarantee for the 2003. Duncan said his department "is working hard" to persuade lawmakers to implement the program, which he said "keeps the domestic shipyards going."
Coupled with the Marines Trade Department, the American Shipbuilding Association (ASA) has also been lobbying for additional federal funding.
"Bath Iron Works is Maine's largest private builderáand, like every shipbuilder in the country, it is under tremendous stress," said Cynthia Brown, president of the ASA. Lack of money "hurts" Maine's "highly skilled workforce and vendor base."
Brown, whose office is in Washington, said the ASA has been urging every shipbuilder to contact its congressional delegation "to address the shortfall."
Brown praised Maine's lawmakers for pushing for further federal spending on shipbuilding. So did Kendell Pease, spokesman for General Dynamics Corp., which bought Bath Iron Works in 1995.
Speaking of Senator Susan Collins, Pease said: "She has been unrelenting. "She has been tenaciousáand she is not just concerned with the industry, but also concerned about the Navy maintaining its mission."
Pease said his concern is that the proposed money for shipbuilding will lead to an "up and down" industrial base. The Navy, he said, recommended last month that Congress provide enough funds to build 10 ships. Because the number of new ships proposed remains at five, and because the need for the additional ships persists, Pease said, the shipbuilding industry would have to make up for the lack of ships later.
Pease also said there will not be enough money to "build our Navy and protect our country."
An advocacy group for the Navy has also been lobbying for more ships. According to Mark Rosen, counsel to the Navy League of the United States, the league has arranged forums for members of Congress to hear the military benefits of additional spending, reported Congressional Quarterly, a federal policy watchdog weekly publication in Washington.
An obstacle to further federal spending is the lack of consensus on where the money would come from, especially when the Bush administration is proposing spending a large amount of money on homeland security while keeping a tight rein on an escalating federal budget deficit.
Congressman Tom Allen told the Bangor Daily News a month ago that the money should be transferred from the missile defense program.
"The Navy places a high priority on personal readiness, munitions, which is fine," Allen said. "They need to do that, but they also need to deal with the shipbuilding. I would prefer to take at least a third from this national defense account, but this will all shake out in the months to come."
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Washington Monument Reopens (UPI)
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22--The American flags encircling the memorial snapped in the wind. Children and adults of all colors and sizes walked and talked; some waited in line Friday to check out the new renovations to the Washington Monument while others wandered up to the concrete circle infested with reporters.
After more than four years of renovation and two years of being closed to the public, the monument reopened for business, rekindling a means of absorbing history that visitors and residence of the district have missed.
The United States is "very slowly getting back to normal," and having the monument closed has "taken a lot away from Washington," said Ruth, an onlooker who declined to reveal her last name. In town with her husband, the Buffalo, N.Y.-native was a ticket-holder of the sold-out admissions tour.
Raised in Washington, Rob Minor, who said he doesn't recall ever having gone in the monument, agreed with Ruth: With the Washington Memorial closed, "you close off the story of history ... history is shut down."
Others in the crowd said Sept. 11 prompted their new interest in American history.
The monument "probably means a little more for us now because I used to not appreciate it as much," said Amir, 13, who is visiting Washington for the first time with his Winnequah Middle School classmates from Wisconsin. "Sept. 11 kind of woke me up a lot."
At 1 p.m. the ceremony began. Over a microphone, Fran Mainella, director of the National Park Service, called the monument a "symbol of freedom," and noted that Friday marked the 270th birthday of George Washington.
Mainella mentioned the importance of tourism to Washington's economic stability in the wake of Sept. 11, where 189 people were killed when a hijacked plane was flown into the Pentagon by terrorists.
She was joined by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Washington Mayor Anthony Williams.
"We've seen what's happened on Sept. 11," Williams said, "and we're rising to the challenge of opening our major public facilities, and rising to the challenge of showing that we are an open people, we're not a coward people, and that the Washington monument will also be open to visitors and tourists alike."
The ceremony concluded when Washington elementary school children Dayanira Hough and Tytianna Burns, with broad smiles on their faces, helped cut the red, white and blue ribbon, signifying the official reopening of the monument.
People clapped and cheered, and park rangers walked the first group of children into the memorial.
"It is one of our most historic national icons," Chief of Resource Management Stephen Lorenzetti said. "It's truly a measure of how our democracy works and what it represents. George Washington was the first person to turn down absolute power," said Lorenzetti. "The peaceful transfer of power ... is so much more important now to be remembered with what happened in September."
When the first group of elementary school children emerged from the memorial, some acted dazed by the crowd while others yelped, smiled and boasted of the buildings they saw when they peered over the city at the top of the memorial.
"I would give it a 10," said Nick Kelley, 12, a visiting student from Heath, Ohio.
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Oxycontin: Balancing Risk and Benefits
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12--Seated in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tuesday, Nancy Green, a certified nurse and mid-wife, told stories.
One story was about a young man who, after snorting the prescription pain killer OxyContin, found that his nose was bleeding. He saw remnants of the pill in the blood, but instead of cleaning the blood from his hands and face, he picked out the pieces and shoved them back into his nose.
Another story was about a grandmother whose doctor prescibed OxyContin pills for her pain. When she opened her pill bottle one day, almost all the pills were gone. They had been stolen.
Green told another story, not her last, about a young woman who lives in Green's rural hometown of Calais, Maine, and who is getting over an OxyContin addiction. The young woman told Green to say this at the hearing: "Take OxyContin off the market. If you can't," then impose more regulations on it. "Don't make it easy for us to get."
The committee also invited physicians, drug enforcement agents and drug researchers to discuss the balance between the OxyContin's value as a drug to alleviate severe chronic pain and the need to stop the abuses that many areas of the country, especially rural ones, are experiencing.
"It's a difficult balance to strike," committee member Susan Collins said. "OxyContin has proven to be a lifeline for people living with chronic pain, and that's why it should remain on the market."
OxyContin, an alternative to morphine, has proven to be effective in helping to relieve pain. "I worry about the people who suffer from cancer," Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said, if the drug's use if restricted.
Green agreed that OxyContin can "benefitápatients with chronic pain," but she has observed its destructiveness in rural Maine communities in Washington County, where, according to her testimony, "adult arrests for possession of synthetic narcotics were 2.5 times that of the state. The rate of possession of opiates or cocaine was twice the state average."
"The geographic isolation, combined with a lack of transportation, contribute to a substantial barrier for substance abuse patients to access medical and mental health care or social science," Green said in her testimony..
Here are some of Green's recommendations::
-- Expeditiously award federal grants for rehabilitation, a measure Collins supported.
-- Regulate the movement of people across the Canadian border to obtain prescription drugs that are "50 percent" cheaper.
-- Ask Purdue-Pharma, OxyContin's manufacturer, to establish foundations and make donations to help affected communities plagued with opiate addiction.
-- Install a monitoring system that will track how often physicians prescribe drugs.
Collins especially agreed with prescription drug monitoring of physicians: "Sure there's more it [Purdue-Pharma] could do and could have done to anticipate the potential for abuse and to take steps to work more closely with physicians." Purdue-Pharma's marketing technique was also debated at the hearing. While Paul D. Goldenheim, vice president for research at Purdue-Pharma, said he did not think the marketing techniques for OxyContin were different from comparable prescription drugs, Collins said she thought differently.
"I got the picture of a company that was pretty relentless in pushing this medication and encouraging its prescription," Collins said. OxyContin has been "invaluableábut when I learned that Purdue-Pharma spent $200 million last year pushing this product, thatámakes me wonder whether the company is providing sufficient information about the possibility of abuse of this product."
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Collins Supports Long-Term Health Care
WASHINGTON, Feb. 06--Senator Susan Collins called Wednesday for doubling federal funds for the National Family Caregiver Support Program and reaffirmed her sponsorship of legislation to provide tax breaks to caregivers as ways to make long-term care insurance more affordable for caregivers - especially women.
"The simple fact that women can expect to live as many as seven years longer than their male counterparts puts them at far greater risk of needing long-term care," Collins said at a Senate hearing on women and aging. "Moreover, not only are women far more likely to need long-term care, but they are also the ones who most often shoulder the burden of providing long-term care to their loved ones."
The hearing, organized by the Senate Special Committee on Aging and the Aging Subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, focused on ways to provide affordable insurance for those who care for loved ones at the expense of their own financial security and physical health in the future. Seven women senators testified at the hearing in support of increased aid for caregivers.
The fact that women typically still do the majority of caregiving was cited in testimony at the hearing. Collins, who sits on the Aging Committee, pointed to a recent statistic developed by the Older Women's League that 75 percent of America's caregivers are women.
"These women suffer disproportionately from our failure to develop a coherent long-term care financing system," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) told the panels. She and others said that these women must sacrifice time when they could otherwise be working and saving money for the future. The baby boomer generation in particular, which is also disproportionately larger than other generations, may face smaller social security retirement benefits.
"In a recent poll of baby boomers," Collins said in her testimony to the panels, "only 27 percent of women surveyed had more than $100, 000 in their retirement plans; 33 percent of the women surveyed reported having less than $25, 000, an amount that would not even be sufficient to cover one year of nursing home costs."
The mental and physical side effects for women who devote an inordinate amount of time to caregiving were also a major topic at the hearing.
"In some cases, this emotional stress [of caring for loved ones] leads to depression, which can impair a caregiver's ability to provide care and also endanger their own health," Laurie Young, executive director of the Older Women's League, said in her written testimony.
Young also pointed out that "44 percent of informal caregivers report physical strain as a result of their caregiving activities."
To combat these financial and health problems for caregivers, Collins proposed "doubling" federal funds for the National Family Caregiver Support Program, which is intended to provide caregivers with information, referrals, training, counseling and respite services. This year's budget appropriated $141.5 million to the program.
Collins also said that she is joining "a bipartisan group of colleagues in sponsoring the Long-Term Care and Retirement Security Act." The bill, she said, "will give tax credit for long-term health expenses of up to $3,000 to help families already struggling to provide long-term care for a loved one. It will also encourage families to plan for their long-term needs by providing tax deductions to help them purchase long-term health insurance."
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Snowe on Budget: Economic Stimulus and Controlled Spending, But More Local Support
WASHINGTON, Feb. 04--Senator Olympia J. Snowe pressed Tuesday for an immediate economic stimulus package, more federal spending for domestic programs that benefit Maine and renewed her push for a "trigger mechanism" that would control the level of government spending and taxes.
Snowe spoke at a Budget Committee hearing at which Office of Management and Budget director Mitchell E. Daniels outlined President Bush's "two-front budget" that focuses on homeland security and the war on terrorism, a focus that Snowe said she endorsed.
Snowe said that it's "essential to pass an economic stimulus package, especially as so many economists and the [Bush] administration have projected that we could double the rate of growth and produce thousands more jobs."
Addressing Daniels, Snowe advocated an immediate economic stimulus package to revive a sluggish economy. Snowe is putting forth a proposal which would provide "in excess of $17 billion through a displaced worker credit ($13 billion) to cover health costs and national emergency grants to states ($4 billion)," Dave Lackey, Snowe's press secretary, said in a press release.
Snowe also discussed with Daniels a budget "trigger mechanism" that would suspend the tax cuts that Congress approved last year if the government slides into deficit. The trigger idea is supported by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, and was a major issue last year. Snowe, in collaboration with Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), intends to press for inclusion of the trigger in next year's budget.
"Last year, we based our budget on 10-year projections, and then saw $4 trillion evaporate in just one year," Snowe said. "The circumstance could not be anticipated. We can take a proactive, responsible stance that would control spending as well as tax cuts. I think it's an approach we should revisit."
Snowe said she agrees with the President's budget proposal for the most part, but she disagrees with the lack of federal funds for programs affecting Maine, such as Medicare, education and transportation.
Bush's budget allocates $190 billion to Medicare, but Snowe said that she wants to raise that number to $300 billion, especially to cover prescription drug programs.
"I intend to continue my effortsáto set aside $300 billion or more for a new [drug] benefit, and will do all within my authority to ensure this is the year Congress passes a new benefit," Snowe said. "Seniors can't defer their prescription drug bills - and Congress should not delay any longer on passing a new benefit."
Snowe also said she was "disappointed" that the $11.4 billion Bush's budget proposes for special education "falls short of the federal commitment to fund 40 percent of special education costs. States like Maine are staggering under the additional burden of special education."
Snow also expressed concern about the Treasury Department's projection of a substantial decline in national highway trust fund revenue that she said would hurt Maine's highway plans. She said she wanted to look at ways that the highway fund, financed by taxes on highway users, could be augmented out of the general budget.
"If [highway fund] revenues drop by one-quarter, as currently projected, states will measure the impact not only in delayed projects and reduced tax revenues but also in construction jobs," Snowe said.
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
