Politics on the Hudson

 New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said Thursday she expects Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to make a full recovery and run for re-election in her Arizona House district next year.

Gillibrand acknowledged that she hasn’t been told by the Arizona congresswoman, who hasn’t publicly announced her intentions, whether she will seek a fourth term.

“I believe in her and she fully believes in public service,’’ Gillibrand said. “And I think as she continues to heal herself and overcome these horrible injuries, I think she will be able to return full time to public service and she will be able to run for re-election.’’

But New York’s junior senator doesn’t expect an announcement from her fellow Democrat anytime soon.

“I would hope she would focus on her rehabilitation throughout the end of the year and then we’ll see in the new year,’’ Gillibrand said.

Gillibrand’s comments came following a retirement ceremony and reception for Giffords’ husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly of the U.S. Navy, which was hosted by Vice President Joe Biden in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. 

The event marked Giffords’ second visit to the nation’s capital since she was shot in the head during an outdoor constituent outreach event at a Tucson shopping center Jan. 8.

Her previous visit to Washington was in July for a House vote on increasing the nation’s debt limit. Her surprise visit to the House floor led to an emotional bipartisan standing ovation from her colleagues.

Gillibrand, 44, and Giffords, 41, both began their congressional careers as freshman Democrats in 2007 and developed a friendship that continued after Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate in January 2009 to fill the seat vacated by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Gillibrand said her friend looked “wonderful’’ at Thursday’s event. “She looked beautiful, vibrant, excited. She was so proud, she was beaming with pride for her husband’s accomplishments.’’

Scarsdale resident Harry J. Wilson, who lost his campaign to become state comptroller last November to Democrat Thomas DiNapoli, was sworn in today as a member of the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s advisory board.

The PBGC oversees failed pension plans.

Wilson earlier served as a member of the U.S. Treasury Department group that oversaw the restructuring of Chrysler and General Motors.

He is currently chairman and CEO of the corporate restructuring and turnaround firm MAEVA Advisors, LLC. 

“Harry Wilson has a deep knowledge of corporate restructuring, and highly relevant government experience,” PBGC Director Josh Gotbaum said in a press statement.  “This background gives him invaluable insight into the challenges we face at PBGC. I look forward to his wise counsel as a member of the Advisory Committee.”

Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, released a statement today on the expected resignation of Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-Queens.

“There is life after Congress for Anthony Weiner and I hope he devotes himself to repairing the damage he caused to his personal life,” Lowey said

Below is the text of a letter New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and other senators sent to the Obama administration Wednesday:

The President

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We write to express our strong support for a shift in strategy and the beginning of a sizable and sustained reduction of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, beginning in July 2011.

In 2001 the United States rightfully and successfully intervened in Afghanistan with the goals of destroying al Qaeda’s safe haven, removing the Taliban government that sheltered al Qaeda, and pursuing those who planned the September 11 attacks on the United States. Those original goals have been largely met and today, as CIA Director Leon Panetta noted last June, “I think at most, we’re looking at maybe 50 to 100, maybe less” al Qaeda members remaining in Afghanistan.

In addition, over the past few years, U.S. forces have killed or captured dozens of significant al Qaeda leaders. Then, on May 2, 2011, American Special Forces acting under your direction located and killed Osama bin Laden. The death of the founder of al Qaeda is a major blow that further weakens the terrorist organization.

From the initial authorization of military force through your most recent State of the Union speech, combating al Qaeda has always been the rationale for our military presence in Afghanistan. Given our successes, it is the right moment to initiate a sizable and sustained reduction in forces, with the goal of steadily withdrawing all regular combat troops.

There are those who argue that rather than reduce our forces, we should maintain a significant number of troops in order to support a lengthy counter-insurgency and nation building effort. This is misguided. We will never be able to secure and police every town and village in Afghanistan. Nor will we be able to build Afghanistan from the ground up into a Western-style democracy.

Endemic corruption in Afghanistan diverts resources intended to build roads, schools, and clinics, and some of these funds end up in the hands of the insurgents. Appointments of provincial and local officials on the basis of personal alliances and graft leads to deep mistrust by the Afghan population. While it is a laudable objective to attempt to build new civic institutions in Afghanistan, this goal does not justify the loss of American lives or the investment of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.

Instead of continuing to be embroiled in ancient local and regional conflicts in Afghanistan, we must accelerate the transfer of responsibility for Afghanistan’s development to the Afghan people and their government. We should maintain our capacity to eliminate any new terrorist threats, continue to train the Afghan National Security Forces, and maintain our diplomatic and humanitarian efforts. However, these objectives do not require the presence of over 100,000 American troops engaged in intensive combat operations.

Mr. President, according to our own intelligence officials, al Qaeda no longer has a large presence in Afghanistan, and, as the strike against bin Laden demonstrated, we have the capacity to confront our terrorist enemies with a dramatically smaller footprint. The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits. It is time for the United States to shift course in Afghanistan.

We urge you to follow through on the pledge you made to the American people to begin the redeployment of U.S. forces from Afghanistan this summer, and to do so in a manner that is sizable and sustained, and includes combat troops as well as logistical and support forces.

We look forward to working with you to pursue a strategy in Afghanistan that makes our nation stronger and more secure.

?—

More than a year after former Democratic Rep. Eric Massa of Corning resigned, his campaign committee has filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court seeking the return of $40,000 in consulting fees from his former chief of staff.

The former chief of staff, Joe Racalto, was served notice of the lawsuit Friday, according to James D. Doyle, a Rochester attorney representing the Massa for Congress Committee.

Doyle said Racalto, who now lives in Syracuse, failed to respond to a letter sent last year by the campaign’s Washington attorney, Joseph Sandler, seeking a return of the fees.

The lawsuit says Racalto was not authorized to receive the money.

Racalto’s payment was dated March 4, 2010, the day after Massa announced he would not seek re-election. Massa abruptly resigned on March 9, 2010, amid a House ethics committee inquiry into his alleged sexual harassment of staff.

At the time, Massa said he was resigning for several reasons, including a possible recurrence of cancer, disgust with partisan politics and an unwillingness to fight the ethics probe.

The ethics inquiry expired when the 111th Congress ended its term in January. The new Congress has not renewed the investigation.

Massa’s campaign committee returned cash to many donors after his resignation. It still had $105,694 on March 31, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The committee reported paying $57,204 in legal fees in the first three months of this year. Doyle, the Rochester attorney, received $33,263, and the Manhattan law firm of Dealy and Silberstein received $23,941.

The former congressman’s campaign paid his wife, Beverly Massa, a monthly salary of $1,686 in the first quarter of this year for her service as treasurer, according to the report filed with the FEC. That translates to an annual salary of $20,232.

Beverly Massa was not paid for her work on the 2009-2010 campaign until this year, but she was paid by the campaign committee during her husband’s first two campaigns for Congress in 2005-2006 and 2007-2008, according to an email from Sandler.

Rep.-elect Kathy Hochul will be sworn in as New York’s 26th Congressional District representative Wednesday afternoon, according to a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.

The ceremony on the House floor will be held between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. followed by a mock swearing-in where Hochul will pose with family members for photos.

Hochul, a Democrat who won a special election last week in which the top voter issue became the Republican plan to overhaul Medicare, will begin serving the same day the House takes up fiscal 2012 appropriations bills.

The first one on the floor Wednesday will be the Homeland Security Department spending bill. Later this week the House will take up spending bills for military construction and for the Department of Veterans Affairs and related agencies.

Hochul  is taking over the suite in the Longworth House Office Building occupied by former Republican Rep. Chris Lee until his resignation in February. She also will occupy the two district offices in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville and the Rochester suburb of Greece.

The organization’s political action committee is among three advocacy groups and two national political party organizations that are putting late money into what’s become an unexpectedly close race in a traditionally Republican district in western New York ahead of the May 24 election.

Much of the money is financing television ads, with a $250,000 media buy by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that began Friday, and a $400,000 commitment by the Republican National Congressional Committee for ads scheduled to begin Monday. The district is in the Rochester and Buffalo media markets.

The DCCC previously spent $150,000 on other campaign costs.

The three outside advocacy groups filed reports with the Federal Election Commission this week reporting their entry into the campaign.

The National Right to Life Committee’s PAC is spending $6,125 on a mailing supporting Corwin because she opposes federal funding for abortions and funding for Planned Parenthood, and she backs parental notification laws.

“I think for her it’s a personal decision,’’ Corwin campaign spokesman Matt Harakal said. “She’s spoken at length about this. She’s been very clear.’’

Her two major opponents, Democrat Kathy Hochul and Tea Party candidate Jack Davis, favor abortion rights without similar restrictions, according to the National Right to Life Committee.

The committee backs Corwin because she “is the only candidate who consistently opposes using taxpayer funds to pay for abortion,’’ spokesman Derrick Jones said in an email. The group said Corwin also opposes “the pro-abortion, pro-rationing Obama health care law and will vote to repeal it.’’

Service Employees International Union’s Local 1199 reported spending $59,750 for canvassing in support of Hochul.

American Crossroads, a conservative advocacy group, is spending $350,000 on television and Internet ads opposing Davis. Former Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan heads the group, and former presidential political strategist Karl Rove is an advisor.

The group may spend even more, according to spokesman Jonathan Collegio, depending on how Davis’ candidacy fares in response to a video showing a Corwin staffer confronting Davis on the campaign trail.

Corwin’s supporters say the video shows a Davis staffer pushing away a video camera held by Michael Mallia, who works on Corwin’s state Assembly staff.

Davis’s campaign spokesman, Curtis Ellis, says the brief video clip doesn’t show physical contact and doesn’t include the verbal abuse Davis was subjected to just prior to the incident.

Davis, who has ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the past as a Democrat, is seen by Republicans and Democrats as a spoiler who could help Hochul win the special election.

New York’s senior senator is traveling with two other members of the Senate Democratic leadership—Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Dick Durbin of Illinois – along with Democrats Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Barbara Boxer of California, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Three Republican senators are part of the group – Richard Shelby of Alabama, Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Mike Enzi of Wyoming.

According to a press statement, the group’s agenda will include tours of American investments and clean energy projects in Chengdu, Beijing and Xi’an.

The senators also plan meeting with Chinese government officials about currency rates, human rights, trade, foreign policy and clean energy.

Update 12:53 p.m.:

This trip is Schumer’s second visit to China. In 2006 he visted Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing with Republicans Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to discuss currency rates and other economic issues.

The $38.5 billion in 2011 budget cuts agreed to by President Barack Obama  and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid in order to avert a government shutdown turned out to be too deep for many New York Democrats.

Obama and Reid reached an agreement with Republican House Speaker John Boehner shortly before a shutdown would have begun at midnight Friday.

Eleven Democrats from New York City voted against the $2 billion in immediate cuts that are part of the deal.

The measure approved by the House 348-70 and in Senate by a voice vote was signed into law early Saturday morning by President Barak Obama.  It keeps the government operating through Thursday while imposing $2 billion in immediate spending cuts.

The larger cuts will be voted on by Congress Wednesday or Thursday and will keep the government operating through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.

 Rep. Jerrold Nalder, one of the 11 no votes from New York City,  said in a phone interview this evening he felt the cuts were aimed at the city because they involved transit, public housing and other programs important to the metropolitan area.

“I don’t like the whole agreement,’’ Nadler said. ”I think the cuts are too big.’’

Nadler said lawmakers didn’t know the programs targeted for the $2 billion in cuts until just before the vote.

High speed passenger rail will be cut by $1.5 billion, capital investment grants by $280 million, public housing operating funds by $149 million and  the university community fund by $25 million.

Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of the Bronx also voted no.

“While it is beneficial to avoid a government shutdown, a deal for the sake of making a deal is often a bad one,’’ Engel said.

The White House budget office issued a memorandum at midnight Friday advising agencies to continue their normal operations in light of an agreement between the White House and congressional negotiators on a 2011 budget deal.

  The New York impact was unclear because many of the details were not immediately announced.

 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,  and  House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio,  issued a joint statement  late Friday announcing an agreement to cut $78.5 billion from President Barack Obama’s proposed 2011  fiscal year budget.

Republican freshman Rep. Chris Gibson of Kinderhook hailed the agreement. “This includes about $39 billion in cuts from fiscal year 2010 levels, a figure that is over four times larger than any other cut in history,’’ Gibson said in a press statement. 

Another New York Republican freshman, Rep. Richard Hanna of Barneveld, said, ”Importantly, this bill is free of distracting and divisive social policy riders, which I have opposed from the start.’‘ 

The Senate voted by unanimous consent shortly after 11 p.m. on a stopgap budget measure with $2 billion in spending cuts to keep the government operating through Thursday.  The House approved the six-day measure shortly after midnight in a lopsided 348-70 vote.

The six-day spending measure is expected to serve as a bridge to keep the government operating while the budget deal is put into legislative language and voted on by Congress early next week .  

President Barack Obama said the deal means the Washington Monument and other parts of the federal government will be open for business.

But some federal programs are headed for cuts. 

“Like any worthwhile compromise, both sides had to make tough decisions and give ground on issues that were important to them,’’ Obama said. ” And I certainly did that.  Some of the cuts we agreed to will be painful. Programs people rely on will be cut back.  Needed infrastructure projects will be delayed.  And I would not have made these cuts in better circumstances.’‘ 

Obama indicated earlier this week that negotiators agreed to eliminate Pell grants for low-income college students attending summer school. Obama already proposed that in his 2012 budget request.

Obama also said some of the cuts would be in so-called mandatory, or entitlement spending. But he did not disclose whether the reductions would be in Medicare, Medicaid or other programs.

“Certainly cuts in areas like Medicaid, transportation funding will directly impact the state’s finances, but until we know the details we cannot say with accuracy exactly what the cuts would mean for our state,’’ said New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s spokeswoman, Emily DeSantis. 

Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of the Bronx said the deal slashes the budget too deeply and threatens the nation’s fragile recovery.

“While it is beneficial to avoid a government shutdown, a deal for the sake of making a deal is often a bad one,’’ Engel said. “The one good thing about this agreement is that it includes provisions to pay our military and their families. They make many sacrifices for their country, this should not be one of them.’’

House Republicans have maintained the baseline for the negotiations should be the bill approved in the House to reduce spending from 2010 levels by $61 billion. That bill also contained numerous policy “riders,” such as a measure to end federal funding of Planned Parenthood and stop the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

Boehner announced Friday afternoon that almost all the policy issues had been resolved, but Reid said the hang-up was over federal Title 10 spending on women’s health, which includes funding for Planned Parenthood.

Conservative Republicans want to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood because it provides abortion services.  

Planned Parenthood says its federal money is used for women’s health services and its abortion services are separately financed.

Planned Parenthood in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties handled more than 37,000 annual visits by women seeking pap tests, birth control implants, birth control pills, IUDs, free condoms, emergency contraceptives, cervical cancer screenings, breast exams, HIV tests, tests for sexually transmitted diseases and abortions, according to spokeswoman Beverly Katz.

Federal money “all goes for preventative services,” she said, adding that abortions are performed at separate locations.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand joined other Democratic women senators at a news conference Friday attacking Republicans for focusing on abortion.

“Republicans need to wake up,’’ Gillibrand said. “Since the Hyde Amendment of the last 30 years, federal money does not pay for abortions in this country. What they are cutting in this bill are safety nets for poor, at-risk women.’‘