Desai, Crawford weigh in on Trump
WASHINGTON -- Democrat Chintan Desai, a Helena-West Helena educator who is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, criticized lawmakers last week for not standing up more forcefully to President Donald Trump.
"Our system of government is predicated on the separation of powers, checks and balances. In my opinion, this Congress has failed to uphold those founding principles," Desai said.
Trump's appearance with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki was the latest cause for concern, according to Desai.
"President Trump sided with Russia over our law enforcement and intelligence communities, he condemned the Mueller investigation, he defended Russia and blamed the United States," Desai said. "John Brennan, former CIA director, [called] it borderline treasonous. It's hard for me to disagree."
Arkansas' 1st Congressional District is currently represented by a Trump apologist, according to Desai.
"Congressman Crawford, he has sided with the president at every single opportunity," the Democrat said. "He doesn't believe that there was any Russian collusion to interfere with the 2016 election."
In an interview Monday, Crawford panned Trump's Helsinki performance and asserted his own independence.
"I'm going to support the president when he's right. I'm going to oppose the president when he's wrong, and on this one, I think he got it wrong."
It's clear, Crawford said, that Moscow meddled in the 2016 campaign.
"The Russians employed active measures in an effort to influence our election here. It doesn't necessarily mean that they were successful in altering the outcome. It just means we know they were engaged," he said.
While seeing interference, Crawford has said there is no evidence that the Trump campaign and the Russians worked together.
"I think what we see here is sort of maybe a conflation of the issues. Russian election interference and collusion with the Russians are two completely different topics."
Architecture dean talks of UA projects
Peter MacKeith, dean of the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture, spoke on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, sharing information about projects that are underway in Fayetteville.
The gathering also featured a speech by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
MacKeith appeared on a panel organized by members of the Working Forests Caucus titled: "Role of Innovation and Applied Research In Expanding Forest Products Markets."
"I was actually indicating to everyone there what we are doing specifically at the University of Arkansas to, I guess, further those ambitions. I really presented what we're doing at the university as case studies, so to speak, of what can happen when you begin to turn your energies and ambitions in this direction," he said.
Engineered timber or mass timber is lighter and stronger than alternative building materials and better for the environment, advocates say.
"I was presenting the projects that are currently underway and are projected at the university's campus at Fayetteville. The library storage building, which is really just completed. The new stadium drive residence halls, which are under construction now, and then a new project that will be a center for design and materials innovation, which is primarily funded by Anthony Timberlands. All of those are demonstrations in real terms and in real time of these renewed technologies," he said.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Hot Springs and a member of the caucus, said MacKeith and the other panelists are "leaders in agriculture and forestry with a commanding knowledge on new wood products."
Boozman sponsors bill to aid women
U.S. Sen. John Boozman joined with several colleagues in sponsoring what they're calling the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act.
The legislation "aims to eliminate global gender-related barriers and empower female entrepreneurs around the world," according to a news release Thursday from Boozman; U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.; U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.
"This is a strong, bipartisan effort to help over one billion women who are left out of the formal financial system and to close the nearly $300 billion credit gap that exists for women-owned small and medium-sized businesses," Boozman, a Republican from Rogers, said in a written statement. "In some parts of the world, women are pushed so far to the sidelines that they are denied access to even the most basic of financial services, much less business loans. Leveling the playing field is the right thing to do and the world economy stands to grow substantially if we can achieve that goal."
The legislation, if approved would require that the United States Agency for International Development "ensure that all strategies and projects of the agency are shaped by a gender analysis and that gender equality and female empowerment are integrated throughout USAID's programs; expand USAID's microenterprise development assistance authority to include small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with an emphasis on supporting SMEs owned, managed and controlled by women; and modernize USAID's development assistance toolkit to include innovative credit scoring models, financial technology, financial literacy, insurance and actions to improve property and inheritance rights," the news release stated.
Similar legislation is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Planning to visit the nation's capital? Know something happening in Washington, D.C.? Please contact Frank Lockwood at (202) 662-7690 or flockwood@arkansasonline.com. Want the latest from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Washington bureau? It's available on Twitter, @LockwoodFrank.
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