By Pat Desmond
Times Staff
7/23/09
Rep. Stephen Lynch took some time from the July recess to visit Milton before heading off on another congressional delegation to the war zones.
Lynch and his press secretary, Meaghan Maher, took an hour earlier this month to join me and J. Michael Whalen, Times editor, in East Milton Square for coffee and conversation.
He explained he isn’t allowed to release all the details before the trip but let us know Iraq would be included on his itinerary, as would the Gaza Strip and West Bank. His next trip comes sometime this summer.
“We’re well protected when we’re in Iraq,” he said in response to a question about that war zone.
He spent time in Iraq in April traveling in a Humvee, with special armor. He described the vehicle as being V-shaped with a hull designed to withstand IEDs, improvised explosive devices.
Lynch has been an advocate for oversight of the $30 billion of taxpayer money that the Bush administration spent on the reconstruction of Iraq. Quoting from his Web site, he “believes that the unprecedented extent of waste, fraud and abuse in the Iraqi contracting process has amounted to a lost opportunity to help the Iraqi people and has frustrated our overall policy in Iraq.”
So far, the congressman has traveled to Iraq at least five times.
He said he feels the travel is the least he can do. He, along with other members of Congress, has been making these trips to Iraq and Afghanistan every few months. Having been elected on Sept. 11, 2001, the Congressman lists terrorism as one of his top issues.
He smiles as he recalls connecting with his constituents while on these trips.
But when he travels in the Gaza Strip, he leaves his security at the gate.
When he was in Israel three months ago, he met with Tzipi Livni, head of the Kadima Party, as he attempted to convince the Israeli government that it is important to get water running in the Gaza Strip.
The next time he’s in Israel, he hopes to speak with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu is a member of the Likud Party.
As the rain continued outside, we had a chance to talk about John Ging, the director of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Ging is Irish by birth but has spent years working in one U.N. peacekeeping mission after another.
Lynch said he got involved in visiting Israel and looking into the humanitarian issues after talking with Cardinal Sean O’Malley. He said the situation in Gaza is far worse than conditions in Iraq.
He said he hopes his next visit may open up more humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
Just before leaving Washington, D.C., for the July recess, the congressman and his family were guests at the White House.
“The first lady was very kind, especially to the girls,” he said. His wife, Margaret, his daughter, Victoria, and niece, Crystal Shaughnessy, were all on hand for the picnic.
The White House party with a Hawaiian theme was a chance for the Democrats to enjoy a few hours of sunshine in the middle of what has been a difficult year.
Lynch is one of a few congressmen who voted against the banking bailout bill. Last October, he told Milton’s Special Town Meeting that he opposed the bill because he didn’t think it would work. “I hope I’m wrong,” he said at the time.
Now he points out that only six weeks after the Troubled Asset Relief Program was passed, Congress voted a 400-page bill just to correct the errors in the TARP.
He doesn’t see a quick answer to the economy. He thinks it could be another 18 months before the economy rebounds.
“Towns in my district all share the concerns. Staffing is an issue,” he said. He suggested communities will have to be creative in going after grants. His office has helped the Fire Department with federal funding. The congressman said former Chief Malcolm Larson was creative in writing grant applications.
“We just tried to be helpful,” he said.
He recently sent his district chief of staff, Bob Fowkes, to deliver a congressional citation to Chief Larson on his retirement. The congressman was in Washington on the evening of the party.
Lynch has been working on other local issues including grants for reconstruction of the intersection of Brush Hill Road and Neponset Valley Parkway, which amounts to $96,000, and the Central Avenue Multi-Use Path, which could amount to $2.7 million. Both of the projects are on the congressmen’s priority list. Funding is not yet certain.
Work is currently under way on re-roofing buildings at Winter Valley, which is run by Milton Residences for the Elderly. The funding was secured more than a year ago by Lynch’s office.
Health Care
Lynch does not see any one of the six health care plans currently under consideration by Congress as being the answer. He sees the cost of the various plans, estimated at $1 trillion to $1.6 trillion, as an unresolved problem.
“Some people think the cost can be brought down by using a so-called ‘sin tax’ – taxes on cola, high sugar products, alcohol.”
He went on to say he is skeptical of raising revenue for health care through sin taxes.
Postal Reform
This spring, Lynch became chair of the subcommittee that deals with postal workers. His own sister works for the post office in Boston. His mother was a postal clerk.
There were 9.5 billion fewer pieces of mail this year. Lynch says the reduction in mail is a result of e-mail and the economy. The reduction in mail volume has been creating a financial crisis for the post office.
He said there will be reductions in the number of post office workers as a way of dealing with the crisis. There are 310,000 postal workers eligible for retirement – something that he has been told could make a difference.
Small post offices in urban areas will be consolidated.
His subcommittee has moved along a bill that seeks to change the way the healthcare benefits of pensioners are handled. Current law requires the benefits be prepaid. H.R. 22 will delay the payment.
Lynch said he doesn’t think the bill will be enough, and he doesn’t think the mail volume will go back to the levels of the past.
“People’s habits change,” he said.
But he did point out that the chair of the postal committee on appropriations placed a requirement for six-day delivery in his bill.