Congressional Delegation

WASHINGTON -- On his visit to Capitol Hill yesterday to meet with Maryland's congressional delegation, Gov. Martin O'Malley brought with him a red binder fat with requests: 148 priorities worth more than $200 million. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin asked him to consider adding one more: global warming. "Maryland the state is particularly vulnerable," the Democratic senator said. "Sea level change is clearly a matter that is of direct interest." Maryland's representatives in Washington - who include the House Democratic leader, and members of the Appropriations committees - were generally receptive to a wish list that included funding requests for transportation, children's health insurance and the Chesapeake Bay. Several members acknowledged fiscal challenges in Washington.

LOS ANGELES -- Political consultants by nature are an optimistic sort, especially when they're talking to reporters about the fortunes of their particular party. Sal Russo, the longtime Republican guru in California, is no exception.When asked about the state of the GOP now that a Democrat, Gray Davis, occupies the governorship for the first time in 16 years, both U.S. senators are Democratic and the congressional delegation and both houses of the state legislature have Democratic majorities, he finds a pony in the pile of manure -- as Ronald Reagan used to say.Mr.

Fort McHenry's old walls may not be crumbling, but they are in need of repairs since the last restoration in 1939 when the site was designated a national monument.This morning, Maryland's congressional delegation will announce a $1.3 million appropriation to complete the next phase of a major restoration begun in the early 1990s."From 1939 until 1991, it has been done on a catch-as-catch-can basis," said Kathryn Cook, the fort's superintendent.Fort McHenry -- 200 years old this year -- was maintained most of its life by the Army, which as Cook pointed out, "had a repair service living there on site."

Maryland voters troop to the polls today to help elect the next president, determine the makeup of the state's eight-member congressional delegation and decide a variety of ballot questions, including six proposed amendments to the state constitution.Turnout among the state's record 2.5 million registered voters -- which is expected to be moderate among a seemingly disinterested electorate -- continues to be a wild card, though political observers in the state are predicting no surprises.

After dodging the bullet in this year's round of military base cutbacks, Aberdeen Proving Ground is in the running to gain a personnel center that would bring 250 well-paying civilian jobs and be the post's biggest employment gain in nearly seven years.The post, the engine of Harford's economy, is a top contender to house one of seven regional Army personnel centers being established in the continental United States.Seven other Army installations -- four in N.J., two in Pennsylvania and one in Massachusetts -- also are competing to house the center.

Because of incorrect information supplied by Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes' office, The Sun provided incorrect information in a graphic accompanying an article yesterday on the ethnicmakeup of the staffs of Maryland's congressional delegation.Mr. Sarbanes' staff includes 10 blacks, two Hispanics, one Asian and 38 whites; the minority representation is 25.4 percent.The Sun regrets the errors.WASHINGTON -- At a time when minority hiring is getting increased scrutiny on Capitol Hill, Rep. Helen Delich Bentley stands out as the only member of Maryland's congressional delegation whose staff includes no blacks or Hispanics, according to a survey by The Sun.In all, three members of the state's 10-person delegation fall below the congressional average for minority hiring, the survey found.

UNLESS Democrates come up with a couple of heavyweight candidates in a hurry, the face of Maryland's congressional delegation is likely to remain the same with a single exception.The exception is Rep. Helen Delich Bently, R-2nd, who's decided to give up the commute to Capitol Hill in exchange for the Governor's Mansion in Annapolis (unless she changes her mind).The two congressional districts begging for Democratic candidates are the discombobulated 1st District, which jumps across the Chesapeake Bay from Annapolis to the Eastern Shore, and the 6th District in Western Maryland.

HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnamese officials yesterday turned over previously unrevealed documents and films of captured and killed American servicemen to a congressional delegation seeking to determine the fate of 2,259 Americans who remain missing in action 20 years after the end of the U.S. war effort.Americans and Vietnamese alike said the latest information could represent a significant advance in efforts to lay to rest, finally, a conflict that tore the fabric of American society. But the lingering bitterness of the struggle in Vietnam was evident on both sides during ceremonies at which the new materials were presented.

The earth didn't move. The bums weren't ousted. And changes in the state's congressional delegation weren't as dramatic as they may have seemed in the klieg lights of election night.Yes, the Republicans did gain a seat. One might even argue they picked up two. Six months ago, after a bitter redistricting fight, the state's Democrats envisioned themselves controlling the delegation by 6-2 rather than their current 5-3. Even though Tom McMillen was being redistricted into the conservative Eastern Shore, the former professional basketball player had a big name and big money.

WASHINGTON -- The winds of change that are sweeping through the House and Senate are also buffeting Maryland's congressional delegation.The arrival of the state's eight representatives and two senators on Capitol Hill in January will mark the end of a political dynasty, the election of a new African-American lawmaker and a choice between two congressmen to represent the 1st District.Those are the definite changes. And there's the possibility of another.Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Prince George's County faces a battle against GOP challenger Larry Hogan Jr. in the newly drawn and more conservative 5th District.

Washington - -Members of Maryland's congressional delegation, including millionaire Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, took a financial hit when the U.S. economy nose-dived last year, according to annual financial disclosure forms released Friday. Cardin saw the value of his reported assets shrink to between $1.3 million and $3.1 million in 2008, down from $1.7 million to $4 million the previous year. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, who vies with Cardin for the distinction of the state's richest federal lawmaker, took advantage of the depressed real estate market to add to his property holdings.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland's congressional delegation defended yesterday the process that will move thousands of military jobs to the state as cost-effective and good for the country, after criticism from other states that spawned an oversight hearing. The federal base realignment and closure plan will ultimately save the military millions of dollars, eliminating duplication of services, improving national defense and improving efficiency, said Heather Moeder Molino, deputy chief of staff for Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Baltimore County Democrat.

New Jersey's representatives in Washington don't seem to understand that the battle over Fort Monmouth has been fought - and they lost. Two years after a special panel decided to close Fort Monmouth and transfer thousands of military and civilian jobs to Maryland, the congressional delegation from the Garden State is trying to stop the move. They have raised the specter of the war on terrorism in a desperate attempt to retain the base's high-tech mission and the lucrative contracting business that supports it. But undoing the 2005 decision of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission would be a grave mistake; it would corrupt a process intended to be neutral and nonpartisan.

WASHINGTON -- On his visit to Capitol Hill yesterday to meet with Maryland's congressional delegation, Gov. Martin O'Malley brought with him a red binder fat with requests: 148 priorities worth more than $200 million. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin asked him to consider adding one more: global warming. "Maryland the state is particularly vulnerable," the Democratic senator said. "Sea level change is clearly a matter that is of direct interest." Maryland's representatives in Washington - who include the House Democratic leader, and members of the Appropriations committees - were generally receptive to a wish list that included funding requests for transportation, children's health insurance and the Chesapeake Bay. Several members acknowledged fiscal challenges in Washington.

Forty miles of cypress-pocked marsh separate competing ways of life in Louisiana, one tied to America's biggest port system and the other to a $2.7 billion sugar industry. Across that divide, the state has ruptured over whether to support the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement. The port of New Orleans is lined up behind CAFTA, which would end duties on $33.4 billion in goods traded by the United States with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Three Maryland congressmen called on the military yesterday to end its opposition to paying the state's "flush tax" to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay. "Not only should they contribute to the flush fee, but they should contribute in a big way to bay restoration," said Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Republican from the Eastern Shore. He was responding to an article in The Sun that documented 48 major spills totaling almost 20 million gallons of sewage into Chesapeake Bay tributaries over the past decade from the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County, the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Charles County and Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County.

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee spent about $1.4 million over the last six months of 2003. Rep. Vito J. Fossella, a Staten Island Republican, spent more than $10,000 for a campaign trip to sunny Florida, where he picked up one donor. And, while Baltimore's streets are pocked with potholes and its water mains are bursting, the city has paid $640,000 to Washington lobbyists since 1998. A generation ago, it took a lot of digging in dusty government files to follow the money trail leading to Washington politicians and lobbyists.

Maryland's congressional delegation is lobbying to keep Baltimore and Washington together as a single metropolitan area in the eyes of the federal government, preserving the area's rank as the fourth-largest market in the nation. In a letter to Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, both of Maryland's senators and all eight members of the House of Representatives said they lent "strong support" for the continued designation of Baltimore and Washington as a combined statistical area.

The Maryland League of Conservation Voters began airing a television advertisement on the environmental record of Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. this week. The league is the third independent group to purchase television ads during the gubernatorial campaign, and the ad is airing on Montgomery County cable television stations. What the ad says: The 30-second spot opens with a blank chalkboard. "To most of us, Robert Ehrlich is a blank slate," an announcer says. "That's why you should know Ehrlich voted against lowering arsenic levels in our drinking water, opposed tougher smog and air-pollution health standards, voted to force taxpayers - not polluters - to pay for cleanup of toxic waste sites and to weak enforcement of the laws that protect our air and water," the announcer says.

IN THE GAME of musical chairs that will be filled in the 2002 election, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger is having second thoughts about where he wants to sit. Ruppersberger, the Baltimore County executive who cannot seek re-election because of term limits, has been pondering a gubernatorial run for at least four years. Leading Democrats turned to him as early as 1997, when Gov. Parris N. Glendening's prospects were looking poor. But for the first time, Ruppersberger is sending signals that he may run for Congress instead, acknowledging the apparent strength of Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.