Category: Gregory Hellman
Controversy Over Bill Aimed at Helping Veterans
Veterans
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
4/25/07
WASHINGTON, April 25 —Tales of bureaucratic nightmares at veterans’ hospitals throughout the country in recent months have prompted a flurry of legislation on Capitol Hill aimed at providing relief to veterans.
Amid the maelstrom of activity, a wide-ranging piece of legislation intended to expand access to health care in an unprecedented fashion for veterans is being greeted, however, with mixed responses.
The Veterans Health Care Empowerment Act, which Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) introduced on March 8 and which is scheduled for hearings before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee late next month, would allow veterans with service-connected disabilities to obtain treatment at almost any medical facility in the nation.
The only requirement would be that the facility be authorized to receive payments under Medicare or TRICARE, the military health system.
Under the act, “veterans are empowered to seek care at the place they believe will provide them with the best service, the best quality and the best access,” Sen. Craig said in a statement.
And while the bill is beginning to pick up traction among influential Senate Republicans, it is also being met with resistance from the American Legion, the nation’s largest veterans’ service organization, which fears it would bury the already cash-strapped Department of Veterans Affairs under an even greater financial burden.
In New Hampshire, where the state’s only VA hospital, in Manchester, discontinued primary care seven years ago, however, industry workers and veterans alike are cautiously praising the bill as a promising solution to a growing crisis in health care access.
Since its introduction, the bill has picked up three Republican co-sponsors, including Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Ted Stevens of Alaska. New Hampshire Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu also have expressed their support for the legislation.
“There is no question that top-notch treatment is available through the existing VA system, but in New Hampshire, many veterans live a significant distance from the closest VA medical facility,” Sununu said in a statement. “We should take every reasonable step to ensure these veterans have convenient access to care, and the Veterans Health Care Empowerment Act would help cut red tape that prevents them from receiving treatment closer to home.”
Discussion of the bill comes as a nine-member presidential commission headed by former Sen. Robert Dole and former of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala investigate veterans’ health care problems.
And while all three co-sponsors praised the VA health care system as “among the best in the nation” and said they did not expect a mass exodus from the current system, they insisted that the bill is about giving veterans choices.
“While I have great faith in quality of care available from the VA, I know some veterans are concerned,” Isakson said. “I believe this legislation will ensure that those individuals have additional options.”
But Paul Morin, the American Legion national commander, in a strongly worded March 22 letter written to both Sen. Craig and Sen. Daniel Akaka, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, warned that the proposed legislation would in fact “inevitably lead to the complete dissolution of the VA health care system.”
The letter said the bill would present problems similar to that of Medicare, calling it both a financial burden unless payment caps were added and an invitation for abuse and fraud. The Congressional Budget Office has not yet completed a cost estimate.
“We’re not sure this is going to provide the best health care for rural veterans,” Steve Robertson, director of legislative affairs for the American Legion, said. “In utopia it would work great, but in reality there needs to be limits placed on it.”
For Army National Guard sergeant and Iraq War veteran Trina Wycoff of Allenstown, the half-hour drive to the Manchester VA medical center is not unreasonable. She must take off work to make her appointments but, she concedes, she is within driving distance to receive her medical care.
Many New Hampshire veterans are not as lucky as Wycoff, however. They either live in the North Country hours away from Manchester or are in need of a full-service hospital, and they face tremendous obstacles to accessing health care. For in-patient care and other treatments unavailable at the Manchester VA medical center, the facility must shuttle patients to medical centers in Massachusetts.
Even veterans using services in Manchester, however, face problems of access. Wycoff recalled witnessing an older veteran during one of her visits ask an attendant how he could possibly get to his home in northern New Hampshire after spending his entire day in Manchester. After he received little help from the staff, Wycoff volunteered to give him a ride.
“He had no way of getting home,” she said. “His day had started at 6 in the morning. For many people you can’t come all the way down here, spend a whole day in Manchester and find your way back.”
Mary Morin, director of the New Hampshire State Veterans Council, said that increased access to medical facilities “might streamline veterans from North Country who have difficulty coming down to Manchester. Any time you can get health care to the veterans it’s a good thing.”
While the proposed legislation might help veterans stranded hours away from care receive treatment at their local hospitals, it also would risk taking them away from experts trained to treat injuries unique to returning veterans, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, said Dr. Setin Savage, president of the New Hampshire Medical Society and independent consultant to the Manchester VA.
“There are a limited number of health care facilities for veterans in New England so anything that improves access to quality medical care is something we support,” Savage said. “But you can’t just assume that community providers are as prepared as veteran centers. They don’t have as much experience” in treating combat-related injuries.
Though the fate of the Veterans Health Care Empowerment Act is uncertain, veterans’ advocates are happy finally to see legislators begin to take action.
“Something needs to change within the VA system,” Savage said. “What the bill at least does is create innovative approaches to examine the system.”
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President’s Trip Director Honed His Skills Campaigning in New Hampshire
RECHER
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
3/30/07
WASHINGTON, March 30 -- When Hurricane Katrina blasted the Gulf Coast and the city of New Orleans in August of 2005, millions of people left homeless or without electricity looked to the president for comfort and aid in their time of need.
As President Bush visited the disaster zone four days later and confronted the difficult road ahead to recovery, White House senior advance representative Jason Recher of Rye, N.H., along with an entire team of 20 White House staffers and volunteers stood behind him. They planned each appearance, accommodation, travel logistic and detail to coordinate the president’s travels through the Gulf region.
In New Orleans, taking a helicopter tour with Mayor Ray Nagin to survey the devastation, Bush saw the city under water, homes and people alike swept away.
“The most difficult time I’ve had in this job was following Hurricane Katrina,” Jason Recher said, in a coffee shop near the White House. “We were down in the Gulf after the storm hit. Trying to get the logistics of a trip like that really is very trying and very fluid.”
As the President toured the devastated region, moving from state to state, he was accompanied by an entourage of staffers, security officials and military aides. The grueling pace quickly forged bonds of friendship between Recher and one particular military aide to the president.
Marine Corps Lt. Col. Christian Cabaniss and Recher first met during a NATO summit in Istanbul in 2004. The next year after Katrina struck they found themselves traveling together with the president throughout the Gulf Coast.
“Mostly what we did down there was see things and communicate that to the senior leadership,” Cabaniss said in a phone interview from his current station in Kabul, Afghanistan. “Jason was the eyes and the ears. Part of the challenge was there’s so much to see. But Jason walks into the room with no ego; he just wanted to get the job done.”
For 27-year-old Recher, however, planning the president’s travels both around the country and around the world, whether to a disaster relief zone or an international summit, is just another day at the office. His responsibilities include coordinating the many different groups involved in the president’s trips, including the Secret Service, the White House Military Office, host committees and cabinet agencies.
While he says he must pinch himself everyday to remind himself how far he has come, colleagues and friends alike praise him for a professionalism and an attention to detail that allowed him to rise up the ranks of the White House so quickly.
“He knows the important questions to ask and grills down into the details,” Joe Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff, said. “There’s always a lot of demands. When we’re traveling he can sense when something’s coming off track. He has good instincts and is confident enough to act on his instincts.”
Recher began developing those instincts at an early age when he attended St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, Mass. While still in high school, Recher volunteered on Ruth Griffin’s reelection campaign for New Hampshire Executive Council, where Griffin said he encouraged her to visit every town in her district.
“One of the smartest things I ever did was invite Jason Recher to help me with my campaign,” Griffin, who retired in January after two decades on the Council, recounted. “He came on board to help me with the nuts and bolts. I saw in Jason the promise of a young man with great principles and great integrity.”
While working for Griffin, whom Recher called one of his great political mentors, he recalls frequent stops at Evelyn Marconi’s Geno’s Chowder and Sandwich Shop, a state political landmark in Portsmouth, where they would meet with everyone from community members to former-first lady Barbara Bush.
“Ruth taught me the true value of New Hampshire retail politics,” Recher said. “Ruth also taught me the meaning of grassroots activism.”
In 1996, around the same time he was volunteering for Griffin, Recher also was working on John Sununu’s first campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. He went on to become the congressman’s first page after Sununu won the election.
“I would see him whenever he worked on the floor,” Sen. Sununu recalled. “He was quiet and enthusiastic; he’s a soft-spoken guy even now. He’s obviously very motivated and very disciplined.”
Only four years later, he left Boston College during his junior year to permanently join the Bush campaign in New Hampshire. Campaigning with George P. Bush, the president’s nephew, and coordinating youth events throughout the state, he never looked back. Come election night, he was a fully entrenched member of the Bush camp.
“I stayed with the campaign throughout, spent election night in Austin [and then] came home to New Hampshire for about 12 hours,” Recher reminisced. “Then, I hopped on a plane to Palm Beach and spent 36 days in Florida during the recount.”
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 2000 ruling, allowing Bush to assume office, Recher came to Washington to work on the president’s inauguration, a ceremony he would manage in 2005. In 2001 he organized a youth concert at the MCI Center featuring pop artists, including Jessica Simpson, 98 Degrees and Destiny’s Child.
Recher continued to volunteer in the advance office until 2003, while he finished his education at George Washington University. In 2004, he joined as an official staffer and was named trip director last May.
To date, he has traveled to more than 40 countries, including working the president’s recent tour through Latin America – not bad for a man who had never left the country before taking the job.
“I thought it was a great trip, and the president said several times it was one of his most memorable trips as president,” Recher said.
Even on official business Bush and his staff still find time for a little tourism. Trips to China, for example, included visits to the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square, Recher said.
“Beijing is a really unique place to go, an even more unique place to go with the leader of the free world,” Recher said. “You’re going to the heart of modern-day communism and you go on the Great Wall with the president. It’s kind of a pinch yourself moment.”
Of all the places he has traveled, and of all the people he has met, including world leaders, Recher insists members of the military still leave the greatest impression upon him.
“It really is inspirational for me every day to work with them,” Recher said.
As the president nears the final year-and-a-half of his term, Recher says he looks forward to returning to New Hampshire, where his parents and family still reside, and that he will welcome a break after an exhausting four years.
“I could leave here tomorrow and know that I’ve done my part to serve,” Recher said. “I’ve had an amazing experience here, but I’d love to come back to New Hampshire and return home.”
Above all, Recher’s friends and co-workers alike note his enthusiasm and caring for all those with whom he works. As Cabaniss prepared to go to Afghanistan, Recher organized one last gathering to send off his friend.
“Before I left he pulled all the New Orleans’ team together and took me to lunch at the Convention Center,” Cabaniss said. “We need more people like that.”
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Hodes Hails Iraq Spending Bill in Democratic Radio Response
RESPONSE
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
3/24/07
WASHINGTON, March 24—New Hampshire Congressman Paul Hodes, delivering the Democratic response to the President’s weekly radio address Saturday morning, hailed the passage of the House Iraq spending bill, which sets a timeline for troop withdrawal, as an important step to altering the course of the war.
“Under Democratic leadership, the House of Representatives told the President that it's time to change course,” Hodes said. “We are holding him accountable for a new direction in Iraq.”
The bill imposes security benchmarks on the Iraqi government and mandates troop withdrawal by September 2008.
President Bush, who has already promised to veto the legislation if it were to pass in the Senate, blasted the measures calling them counterproductive to the mission on the ground and noting the bill’s shaky support, which narrowly passed the House Friday by a vote of 218-212.
“The emergency war spending bill they voted for would cut the number of troops below the level our military commanders say they need to accomplish the mission. It would set an artificial timetable for withdrawal that would allow the enemy to wait us out,” the President said. “I have made it clear that I will veto any such bill, and it is clear that my veto would be sustained.”
The President accused The House of playing politics by passing a bill they knew he would veto and called on Congress to send him a clean spending bill without timetables or restrictions.
“By choosing to make a political statement and passing a bill they know will never become law, the Democrats in Congress have only delayed the delivery of the vital funds and resources our troops need,” he said. “They need to send me a clean bill, without conditions, without restrictions.”
Rather than undercut the military, Hodes said the bill would provide troops with their needed resources while creating benchmarks for troop withdrawal.
“We support our troops by providing needed funding for their equipment and protection,” he said. “But this bill is not a blank check to fund the war in Iraq. It requires that the Iraqis meet the benchmarks for success that the President himself outlined in January.”
Hodes used the opportunity to also address scandals involving misspent government money on reconstruction in Iraq and the dilapidated conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, two issues addressed in recent weeks by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, on which Hodes sits.
“I can assure you the Congress will continue to keep a close eye on our military and VA facilities to ensure our troops and our veterans get the care they deserve,” Hodes said. “And while we put an end to the under-funding of our veterans' care, we are also cracking down on the over-funding of politically connected contractors…. For four long years, a Republican Congress ignored that responsibility, and billions of dollars were wasted.”
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Judd, Gregg Vote for Bill Requiring Senate Confirmation for U.S. Attorneys
U.S. ATTORNEYS
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
3/20/07
WASHINGTON, March 20—Reacting to the scandal involving the Justice Department’s dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to return to the system of requiring that chamber confirm federal prosecutor nominees.
Sens. John Sununu (R-N.H.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) voted for the measure, which the Senate passed, 94-2. If the House approves, the bill would undo language inserted in the USA Patriot Act last year allowing the attorney general to bypass the Senate confirmation process in appointing interim U.S. attorneys.
Under the new bill, White House nominees would have 120 days to gain Senate confirmation. If they are not approved within that time, federal district judges would name the replacements.
“There are many people that weren’t aware that the process for choosing replacement U.S. attorneys had been changed,” said Sununu, who has already called for the removal of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. “There was agreement that the old process worked fine and should be reinstated.”
While they both supported the final Senate bill, Gregg and Sununu split on a failed amendment to the bill that Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) proposed to keep federal judges out of the process. The Senate rejected the amendment, 40-56, with Gregg voting for it and Sununu against.
Kyl’s amendment would have required that the president nominate to fill a vacancy within 120 days and that the Senate act within 120 days of receiving the nomination. If the presidential deadline were missed, the Senate’s deadline would be dropped.
In a statement explaining his support for the amendment, Gregg said Kyl’s proposal “would have…reaffirmed the Senate’s confirmation responsibilities in filling vacant U.S. attorney positions. This legislation makes a strong statement in addressing recent concerns about the Attorney General’s role in filling the ranks of our top federal prosecutors, who play a critical role in enforcing our laws and fighting crime and terrorism.”
Sununu, however, said he could not support the amendment’s proposed time limit on the confirmation process, calling that a unique limit and unnecessary.
“I don’t know of any other case where we do that,” Sununu said in a phone interview. “It would limit the power of senators to raise concerns.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which has begun an investigation of the incident, called Senate approval of the 2006 Patriot Act revisions a mistake and the new bill was a necessary step to restoring the independence of U.S. attorneys.
“It was a mistake [for the attorney general’s office] to mislead the Senate Judiciary Committee in hearings and it was a mistake to give the attorney general unlimited authority into the appointment of the U.S. attorneys,” he said. “Prosecutors have to be independent; they have to be able to prosecute without fear or favor.”
Leahy has previously said he would issue subpoenas to key administration officials to testify before his committee to determine the truth behind the firings. Sununu said testimony concerning performance evaluations, which have been called into question for taking administration loyalty into account, should be the focus of the investigation.
“The most important thing is whether clear and accurate information was provided by the Justice Department when they were asked about performance evaluations,” Sununu said.
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Freshman Democrats Ask for Investigation of Veterans’ Health Care
Hodes
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
3/05/07
WASHINGTON, March 5—New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes, president of the freshman class of House Democrats, has asked the investigative arm of Congress to conduct an independent investigation of veterans’ health care in a letter signed by all 42 new Democratic House members and one freshman Republican.
The letter to the Government Accountability Office, dated March 1, calls the dilapidated conditions of Building 18 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center—first reported by The Washington Post in a series revealing mold, crumbling walls and inadequate outpatient care—indicative of a broader failure by the Army and the Bush administration to provide necessary care for injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The situation in Building 18 is a clear indicator of a systemic failure in the delivery of quality outpatient healthcare and services to those who have bravely served our country,” the letter to Comptroller General David Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office, said. “We are concerned that this failure might be the tip of the iceberg in terms of a lack of readiness for the significant needs of our returning veterans, particularly in the context of the Administration’s proposed out-year reductions in the budget for the Veteran’s Administration.”
While Hodes pointed much of his criticism at hospital officials, he also said the administration bears ultimate responsibility for larger failures in veterans’ health care around the country.
“It begins at the very top,” he said in a telephone interview after the hearing. “We’re involved in an operation that puts our troops in a civil war and they’re being deployed without adequate equipment. We have a system that is better suited to treating World War II injuries.”
In light of such failures, a House subcommittee held a hearing at Walter Reed Monday and grilled Army officers previously in charge of the hospital.
“I want you to know that I think this is a massive failure of competence, management and command,” Hodes, a member of the subcommittee, told Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, surgeon general of the Army, who testified at the hearing.
Kiley apologized for conditions of building 18 but also said Walter Reed overall provides good facilities and patient care.
“The housing conditions here in Walter Reed clearly have not met our standards and for that I am personally and professionally sorry,” he said. “But we have great facilities. My concern is that building 18 has become emblematic.”
Hodes called Kiley’s defense of the hospital “appalling” and questioned why he would be reappointed as head of the hospital. Kiley had been head of Walter Reed until 2004 and was named interim head last week after Maj. Gen. George Weightman was fired.
“I was appalled by General Kiley’s testimony and I’m appalled that he’s still surgeon general of the Army,” Hodes said. “Amazingly General Kiley said that they were not prepared for injuries they have seen for the past five years. [There was a] stunning refusal to acknowledge that real systemic problems have existed at Walter Reed for a long time.”
The hearing Monday by the National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was the first as the committee begins an investigation of the quality of veteran’s health care around the country.
Witnesses who appeared before the committee—including patients Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Shannon and Army Cpl. Wendell McLeod and McLeod’s wife Annette McLeod—testified to the squalid conditions in which patients in building 18 were forced to live.
“The treatment they gave him, a dog wouldn’t deserve it,” Annette McLeod said of the care provided for her husband. “This is about accountability. I just want them to fix the problem.”
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Homeland Security Awards State $2 Million for Emergency Management
Emergency
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
2/28/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28-- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a grant Wednesday for almost $2 million to support local emergency management throughout New Hampshire.
The award is part of $194 million given nationwide this year under the department’s Emergency Management Performance Grants Program.
The New Hampshire Department of Safety will use $1.1 million of the grant for operating expenses, according to Jim Van Dugan, spokesman for its Bureau of Emergency Management. The remainder of the money will go to local projects, Van Dugan said, and local communities will have the opportunity to apply for a share of the money.
“These are competitive grants,” Van Dugan said. “If you have a pot of money there’s never enough.”
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, hailed the grant money as indispensable to the Department of Safety’s mission.
“Through strategic planning, state and local officials play a critical and often unsung role in ensuring that New Hampshire residents remain safe day-in and day-out,” he said in a statement. “This Homeland Security funding will help them move forward with that mission by providing funding to prepare and implement plans for emergency situations wherever they may occur across the state.”
The money will assist in the Department of Safety’s preparations for the spring flood season, Van Dugan said.
“We’ve just been through two severe floods, so these projects tend to be related to managing water,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security has awarded more than $750 million in emergency management grants since 2004, Maureen Phillips, the department’s public affairs specialist for grants, said. The grants, which are applied for by each state, are meant assist state agencies in planning, buying equipment and funding training exercises, she said.
“The grants are based on their identified needs and priorities,” Phillips said. “Basically it helps them implement their strategic goals and objectives.”
As part of the program, the department also maintains a regular monitoring process to ensure the funds are spent as indicated in each state’s application, she said.
“We have a regular monitoring visit that we make to the state regularly, along with state representatives who are to monitor continually the grant application,” she said.
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Gov. Lynch Joins Other Governors to Protect Children’s Insurance Program
GOVERNOR
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
2/26/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 —New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch joined his colleagues from around the country in moving to protect a children’s health insurance program while attending the National Governors Association winter meeting.
If President Bush’s proposed funding levels are approved by Congress, more than 80 percent of children and their families in New Hampshire currently covered by the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would lose coverage, Gov. Lynch said during a telephone conference call Monday.
Currently, 7,400 children in the state are covered by the program, only 1,400 of whom would still qualify for coverage, he said. By contrast, Gov. Lynch previously proposed adding 10,000 children to the program over the next year. The program serves children in families that do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford health insurance.
“This is something that really has the governors concerned,” he said. “The impact is [those people] would lose eligibility.”
In his budget proposal presented three weeks ago, President Bush proposed maintaining the current level of funding of $5 billion per year for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, along with an additional allotment of $4.8 billion over the next five years. The governors argue that this is not enough to even maintain the current level of enrollment much less expand the program.
In response to the president’s proposal, 13 governors presented a letter on Saturday to leaders in Congress urging legislative action to protect the program, begun in 1997. Those governors continued on Monday to press for additional funding and reauthorization for the program.
“It’s much more difficult to take something away from someone rather than not give it to someone in the first place,” Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, one of the authors of the letter, said Monday at a governors association committee meeting focused on children’s health care.
“We want to work to make certain we’re taking care of the people you said you were going to pay,” Gov. Bredesen said to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who was a guest at the session.
Leavitt, however, argued the program is sustainable under the president’s funding proposal if it is restricted to only low-income children, rather than including their parents and higher income families. The program should be for children and not adults, Leavitt said. “It’s a very important program and we want to make sure low-income children have access to this and not necessarily others. Situations should be handled differently.”
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), chairman of the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that would consider any proposals dealing with the children’s insurance program promised swift, bi-partisan action in obtaining more funding for the program, which is often referred to as SCHIP.
“We plan to move legislation that deals not only with the shortfall but that also reauthorizes SCHIP long term,” Pallone said. “All of the states have been moving to try to expand health insurance and you’re not going to be able to do that without a very robust SCHIP program.”
Gov. Lynch and other governors also met Monday morning at the White House with President Bush. Other concerns Gov. Lynch said were addressed at the conference included No Child Left Behind, the Iraq War and the REAL ID Act, which calls for a national identification card for all Americans.
“I am concerned about the REAL ID cost and privacy issues,” the governor said. “No one really knows what the implementation costs are. I don’t know one governor who’s ready to go through with this.”
He also expressed concerns over National Guard troop and equipment shortages in New Hampshire as a result of the war, but reiterated his support for the troops.
“We need to be very supportive of the troops,” Gov. Lynch said.
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HUD Issues $5.2 Million in Grants to Fight Homelessness in New Hampshire
HOMELESS
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
2/21/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21-- The U.S. government issued $5.2 million in grants last month to state and local government organizations in New Hampshire to combat homelessness as part of a $1.33 billion nationwide funding initiative.
The $5.2 million in grants are down from a high of nearly $5.7 million in 2004, according to Kristine Foye, a spokeswoman at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and comes as HUD has steadily increased its grant money nationwide by $130 million in the past four years.
Grants totaling $4.67 million fund homeless programs at more than two dozen social service agencies and organizations throughout the state. Groups in the Manchester area received $710,253. Emergency shelter grants for the state total $571,000.
Individual relief groups determine how to spend the money, HUD New England Regional Director Taylor Caswell said.
“We don’t like to be the ones saying this is what you have to be spending,” he said.
Caswell said the department took a two-pronged approach, choosing to fund both temporary housing and relief programs as well as permanent low-income housing units to reduce the number of chronically homeless living on the streets.
“We’re trying to move people into a stable setting and to provide services,” Caswell said.
According to Keith Kuenning, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness, between 4,000 and 5,000 individuals remain homeless throughout the state on any given night.
Many relief organizations working in New Hampshire, like the Community Services Council of New Hampshire based in Pembroke, depend on the grants to allow them to continue operating. The Community Services Council updates and maintains a database of homeless individuals allowing state agencies to provide relief services.
“It’s essential,” Sheila King, executive director of the Community Services Council, said. “Without that information it’s impossible to develop those services and make sure resources are used where they need to be used.”
While homeless groups lauded the newest grants, many said they still fall well short of what is needed.
“We’re happy for what we’re getting but it’s not enough,” Jessica Schuler, policy analyst for the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless, said. “Many of the HUD programs were designed for emergency response but we need more permanent housing.”
To receive funding, Caswell said, the department asks community groups and agencies to form an umbrella organization and establish a relief plan.
“This is a cooperative, locally-driven project,” he said. “You have to get a group of people together that includes business leader and officials, sit down and come up with a plan that incorporates all those interests. Every time you can get a program that removes the power from Washington, that’s great.”
Department officials look for effectiveness in providing services when determining which groups receive money, Foye said. Approximately 40 percent of groups are turned down, she said.
“The biggest piece of the process is showing some level of success over a number of years,” she said.
In addition, the umbrella group is required to issue annual spending reports. The department conducts random on-site reviews of the funded programs throughout the year, Foye said.
“Basically if they show they want to move people from the streets to self-sufficiency that scores big,” she said.
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Hodes and Shea-Porter Speak on Iraq Resolution
IRAQ
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
2/14/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 —New Hampshire Democratic Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol-Shea Porter are speaking this week in support of a nonbinding resolution opposing President Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq.
Addressing the House late Tuesday night, Rep. Shea-Porter criticized the administration for entering Iraq under false pretenses.
“We sent our soldiers on a mission that made no sense from the beginning,” she said. “There were no Iraqis on the plane [referring to Sept. 11] and there were no [weapons of mass destruction].”
As part of the House debate on the leadership’s resolution, the 434 representatives each have five minutes to speak for or against the resolution, with a vote expected on Friday. Several GOP lawmakers are expected to vote with Democrats in favor of the resolution.
Rep. Hodes, who is scheduled to speak early Thursday evening, said he will condemn President Bush’s troop surge as a doomed policy and call on the administration to heed the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group.
“It is clear that we need a new direction,” he said in a phone interview while discussing his remarks planned for Thursday. “This troop surge is too little, too late."
Rep. Shea-Porter said the war in Iraq also unnecessarily drains resources away from the war in Afghanistan.
“Our nation was attacked by people in Afghanistan,” she said. “We should be working even harder there to make sure our mission does not fail.”
Opponents of the resolution, including House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), attacked it as a first step toward cutting off funds for troops in Iraq and undermining the war on terrorism.
“This nonbinding resolution is their first step towards abandoning Iraq by cutting off funding for our troops that are in harm's way,” Rep. Boehner said on the House floor Tuesday. “This is one part of a much larger fight…against Islamic terrorists who have waged war on the United States.”
According to Rep. Hodes, however, the president has had long enough to freely send American troops into harm’s way without any congressional oversight..
“We’ve had five years with the president having unimpeded ability to pursue a course that does not have the support of Congress and the American people,” he said in a phone interview. “We support the troops, but I don’t think [this war] was in the American interest.”
Rep. Shea-Porter also criticized President Bush for ignoring Congress and the American people.
“The president goes his own way; he doesn’t listen,” she said on the floor. “Well, we say no. Troops need to know that their mission is in the best interests of the United States. The days of rubber-stamping are over.”
Rep. Boehner urged the House not to give up hope of salvaging the mission in Iraq.
“This is a great American tragedy,” he said. “The mission of this Congress is to urge the change of course.”
Rep Shea-Porter went on later to counter, however, criticizing Republicans as offering only empty patriotic rhetoric without any real solutions.
“There’s no Davy Crockett in Iraq,” she said. “Our soldiers need a clear-eyed leader, not this romantic garble we’ve been hearing.”
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Hodes Appealed to Individual New Hampshire Voters
FECNH
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
2/13/2007
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 —In a year during which voters preoccupied with the Iraq war swept congressional Republicans out in favor of Democrats, freshman Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) out-raised incumbent Charlie Bass by appealing for change to individual New Hampshire voters.
“It was a Democratic year,” Mark Wrighton, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, said. “In light of the blue tsunami…there’s no denying this was a national election.”
Rep. Hodes raked in $1,648,323 in all, including more than $366,000 in individual contributions from New Hampshirites, according to end-of-year campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Those individual contributions included an “unprecedented” number of smaller contributions, said Dana Houle, Hodes’ campaign manager and now his chief of staff,.
“Some New Hampshire voters can afford to give $2,100, so that’s what they do,” Houle said. “Others can only give $25 here or there, but his campaign generated a lot of enthusiasm.”
In vying for a seat Democratic activists pegged long ago as vulnerable, Hodes set out to compile as large a war chest as possible, Houle said.
“People were looking for a change and rejoicing that he was a good candidate and wanted to support him,” Houle said. “We weren’t surprised by it. We set goals of how much money we were going to need, and Paul was very dedicated to his campaign.”
By hosting house parties and directing supporters to the Internet, Hodes’ campaign collected nearly 741 individual donations throughout the state, according to Congressional Quarterly’s PoliticalMoneyLine Web site
“A lot of these house parties would generally bring in $25 or $50 donations,” Houle said. “One of the ways you raise money is through repeat donors. A lot of money just came in to us through the mail.”
Hodes’ large fundraising base in New Hampshire stands in contrast to the record of his opponent, who collected just under $210,000 from individual donors in the state, more than $150,000 less than Hodes raised from New Hampshirites, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. In all, Bass raised $1,228,541.
“We went through [Bass’s] campaign finances, and it was clear that he had not raised much money from New Hampshire donors or even individual donors,” Houle said.
While Hodes received the majority of his individual contributions from New Hampshire, he also gathered significant amounts of money from out of state, including nearly $150,000 from New York. As the Democratic Party’s fundraising and campaigning arm targeted candidates whom it believed posed strong threats to unseating Republicans, donors looked to Hodes as a viable candidate, Houle said.
“There were a lot of national donors who were focused on turning over Congress,” he said. “[New York’s] where there are a lot of national donors.”
Yet another component of Hodes’ fundraising success came as a result of Internet donations, as supporters logged on to his campaign Web site and contributed while adding their names to the growing call list of campaign backers.
“We did a pretty aggressive Internet program,” Houle said. “I think it’s an indication of how broad the support was and the enthusiasm in the air. When people give money it’s an indication of how involved they are. This meant there were more people just talking about the campaign.”
According to Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based organization that tracks campaign financing and spending, Hodes’ use of the Internet to build his coffers reflects a broader movement of candidates’ using the medium.
“The Internet has really boosted donations, particularly at the smaller levels,” Ritsch said. “You have to do almost nothing to get those donations.”
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