Gregg Brought Millions to New Hampshire, But Funding Could Slow Once He Leaves the Senate

There is no question that Senator Judd Gregg did a lot for conservation in New Hampshire.

The Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests estimates Gregg directed nearly 200 million federal dollars to preserve woodlands.

Much of that was pumped into the “Forest Legacy Program”, which began in the early 1990s.

Chris Wells of the Forest Society says Senator Gregg helped get the program started by working with stakeholders, activists and other lawmakers.

That is a program that is now running in I think 40 states nationally, is funding 50 to 60 million dollars of forest land protection nationally every year and continues to be a huge benefit to nh year in and year out. I mean its one of the key funding sources to get land conservation done in nh.

In his position on the Senate appropriations committee, Gregg also directed funds toward cleaning up and preserving Great Bay on the Seacoast.

And he was instrumental in forging a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA and the University of New Hampshire.

The Forest Society’s Chris Wells says he’s sad to see Gregg go, but thinks the state won’t suffer much after he leaves office.

Sure, things will be, things will be somewhat different, but I think we will continue and I know we have a congressional delegation going forward that is still very committed to land conservation in the state of NH and will over time be helping to deliver funds for those projects.

An official at UNH is similarly confident that the landscape won’t change much after Gregg’s departure.

Of course, when the senator leaves, the state will lose the seniority he’s earned after nearly 3 terms in office.

UNH Vice president Taylor Eighmy says he doesn’t think that matters a whole lot, because NOAA and UNH are ready to compete for federal funding.

….our strength that we have here is very closely aligned with where the obama administration is taking the science enterprise and so I think the future is actually bright for us in that the investment the senator made in us was actually an excellent investment and positions us well for the opportunities we know are coming.

Some activists are also claiming because Democrats hold 3 of 4 federal offices, the state will do ok, because that party controls the House and Senate.

Senator Gregg said on a conference call earlier this week that he thinks party and seniority will be less important in Congress going forward.

Well things have changed down here a little bit, uh the earmarking process has been significantly circumscribed so there’s probably less opportunity to do that anyway.

The number of earmarks may decline, but one former Congressman says it’s important to remember that seniority is still important in the U.S. senate.

There’s no denying that seniority matters in the U.S. Senate, not so much in the House. But in the senate, as you stay, as you do this institution occurs through this institution. There’s very little action outside of that.

Charlie Bass spent 12 years representing the 2nd district in the House.

Bass says New Hampshire’s new office holders have their work cut out for them to get their concerns heard by their colleagues.

Its going to be more difficult now for new Hampshire to expect the kind of….of dedicated spending that its had in the past. In fact, the entire congressional delegation is pretty green. The two members of congress have only been there two terms and now the senate is completely new so it’s going to be a fight.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen has been in office for about a month and Gregg’s probable replacement may get to Washington in a few weeks.

Senator Gregg did bring hundreds of millions of federal dollars to the state during his tenure.

But the record shows New Hampshire still lagged behind most other states in getting federal funds.

The Tax Foundation in Washington D.C. says in 2005, the state got only 71 cents back of every dollar sent to Washington.

That put it in 47th place.