Senator Joe Lieberman

**[2002 Accomplishments and Activities]{.smallcaps}**

**[107^th^ Congress, Second Session]{.smallcaps}**

# Strengthening Homeland and national security

## Organizing the Government for Homeland Security

Lieberman first introduced legislation in October 2001 to consolidate
many key Federal agencies with homeland defense responsibilities into
one cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. For the next several
months he pressed the need for this new blueprint to better protect
Americans at home from the threat of terrorism. In late spring President
Bush dropped his opposition to the proposal, and after a protracted
debate, Congress passed a compromise version of the Lieberman
legislation into law in November. Among other things, the final bill
includes critical aspects of Lieberman\'s proposal for a strong
intelligence division, by establishing a single focal point in our
government with the responsibility for receiving and assessing all
information about terrorist threats to our homeland.

## Disarming Iraq

## Lieberman was the lead Senate sponsor of a bipartisan resolution authorizing the President to use military force to eliminate the threat posed by Iraq\'s weapons of mass destruction. The resolution requires Bush to certify to Congress that all nonmilitary methods of disarming Saddam Hussein have failed before taking military action, and reaffirms that eliminating the threat posed by Iraq is an integral component of the war on terrorism. Lieberman also argued, in an October speech, for an advance U.S. commitment to rebuilding Iraq after Saddam Hussein's rule, and outlined a potential agenda for meeting this challenge.

## 

## Learning from 9/11

Lieberman joined Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in leading an effort to
prevent another catastrophic terrorist attack by thoroughly
investigating the government's failures in the years and months leading
up to September 11. He helped win Congressional approval for the
creation of a 10-member, [non-partisan citizens commission]{.underline}
that will have subpoena power to investigate a broad range of issues
such as immigration policy, aviation security, intelligence gaps, and
the diplomatic record.

**[Winning the Wider War on Terrorism]{.underline}**

In a January speech at Georgetown, Lieberman argued that winning the war
against terrorism demands more than just "draining the swamp" of
terrorists -- it also requires "seeding the garden" to promote freedom
and democracy in the Muslim world. With that in mind, Lieberman outlined
a comprehensive long-term strategy for [preventing the fall of what he
called a "theological Iron Curtain"]{.underline} in that part of the
world, including a coordinated effort to promote and support the forces
of moderation and modernity in their fight against the fanatical few.
Building on that strategy, Lieberman cosponsored and helped win
Congressional passage of the [Afghanistan Freedom Support
Act]{.underline} at the end of the session, which would substantially
increase economic aid and democratic development assistance and make
good on the U.S. commitment to rebuild Afghanistan after the defeat of
the repressive Taliban regime.

# 

#  Promoting Economic GROWTH AND Opportunity

## Learning From Enron's Collapse

After the fall of Enron in December 2001, Lieberman launched an
investigation into the public and private watchdogs that were supposed
to safeguard financial markets and protect investors and employees from
corporate fraud and deceit.

-   [Hearings:]{.underline} Lieberman held four hearings early in the
    year\-- a general overview, a look at retirement and 401(k) issues,
    an examination of the conflicts of the Wall Street analysts who
    touted Enron's stock right up until the company declared bankruptcy,
    and an inquiry into the credit raters who failed to use their
    special, government-sanctioned status to warn investors of problems
    at Enron.

-   [Financial Oversight Report:]{.underline} In October, Lieberman
    released a staff report charging public and private financial
    watchdogs with "systemic and catastrophic failure" to protect
    investors and employees of Enron. The SEC, the report found, largely
    left the search for fraud to private auditors and boards of
    directors \-- both of whom also failed to execute their duties. The
    Wall Street analysts were wracked with conflicts of interest in
    reporting on companies their investment banking firms were also
    promoting. And, the report found, the credit raters simply performed
    their job with a "woeful lack of diligence."

-   [FERC Report:]{.underline} A staff investigation, made public at a
    hearing in November, found that the Federal Regulatory Energy
    Commission, which had oversight responsibilities related to Enron's
    energy business, too often trusted Enron's assertions about its
    business affairs, failed to anticipate and prepare for changes in
    the energy market, reacted belatedly to many serious offenses, and
    made no effort to address the gaps, flaws, and inadequacies that
    allowed Enron to escape careful regulatory scrutiny.

## Working For Connecticut Defense Workers

As Chairman of the Armed Forces Subcommittee on Airland Forces,
Lieberman helped shape the annual defense blueprint in a way that
benefits Connecticut's defense workers, including the following
provisions signed into law:

-   [Electric Boat:]{.underline} \$1.5 billion to produce one NSSN
    Attack submarine, \$645 million in advance procurement for an
    additional sub; \$404 million to convert two Trident Subs and \$421
    million in advance procurement for two additional conversions;

-   [Sikorsky:]{.underline} \$270 million for 19 Army Blackhawk
    helicopters, \$369 million for 15 Navy Blackhawk helicopters, and
    \$915 million for research on the Comanche helicopter;

-   [Pratt and Whitney:]{.underline} \$11 billion to produce various
    aircraft powered by Pratt's F117 and F119 engines;

-   [Goodrich:]{.underline} \$10 million for production of fuel boost
    bumps, engine control systems, and laser detection sets;

-   [[Northrop Grumann]{.underline}: \$279.3 million to procure one E-8C
    Joint Stars (JSTARS) aircraft;]{.mark}

-   More than \$20 million for additional defense projects involving
    other Connecticut companies.

[**Bringing the Government Online**\
]{.underline}Lieberman helped win House and Senate approval of
legislation he has advanced for several years to reorient the federal
government's electronic information and services to better serve the
taxpayers. The bill establishes an [office of Electronic
Government]{.underline}, headed by a presidentially-appointed
administrator within the Office of Management and Budget, to implement
e-government initiatives, and includes \$345 million over four years for
an [E-Government Fund]{.underline} to invest in interagency projects.

## Relieving Traffic Congestion

Although Congress has not yet given final approval to most of its
funding bills, Lieberman helped to win the critical support of the
Senate Appropriations Committee for a number of important transportation
projects, which would help improve the flow of traffic and commerce
throughout the state:

-   \$15 million to build the Stamford Urban Transitway;

-   \$14 million to develop the Hartford-New Britain Bus Rapid
    Transitway;

-   \$8 million for a rail station and bus terminal at Bridgeport
    Transportation Center;

-   \$7 million for new passenger cars on the Metro North New Haven
    Line;

-   \$6 million to reconstruct the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in New
    Haven;

-   \$5 million to widen roads around Adriaen's Landing in Hartford;

-   \$3 million for new bus purchases statewide;

-   \$3 million total for high-speed ferry service in Bridgeport and
    Stamford;

-   \$2.8 million to expand the Hartford downtown bus circulator;

-   \$1 million to restore the Depot Street Bridge in Beacon Falls.

Lieberman also helped push the Administration to provide stopgap funding
to avert a summer Amtrak shutdown, which would have also affected
Shoreline East service.

### [Revitalizing Connecticut's Cities]{.underline}

Lieberman helped win Senate Appropriations Committee approval of the
following projects to strengthen economic development in Connecticut's
urban areas:

-   \$400,000 for renovations at Hartford's Hartt School of Performing
    Arts;

-   \$300,000 for a child care center at Bridgeport Hall Neighborhood
    House;

-   \$300,000 to help renovate Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford;

-   Continued funding for New Haven's Empowerment Zone.

## Providing a Terrorism Insurance Backstop

## Lieberman strongly supported legislation, authored by Senator Dodd and passed by both houses of Congress, to provide a financial backstop for commercial property owners and casualty insurers in the event of another catastrophic terrorist attack. The legislation helped avoid an insurance crisis in critical sectors of the economy and is expected to help turn around a construction slowdown caused in part by the lack of terrorism insurance.

## Charting an Alternative Economic Growth Strategy

In major policy speeches in Detroit (May) and New York (October),
Lieberman challenged President Bush's lack of economic leadership,
arguing that Presidents need to lead on more than one issue, and put
forward an alternative agenda for jumpstarting the country's sluggish
economy and putting it back on track for sustained growth. First,
Lieberman outlined a long-term growth strategy, built on the lessons
learned from the boom of the 1990s, focused on making high-return tax
cuts and investments in education and innovation, recommitting to free
trade, limiting spending to find savings, and restoring fiscal
discipline by postponing the least effective and most expensive parts of
the next phase of the Bush tax cut. Then, noting the continued
stagnation, Lieberman called for the passage of an immediate economic
recovery plan, and offered a stimulus package of his own centered on new
tax incentives to reignite business investment and spur consumer
spending.

**[Growing the New Economy]{.underline}**\
To maintain and advance Connecticut's leadership position in the
high-tech economy, Lieberman worked on a number of fronts to foster the
growth of the state's high-tech economy --- introducing legislation
requiring a national strategy to speed the deployment of
[broadband]{.underline} technology, introducing and securing Commerce
Committee approval of legislation to stimulate
[nanotechnology]{.underline} research and development, and helping to
enact new authority for the President to negotiate [trade
agreements]{.underline} that open world markets to Connecticut-produced
goods.

# keeping our families safe and healthy

## Helping Connecticut Victims of 9/11

In addition to pushing for a [blue ribbon commission]{.underline} to
investigate 9/11 -- a top priority of victims' families -- Lieberman
assisted families in other ways. In May, Lieberman helped organize a
town hall meeting in Stamford in which victims' families could speak
with the administrator of the September 11 [Victim Compensation
Fund]{.underline} and learn how to apply for aid under the program.
Lieberman also cosponsored legislation to expedite and strengthen the
federal response to [catastrophic building failures]{.underline} and
overcome problems that impeded the investigation into the collapse of
the World Trade Center.

## Preventing College Binge Drinking

After at least six alcohol-related deaths on Connecticut's college
campuses during the 2001-02 school year, Lieberman held a Governmental
Affairs Committee hearing to raise awareness of the problem of alcohol
abuse among college students, and introduced legislation providing \$50
million in grants to states to combat campus binge drinking. Lieberman's
work to draw attention to the issue was a factor in helping connect a
non-profit group, Outside the Classroom, with University of Connecticut
administrators to help establish an online alcohol awareness class for
all freshmen.

## Safeguarding Wallingford Postal Facility

After traces of anthrax were discovered at the Wallingford facility in
May, Lieberman asked for a General Accounting Office investigation into
the clean-up of anthrax contamination at the Southern Connecticut
Processing and Distribution Center. In a letter to the GAO, Lieberman
expressed concern that public health officials may have failed to
communicate to postal workers all available information about the level
of contamination discovered at the facility. The GAO accepted the
request and its investigation is in process.\
\
**[Protecting Veterans' Rights]{.underline}**\
Lieberman joined his delegation colleagues in aggressively opposing a
Veterans Administration proposal to move several of the Newington
hospital's specialty care services to West Haven, arguing the
consolidation would pose undue hardship on Connecticut veterans.
Lieberman and his colleagues met with VA Secretary Anthony Principi and
have so far staved off the massive specialty clinic consolidation
proposed by the VA.\
**\
[Preparing Future Bioterror Cures]{.underline}**\
Saying that the government is still unprepared to fight bioterrorist
threats, Lieberman and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced legislation
to stimulate private sector development of new medicines, vaccines, and
antidotes to protect against biological, chemical, and radiological
attacks. The bill would create a comprehensive set of incentives for
drug companies to research and produce these critical countermeasures,
including tax, procurement, intellectual property and liability
components.

## Filling the Nursing Shortage

The Nurse Reinvestment Act, which the Senate approved in July, included
a measure Lieberman sponsored with Senator John Ensign (R-NV) to improve
the retention of high-quality nurses in health care facilities. Their
proposal would establish grants for health care facilities to implement
nurse retention programs and provide opportunities for nurses to go back
to school to obtain a higher degree in nursing.

# IMPROVING our Schools and Communities

## Meeting K-12 Education Reform Promise

After playing a leading role in shaping the No Child Left Behind Act,
the historic K-12 education reform bill signed into law in early 2002,
Lieberman challenged President Bush to live up to the bill's funding
promise. Noting that the President had underfunded the bill's programs
by \$7 billion in this year's budget, Lieberman pledged to work through
the appropriations process for the coming years to get Connecticut
schools the resources they need to meet the new law's high standards.

## Growing High-Tech Talent

After introducing the [Technology Talent Act]{.underline}, legislation
to help stimulate economic growth by boosting the number of math and
science graduates of U.S. universities, Lieberman helped win
Congressional approval this year for the bill's chief provisions as part
of the National Science Foundation reauthorization bill. The bill helps
guarantee a consistent supply of talented high-tech workers by awarding
competitive performance-based grants to institutions of higher learning
that increase the number of math, science, technology and engineering
graduates.

## Expanding Access to Higher Education

Recognizing the spiraling cost of higher education and big gaps in
college completion rates, Lieberman announced in April his plans to
draft a major [higher education reform bill]{.underline} that would
focus on expanding college access to Americans at all income levels,
improving readiness, and placing greater emphasis on graduation.
Lieberman also helped successfully oppose President Bush's proposal to
eliminate the federal fixed-rate [student loan consolidation
program]{.underline}, a plan that would have placed a significant burden
on Connecticut college students.

## Raising PG Kids in an R-Rated Society

Continuing his efforts to help parents protect children from harmful
influences in the electronic culture, Lieberman focused this yea on
promoting awareness about the risks lurking on the Internet, hosting
online safety seminars for parents in Connecticut and cosponsoring
legislation to crack down on cyberstalkers. Lieberman also hailed a [FTC
report]{.underline} showing progress within the movie and video game
industries in stopping the deceptive practice of directly marketing
adult-rated products to children, a problem he was one of the first to
address. But he singled out the recording industry for their continued
unwillingness to limit their marketing of violent and obscene music to
children, and pledged to keep pushing the record companies to raise
their standards.

## Promoting Charitable Giving and Helping Those in Need

Following months of negotiations with the White House to find a viable
version of the President's Faith-based Initiative, Lieberman joined
Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) in introducing a bipartisan compromise. The
CARE Act, which was approved by the Senate Finance Committee, provides
for more than \$1 billion in new funding for the Social Services Block
Grant program and billions more in charitable giving incentives; it also
eliminates certain inappropriate barriers that can keep faith-based
groups from partnering with the government to better serve the
disadvantaged.

## Reforming Tribal Recognition

In the wake of the Bureau of Indian Affairs decision to recognize the
Eastern Pequot tribe, Lieberman joined Senator Dodd in pressing for
reform of the federal tribal recognition process. Dodd and Lieberman
successfully sought an Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the Eastern
Pequot decision and reform legislation they have offered, and they
forced Senate floor consideration of an amendment to halt recognition
decisions until the process is repaired. Though the amendment was not
adopted, Dodd and Lieberman spurred a much-needed debate and reiterated
their commitment to pursuing reforms to restore confidence in the
system.

## Closing Campaign Finance Loopholes

Lieberman successfully won passage of legislation to improve disclosure
of campaign contributions and expenditures by so-called 527, tax-exempt
political organizations. The 527 provision, which improves upon a reform
bill passed by Lieberman two years ago, is another step toward fully
identifying the special interests that try to influence elections. It is
particularly important now because soft money donors barred from
contributing to the national parties by the McCain-Feingold reform bill
will be looking for other outlets for their money.

# Protecting our environment 

# and preserving our heritage

## Revitalizing Coltsville

In an effort to preserve one of Connecticut's best-known historical
icons, Lieberman and Senator Dodd introduced legislation requiring a
study on the possibility of turning the Coltsville property in Hartford
into a National Park Site, and helped win [Senate approval]{.underline}
of the legislation. Lieberman also met with Richard Moe, head of the
National Trust for Historic Preservation, to plot strategy for
protecting Coltsville, and participated in a Hartford Courant forum on
Coltsville's future.

## 

## Improving Air Quality

Lieberman won Environment and Public Works Committee approval of the
[Clean Power Act]{.underline}, a measure he coauthored that would for
the first time restrict four harmful pollutants emitted primarily by
Midwestern power plants that damage Connecticut's environment and
threaten public health. He also helped lead opposition to President
Bush's attempts to weaken federal restrictions on pollution from older
power plants through a proposed rollback of the Clean Air Act's "[New
Source Review]{.underline}" rules.

## Saving the Sound

Lieberman worked to help protect Long Island Sound's natural treasures
by winning Appropriations Committee approval of \$2.5 million for the
Long Island Sound program; urging federal officials to observe a
[one-year moratorium]{.underline} on laying new gas pipelines and
electric cables across the Sound; asking Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham to reject a request by Long Island Power Authority to energize
the [Cross Sound Cable]{.underline} between New Haven and Shoreham,
N.Y., before the cable had been safely submerged; questioning FERC\'s
approval of the [Islander East]{.underline} natural gas pipeline, a
project that could cause significant environmental damage.

## Increasing Domestic Energy Supply While Protecting the Arctic Refuge

While disappointed that Congress ultimately failed to reach agreement on
comprehensive energy legislation this year, Lieberman supported the
Senate version of the bill that would have increased domestic energy
supplies, encouraged energy efficiency, benefited consumers, and
protected the environment. Lieberman helped lead a successful filibuster
against President Bush's plan to drill for oil in the [Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge]{.underline}, which would have caused irreversible
damage to ANWR's unspoiled wilderness.

## Investigating Environmental Rollbacks

Number range CHAPTERFollowing the Bush Administration's efforts to
rollback a variety of previously-approved regulations protecting the
public's health and safety, Lieberman launched an investigation into how
the Administration reached its conclusions. The report found a
"pre-determined hostility" on the part of the Administration, which
discounted regulatory procedure and the value of public participation.