Politics on the Hudson

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it wants to close 131 offices around the country, including four in New York.

The targeted locations in New York are in Yates, Saratoga, Sullivan and Albany counties.

The money-saving move was announced yesterday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack as part of his agency’s Blueprint for Stronger Service.

“The USDA, like families and businesses across the country, cannot continue to operate like we did 50 years ago,” Vilsack said in a press statement. “We must innovate, modernize, and be better stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars. We must build on the record accomplishments of farm communities in 2011 with a stronger, more effective USDA in 2012 and beyond.”

After the closings, the Farm Service Agency will continue to have more than 2,100 offices around the country.

Among the other money saving measures the agency is taking, USDA will reduce the number of cell phone plans it uses from 700 to 10.

The White House plans to announce today it has received a commitment from businesses, nonprofits and federal agencies to provide summer jobs for 180,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24.
Private-sector partners include CVS Caremark, the Gap, Starbucks, Syracuse University and United Parcel Service.
President Barack Obama had proposed a $1.5 billion summer youth employment program as part of his American Jobs Act, but Congress didn’t act on that request.
The plan to be announced Thursday builds on a theme of congressional inaction that the administration has used to justify more controversial actions, such as Wednesday’s recess appointments by Obama of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three members of the National Labor Relations Board.
The federal agencies that will participate in the summer youth jobs program won’t get new funding, according to the administration.
Even so, the Agriculture Department plans to provide summer employment to 7,100 youths, the Interior Department will employ 12,000 and the Health and Human Services Department will employ 324.
In 2009 and 2010, economic stimulus legislation financed 367,000 summer youth jobs, according to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
“When those Recovery Act dollars dried up last year, I made summer youth jobs a top priority here at the Department of Labor,’’ Solis said. “I personally traveled to communities across the country and challenged employers to make a commitment. A number of major corporations like Jamba Juice, UPS and Wells Fargo signed on. They created thousands of summer work opportunities for young people.’’
Altogether an estimated 80,000 summer jobs were offered in 2011, with the help of groups such as the U.S. Conference of Mayor and community-based nonprofits.
Solis said she hopes to enlist more employers in coming months and ultimately employ 250,000 youths for the year.
Unemployment among 16-to-24-year-olds was 18.1 percent in July. The rate among blacks was 31 percent. Among Hispanics, it was 20 percent.
In July 2007, just prior to the onset of the Great Recession, unemployment for that age group stood at 10.8 percent.
In conjunction with the initiative, the White House plans to release a report outlining the national economic burden of not providing job opportunities for disadvantaged youth.
The report, authored by two faculty members at Columbia University’s Teachers College and another from Queens College, estimates the nation has at least 6.7 million disadvantaged youths between 16 and 24 who neither work nor attend school. On average, they impose an immediate taxpayer burden of $13,900 a year compared to other youths in the same age group.

Here’s the press release:

U.S. Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, M.D. (NY-19) released the following statement after the House passed a 60-day extension of the payroll tax reduction, unemployment benefits, and Medicare physician reimbursement rates after the Democrat-led Senate agreed to appoint conferees and begin working with House Republican negotiators on a long-term solution:

“Today Congress passed a short-term extension of the payroll tax holiday, federal contribution to unemployment benefits, and current Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors. I have always supported these programs, and in recent days I’ve been privileged to be a highly visible advocate for providing the greatest possible certainty to hardworking taxpayers, job-creating employers, the growing ranks of unemployed Americans, and our seniors and doctors who rely on Medicare. On December 13 I voted with a majority of House Republicans, and many Democratic colleagues, for significantly lengthier continuation of these crucial initiatives. The Senate voted differently, and now it’s time to work towards consensus.
“As part of today’s legislation, the House of Representatives and the Senate have convened a conference committee to devise longer-term extensions for the payroll tax holiday, federal unemployment contributions, and Medicare reimbursements. I have been honored to be one of eight House Republicans selected for the committee, and l look forward to working closely with my colleagues in both parties and both chambers of Congress to do our best for all the people we serve.”

FROM HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER’S PRESS OFFICE: “Today, Speaker Boehner called President Obama to discuss the Speaker’s desire to provide a full year of tax relief for American families before December 31st. With Senator Reid having declined to call his Members back to Washington this week to join the House in negotiating a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut, the Speaker proposed that the President send members of his economic policy team up to Congress to find a way to accommodate the President’s full-year request. The Speaker explained his concern that flaws in the Senate-passed bill will be unworkable for many small business job creators. He reiterated that if their shared goal is a one-year bill, there is no reason an agreement cannot be reached before year’s end. The President declined the Speaker’s offer.”

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE: Speaker Boehner called the President this morning and the President reiterated to the Speaker that the only viable option currently on the table is for the House of Representatives to pass the bipartisan Senate compromise that received the support of nearly 90 percent of the Senate. The President told Speaker Boehner that he is committed to begin working immediately on a full-year agreement once the House passes the bipartisan Senate compromise that prevents a tax hike on 160 million Americans on January 1.

Two freshman Republican House members from New York were in spin mode Wednesday, staying in Washington for a media blitz to urge further negotiations for a one-year extension of a payroll tax cut.
Reps. Tom Reed of Corning and Nan Hayworth of Bedford spent the day shuttling between television cameras and their congressional offices.
Their message to the public: Pressure the Senate and House to negotiate a one-year deal instead of accepting the Senate’s two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits and Medicare reimbursement rates.
“This is the time-honored process that the founders provided wisely for,’’ Hayworth said in an interview shortly after appearing on CNN. “We are hoping for January 1 to dawn with the American people receiving the longest-term relief we can provide them.’’
Reed, who appeared on two cable news programs Tuesday night, also made the media rounds Wednesday, doing interviews with Bloomberg, Politico, the National Journal and Roll Call.
“Messaging has been part of the operation, obviously, but we are also digging into these issues,’’ Reed said during an interview in his office. “I truly believe, if the Senate came to the table we could work this out.’’
Democrats say House Republicans should accept the Senate deal, and they noted that that several GOP senators agree.
In a phone call Wednesday, President Barack Obama urged House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to allow a House vote on the Senate’s two-month deal while reiterating the need to ultimately agree on a one-year extension.
The two-month extension approved by the Senate in an 89-10 vote Saturday was negotiated by Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer appeared Wednesday on MSNBC and Fox News, accusing House Republicans of using their proposed negotiations to shelve the payroll tax cut extension.
Reed and Hayworth said they will stay in Washington as long as necessary because House GOP leaders have appointed them to a possible House-Senate conference committee on the tax cut extension.
Meanwhile, other New York Republicans have taken differing positions.
Freshman Republican Rep. Chris Gibson of Kinderhook voted Tuesday against the House GOP proposal to seek negotiations with the Senate.
And freshman Rep. Richard Hanna of Oneida County issued a statement Wednesday saying he would have voted in favor of the Senate plan.
“While a year-long extension is preferable to a two-month extension, I certainly would have voted for the Senate-passed bill if given the opportunity,’’ Hanna said. “Because the Senate bill was not brought to the House floor for a direct vote, I voted to … move to a House-Senate conference to resolve differences between the chambers.’’
Hanna said the Senate and House should get back to working on a deal.
“I stand ready to finish this work,’’ he said. “Letting the payroll tax cut or unemployment insurance expire next year is unacceptable.’’

India’s ambassador to the United States says she was in Purchase last week to meet with her friend Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s president and chief executive.
“We just had a conversation,’’ said Ambassador Nirupama Rao. “We are friends, old friends.’’
Ambassador Rao spoke during a congressional reception Thursday evening attended by New York Reps. Nita Lowey of Harrison, Eliot Engel of the Bronx, Gary Ackerman of Nassau County and Joe Crowley of Queens.
Rao took over as India’s ambassador to the United States in September. She’s served her country in the U.S. before as the embassy’s minister for press and cultural affairs from 1993 to 1995.
Lowey, who serves as the ranking Democrat on the House appropriations committee with jurisdiction on foreign operations, noted that PepsiCo has extensive operations in India that date back to 2000 when she made a trip there with then-President Bill Clinton.

The average New York household would pay $600 less in payroll taxes next year under a proposal being pushed by Senate Democrats.
A family earning the state’s median income of $54,554 already will pay $1,090 less this year under a 2-percentage-point reduction in payroll taxes that began in January.
That tax cut expires at the end of this year, but Senate Republicans announced this week they will back a one-year renewal.
“It’s a huge step in our direction that they are now saying they want to support this kind of payroll tax cut,’’ New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday.
But Senate Republicans aren’t supporting President Barack Obama’s proposal to cut the payroll tax in half – by 3.1 percentage points – next year. Obama also wants to cut employers’ share of payroll taxes if they hire new workers or give employees raises.
The White House said Wednesday the proposals would provide a $12.8 billion cut in payroll taxes for 10.3 million New Yorkers in 2012, compared to $7.8 billion this year.
Nationwide, it would provide $179 billion in tax relief next year, the administration said.
Senate Democrats want to offset the cost of the tax cut package by enacting a one-year, 3.25-percent income tax surcharge on millionaires, but Republicans oppose that.
Republicans released a plan Wednesday that they said would cover the cost of renewing the 2-percentage-point payroll tax cut for one year while reducing the deficit by $111 billion.
The plan would freeze salaries of federal civilian workers for three years, reduce the federal workforce over time by 10 percent—or 200,000 employees—and begin means testing for federal benefits such as health care, unemployment benefits and food stamps.
“Republicans will put aside their misgivings and support this extension,’’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Wednesday, prior to the release of the GOP plan. “Not because we believe, as the president does, that another short-term stimulus will turn this economy around, but because we know it will give some relief to struggling workers out there who continue to need it nearly three years into this presidency.”
Schumer, who’s pushing for passage of Obama’s plan, released county-level data comparing the impact of the payroll tax cut now in effect to the larger one proposed by Democrats.
In Westchester County, where the median income is $77,057, the difference is $848 ($1,541 compared to $2,389).

The husband of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is making a prediction on what she will do after she steps down from her cabinet post, as planned, at the end of 2012.

Former President Bill Clinton told Newsmax.com on Sunday that his wife ”will have a major role to play in the nongovernmental world. That’s what she plans to do and I think she’ll do it well.”

The former president said,  ”Around the world, she’s done an enormous amount of good, in you know, the so-called soft power areas empowering women and girls, educating them, giving them access to capital, helping them make a living, promoting better healthcare practices.”

Here’s the link:

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/clinton-bill-hillary-president/2011/11/27/id/419171

This morning’s announcement by Massachusett’s Rep. Barney Frank that he will retire from Congress at the end of 2012 already has people asking who will replace him in 2013 as the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.

One possible successor is New York Rep. Gary Ackerman of Nassau County, who has served in the House since 1983.

Ackerman is a member of Financial Services, although he’s also active on Foreign Affairs, where he serves as ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. For a Jewish New Yorker with a congressional district covering parts of Queens and Nassau, that’s a plum subcommittee position.

But New York City is the financial services capital of the world.

Ackerman also may be a more appealing choice to party leaders than California Rep. Maxine Waters, who is the second most senior Democrat on Financial Services but doesn’t have as much overall seniority as Ackerman as a House member.

Another possibility is Rep. Carolyn Maloney of Manhattan, who serves as ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. Maloney was a prime sponsor of the recent law clamping down on credit card abuses.

On the Republican side, Rep. Peter King of Nassau County is the second ranking member of the GOP on the full committee. Freshman Rep. Nan Hayworth of Westchester County is one of the panel’s junior members.

Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey issued a statement this afternoon condemning late night comedian Jimmy Fallon for introducing Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann on his show by playing the song “Lyin’ Ass Bitch’’ as the walk-on music.

Lowey described the music as ”insulting and inappropriate.’’

“I do not share Michele Bachmann’s politics, but she deserves to be treated with respect.,’’ Lowey said. ”No female politician – and no woman – should be subjected to sexist and offensive innuendo like she was last night. The Roots, Jimmy Fallon, and NBC should apologize.”