Washington Report

Black Lawmakers Respond to Afghanistan Surge

President Barack Obama unveiled his long-awaited Afghanistan strategy on Dec. 2 that included a plan to deploy an additional 30,000 troops and an ambitious timetable to begin withdrawing troops by July 2011. During a televised speech delivered at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Obama explained that his plan–the result of three months of intensive debate–aimed to meet three goals: to deny al-Qaeda a safe haven; reverse the Taliban’s momentum, and strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan’s security forces and government.

The speech left Rep. Robert Scott (D-Virginia) with many questions, such as whether strengthening the Afghan government is even a “reasonably achievable goal.” Afghanistan is notorious, he said, for its inability to be a united nation.

“The idea that you’ll have a government that can actually govern is problematic,” said Scott. “And where’s the evidence that local security forces can actually be trained?” If, he asks, they haven’t been able to be properly trained during the eight years the war has already lasted, how can they be trained in 18 months?

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) expressed skepticism over the 18-month timetable and the cost. The estimated $30 billion is a hefty amount for lawmakers to swallow when faced with what they view to be more pressing domestic issues.

“[Obama] said that by 2011 we’ll begin to transfer the security responsibility to the Afghans, depending on what’s happening on the ground, so we have no assurances,” Waters said, adding that the cost is “just mindboggling to us.”

Lawmakers would prefer that the U.S. wind down in Afghanistan and redirect those funds to its domestic agenda.

A Gallup poll taken after Obama’s speech found that 48% of Americans believe the United States is likely or certain to reach its goals, while 45% believe the opposite is true.

Arbitron People Meter Problems Continue

Radio industry representatives reached an impasse over whether Arbitron Inc.’s Portable People Meter (PPM) technology accurately measures audiences or if it adversely impacts minority-owned radio stations.  So, at a House Oversight and Government reform committee hearing on the matter, Chairman Edolphous Towns offered a choice: Find a way to work it out or he will.

“I want to see a plan of action and a realistic timetable developed over the next 30 days to correct this unsustainable situation,” Towns said. “After that point, I will look to see if sufficient progress has been made or whether the Congress will need to step in.”

The Media Ratings Council (MRC), which oversees audience measurement services for member clients like Arbitron, found “persistent problems” with the device earlier this year. MRC’s executive director George Ivie testified at the hearing

that the council has ongoing concerns, such as the effect of noncompliance when PPM panelists don’t wear their meters every day. He said the noncompliance rate is highest among young people and minorities.

But Arbitron president Michael Skarzynski defended the technology, blaming the decrease minority stations are experiencing on the recession. Alfred Liggins, president of Radio One, Inc., agreed, saying the device has exposed “some poor choices made during the good times before this recession hit,” when broadcasters overleveraged and/or expanded in already established urban markets.

David Honig, who heads the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council

, argued that Arbitron under-samples minority audience members in its PPM panels. He also charged that the meter fails to distinguish between passive radio exposure to stations overheard at the doctor’s office, for example, and deliberate choices. At a minimum, he testified, minority radio stations should be able to seek “a more responsible audience measurement service that cares about its mission.”

Lawmakers Offer Tax Relief Solutions

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act of 2009 on Thursday with a vote of 225 to 200. If signed into law, the bill would exempt estates up to $3.5 million per individual and $7 million for married couples, with a maximum rate of 45% on estates above those thresholds. In addition, the bill would repeal the enactment of carryover basis rules that would require many heirs, including those exempt from paying estate taxes, to pay additional taxes on the built-in gains of property inherited, beginning in 2010.

“This is a fair and responsible bill which eliminates any doubt as to the future of the estate tax, allowing businesses, large and small, to focus on jumpstarting our economy and putting Americans back to work,” said Rep. Charles Rangel (D-New York). Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) hopes to bring a similar bill to the Senate floor by year’s end.

Earlier this week Senate small business committee chair, Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), and ranking member Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced legislation that would make permanent expensing limits enacted in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It would allow small businesses to deduct up to $250,000 of the cost of qualifying property in the year it’s purchased rather than through depreciation deductions over a number of years.

“By extending and expanding tax measures that we know help small businesses grow, we can give these  businesses the certainty they need to make new investments and the encouragement they need to help grow our economy,” Landrieu said.

GOP Announces New Web Page on Obama’s Economic Policies

The Republican National Committee unveiled this week a new Web page that features videos of GOP lawmakers on the state of the nation’s economy. Titled “Obama’s Economy: Real Concerns, Real Solutions,” it also will serve as a forum where visitors to the site can share their thoughts and concerns about the administration’s economic policies.

Topics range from “the ineffectiveness of President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus to challenges facing small businesses,” a release announcing the site said. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia discusses “contrasting [economic] visions,” Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota tackles what went wrong with the stimulus, while Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia questions whether the Recover Act has “saved or created or artificially manufactured” jobs.

“We want to have a constructive dialogue about how we got here and where we’re going next,” says RNC chairman Michael Steele in his welcome video.

Black Lawmakers Lay Down the Gauntlet

Ten black lawmakers who sit on the House Financial Services Committee gave their Democratic colleagues and the Obama White House a taste of how the CBC can use leverage to make or break legislation this week. The group delayed and

then boycotted votes taken Wednesday on the panel’s financial regulatory reform legislation in protest over the administration’s handling of the economy and its disproportionate impact on black communities.

In an interview with two Gannett newspapers the next day, Obama rejected the notion that he should focus more narrowly on the troubles blacks face.

“The most important thing I can do for the African American community is the same thing I can do for the American community, period, and that is get the economy going again and get people hiring again,” Obama said.

The amendments passed, but the outcome would have been very different if the ten had voted no with the panel’s Republicans. According to one member, who asked to not be identified, Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts had to coerce the support of three Blue Dog Democrats who normally would have voted no. One had to leave his sickbed, and the other two are vulnerable, which limits how often they’ll be willing to take future risks.

The CBC is well respected but easily taken for granted, noted Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland). Still, 40-plus votes wields a lot of power, he said, and the actions of the 10 black members sent a clear message that given their constituents’ dire economic straits, taking them for granted is no longer an option.

The caucus has formed a taskforce on black job creation. Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri, who heads it, said they may convene a job summit next week and are working on legislation that black lawmakers want included in a House jobs bill under development.