Clean Water Coming Soon To Navajo Nation In New Mexico

By Laura Smith - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar joined New Mexico Senators Jeff Bingaman (D), Tom Udall (D, and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D) Thursday to sign the "Record of Decision for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Planning Report and Final Environment Impact Statement."

The project will provide clean water to a quarter of a million people in the Navajo Nation, the City of Gallup and the Jicarilla Apache Nation in New Mexico through annual diversions of 37,376 acre-feet of water from the San Juan River. The project will include 260 miles of pipeline, 24 pumping plants and two water treatment plants.

Salazar said this project is long overdue, and the action would allow them to move forward in helping empower and improve Native American communities.

“This project addresses an unfulfilled promise to support the Navajo people by providing a long-term sustainable water supply that will reduce the need for hauling water, improve health conditions on the Reservation, and provide the foundation for future economic development activity in northwestern New Mexico,” he said.

Sen. Udall said he can’t think of anything more important than the basic right to have drinkable water at home, and he said it’s been so long since the Navajo nation has had that.

“I think 33 percent of the people in the Navajo nation haul water to their homes. And when you think about the distances and where they get the water, miles and miles spent in pick up trucks going from hogans into a community where there’s water and hauling it back. If all of us were doing that at our homes, so it would take up so much time, we’d have to clear the decks of all the other things we have to do,” he said.

Sen. Bingaman said the implementation of the act was good for the people of the Navajo nation, the people of Gallup and the people of Jicarilla Apache, and for all involved.

“A few years ago...I was there in Gallup on a meeting, and encountered a great skepticism that, first of all, that this would ever become law, and second, that this would ever be built,” he said.

Rep. Lujan said water is critical to everyone, and this is an opportunity to provide water resources and infrastructure to a part of the country that has been neglected.

“Many tribal communities on the Navajo nation do not have access to a relievable water supply, and the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project will provide many of these communities with stable and reliable access to water,” Lujan said.

FEMA Recovery Slow, Says D.C. Delegate

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a meeting on the status of the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita four years ago called “Final Breakthrough on the Billion Dollar Katrina Infrastructure Logjam: How is it working?”

However, according to Chairwoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) some of the new ideas proposed to help with the recovery of Katrina are just now coming to fruition.

She said FEMA resisted efforts to break the logjam preferring its own traditional devices. She also discussed HR 3247, which the house passed in October 2007 encouraging the use of third parties to review and expedite public assistance appeals, as well as for projects up to $100,000.

“We passed this bill, which also raised the federal contribution of certain projects from 75 percent to 90 percent, not once but twice. It is sad the administration wasn’t able to pass this legislation,” Norton said during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing Tuesday.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) said he’s experienced working with FEMA and seen great success with them alongside the delays that may occur.

“We all know addressing the delays in public assistance ... is critical in the recovery process following a major disaster like a hurricane. Unfortunately delays have plagued the recovery process in Louisiana, and also in other states that were impacted by Katrina and Rita,” he said.

He said that since then Congress has taken a number of steps to strengthen FEMA and to try to ensure that Louisiana and other states can recover. Still, Diaz-Balart said delays still persist.

FEMA deputy administrator Dave Garratt said he’s recognized there’s still steps that must be taken in regard to recovery in states like Louisiana and that they are at no means able to say 'mission accomplished.'

“We recognize that there’s still much to do, and we intend to work with our partners to make sure it happens,” Garratt said.

Sebelius: WHO Will Have Access To 10 Percent Of Swine Flu Vaccine

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that the World Health Organization will have access to 10 percent of the new H1N1 vaccine.

“Joining Australia, Brazil, Switzerland, New Zealand, Italy, France, Norway, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom are countries that have either donated vaccine or donated its purchase power,” Sebelius said.

The Secretary said $34 million was donated to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) stockpile of antiviral medication this year.

PAHO met Monday to discuss health threats, such as the H1N1 virus, throughout the world, and what is being done to treat and prevent diseases in various Latin American countries.

“PAHO has become the first line of defense in combating [H1N1]," the Director of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, Dr. Mirta Roses Periago said Monday. "We have faced up to this major health challenge. We have expressed solidarity with the countries and families that have lost human life."

Dodd, Finance Official Share Conflicting Views On TARP

By Laura Smith

The Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a meeting Thursday to talk about the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and TARP (Trouble Asset Relief Program).

The panel consisted of Herbert M. Allison, Jr., Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability; Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program; Gene L. Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General of the United States; and Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel.

Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and SEC Chairman Chris Cox came to Congress with an important message, and that was that the American economy was close to a total collapse.

“Our nation was in the midst of an economic crisis that threatened small businesses’ ability to make payroll, cost us more than half a million jobs, turned the American dream of homeownership into a nightmare for many, kept students from getting college loans, and wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in savings that Americans were counting on for their retirement,” he said.

He said the Bush administration had a proposal on how to help large and small businesses who were unable to access the credit they needed to operate, but called it was unacceptable.

He stated that the Bush administration asked for an unprecedented amount of taxpayer money and executive power under the unchecked control of one unelected individual, with no guidelines to ensure that it would be used properly.

“Doing nothing wasn’t an option. But neither was this proposal,” Dodd said.

Herbert Allison said earlier this year that what the nation faced was no longer just a financial crisis; it was a full-blown economic crisis. He said that in January alone, 741,000 Americans lost their jobs, home foreclosures were at a rapid rate, and businesses and families were struggling to find credit.

“In short, the economy was in a free fall and there was increasing concern we were headed towards a second Great Depression,” Allison said.

He said a comprehensive strategy was put in place to stabilize the financial system and the housing market, to stimulate economic activity, and to provide help to those in most need.

“TARP has been vital to our achievements to date, and it will continue to be an important part of our recovery. The recovery has just begun, the financial system remains fragile, and the credit markets are not fully functioning. And with unemployment still unacceptably high, home foreclosures still rising, and many Americans still suffering through no fault of their own, we still have work to do,” Allison said.

He stated that EESA had authorized $700 billion for TARP, and that as of September 21, 2009, Treasury has announced plans to provide $644 billion for specific TARP programs.

“Of that amount, we have entered into commitments of $444 billion, and we have disbursed $365 billion,” he said.

Allison said a large part of the total activity to date occurred last fall under the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) following the adoption of EESA in October 2008.

Reid, Solis Join Forces With Healthcare Providers To Push For Reform

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis joined healthcare workers and healthcare providers Wednesday to support making healthcare affordable for Americans this year.

Reid and Solis stood with nurses, doctors and leading healthcare providers before they delivered hospital scrub tops to Congress inscribed with written messages from thousands of frontline healthcare workers across the country.

Healthcare workers and administrators launched the “Every Patient Matters” campaign Wednesday through the Partnership for Quality Care, to ensure that America’s direct caregivers have a voice in the debate on how to provide quality and affordable healthcare to all Americans.

Dennis Rivera, chairman of SEIU Healthcare, said that with Reid’s help, healthcare reform will be passed this year.

"Senator Reid is an incredible advocate on behalf of working women and men of Nevada and throughout this country, and a leader who knows we can do what is right. We can pass healthcare reform this year," Rivera said.

Reid said there were 10,000 scrub tops from around the country, and that insurance companies make the most money in the healthcare field. He said people ask why insurance companies do better than any other business in America during these hard times.

“The reason is that [the] insurance industry is not subject to the anti-trust laws we have in our country. More than a hundred years ago, big businesses were running our country...Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust law under a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, because big business had gotten out of hand,” he said.

Donnetta Miller, a registered nurse from Nevada, presented Reid an inscribed scrub top to thank him for being “a champion on getting healthcare reform passed.”

Miller wore a shirt that read, “As a healthcare provider, I wish to voice my demand for healthcare reform. This must pass this year, this congress. Our patients cannot wait another year. We’re swiftly approaching collapse of the Medicare/Medicaid system. Our seniors, our patients deserve healthcare reform. Donnetta Miller."

Solis said she understands the importance and how pivotal insurance reform is for the nation right now.

“Asthma, diabetes, obesity, cancers, HIV and AIDS. All these things and illnesses prevent people from getting healthcare right now, or they die from not getting healthcare. And we can’t afford to leave that be the status quo. We need to change it, “ she said.

Diane Palmer, a nurse from Maryland, held up a scrub top and read a message that a nurse from Seattle had written on it. The message said, “My 12 year old has chronic health issues. She runs the risk of meeting her max coverage without healthcare reform. We could face a life or death situation. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a nation to protect one. Please protect my child."

George Halverson, Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, said America is the only country in the industrialized world that has not created universal coverage.

“We are the only country in the industrialized world where our people need to worry that a healthcare event is going to drive them into a solvency or bankruptcy. That is wrong,” he said.