Welch Finds his Way
In Washington
By Sandy Vondrasek Cooch

Congressman Peter Welch (with baseball cap) takes a campus tour of Vermont Technical College with student volunteer coordinator Dana Storer last Thursday. The Congressman, three months int his first term of office, thought he was coming home for a spring break, but it didn't look much like spring. More snow was forcast for Thursday and Friday of this week.

Last week, Peter Welch returned to the White River Valley for the first time since taking a seat in Congress, following last November’s elections that turned over control of both the U.S. House and Senate to the Democrats.

Welch was in Vermont last week for the first half of a two-week recess; he traveled to Iraq this week.

Last Thursday in Randolph, he toured the Vermont Small Business Development Center on Route 66, debated issues with town employees at Randolph’s municipal building and library, and spent the afternoon at VTC, where he learned about new initiatives there.

The "energy tour" theme was particularly in evidence at the Enterprise Center, where Welch visited a firm that markets wood pellet stoves, and at VTC, which is adding four-year programs linked by a theme of "sustainability."

Prior to that non-stop tour, Welch spoke with The Herald at breakfast at Patrick’s Restaurant about his surprisingly high-profile first months in Washington.

Welch, a former Windsor County senator who was Vermont Senate President for a number of years, succeeded Independent Bernie Sanders as Vermont’s sole congressman. The Hartland resident was one of 42 freshman Democrats elected to the U.S. House in November.

Welch said he has found his legislative experience "very relevant," in D.C.

The nation’s capital has "new people and is a bigger place," he said, "but the actual process—considering legislation, persuading colleagues of your point of view, negotiating—is very similar" to what happens in Montpelier.

The Democrats, he said, were swept into office by voters looking for "a change in priorities, a change of direction in Iraq, and pragmatic problem solving."

Voters are getting all three, he maintained, citing new laws benefiting the middle class, ethics reforms, and pending legislation with a timetable for pulling troops from Iraq.

Focus on Iraq War

Welch's campaign in 2006 had as its centerpiece his opposition to the war in Iraq. Despite other responsibilities as a new congressman, it has been the war—how to end it—that has been his consistent focus in Washington, he said.

Last week, Welch described the House bill, which would pay more than $90 billion for war operations this year, but require that combat troops come home by September 2008 or earlier. It passed the House late last month in a 218-212 vote.

Although Welch took some heat from anti-war activists who had lobbied for an immediate pull-out, he defended his support for the House bill, with its "benchmarks," and a clear deadline for ending combat operations.

He decided that this bill was the best shot for "accelerating" the end of the war. A few days later, the U.S. Senate passed its version of the bill, which had an earlier troop withdrawal deadline of March 2008, but in non-binding language.

Welch charged that the Bush administration tries to avoid "the urgency" of essential questions of what U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan should be by focusing on tactical issues and by "couching arguments in terms of supporting the troops."

It was unfortunate, he said, that the administration did not follow the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, opting instead to increase troop numbers in Iraq.

On their return to Washington next week, House and Senate representatives will begin work on a compromise bill. Pres. Bush has promised to veto any bill with a deadline for withdrawal.

But since this is the war-funding bill, stakes are high. Welch predicted that "staring contest" of wills will ensue, as the Democratic congress and the administration jockey to get a bill they can agree on.

Welch said he will fight to have $20 billion in domestic spending, which had been tacked onto the Senate version of the bill, removed from the compromise bill.

"This issue is so urgent, it should be voted up or down on the integrity of the issue." Welch said. "It is about the war, not leveraging the war to get anything in any part of the country."

Welch said he was heading to Iraq this week, "first to support the troops—which is especially important when you’re raising questions about policy—and to hear about what’s going on."

Horror Stories

Welch said a second priority for him in Washington was restoring "accountability" in the government, and he had some horror stories on that count.

"I thought it was bad, but it's worse than I thought," he said.

Welch has garnered some national attention for his accountability efforts, including his quick call for a study into deplorable conditions for veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

His cross-examination of an administration official who had watered down an official Environmental Protection Agency report on global warming has been posted on YouTube.

Welch also related a tale of a no-bid contract to a Kentucky firm that resulted in a large number of mobile homes left parked and unused, outside of Baghdad.

In a hearing on the issue, one official suggested that the units be used for Katrina victims.

"Do you intend to move the people to Baghdad, or the trailers to Mississippi?" Welch drily asked the official.

His battles, so far, seem to have energized Welch, who said he is proud of the way his party is focusing on the pressing needs of "middle Americans."

During their "First 100 Hours" initiative at the session’s opening, Democrats passed bills that lowered interest rates on student loans, raised the federal minimum wage for the first time in nine years, and required the Medicare program to negotiate the lowest possible prices for its drug program.

"I’m optimistic," he said.

Pitch for Pellets

Tax subsidies for energy companies was the pressing topic when Congressman Welch stopped last Thursday at a Route 66 company that markets wood pellet stoves for the Pennsylvania-based Harman Stove Company.

Charlie Page, of JumpStart Marketing, urged Welch to support subsidies for the wood pellet industry.

The entire wood stove industry, Page noted, "is totally at the mercy of oil prices."

In 2005, when oil prices rose, "We couldn’t manufacture stoves fast enough," Page said. Then, he said, oil prices dropped, and no one wanted a stove.

The pellet stove industry is also dependent on mills willing to invest the $1 million needed to set up pellet-processing operations. Page pointed out that it is hard to convince anyone to do that with such variable sales.

According to Page, there are only about 800,000 homes in the U.S. heated by pellet stoves, which are more efficient and cleaner-burning than standard wood stoves. "It could be millions (of homes) if we had some help," he said.

Welch, who pointed out that the Democratic congress had already cut $13 billion in tax subsidies to large oil companies, needed no convincing.

"Subsidies to oil companies make no sense," he said. "My approach is to steer subsidies to alternative energy."