Politics on the Hudson

Former ABC newsman Ted Koppel has taken an interest in a bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Eliot Engel, that would amend the Social Security Act to provide coverage for cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services.

According to a news release from Engel’s office, Koppel and his wife recently met with the Bronx Democrat, to express their support for the Pulmonary and Cardiac Rehabilitation Act of 2007. The bill would create specific cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation benefit categories under Medicare.

Koppel’s wife suffers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Engel, whose district stretches into Westchester and then across the Hudson River into Rockland County, sits on the Health Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

The House of Representatives fell 13 votes short of being able to override President Bush’s veto of the SCHIP bill, which would have expanded federallly subsidized health care programs for children.

In New York, support for the SCHIP bill was widespread and, not surprisingly, the failure to override is being lamented by area members of Congress.

“October 18 is a sad day for the 10 million children who will go without health coverage because President Bush and some in his party put ideology ahead of the best interests of our children,” Rep. Nita Lowey, said in a statement.

Lowey, a Harrison Democrat, was among the strongest supporters of the SCHIP bill and had vowed to rally New York’s congressional delegation to support the bill.
 
“SCHIP works, Lowey said. “It serves children in hard-working families that are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid but who cannot afford private coverage.  It is one of the most successful federal programs in existence today.”

Rep. Eliot Engel, a Bronx Democrat, added: “The failure of the House to override the veto because of Republican obstinacy, now forces 10 million children to face an uncertain future with health insurance.”

As one might expect, President Bush’s veto this morning of the bill expanding the State Children’s Health Program or SCHIP, has angered local members of Congress.

“This veto is indefensible, especially for a president who calls himself a compassionate conservative,â€? said Rep. Nita Lowey said in a statement. The Harrison Democrat had previously vowed to rally New York’s Congressional delegation to support both the federal legislation and Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plans to expand the state’s version of the program — Child Health Plus.

“The children’s health bill that President Bush vetoed would have provided ten million children with access to necessary care,” Lowey said. “It is morally and fiscally responsible, and it has the support of a broad, bipartisan majority in Congress, 43 governors, and the American public. Congress has a responsibility to override this veto.â€?

Rep. Eliot Engel, a Bronx Democrat, called the veto “a disgrace, a shameful disgrace.”

In a statement sent to the House, Bush said he issued the veto “because this legislation would move health care in this country in the wrong direction.� He argued that it would have provided coverage to children from wealthier families and would have displaced private insurance for many.

Democrats, including New York’s two senators, disagreed.

“With the stroke of a pen, President Bush has robbed nearly four million uninsured children of the chance for a healthy start in life and the health coverage they need but can’t afford,” Sen. Hillary Clinton said in a statement. “These children are invisible to this president, but they aren’t invisible to the American people or to the overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress – and they aren’t invisible to me.”

Sen. Charles Schumer said: “It’s impossible to compromise with this President when his only stated proposal would cut a million kids from the program. We have no choice but to try to override his veto. The Senate already has the votes to do it, so it is now up to the holdouts in the House to decide whether to vote their conscience or join the President in putting ideology above kids.�
 

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, says there’s no inconsistency to his two different votes involving an effort by House Republicans to chastise MoveOn.org.

At issue: the advocacy group’s recent New York Times ad that referred to Gen. David Petraeus as “general betray us.’’

Engel voted Wednesday as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee against a motion to send a resolution to the House floor that criticized MoveOn.org and praised Petraeus.

Later the same day, he voted on the floor in favor of the same resolution, which passed the House 341-79.

One of the political newspapers that circulate on the Hill—The Politico—took note that 11 Democrats voted against the resolution in committee before supporting it on the floor. The headline on the story: “They were for MoveOn before they were against it.’’

However, Engel explained in an e-mail this evening that the two votes were on different procedural measures.

“I faced two different votes yesterday,’’ he explained. “A procedural committee vote to uphold my chairman’s ruling that an amendment was out of order and an up-or-down vote on the floor.’’

The resolution was attached to a bill to keep the federal government operating for eight weeks into the new fiscal year while Congress completes work on the 2008 budget.

According to Engel, “The MoveOn.org ad had little to do with either vote, although I believe the personal attack on the general in the ad was inappropriate. I question the Bush administration’s policy on the war, not the general’s patriotism.�

“It seems to me the Iraqis will not step up until we step out,’’ Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, said at today’s congressional hearing on Iraq.

Engel, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, took issue with what he described as the optimism expressed by Gen. David Petraeus.

He asked the Bush administration’s top military commander in Iraq about an op-edit article Petraeus wrote in The Washington Post three years ago in which the general referred “tangible progress.’’

“Iraqi security elements are being rebuilt from the ground up,’’ Engel quoted Petraeus as writing in September 2004. “The institutions that oversee them are being rebuilt from the top down.’’

Engel questioned why Americans should believe Petraeus’s assessment of the situation in Iraq in light of his optimism three years ago.

Petraeus said he stands he what he wrote at the time, noting that after that article was published Iraq was hit by sectarian violence.

“What I have tried to portray today is not a rosy picture,’’ said the general.

Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, said today’s House hearing on Iraq “provided little in the way of new evidence.’’

“I believe we still need a firm timetable to wind down our involvement in Iraq,’’ Hall said in a press statement. “We already knew American troops are very good at their jobs, so it should come as no surprise that as the have moved into neighborhoods, they have improved security.’’

Some of the area’s federal lawmakers have weighed in on the siren issue over at the Indian Point nuclear power plants in Buchanan. (more…)

Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick is promoting an event called the “Tour de Yonkers,” set to take place this weekend with a cycle from Yonkers through the Bronx and into Manhattan.

A host of elected officials plan to participate. Lesnick, council Majority Leader Patricia McDow, Council member and mayoral candidate Dennis Robertson, County Legislator Ken Jenkins, County Legislator Jose Alvarado, and Congressman Eliot Engel are all on the list, though whether all will take to the road is unclear.

The event—a tour through parks run by Yonkers, Westchester County and NYC—is in partnership with the Yonkers Bike Club. It leaves Saturday at 9 a.m. sharp from Redmond Park Field.

(We also got a copy of a cheery promotional photo.)

New York Democratic Congress members Nita Lowey, John Hall, Eliot Engel and Maurice Hinchey introduced legislation today that would enable the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue a no-fly zone over the Indian Point nuclear plants.

A proposed FAA airspace redesign does not explicitly prohibit such flights and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hasn’t addressed the issue, prompting today’s legislative action, the delegation said.

“Air traffic around Indian Point is absolutely a security risk,” said Lowey, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee.

“Indian Point operates in the nation’s most densely populated corridor with very heavy air travel,” said Hall, a member of the House Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation. “Giving the Department of Homeland Security the authority to issue a no-fly zone is a common sense solution to prevent a potential disaster, especially since no other Federal agency has taken up this responsibility.”

Rep. Eliot Engel, the Bronx Democrat whose district stretches up through Westchester and into Rockland County, said on the House floor today that it’s time for the Bush administration to “bring our troops home.”

In his speech, Engel said: “The war has turned into a great strategic fiasco, from the lack of planning to insufficient number of troops, to incompetent management or reconstruction projects, to the use of torture in military prisons. Our blunder in Iraq will affect our ability to succeed in the Middle East and elsewhere or years to come.” Engel’s remarks came during debate on the “Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act,” which orders the Secretary of Defense to begin withdrawing American troops within 120 days of the bill becoming law. “Young American service personnel cannot solve the problem of Iraq,” Engel said. “And if the Iraqis cannot solve their political problems, we cannot do it for them”

Gov. Eliot Spitzer returned to Westchester County this evening to attend the county Democratic Party’s annual dinner, but he did not use the occasion to continue his assault on the Republican-controlled state Senate.

Instead, Spitzer simply thanked county Democrats for their support and spoke in general terms about his administration’s efforts to re-shape Albany, saying they were “slowly but surely” turning around the government. He also mocked the Bush administration and Vice President Cheney’s refusal to provide data to national archivists.

“They are living in a world that defies logic,” Spitzer said in his relatively brief remarks.

Perhaps the most noteworthy part of Spitzer’s remarks came at the end, when he was recognizing the handful of party members who were slated to receive distinguished service awards at the dinner.

One of them was Assemblyman George Latimer of Rye, who Spitzer had criticized in February for supporting the selection of Tom DiNapoli as state comptroller and even suggested he might oppose his re-election.

Last night, though, Spitzer praised Latimer service to the party and urged him to stand and take a bow.

“It’s nice to hear nice things said about you,” a smiling Latimer said afterward. “The last few months, since the budget, there have been a lot of different issues…We’ve been on the same page, working together.”