The Rochester Post Bulletin scores as it becomes the first mainstream media venue in Minnesota to report on Randy Demmer's excellent adventure at the NRCC's obedience school in Washington DC, which Bluestem Prairie noted several times within the last week.
Ed Felker reports on the presence of another MN-01 hopeful, Mayo radiation oncologist Brian J. Davis, who is treasurer of the Olmsted County Republican Party. His research interest at Mayo is prostate cancer.
Demmer uses his backbench status to justify his absence from his day job:
. . . Demmer said that while he took a leave of absence from the state House during his trip, he said that he was not on any conference committees and that bills brought up for a vote those days were not final. "I missed two or three votes, and those bills are coming back around," he said.
During his Washington stay, Demmer joined five other participants in a meeting with reporters from the Washington Post, which ran a Sunday story on their interest in running for Congress at a time when Democrats control Capitol Hill and Bush suffers low approval ratings.
"Sometimes when things look absolutely the worse, that's the time to buy," Demmer was quoted as saying. He also described his philosophy as one that sees "government that is a framework and not an end-all."
For his part, Walz did not work closely with the NRCC's Democratic counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, until late in the campaign season. His early campaign training came through a seminar in 2005 at Camp Wellstone, the name for weekend seminars offered by Wellstone Action, the liberal advocacy group founded after the 2002 death of Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn.
The MN GOP has tried to pin the label "Washington Walz" on the freshman DFLer, but we're thinking "DC Davis and Demmer" is more accurate. Last time we checked, Senator Day wasn't serving on any conference committees, either, but managed to put his duty to those in his district over his congressional ambitions.
In today's edition, the Mankato Free Press's editorial board joins the Rochester Post Bulletin in condemning the bonuses given to senior VA officials; if anything, it's far more harsh in VA bonus scandal beyond inept.
While most people think of commodity grain subsidies when they think of the Farm Bill, it's only a piece--and not the largest--of a bigger puzzle. One provision in the bill is the food stamp program.
Congressman Walz has called feeding the hungry a moral obiligation; the Washington Post reports on just how hard a bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives found feeding themselves using the program was in Lawmakers Spend a Week on Food Stamps:
[Tim] Ryan and three other members of Congress have pledged to live for one week on $21 worth of food, the amount the average food stamp recipient receives in federal assistance. That's $3 a day or $1 a meal. They started yesterday.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass) and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), co-chairmen of the House Hunger Caucus, called on lawmakers to take the "Food Stamp Challenge" to raise awareness of hunger and what they say are inadequate benefits for food stamp recipients. Only two others, Ryan and Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.), took them up on it.
"All of us in Congress live pretty good lives," said McGovern, who ate a single banana for breakfast yesterday and was going through caffeine withdrawal by midday. "We don't have to wake up worrying about the next meal. But there are a lot of Americans who do. I think it's wrong. I think it's immoral that in the U.S., the richest country in the world, people are hungry."
. . .According to the rules of the challenge, the four House members cannot eat anything beside their $21 worth of groceries. That means no food at the many receptions, dinners and fundraisers that fill a lawmaker's week. . . .
. . .Both lawmakers will keep blogs about the experience, McGovern at http:/
/ foodstampchallenge.typepad.com and Ryan at http:/ / timryan.house.gov.
The article notes that legislators have found it impossible on that budget to eat a health diet that includes meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, or milk.
A statement for Walz's office today notes that provisions in the Congressman's Traumatic Brain Injury Center legislation was approved unanimously by the Veterans Affairs Committee and folded into a larger measure, HR 2199:
(Washington, D.C.) - Yesterday, the House Veterans' Affairs Committee unanimously approved the provisions of H.R. 2179, the Traumatic Brain Injury Centers Act, which Congressman Tim Walz introduced last week. The Walz bill was incorporated into a larger legislative package to address traumatic
brain injuries (TBI).Walz's legislation will create five Traumatic Brain Injury Centers around the country that will conduct research, develop improved models for patient care and provide education and training for VA staff about TBI.
"Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the signature injury of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we must do everything we can to help veterans cope with these life-changing injuries," said Walz. "The comprehensive TBI package approved today combines my bill with legislation my colleagues have introduced to address TBI. This legislation is a big step forward to help the men and women who have served overseas and returned home with these wounds."
"Rep. Walz's bill is essential to ensuring that the VA is conducting intensive research on TBIs," said Subcommittee Chairman Michaud. "By concentrating TBI research in five centers, we can ensure that VA doctors are able to share and coordinate information easily and that our veterans are benefiting from the most recent treatments developed by the research conducted in these centers. I was pleased to include Rep. Walz's legislation as part of the Traumatic Brain Injury Health Enhancement and Long-term Support Act."
H.R. 2199, the Traumatic Brain Injury Health Enhancement and Long-Term Support Act of 2007 was sponsored by Veterans' Affairs Health Subcommittee Chairman Michaud. It also includes language from H.R. 1944, the VeteransTraumatic Brain Injury Treatment Act of 2007.
While new forms of military technology routinely save soldiers' lives from deadly explosive attacks, soldiers often return home suffering from TBI. Veterans suffering from TBI often have to relearn simple skills and are at times left permanently unable to perform daily functions.
"As America's service members return home, many of them suffering from TBI, we owe them nothing less than the highest quality care as they learn to live with their injuries," concluded Walz.
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