Today At TRNS

Gulf Coast Correspondent Miles Tamboli will be covering the Presidential commission on the BP oil spill.

The Washington Bureau Will Be Covering:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. is hosting a legislative summit of African-American faith based leaders to address how faith leaders can utilize federal resources to confront current challenges facing African-American communities in New York. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Rev. Al Sharpton will be participating.

The New America Foundation (NAF) is holding a discussion on “Dodd-Frank: Will Financial Services be Transformed for Wall Street and Main Street” with Travis Plunkett, legislative director at the Consumer Federation of America; Mike Konczal, fellow at the Roosevelt Institute; Heather McGhee, director of the Washington Office of Demos; Leslie Parrish, senior researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending; Tim Fernholz, writing fellow at the American Prospect; Devin Fergus, fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; and Reid Cramer, director of NAF’s Asset Building Program.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. weekly pen and pad only news briefing.

The International Tibet Independence Movement (ITIM) is holding a rally following the completion of the “March for Tibet’s Independence,” a nine-day march from Philadelphia to Washington.

The Congressional Health Care Caucus is holding a policy forum on “Looking at the Problems and Presenting Solutions for the Sustainable Growth Rate Formula.” John O’Shea of the Heritage Foundation; and Peter Lavine of the D.C. Medical Society will be participating.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes; White House Director of the Office of National HIV/AIDS Policy Jeffrey Crowley; and Assistant HHS Secretary Howard Koh is holding a news conference to unveil the National HIV/AIDs strategy and discuss its goals and details.

President’s Special Envoy to Sudan Maj. Gen. Gration delivers remarks on the “Countdown to Sudan’s Referendum.”

Congress Can't Trust BP To Protect Clean Up Crews, Says Democrat

Philip Bunnell - Talk Radio News Service

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) said Monday that BP, the oil giant responsible for the massive oil spill in the Gulf Coast, cannot be counted on to protect the health of workers assigned to clean up the spill.

“We know we can’t trust BP,” Capps said during a discussion at the Center For American Progress (CAP) in Washington, D.C.. Capps added that BP lacked the incentive to provide adequate healthcare to cleanup workers.

Ellen-Marie Whelan, the associate director of health policy at CAP, explained the importance of extensive data compilation so that government agencies can monitor the long term health effects of the spill, especially regarding the unknown effects of the chemical dispersant.  

“Some of the [health] effects can take years to emerge,” said Whelan.

Dr. Lesley Russell, a visiting fellow at CAP who focuses on health issues, outlined the many risks that can arise from the spill, including contaminated seafood, PTSD, and fertility issues.  Russell cautioned that cleanup workers near the crude oil, burning oil, and dispersants, are already complaining of feeling ill.

All three emphasized that it is important to learn from past disasters, such as 9/11, the Exxon Valdez spill, and a 2002 oil spill of the coast of Spain, when looking at the adverse health effects and how to protect emergency cleanup workers as well as residents.

Eurasia Task Force Concludes U.S.-Central Asia Relations Need Rebalancing

By Rob Sanna- Talk Radio News

U.S. relations with Central Asia can be improved by inviting local leaders to Washington, making strong statements demonstrating U.S support, and supporting border security to prevent terrorists and extremists from entering new democracies and the spread of illicit material, according to a new report from the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Task Force.

“It is a region that presents tremendous opportunity for democracy, security, energy production, for cooperation,” Chuck Hagel, a former Republican Senator from Nebraska and current chairman of the Council, said during a discussion on the report Monday.

Former Ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan Ross Wilson, who joined Hagel, noted that the United States has a history of providing aid for countries in central Asia because many of them were formed when the Soviet Union fell and they were very unstable.

Today, he argues, the United States are in a similar position except now the primary concern is ensuring that these new democracies are protected against terrorism, narcotics, and other destabilizing factors overflowing from Afghanistan.

Ross also pointed out that during the nineties, the region received plenty of personal and active diplomacy that involved high profile policy makers from the United States getting involved with the issues in the various new countries.

More recently, the dialogue has primarily been coming from the U.S. Military asking for basing, overflight rights, and other support while the civilian government demands democratic measures be put in place.

Ross argues that this policy has created an impression with local leaders that the U.S. only has its own interests in mind and not the interests of the region.

Report Could Prevent Next 9/11, Says Military Official

By Linn Grubbstrom - Talk Radio News Service

Implementing ideas contained in a 2008 report put out by a top Washington think-tank would protect the U.S. from the next big terrorist attack, said a top military official on Friday.

The report entitled, “Measuring Progress In Conflict Environments (MPICE),” provides the DOD with a framework of ideas aimed at bringing stability to war-torn nations, like Iraq and Afghanistan. A co-editor of the report, Col. John Agoglia, Director of the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, said it would have sped up progress during the Iraq War.

“I think we would have cut the stabilization pace in Iraq by at least half, if not two-thirds,” he said via telephone from Kabul during a discussion held by the United States Institute of Peace on Friday. 

“Hopefully for folks who are sitting there for the next 9-11 - hopefully there won’t be one, but let’s not kid ourselves, there probably will be - they will have a process by which they can sift through what’s going on, identify what are the causes of instability that resulted in the conflict that we’re in and articulate to the policy-makers what challenges we face, what resources it costs and more importantly, how much time it will take,” he said.

The full report is online and can be found by clicking here.

Senate Republicans Obstructing Financial Reform Bill, Says House Democrat

By Linn Grubbstrom - Talk Radio News Service

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) told reporters Monday that the Senate must vote “yes” this week on its recently reconciled financial reform bill.

“The reality is that this will be very, very good for the American economy,” he said.

Himes blasted Republicans in the Senate for threatening to filibuster the bill, accusing them of using baseless fear-mongering to justify their actions.

“We are running the same movie we ran in the 1930’s when opponents of reform said this will be the end of capitalism, this will be the end of free market, this is overreaching by the government into financial markets.”

Frank Knapp, Jr., the president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, said the bill would jumpstart the job sector by making life easier for small businesses. 

“Greed by [large] financial institutions collapsed our economy and shout down loans and credit lines to our small businesses,” he said. “Every economist acknowledges that small businesses hire the employees we need to lead us out of this recession.”