Alex Daniels

WASHINGTON - Sen. Mark Pryor paid tribute on the Senate floor Thursday to two Arkansans who lost their lives in Iraq.

Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Woodham, 37, of Rogers died Saturdayof a heart attack while working on a humvee. Called “Big Daddy” by his fellow soldiers, Woodham was the motor sergeant for Delta Company, 1st Squadron, 151 Calvary Regiment of Arkansas’ 39th Infantry Brigade. He was on his second tour of duty in Iraq.

Pryor said Woodham’s abilities went beyond the training manual. He was skilled, P ryor said, in “the art of adapting and improvising” tokeep “American troops safe and their equipment and vehicles running.”

In addition, Justin English, a former firefighterwith the Springdale Fire Department, had been in Iraq less than a week, working as a contractor with Wackenhut Services Inc., when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb. English, 25, died in the attack, which happened Monday near Baghdad.

Pryor praised English’s “willingness to lend a hand.”

Pryor displayed two postersize photographs of the men and quoted H.L. Mencken, the satirist who died in 1956: “In war the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one.”

The Medicare legislation passed by the Senate on Wednesday included provisions authored by Pryor designed to speed reimbursement payments to pharmacists and to make pharmacy services to old people less confusing.

The broad bill, which President Bush said he would veto, includes a measure the Democrat wrote with Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran. It would require insurers to make payments to pharmacists participating in the Medicare prescription-drug plan within 14 days.

It would also forbid pharmacy chains from advertising on Medicare cards, which Pryor saidoften gives old people the impression that they can use their benefits only at that company’s stores.

The time limit mirrors language authored in the House by Arkansas’ Democratic Rep. Marion Berry, a former pharmacist. Berry said that since the prescription plan was introduced in 2006, more than 1,152 community pharmacies have closed. Late payments could be a cause, he suggested. He contended that only 50 percent of claims are paid to druggists by insurers within 30 days.

“We have a long way to go, but this is an encouraging sign for more health-care reform for all Americans, not just the wealthy or privileged,” Berry said in a statement.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to nearly double the Delta Regional Authority’s budget at a Thursday afternoon markup of a bill to fund energy and water projects.

The committee approved $20 million for the authority for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The House has approved $6 million to fund the economic-development agency, which gives grants for health, job recruitment and transportation projects in an eight-state area along the Mississippi River Delta.

Lee Powell, director of the Mississippi Delta Grassroots Caucus, a lobbying group that supports higher funding for the agency, noted that for three years, the agency has been funded at the level accepted in the Senate.

“This bodes well for the outcome this year,” Powell said in a statement.

With the number of legislative days on the calendar dwindling, a housing bill mired in a Senate procedural dispute might be the last opportunity for changes in Arkansas’ usury law being pushed by U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

Though Lincoln, a Democrat, said the housing bill is the “appropriate place” for her legislation, the Senate is unlikely to allow any amendments to the bill, which could receive a vote by the end of the week.

The legislation would have an effect only in Arkansas. Interest rates in the state for loans including retail lending and cash advances on checks is capped at 17 percent, or a rate 5 percentage points above the federal discount rate, whichever is lower.

The federal discount interest rate is 2.25 percent, meaning that the cap under Arkansas’ usury law is 7.25 percent.

At that rate, Lincoln said, nonprofit groups that are also subject to the rule, such as the Arkansas Student Loan Authority, don’t have much success in tapping the bond market.

Dixie Bryson, a psychology specialist with Conway Public Schools, on Thursday briefed several dozen House staff members on the need for mentalhealth counselors in schools.

Bryson traveled to Washington at the request of Lincoln, who is writing legislation that would create a $30 million grant program designed to help students with social or behavioral issues and improve the recruitment of school counselors.

Right-hander Riley Riggins will take the diamond on the White House lawn Wednesday for a game of T-ball with players from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The Pine Bluff second-grader, who is 7, lists shrimp and broccoli as his favorite foods, and outfielder and Pine Bluff native Torii Hunter of the California Angels as his favorite bigleague player.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 07/11/2008

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