Capital Games

Rothman joins volunteer effort

Jennifer Rothman joined 150 other spouses of members of Congress this week in filling weekend food packages for children in danger of going hungry. The spouses answered an invitation from First Lady Michelle Obama, who participated with Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president.

“Each of us … have an opportunity to shine a bright light on service and the possibility of what service can do,” Obama told the spouses. “One of the things that we can illustrate to the rest of the world is that it doesn't take a lot to do something major. We're going to spend a couple of hours of our time packing up food, and it's going to feed a thousand children over the weekend here in Washington.

The wife of Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, Jennifer Rothman is an experienced hunger fighter. She works as communications director at the Center for Food Action in Englewood, which runs a pantry that last year provided more than 42,000 emergency food packages to families in Bergen County.

On Wednesday in Washington, Rothman joined other spouses as a “feeder” in an assembly line at the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington. Her job was to take packages of microwavable soup from a table and putting them in bags carried by “walkers” circling the table.

One of the walkers was Obama. Though Rothman said she had met the president before, her brief chat during the bag-filling was her first meeting with the first lady, and it was “fabulous.”

“Her sense of self is so powerful and so inspiring that I am even more motivated to end hunger in New Jersey,” Rothman said. “It can be done.”

While there are government programs that serve breakfast and lunch to needy children at schools, there’s not universal program for weekends and with the “snack packs” the Washington food bank is providing something children can take home with them.

“They were foods a child can easily do themselves, like microwavable mac and cheese, soups, a lot of granola bars, apple sauce, juices,” she said.

“I would love to take this project back to Bergen County. … It’s really important. These are kids who are not getting enough nutrition and this is serious. If a child does not get enough nutrition, their brains do not develop, and if their brains don’t develop, they’re not doing well in school.”

Rutgers lobbies and thanks The Hill

Rutgers University students made their annual lobbying pilgrimage to the Capitol on Tuesday, with a slightly different message from previous years: “Thank you.”

In the past, the students organized by Rutgers’ Washington office came down by train and fanned out to the offices of the state congressional delegation to argue against proposed cuts in aid.

But that message would not work after Congress and President Obama through the federal stimulus law provided to add $200 million for work-study programs and nearly $15.6 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500, to $5,350.

The Rutgers crew still wanted more – what lobbyist doesn’t – but they also included a message of thanks before they said increasing the maximum grant to $5,500 next year would be even better.

Student lobbyist Michael Convente of Midland Park was able to rattle off the details of President Obama’s higher education proposal, which would eliminate federal subsidies for banks to offer student loans backed by the government and just have the government issue them. The savings would go to providing permanent annual increases in Pell Grants tied to inflation.

 “It’s $94 billion over 10 years,” Convente said at a reception at the end of the day, where students mingled with Washington-area alumni, university officials, congressional aides and even a few congressmen.

Crystal Navarro, a sophomore from Passaic who goes to Rutgers-Newark, said she tried to stress the flesh-and-blood benefits of student aid. With her and her brother both in college while her mother is the family’s sole supporter, she’s getting help from the federal Educational Opportunity Fund and Pell Grants.

“Without financial aid, I would not be at school,” she said.

Rutgers President Richard McCormick told the crowd that “Rutgers is not a rich kids school” and that federal aid was vital.

In an interview, he said that the Washington has been good to New Jersey higher education this year, but the more urgent problem is Governor Corzine’s proposed budget.

“If the [state] budget for next year is adopted, we’ll be back to the level of state appropriations we had in 1997-98,” McCormick said. “So our challenges have come at the level of state funding.”

Saga of battlefield bill continues

The saga of Rep. Rush Holt’s battlefield bill continues.

When we last left our legislation, it was, in the words of Holt, “in a heap by the roadside.”

The six-page bill to make battlefields and significant sites related to the American Revolution and War of 1812 eligible for existing federal preservation funds passed the House easily on March 3.

Garrett named 'taxpayer hero' again

Rep. Scott Garrett continued his streak of being named a “Taxpayer Friend” by the National Taxpayers Union, and once again he’s the only one from New Jersey.

The NTU says it is a non-partisan citizen group whose guiding principle is, “This is your money and the government should return it to you.”

Along with opposing tax increases, the group generally believes that expansion of government regulation or increased spending is bad for taxpayers.

House fund-raising

My column on Sunday will highlight some of the more interesting [to me, at least] aspects of the latest campaign finance reports filed by the NJ House delegation, but here's a rundown of how much fund-raising members of Congress have been doing since the won their last election. 

Needless to say, most of them have been busy. 

DEMOCRATS	Net receipts 11/5/08 thru 3/31/09*	Cash on hand 3/31/09
ADLER	484,835	426,587
ANDREWS	54,734	124,168
HOLT	50,976	439,971
PALLONE	270,912	3,557,088
PASCRELL	237,540	1,281,650
PAYNE	392,684	1,127,885
ROTHMAN	123,053	1,825,437
SIRES	16,350	141,258
Totals	1,631,083	8,924,044
REPUBLICANS
FRELINGHUYSEN	56,401	401,965
GARRETT	138,008	74,535
LANCE	217,949	121,038
LO BIONDO	113,885	1,164,324
SMITH	83,894	103,399
Totals	610,137	1,865,262
Source: Federal Election Commission reports
*Receipts link provides detailed receipts from report for first quarter of 2009; receipts from Election Day to end of 2008 contained in other reports

Earmark requests cover spectrum

How would you spend $2.5 billion?

That's the total value of the earmarks requested by five North Jersey congressmen for earmarks in next year's budget. For the first time, Congress is requiring members to disclose the funding they are requesting that the appropriations committees include in the 2010 spending bills. Here's a tally compiled by The Record:

Sponsor	Earmark value	#Earmarks
Frelinghuysen	$120,300,000	41
Garrett	$11,080,000	7
Pascrell	$457,098,437	79
Rothman	$868,881,217	206
Sires	$1,055,244,687	143
Grand Total	$2,512,604,341	476

I've also thrown them all together into one PDF file. Download Earmarks

We'll find out later this year which requests are granted by congressional leaders and budget committees.

Who's friendly to middle class?

A group that says it scores the votes of Congress based on how they help the middle class gave Rep. Steve Rothman an A-plus, Rep. Bill Pascrell an A, and Rep. Scott Garrett an F for their votes last year.

Sens. Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, both D-N.J.,  also got grades of A, as did all the other House Democrats who were in Congress last year.

The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, which chose the votes and gave the grades, says it is a nonpartisan “progressive” group devoted to studying ways to protect “our increasingly fragile middle class.”

It looked at 25 votes in developing its 2008 rankings, from the auto industry bailout to unemployment extensions.

Among New Jersey Republicans, Reps. Chris Smith of Robbinsville got an A; Frank LoBiondo of Millville got a B; and Rodney Frelinghuysen of Harding got a D.

The chief difference between the A-plus given to Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, and the A given to Pascrell, D-Paterson, was Pascrell voted for the final financial sector bailout bill to come before the House last fall while Rothman voted against it, which was the position the group took as well.

Garrett, R-Wantage, also opposed the bailout, and that was one of only five instances where he got a “thumbs up” for voting the way the group wanted Congress to vote. The other instances were his support for the: Unemployment Compensation Extension Act, Save Energy through Public Transportation Act, Plain Language in Government Communications Act and the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

Lautenberg against bigger trucks

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., is siding with the Teamsters Union, independent truckers and motorists worried about accidents in a looming battle with big trucking companies over increasing the legal size and weight of trucks on the road.

Earlier this week, Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, introduced a bill that would lift the 80,000-pound maximum weight limit for interstate highways to 100,000 pounds, which is the state limit in Maine. The bill was supported by the American Trucking Associations.

On Wednesday, Lautenberg joined the mother of a man killed when a truck hit his car to tout his own bill to apply the 80,000-pound limit to more highways. They were joined by officials from the Teamsters Union, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, and Environment Now.

“Not only are these trucks unsafe, they’re just a general menace to our whole infrastructure,” Lautenberg said. “Heavy trucks cause damage to transportation networks. They place enormous strain on our bridges, increasing the likelihood of a collapse.”

Jane Mathis of St. Augustine, Fla., whose 23-year-old son and new bride were killed on their way home from their honeymoon, now works with the Truck Safety Coalition and argued bigger trucks would cause more deaths and injuries.

Advocates for the change say bigger trucks would mean less trucks on the road, thus reducing the potential for accidents. Opponents argue history has shown every time Congress increased truck size limits, the amount of truck traffic increased.