Buchanan's Director of Federal Government Relations Alan Rubin Quoted in Christian Science Monitor

Alan Rubin, director of Federal Government Relations at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Miami, Washington, D.C., and New York offices, was quoted in the October 15, 2008, edition of the Christian Science Monitor. The article, titled "Are states next in line for federal bailout?," also appeared on a number of websites including, AxcessNews.com, AZDailySun.com, YahooNews and TheTrumpet.com.

The article addressed the question of, "Are traditional credit markets so frozen that states won't be able to raise revenues to tide them over their cash crunch?"

According to the article, "By law, states have to balance their budgets each year."

With that in mind, the article proposed the question, "If several states go to the federal government and line up all at once, who will decide which states get the limited — and dwindling — funds?"

Rubin weighed in on the issue, saying, "This is an unprecedented situation because of the scope of the lending needs. If these states can't get their funds the usual way and start asking the federal government, there is no clear-cut way for Washington to respond.

"The federal government is best prepared to come through with funding after disasters — such as Katrina or 9/11," Rubin explained.

"This could pit states against each other in very uncomfortable ways," he said.

"If the federal government has to determine who gets $6 billion and who gets $10 billion, there's likely to be a lot of finger-pointing. People will be very angry if politics becomes the methodology — there are real issues that are critical to determine. We've never been there before," Rubin concluded.