Boozman Talks Up Third District

Boozman Talks Up Third District

From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Washington, May 31 -

Rep. John Boozman has found a way to bring international relations home.

Assigned to the House International Relations Committee just this year, the 3 rd Congressional District representative often finds himself attending dinners or receptions with foreign dignitaries. "There is not a week that goes by where there is not some head of state in town," he said.

So what does Boozman do? He talks up the companies and industries of his Northwest Arkansas district. "I think it gives us the op- portunity to create more jobs in Arkansas," the state congressional delegation's only Republican said.

If another country is in the market for something, "We want it to be bought in the 3 rd District rather than France."

Boozman, 54, discussed his new assignment and other aspects of his recent congressional work in an interview.

His new assignment has been eye-opening, he said.

To begin with, the travel is exhaustive. Boozman has been going on the kinds of overseas trips that are part of the official business of Congress, not the trips paid for by outside interests that have been so much in the news recently.

Take his trip in April to Iraq, eastern Africa and Turkey, squeezed into five days. "It was pretty ambitious," he said.

In the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, Boozman found what he said is so often the case in African nations — a capital filled with clean, modern buildings, just a few hundred yards away from "grinding poverty."

He has seen, as well, how civil war scars the countryside in many African nations.

Rebel groups, Boozman said, stand ready to capture children and teach them how to become "little soldiers." Then, he said, the rebel groups take the young soldiers back to their villages "and have them kill their families."

Serving on the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, he has also learned of the sex abuse that United Nations peacekeepers have visited upon young children in the Congo, trading peanut butter for sex. "They like the young kids because there is less chance of contracting disease," Boozman said.

AIDS is rampant in central Africa.

Boozman said his wife, Cathy, has asked him, "‘ Does stuff like that really happen? ' I told her, ‘Cathy, it is happening. '"

The Congo's problem, he said, is that outsiders don't care.

But can a U.S. congressman do much to influence human rights? "I think we are in a position to influence the leaders of these countries," Boozman said. "If they don't treat their own citizens with respect, how can we trust them to treat us with justice and respect in the future?"

It also involves making them accountable for how the foreign aid they receive is spent. That's one of the things Boozman and other committee members examined in eastern Africa. "I have a real concern [whether] our generosity filters down to the people that are supposed to be receiving the aid," Boozman said.

The committee is not his only foreign-policy assignment. Since Boozman came to Congress in 2001, House Speaker Dennis Hastert has repeatedly appointed him to serve on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Parliamentary Assembly.

The assembly, which provides NATO nations with a forum for dialogue on security, political and economic matters, is holding its spring session this weekend in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Boozman will present a paper on China's trade and currency policies.

Boozman acknowledged, matter of factly, that his newfound involvement in international relations matters little to most voters in his district, even if it is home to the University of Arkansas' Fulbright Institute of International Relations.

His constituents are more concerned, he said, with what he can do to help them get their medicines or a passport.

Boozman said he accepts that and wants to be a problem solver. "My primary concerns are not what is going on overseas," he said. "My primary concerns are the people of the 3 rd District of Arkansas."

His most important committee assignments, he said, remain Transportation and Infrastructure and Veterans Affairs. They present more opportunities to help the district.

But others say his work on international relations may mean a lot to some constituents, especially those associated with companies that are very active overseas, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc. "It's a very sexy issue for his most active constituents," said Janine Parry, political scientist at the University of Arkansas.

Added Todd Shields, director of the university's Blair Center for Southern Politics and Society: "Being on that committee probably helps him. Foreign policy is still on the minds of voters."

Both said Boozman has little to worry about politically, anyway.

He is following in the model of former Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt and emphasizing constituent service. "Looking at his style of service and the demographics, [the 3 rd District seat] is his as long as he wants it," Parry said.

Democrats in Arkansas, however, criticize Boozman's tendency to vote with his party. According to VoteTracker, a congressional vote tracking service, Boozman has voted with a majority of Republicans 98.9 percent of the time this year.

Boozman said such statistics can be misleading, pointing out that he has differed from his party on several key issues since coming to Congress, including reimportation of prescription drugs and trade with Cuba. He favors both.

He thinks he gets a "bum rap" from vote tracking. "I've got a choice," he said. "I can vote with my district or I can vote with [Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi."

http://www.boozman.house.gov/News/DocumentPrint.aspx?DocumentID=28137