Miss America's Homeless Cause

12/18/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

Miss America Heather French wasted little time in starting her campaign to help homeless veterans. "I've never seen a Miss America have an impact so quickly," said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi. Lott was among congressional leaders who attended French's Capitol Hill news conference on Thursday. French, 24, said she decided to launch her campaign in Washington because it was "the one place where I thought I could make the biggest impact." She said there are 250,000 homeless veterans sleeping on the nation's streets. Other senators at the news conference were Republicans Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning of Kentucky, French's home state.