Government Executive - Authors - David Hess

TARP oversight agencies ask Treasury, Fed for answers

David Hess — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0400

The three agencies deputized to ride herd on the $3 trillion in federal bailout programs implored Congress on Tuesday to turn up the heat on the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve to explain the 12 programs or continue to see an erosion of public support.

At an oversight hearing by the Senate Finance Committee, the heads of the GAO, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and Congressional Oversight Panel called for more authority for their agencies to monitor and examine the finances of the bailout effort.

Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for TARP, whose agency overseas $2.97 trillion worth of the bailout commitments, scoffed at contentions by the former Bush administration and the current Obama administration that it was not feasible to track how the 364 banks that got federal aid were using the money.

"Complaints that it was impractical or impossible to detail how they used TARP funds were unfounded," he told the panel. He urged Treasury "to monitor their use of funds and be required to provide certified reports [to the government] on how they are using taxpayer money."

Under questioning by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the three agency heads stressed the need for greater transparency by the Treasury and Fed, as well as by the beneficiaries of the federal money, and generally supported legislation prepared by the senior committee members to beef up the auditing powers of the oversight agencies.

"It would enhance GAO's ability to bring accountability and transparency to the TARP program by providing us with direct access to the companies that receive TARP funds," said Gene Dodaro, acting comptroller general of GAO. He said his agency continues to run into "difficulties measuring the effect of TARP's activities." Dodaro also called for statutory authority for GAO to examine the activities of the Fed in disbursing loans to the financial industry.

Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, questioned Treasury's purported inability to explain adequately its rationale for distributing the vast sums to the banks, to the insurer American International Group, and other institutions.

"Without a clearer explanation from Treasury about its overall plan for each capital infusion," she said, "and without more transparency and accountability for how that plan was carried out, it is not possible to exercise meaningful oversight over Treasury's actions." Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., chided Treasury for failing to insist that the subsidized banks provide more lending for small businesses and consumers.

"My constituents and small businesses simply don't see the effects of the bailouts in terms of access to credit," Snowe said. "Even those healthy banks are not lending." Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., complained that the entire bailout effort seemed stacked in favor of the banks and against the automobile and other manufacturing industries that are in dire straits. And she asked why the administration appears to be cracking down on the auto industry while coddling the banks. "Reorganization [under bankruptcy] in my state means job losses and plant closings," she said. "If we don't make things in this country, we won't have an economy."

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Interior chief says agency prepared for stimulus projects

David Hess — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Following his testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on a range of issues confronting Native American tribes, Salazar said the National Park Service alone has a $9 billion backlog of projects.

"We've got plenty of things to do with the money, and I've asked my divisions to prioritize those that are ready to go now," he said.

He pledged to use the department's resources to encourage energy development from the vast reserves of oil, natural gas and coal on many reservations. Interior has estimated that undeveloped energy resources could deliver up to $1.5 trillion in revenues over several years to the Indian areas with rich caches of the fossil fuels.

Earlier this decade, the department reported that about 53 billion tons of coal, 37 billion cubic feet of gas and 5.3 million barrels of oil are recoverable with current technology from reservation lands.

Along with energy and economic development efforts, Salazar promised to "resolve the unending litigation about the management of tribal lands and assets" and committed to the settlement of long-running Indian water rights claims, some of which have lingered for decades.

Senate Indian Affairs Chairman Byron Dorgan challenged Salazar to "tip [BIA] upside down and right it so it'll begin working effectively. It is unbelievably bureaucratic and unworkable," noting that it now takes a 49-step process simply to obtain a drilling permit on Indian lands where suspected oil and gas reserves exist.

"There are a lot of good people working there," Dorgan said, "but there are also some over there who think their duty is to serve as human brake pads."

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., urged Salazar to step up the effort to combat rampant diabetes on many reservations. "This is an enormously seriously healthcare problem that affects everything else that needs to be done to develop the economies and education on Indian lands," Johanns said.

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Uproar over tanker contract continues as lawmakers clash

David Hess — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Threatening to derail the Air Force's selection of a foreign-designed air tanker to refuel military warplanes, a group of lawmakers led a Capitol Hill rally of American aerospace workers Thursday and pledged to shoot down the deal.

As the senators and representatives lined up at a news conference with Boeing Co. union leaders and engineers across the street from the Capitol, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., took the Senate floor to stoutly defend the Air Force's choice of a tanker that would be built by a consortium of Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS, a European consortium whose Airbus airframe would serve as the tanker's skeleton.

While it remains unclear exactly how the huge contract for the 179 tankers could be repudiated, Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash., whose district embraces thousands of Boeing workers, said the upcoming Defense appropriations process could provide the opportunity.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who led the protest, said the bipartisan opposition to the deal is weighing all of the options to short-circuit the Air Force's decision. One risky approach might be an attempt to abrogate any contracts between the Pentagon and Northrop Grumman-EADS -- an option that could send the dispute into U.S. courts and drag out the actual building of the plane by years.

Boeing is now seeking to overturn to contract through the formal protest it filed with GAO, which must issue a ruling by June 19.

At the rally, Murray and Dicks were joined by several other lawmakers whose states and districts could be harmed by Boeing's loss of the work. Others on hand to rail against the Air Force decision were Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Reps. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.; Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and Dave Reichert, R-Wash.

The protestors accused the Air Force of stacking the deck against Boeing and, as Dicks complained, "doing tricky things" to justify the award to Northrop-EADS. "They bent over backward to make sure Boeing didn't get it," he fumed.

Opponents of the contract argued that U.S. security is undermined when contracts for American weapons systems and technology are granted to foreign companies, and contended that defense dollars should not be spent abroad. "We need to keep our taxpayers' dollars here at home to help our country's economy," Murray said.

The construction of the planes could cost up to $40 billion over a decade. Boeing workers have said the loss of the contract could end thousands of jobs in Washington, Kansas and other states.

As the protest of the contract continued, Wicker was on the Senate floor extolling its virtues. Northrop Grumman's proposal, he maintained, represented "a better product and better value for the taxpayer." He noted that assembly of the plane, from major parts manufactured in Europe, would take place in Alabama and parts for it would be made in 49 U.S. states, including along the Gulf Coast in his home state.

He took issue with Boeing's estimate of job losses, insisting that the Northrop Grumman tanker deal "will create 48,000 direct and indirect jobs across our country," and complained that opponents have spread misinformation about the economic impact of the project.

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Senate Democrats approve budget on partisan vote

David Hess — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Split down party lines, the Senate Budget Committee Thursday moved its fiscal 2009 budget plan to the floor after staving off Republican efforts to rewrite key elements of the process.

By a 12-10 margin, the 23-member panel voted to approve a $3 trillion blueprint that would set the spending and taxing policies for fiscal 2009.

President Bush has said he will veto any fiscal 2009 appropriations bills that exceed his overall spending target and do not cut the number and cost of earmarks in half from fiscal 2008.

Democrats would restore spending cuts in Bush's proposed budget for a host of domestic programs, ranging from children's health care and veterans' benefits to education and climate change programs, as well as local law enforcement assistance. They also assume the expiration in 2010 of Bush's tax cuts in order to free up more revenue for their spending priorities.

The Republicans, citing their interest in restricting the reach and growth of government, largely support the president's priorities and favor the tax cuts as a way to enforce spending discipline.

The Senate's resolution, which is scheduled for a long debate next week, follows earlier approval of a similar budget plan by the House Budget Committee.

Although the two resolutions largely track on spending and taxing issues, there are some significant differences that could protract negotiations in a conference committee.

Both measures call for a one-year patch of the alternative minimum tax that could block its bite this tax year on about 20 million taxpayers.

But the House would require offsets, under budget reconciliation procedures, to cover the loss of revenue. The Senate committee's resolution does not contain reconciliation instructions.

Also, the Senate calls for extending several expiring middle-class tax breaks, worth $300 billion, that would be paid for by hoped-for budget surpluses in fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2013. The House measure favors those tax breaks but assumes they will be offset by other taxes or by spending cuts.

Finally, the Senate resolution calls for a standby $35 billion auxiliary stimulus package to be created if the economy continues to stumble. The House plan has no such provision.

In delivering their proposal to the floor, the committee's Democrats fended off attempts by Republicans to alter the long-standing rules that safeguard budget resolutions from crippling filibusters and that require new spending or taxes to be offset by other revenues or spending cuts.

Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, proposed an amendment to exempt the AMT from pay/go rules, which was rejected 12-10 along party lines.

Budget ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H., offered an amendment that would effectively vitiate the scope of budget reconciliation and thus subject the resolution to the threat of filibuster. That proposal went down, again on party lines, 12-10.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., also failed in an attempt to shield Bush's expiring tax cuts, if extended, from pay/go rules. That one fell on a 12-11 vote.

And the committee also rejected, by 12-11 votes, an amendment by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to strike the Senate's ability to waive the pay/go rule with a 60-vote majority, and another from Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, to use any revenue collecting from closing the "tax gap" to reduce the national debt.

But not all votes split along party lines.

By a 13-10 margin, the committee voted to limit commodity payments to farmers to $250,000 a year and by 14-8 to reject Gregg's amendment to remove milk subsidies inserted into the fiscal 2008 budget resolution without offsets from this year's resolution.

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Senators clash with NASA chief on speed of space transition

David Hess — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Complaining that President Bush's fiscal 2009 proposed $17.6 billion NASA budget would slow the agency's transition from the manned space-shuttle program to a capability for exploration of the solar system, senators from both parties Wednesday questioned whether the administration correctly weighed the risks in relying on Russia to ferry American astronauts and equipment to and from the International Space Station.

Senate Commerce Space Subcommittee Chairman Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., trained their sights on what they portrayed as a high-risk reliance on a partner whose ambitions might run counter to U.S. foreign policy goals.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin acknowledged the risk during a hearing, but said it was the most reasonable option to choose, given the amount of money the president is willing to spend on the transition until 2013.

Griffin told the panel that the United States is expected to spend about $2 billion under a contract with Russia to provide transport to the space station through 2012. Griffin was unable to estimate what it might cost to continue the service for four additional years. He said negotiations to renew the contract will begin in earnest next year.

In the meantime, Nelson said, "there is a realistic political monkey wrench" that could complicate any deal. He said current law forbids any U.S. contract payments to Russia if it continues to support the Iranian nuclear development program, unless the White House requests a waiver and Congress grants it.

"We will need a waiver of that law," Griffin said, and added: "Our folks are working with the Department of State to get one." Nelson reminded him that Congress would have to receive the request for the waiver by March 14.

Griffin also said the shutdown of the shuttle program is likely to lead to the loss of thousands of NASA jobs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

Vitter said the loss of technical and scientific knowledge from the layoffs could cost NASA more than the amount saved by relying on Russia for space transport and the expense of recruiting, hiring and training a skilled workforce to develop the Ares and Orion launch and vehicles that will spearhead the solar-system exploration program.

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Senate panel votes to raise federal judges' pay

David Hess — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Voting 10-7 to pass the bill (S. 1683), the panel granted judges from district, appellate and the Supreme Court fatter pay checks due on the first pay day after the law goes into effect, assuming that the Senate -- as the House has done -- approves the legislation and the president signs it.

Both House and Senate versions of the bill call for the same pay increases. District court judges' salaries would go from $165,200 to $218,000; appeals court jurists would rise from $175,000 to $231,000, and Supreme Court associate justices would go up from $203,000 to $267,900. The chief justice's salary would go from $212,000 to $279,000.

Like the House bill, the Senate measure also changes the pension schedule for federal judges, requiring that they have a combination of age and service amounting to 84 years in order to earn a full pension -- which is equal to their full pay at the time of retirement.

In the course of debating the bill, the committee turned back an attempt by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., by a 13-4 margin, to halve the amount of the pay raise to 16.5 percent. District judges, for example, would have gotten $197,300 a year instead of $218,000, under Durbin's amendment; the high court's chief justice would have gotten $253,000 instead of $279,000.

Among other points, Durbin contended that departures of federal judges from the bench were few, despite Chief Justice John Roberts' plea that judicial salaries -- which have not been raised since 1991 -- were threatening a constitutional crisis by spawning an exodus of seasoned jurists from their posts. "Only 36 have resigned in 23 years," Durbin said. "This so-called exodus from the federal bench is not a constitutional crisis, it's normal attrition." He also said that judges, assuming they meet the age-plus-longevity milestone, are the only ones in federal service entitled to full pay at retirement - without having to contribute a dollar of their own to the pension plan.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., countered that judges' salaries should be fixed in the context of remuneration in the legal profession, and took issue with Durbin's numbers of resignees. Her own inquiry, she said, indicated that since 1990, 63 judges have resigned, 20 more have stepped down to take other federal jobs, and 24 left early before qualifying for a pension.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., pointed out that the House has approved a similar bill and ventured the opinion that if the legislation failed in this session, it might take several more years to get the pay raise enacted.

The committee also adopted an amendment by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., by a 10-9 vote, that would limit the amount federal judges could be reimbursed for expenses in connection with privately funded events outside their jobs. Exceptions would be made for events sponsored by bar associations, judicial associations, the National Judicial College and a federal, state or local government. For any other event financed by a private party, the reimbursement limit would be $2,000 per trip, with a yearly aggregate of $20,000.

A second degree amendment by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to exempt public and private universities from the reimbursement limits was defeated, on party lines, by a 10-9 margin.

Feingold accepted with objection an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, which clarifies that judges could travel abroad, under U.S. State Department sponsorship, to help other countries develop their legal systems and to promote the rule of law.

Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., won adoption by voice vote of an amendment to bar judges from accepting the gift of an honorary membership amounting in value to more than $50.

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GAO chief reprises warning of unsustainable deficits

David Hess — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Humming the same tune he's been singing in a tour of the nation, Government Accountability Office chief David Walker warned senators Tuesday that the federal budget is spiraling out of control and that little time remains to steer it to safer ground. Driven by a combination of soaring healthcare costs and the demographic swell of baby boomers on the cusp of retirement, Walker told the Senate Budget Committee that "the federal budget is on an imprudent and unsustainable path" and that "the passage of time only serves to worsen this situation."

Congress and the next president, he said, have about five years to get a firm grip on the problem or burden taxpayers with huge tax hikes and beneficiaries of federal programs with steep cuts in aid. As of the start of this year, Walker said, the nation's debt was $9 trillion -- up from $5.8 trillion in 2001.

But the structural debt at the current rate of growth and spending in federal entitlements is $53 trillion, assuming that "future promised and funded Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans health care, and a range of other commitments and contingencies" are fulfilled. He said: "One way to think about it is this: Imagine we decided to put aside and invest today enough to cover these promises tomorrow. It would take approximately $455,000 per American household -- or $175,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States."

Although the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with tax cuts that have cut into revenues, are contributing to the rise of indebtedness, Walker acknowledged, the chief culprit is healthcare spending for the poor, elderly and veterans. "If there is one thing that could bankrupt America," Walker said, "it's rising healthcare costs. We can't afford to keep writing a blank check for health care." Year after year for the past 40 years, he went on, the cost of health care has outstripped inflation by 2 percentage points a year.

Walker praised Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H., for their proposal to create a bipartisan task force on entitlements, composed of congressional and administration members, to come up with a plan to address the matter.

"I intend to bring this to a markup this year," Conrad said. "We have got to do something, or this will bedevil the next administration unless we face up to it."

Calling the runaway growth in healthcare spending the equivalent of a "fiscal meltdown," Gregg said the task force would provide a "fair and open and bipartisan procedure, its recommendations would require an up-or-down vote on the floor, and all entitlements and taxes would be on the table.... We need to pass on to our children a viable nation that they can afford." Walker also warned the committee that the creditor nations in Asia and Europe that are financing the United States' debt, may not be so eager to do so as the debt mounts. At the least, he said, they will start charging higher interest rates that will make it more difficult to achieve robust economic growth and compete in world markets.

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IG: Coal safety agency stinting on mine inspections

David Hess — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

The Labor Department's inspector general is highlighting the parallel between a decline in coal mine inspections and an increase in fatal accidents -- a conclusion the administration says is based on faulty numbers.

Inspector General Gordon Heddell released a report recently that showed between 2002 and 2006, the Mine Safety and Health Administration's inspector force was sharply cut, dropping from 605 in 2002 to 496 in 2006 -- an 18 percent reduction. In the same span, coal production increased and so did the agency's workload, rising from 811 mechanized mining units to 882 while the ratio of inspectors per unit fell from 0.75 to 0.56.

A mechanized mining unit is based on the daily tonnage of coal removed from a mine. The decrease in inspectors was a result of a decline in MSHA funding by Congress and the Bush administration, the report said. From 2002 to 2006, the agency's labor costs grew from $78.8 million to $84.9 million because of cost-of-living salary increases. Total appropriations for the agency grew by less than 1 percent, from $116.1 million to $117.2 million.

"As a result," the report said, "MSHA did not have sufficient funding to replace personnel that left the agency."

Meanwhile, mining accidents spiked. West Virginia's Sago mine explosion killed 12 in January 2006; the Darby Mine explosion in Kentucky cost five miners their lives in May 2006, and Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine collapse in August killed six miners and led to the deaths of three rescue workers.

Coal mines are required to undergo comprehensive safety inspections at least four times a year. The report chides MSHA for not performing the required inspections at 107 of the nation's 731 underground mines last year.

"This occurred," the report said, "because of decreasing inspection resources and [MSHA's] management not placing adequate emphasis on ensuring the inspections were completed."

In response, MSHA administrator Richard Stickler said the report failed to acknowledge that 70 percent of the alleged "incomplete" inspections were counted at mines that either were not producing coal or were intermittent during the inspection period.

Following the 2006 disasters, Congress passed legislation to tighten the safety agency's inspection rules and authorize more money for additional inspectors. Stickler said more than 250 people are in training to augment the depleted ranks of the MSHA's mine inspection force. The collapse of the Crandall Canyon mine stirred efforts to strengthen the mine safety law.

A bill has been introduced by Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., but it is opposed by the administration and has little momentum considering an MSHA overhaul passed a year ago. The bill would bolster mine ventilation and communications systems, reduce the chance of friction fires ignited by conveyor belts, require the installation of rescue chambers to provide refuge in case of emergencies, strengthen mine seals at worked-out sites against methane gas explosions and increase penalties for safety infractions. Meanwhile, the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee will hear testimony in mid-December from Robert Murray co-owner of the Crandall Canyon mine. Murray's absence from a Sept. 5 hearing on the disaster prompted the panel to issue a subpoena for his testimony on Tuesday.

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USDA food official: Agency has all authority it needs

David Hess — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

A top Agriculture Department official told the House Agriculture Livestock Subcommittee Wednesday that the agency has enough tools to ensure food safety compliance and will not need legislation to mandate recalls of tainted beef.

USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety Richard Raymond repeatedly rejected the notion that he lacks the authority to crack down on slaughterhouses and meat-packing houses in outbreaks of E. coli and other contaminants that endanger consumers.

The subcommittee grilled Raymond, a physician by training, on a steep increase this year in the incidence of E. coli, chiefly in beef products, that has sickened people around the country.

"This is an issue that affects every state and every [congressional] district," said Livestock Subcommittee Chairman Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa.

Livestock Subcommittee ranking member Robin Hayes, R-N.C., asked whether food safety officials wanted a legislative mandate to order recalls more quickly.

"We think our present system works well," Raymond replied, later noting that meat processors have unfailingly cooperated with USDA in recalling contaminated products. He acknowledged he was deeply concerned about the rise in illnesses from food-borne contaminants but insisted that he had stepped up his agency's inspection and testing regime to combat the problem.

Recent recalls by the packers and retail grocers, he said, demonstrated that the enforcement system is working well and, where it might fail, he will recommend tougher regulations.

He has ordered an increase in the frequency of USDA testing for contaminants, Raymond said, but maintained that "we need to take additional time to strengthen our system and our data collection capabilities before moving forward with [a new] risk-based inspection [approach in the meat-processing system]."

The hearing mostly focused on one of this year's more notorious cases: the contamination from a rare strain of E. coli that spread clusters of illness from Florida to New York. It took the food safety agency about four weeks from the first reported incident of illness to trace the origin of the contaminated beef to the Topps Meat Co., which issued its recall of 331,582 pounds of frozen ground beef products.

Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., lamented the "high number of recalls and illnesses related to food-borne pathogens this year. ... We have seen close to 20 recalls related to E. coli in beef in 2007, with seven recalls in the last 30 days alone. To put that in perspective, there were eight recalls for all of 2006."

Raymond acknowledged the upward swing in illnesses and recalls and pledged "to do more to strengthen our policies and programs. Public health is a lot like riding a bicycle. If we're not moving forward, then we're falling down, and in public health there is no such thing as training wheels."

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House panel reviews Congress' power to overrule rulemakers

David Hess — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

More than a decade ago, an assertive new Republican majority in Congress passed legislation that its sponsors, led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., hoped would rein in federal rulemakers whom they contended imposed obnoxious restraints on businesses and certain taxpayers.

The law, called the Congressional Review Act, was part of Gingrich's "Contract with America."

Although the legislation was also intended to curb the power of then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, he signed it in the belief that some agency rules probably warranted a second look by Congress before taking hold.

Since then, according to testimony Tuesday before the House Judiciary Administrative and Commercial Law Subcommittee, the law appears to have been largely ignored far more than observed.

"Since the CRA was signed into law," said Administrative and Commercial Law Subcommittee chairwoman Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., "43 joint resolutions of disapproval have been introduced relating to 32 rules. None of the House joint resolutions has passed the House and only three of the Senate joint resolutions passed the Senate." Only one passed both chambers.

In the 11 years CRA has been in effect, federal agencies have submitted more than 47,000 rules to Congress for review.

Under CRA's terms, all agencies formulating rules must send a report to each house of Congress incorporating the text and purpose of the proposals, though not analyzing the impact on those subject to the rules.

Copies also go to the GAO in case Congress' various committees need analytical vetting of the rules.

The problem, apparently, is that the same Congress that enacted CRA later stripped committees of their oversight staffs, so they were widely incapable of parsing the rules and thus raising objections to the ones they felt were distorting the intention of the laws that required rule-making.

GAO, House and Senate parliamentarians, the clerks' offices and the committees of jurisdiction "have experienced a deluge of paperwork," Sanchez said, with little to show for the effectiveness of the law.

Mort Rosenberg, a 35-year veteran of the Congressional Research Service who specializes in administrative law, said of the thousands of rules issued since CRA went into effect, only about 700 were major and only one has been nullified by Congress.

"The federal appellate courts have negated all or part of about 60 federal rules [from 1995 to 2006], so the possibility of congressional nullification is remote," he said. Ironically, he added, about half of all the rules tested in court were found legally wanting.

When asked by Sanchez what could be done to put some teeth into the law, Rosenberg and Sally Katzen, a University of Michigan law professor on loan to George Mason University, disagreed on how to do it.

Rosenberg called for creation of a Joint House-Senate Committee to sift through the agency rules and funnel the significant ones to committees of jurisdiction for possible action.

Katzen opposed the idea of adding another level of congressional bureaucracy to an already overburdened legislative branch, while noting that the Senate is a major obstacle in moving any kind of tendentious legislation.

But they both seemed warm to the idea that Congress should set clear priorities on which rules should be vetted and which largely discounted, based on their impact and cost to the affected parties. At the end, Sanchez and Administrative and Commercial Law Subcommittee ranking member Chris Cannon, R-Utah, called for more study of the matter.

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Petraeus delivers report of Iraq progress to Senate skeptics

David Hess — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Senators also accused the Bush administration of diverting resources to that struggle from the war on terrorism elsewhere and against al-Qaeda. At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that coincided with the sixth anniversary of al-Qaeda's attack on New York City and the Pentagon, the general and ambassador largely repeated their rationales for continuing the fighting in Iraq that they had presented Monday to two House committees.

But this time they encountered a barrage of questions about the validity of their analyses and the vagueness of their predictions about when and how the United States could expect to withdraw its troops from Iraq and leave that ravaged country with a chance to achieve peace.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., said an ongoing dispute between conflicting assessments of exactly how much improved security has occurred in Iraq "misses the point ... The one thing virtually everyone now agrees is that there is no purely military solution in Iraq. Lasting stability requires a political settlement among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds."

The evidence, he said, indicates that a political settlement remains indefinite and undefinable, and he expressed grave doubt that a continuation of current U.S. battlefield tactics and overall strategy would change anything, now or in the foreseeable future.

Petraeus insisted that measurable improvement in the tactical struggle has been achieved in Baghdad and the western Anbar province, and that by year's end the Iraqi government will have 480,000 national police on hand to pick up a larger share of the security burden now borne mainly by U.S. troops. "I believe," he said, repeating his testimony to the House, "that we'll be able to withdraw one-fourth of our [combat] brigades by next summer."

Several senators noted that after such a withdrawal, about 130,000 would remain in the country.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said his own assessment of the problem there, after a recent trip to Iraq and talks with non-commissioned soldiers doing the actual fighting, indicates that once Americans leave a pacified area, insurgents will re-emerge within hours and resume the ethnic and religious conflict that has prevented a national political settlement.

While acknowledging that the struggle in Iraq will continue to be difficult and uncertain of outcome, Crocker said "a secure, stable, democratic Iraq at peace with its neighbors is attainable." But it will not be easy.

"The process will not be quick, it will be uneven, punctuated by setbacks as well as achievements, and it will require substantial U.S. resolve [to help repair] the frayed fabric of Iraqi society and politics." That nation, he went on, "will remain for some time to come a traumatized society."

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Senators urge stronger federal oversight of coal mines

David Hess — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Richard Stickler, assistant secretary of labor for the Mine Safety and Health Administration, came under criticism from several members of the Senate Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee. He faced charges that the agency had approved a mining plan at Crandall Canyon, a deep-coal operation that had piled up safety violations and conducted potentially hazardous retreat mining practices in a region noted for unstable geology.

Mindful of recent mine disasters in his home state of West Virginia, Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., angrily recalled for Stickler that 24 miners died across the nation in the past year, and said "something has gone very, very wrong" at MSHA. "What the hell does it take to shape up that agency?" Byrd snapped. "The buck stops with you."

Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, spread blame to coal mine operators for what he saw as resistance to adopting up-to-date technologies, as well as certain foreign mining practices in such places as Poland and South Africa that help reduce injuries and fatalities in mines. "I am concerned and disappointed that the operators are not employing the best technology to make mining as safe as possible," he said.

Conspicuously absent from the subcommittee's witness list was Robert Murray, chief operating officer of the company that ran the Utah mine. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Murray -- who had called the Crandall Canyon disaster an act of God -- had first told the panel he was too busy with work to attend then said he was ill.

Specter threatened to seek a subpoena commanding his appearance. "We will not allow him to avoid answering questions from this subcommittee," Specter said.

Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers Union, said 64 coal miners have died in accidents just since the Sago explosion in West Virginia in January 2006. Roberts said the Crandall Canyon disaster was avoidable and blamed MHSA for approving a plan in June, about seven weeks before the Utah cave-in that permitted the retreat mining process there. Retreat mining essentially is a process of scraping out coal from already mined strata by pulling out coal pillars that serve to hold up seams and overburden.

MSHA's Stickler -- an interim appointee of the Bush administration whose subsequent nomination for the post has been held up by Bryd -- defended the record of his agency. He said it was too soon to assign blame for the Crandall Canyon disaster until an investigation is completed. He acknowledged that seismic evidence by the U.S. Geological Survey had indicated the event which killed six miners and three rescue workers was caused by a mine collapse and not an earthquake.

Stickler said that MSHA, in the time since Murray took over the Utah mine a year ago, had issued 67 violations of mine safety rules there. He also said MSHA had conducted five regular and two spot inspections of the mine, and responded to a complaint from a whistleblower.

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Panel hears estimates, pleas for long-term Gulf Coast aid

David Hess — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400

With some estimates for capital losses amounting to as much as $150 billion and a State of Louisiana estimate of economic losses of up to $200 billion, the committee seemed to reel at the prospect for making room over the next several years in federal budgets for recovery programs.

Some members questioned whether federal officials are leaning on states and localities hard enough to trim any waste, fraud or abuse in meeting the needs of the four Gulf states hammered by hurricanes Katrina and Rita two years ago.

States and local governments are mainly responsible, with oversight from various federal agencies, for administering the recovery programs.

Testimony submitted by the Government Accountability Office, Congressional Budget Office and Donald Powell, the chief federal coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, showed that the numbers already appropriated and spent on the cleanup are mounting.

Both GAO and CBO largely concurred that Congress and the Bush administration had provided nearly $95 billion in five emergency spending bills for "immediate relief and long-term recovery of the Gulf Coast region," as a report delivered by CBO Director Peter Orszag put it.

In addition to direct appropriations, Congress has authorized $17 billion in federally backed loans to the National Flood Insurance Program, as well as $16 billion in tax breaks for hurricane victims between 2006 and 2016.

The bulk of the money goes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Housing and Urban Development Department and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Of the $45.3 billion for FEMA, about $30.1 billion already has been spent. HUD, so far, has gotten $16.2 billion and doled out $4.8 billion, mostly for housing programs to replace and repair public and private housing stock and for rental assistance.

On the latter issue, the Rev. Donald Boutte, pastor of St. John Baptist Church in New Orleans, implored the committee to set aside budget allocations for more money for construction of rental units in his city.

Not only has the loss depleted the availability of decent, low-cost housing in the city, he said, the shortage of affordable housing has led to soaring rents.

"Today, entry-level school teachers, new police officers, construction workers and even some clergy are in serious need of affordable housing," Boutte said.

On another note, Powell said the Corps has strengthened the Louisiana levees so that "hurricane protection in southeast Louisiana is better than it has ever been." More than 220 miles of levees and floodwalls have been repaired or restored, he said.

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Attorney general acknowledges lack of candor with Congress

David Hess — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0400

But he insisted he had tried to subsequently correct any misstatements. Yet Gonzales continued to spar verbally with senators Tuesday and "recused" himself from answering some questions partly because of ongoing internal Justice Department investigations about the U.S. attorney dismissals.

Gonzales had barely seated himself before Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., laced into him and the Bush administration for a "crisis of leadership" stemming from his leadership of the department.

"The attorney general has lost the confidence of the Congress and the American people," said Leahy, who added that the department under Gonzales had misled Congress repeatedly and then implored lawmakers to "trust us. With a history of civil liberties abuses and coverups, this administration has squandered our trust. I'm not willing to accept a simple statement of 'Trust us.' I don't trust you."

Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., accused Gonzales of "misleading Congress again and again" and suggested he had not met a high standard of truthfulness in previous testimony. "Obviously, I've not always met that standard," Gonzales said.

Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., charged that a series of missteps during Gonzales' watch had contributed to "low morale, a lack of credibility, including your personal credibility. The department is dysfunctional." Specter was particularly critical of the White House's refusal to produce high-level witnesses, under the rubric of executive privilege, in its inquiry of the U.S. attorneys' firings.

Other senators repeatedly assailed Gonzales for what they called discrepancies in his varying accounts of whether there were serious objections, within the department itself, over President Bush's decision to authorize warrantless wiretaps of U.S. citizens without prior approval by a special court to vet such activities.

Senators also charged that the attorney general had misled them in professing not to know about multiple violations of the PATRIOT Act's procedures for abusive use of National Security Letters. Other testimony over the past few months by lower-ranking Justice officials and ex-officials indicate that a furious debate ensued over the legality of the president's order.

That included former Deputy Attorney General James Comey's testimony that he had to personally intervene in a visit to the hospital by Gonzales, then White House counsel, and another presidential aide to try to persuade ailing former Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize the then-expiring surveillance program. Ashcroft declined to do so.

Gonzales said the urgency of the visit was necessitated by the impending expiration of the wiretap program, and that he had met with key members, in both parties, of Congress beforehand to explain the need to continue it, after Comey refused.

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Defense secretary makes case for staying the course in Iraq

David Hess — Wed, 09 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

In testimony before the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace made their pitch for the Defense Department's request for $716 billion in fiscal 2008 to continue the anti-insurgency and war on terror fights in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as restock the depleted weapons and supplies of the armed forces.

But most of the testimony, in response to sharp questioning by subcommittee members, focused on the conduct of the Iraqi war and when it might be possible to start drawing down the American military participation in the fight.

Insisting that the "consequences of leaving Iraq in chaos has enormous implications for us here in the United States," Gates told the panel that some guidance on how the U.S. role might be shaped there could come in September when General David Patraeus provides a report on whether the current allied surge in Baghdad is improving the basic security situation in the region.

But he also said he expected that "there will continue to be a need" to maintain some American troops in Iraq for as long as the Iraqi government needs the support. "It's very likely that the United States will be required to have some level of troop presence for some period of time ... but it'll have to be a level that draws bipartisan support [in Congress and the country]." He added that the long-term strategic interests of the United States will require a substantial naval force in the Persian Gulf for an indeterminate period.

Asked by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., when American voters would be able to see some "light at the end of the tunnel" in Iraq, Gates said: "The honest answer is, we don't know." He went on to say that the threat of al-Qaida setting up a permanent presence in Iraq's western provinces, as a base for trouble-making throughout the region, in North Africa and even the United States, could mean a continuing and prominent role for U.S. military forces, in large or small units, for some time to come.

Gates also said a short-term extension of war funding through July, under consideration in the House, would be "hugely disruptive" and could have "a huge impact on readiness and reset contracting." The practical consequences of running the Pentagon, he said, would "require me to try to drive the department in a skiff when I'm actually trying to drive a supertanker."

He said that thousands of accounts for various operations and contracting would have to be "turned off and on" monthly and "would require a level of agility that's not necessarily [a trait of] the Department of Defense."

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Ex-Justice official recounts high marks for fired attorneys

David Hess — Thu, 03 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

James Comey, who served as deputy attorney general under Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales before leaving in August 2005, denied playing any role in the dismissals or knowing why they were fired.

Comey, a veteran federal prosecutor himself before rising to the No. 2 job in the Justice Department, is now general counsel for Lockheed Martin Corp. He appeared under a subpoena before the House Judiciary Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee, though he later told reporters he would have shown up anyway if simply invited to testify.

The subcommittee, headed by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., is one of the panels in the House and Senate probing whether the firings were motivated by the administration's and some lawmakers' displeasure over the prosecutors' reluctance to pursue alleged voting fraud by Democrats or their zeal in prosecuting Republican officeholders.

Comey provided glowing performance assessments of several of the sacked prosecutors and said on only one occasion had he offhandedly described one as a "weak manager" when asked by another department official about the U.S. attorney's capabilities.

Of the others, Comey said, he could find no fault nor did he understand why they had been dismissed or how their firings were handled, since the decision to do so was made after he left the department.

Comey also said he was unaware of a list being compiled by Kyle Sampson, a former chief of staff to Gonzales, apparently in collaboration with the White House, of prosecutors to be fired. He recalled a conversation with Sampson, who asked whether some prosecutors were under-performing, Comey said. But, he added: "I'm quite certain he didn't mention the White House" in connection with his question.

As for his opinion about the performance of most of the other prosecutors whose names appeared on a potential dismissal list, Comey described Carol Lam in San Diego as "a fine U.S. attorney," and John McKay of Seattle as "one of my favorites." Both Paul Charlton of Arizona and David Iglesias of New Mexico, Comey said, were first-rate. And he was most complimentary of Daniel Bogden of Nevada, whom he described as "straight as a Nevada highway and a fired-up guy who made tremendous strides against violent crime."

Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee ranking member Chris Cannon, R-Utah, decried the panel's inquiry as "a fishing expedition that's come up dry. Nothing I've seen warrants any accusations of stonewalling or corruption."

He later noted Comey's appraisals of the prosecutors' performance did not cover the last year or so of their tenures, and he read another department official's prickly report of Iglesias' failure to notify higher-ups when Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., phoned the prosecutor to inquire about his delay in not indicting some local Democrats shortly before an election. U.S. attorneys are required to report such contacts to their superiors.

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Panel backs stronger oversight of Coast Guard fleet upgrade

David Hess — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Despite protests by the Coast Guard's newly installed top brass that it had the situation under control, the panel moved the bill (S. 924) to the floor without objection after co-sponsors Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, insisted it was required to ensure that the agency "has the [legal] tools its needs to manage a program of this size and complexity," as Cantwell put it.

The bill effectively terminates the practice of contractor self-certification that critics say removed the Coast Guard from direct control of the quality and standards for its 25-year, $24 billion shipbuilding and modernization program. By permitting the major contractors to certify the design and soundness of the ships, planes and patrol boats being built, the bill's sponsors said, the Coast Guard program managers abdicated their responsibility to make sure the work was done right.

"It is absolutely critical that we get on top of this program," Snowe said. "We can no longer base this process on faith and hope. Oversight was neglected by the Coast Guard, and, as a result, we've lost $500 million and zero [fleet] assets have been placed in service. The record clearly demonstrates that we need legislative intervention."

Major design flaws in the hulls of new patrol boats, as well as structural defects that would limit the service life to five years of large "national security cutters," she said, were not picked up by the Coast Guard because of a failure to ride herd on the contractors.

Cantwell said the bill would put into law the Coast Guard's newly hatched rules to strengthen its management of the program. It would also require a third-party review of Deepwater contracts yet to be issued to assure both the agency and Congress that the same mistakes would not recur. And it would require the agency to report back to Congress before awarding new contracts for the program.

The only question about the legislation was raised by Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who maintained that the Coast Guard's new leader, Commandant Thad Allen, had already installed most of the steps embodied in the legislation and should be given the opportunity to make them work before Congress intervened.

"We're undermining the admiral and could delay getting the ships and planes we need [to modernize the fleet]," Lott said. "We're going to have an inordinate delay [in continuing the program by calling for layers of review of new contracts]."

After some back-and-forth with Cantwell, Lott agreed to withhold an amendment he had prepared to strip the contract-review language from the bill, after Cantwell pledged to consult with him about the issue before the bill went to the Senate floor.

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Katrina reconstruction effort lacks long-term strategy

David Hess — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

At a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Disaster Recovery Subcommittee, chaired by Landrieu, the GAO's Stanley Czerwinski said the administration's lead agencies -- Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Housing and Urban Development Department -- were doing a commendable job in meeting short-term needs of Hurricane Katrina victims but cautioned the panel that an effective long-term strategy for restoring the ravaged economies of Louisiana and Mississippi had yet to be settled.

Former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Donald Powell, President Bush's federal coordinator of Gulf Coast Rebuilding, also testified and agreed that a "path must be drawn" for future recovery of the area.

"Although there are a number of immediate short-term needs," he said, "rebuilding cannot be seen in the short term. There must be a long-term vision of where each state wants to be five, 10 or 20 years from now."

That plan, he said, is mainly the responsibility of the state and local governments who are best suited to determine their needs -- although the federal government stands ready to help when asked.

Czerwinski, noting that "rebuilding efforts are at a critical turning point," said most of the early efforts have been aimed at restoring destroyed housing and essential public infrastructure. "Over the coming years, perhaps decades, significant and complex challenges lie ahead, [including] coastal restoration, levee protection, infrastructure, land use and economic recovery," he said.

Every level of government, he said, together with private and non-profit sectors, will have to step up to the task. "Agreeing on what rebuilding will be done, where, how and -- particularly important -- who will bear the costs, will be the key to moving forward."

Already, long before any long-term plan has been hatched, a rift over money has erupted. Before ending the testimony of Powell and Czerwinski, Landrieu criticized Bush for shifting approximately $1.3 billion in levee reconstruction funds from one account to another, which she insisted will eventually short-change the project.

Powell tried to explain that the transfer was necessary to prevent a sudden halt in the project until Congress acted later to replenish the supplemental funding for the Gulf Coast recovery.

"We needed to transfer the money to ensure the work would not be disrupted," he said, prefacing his remark with his belief that the president is "committed to spending the necessary money to protect against a 100-year flood [risk]."

But Landrieu was having none of it. She said Bush has threatened to veto the supplemental bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan if the $1.3 billion is put back into the project. Spending the money now without replacing it later, she said, would mean that "we'd still end up $1.3 billion short."

Despite the veto threat, she added, she intends to see that the money is restored in the supplemental war spending bill. "And I want you to take that message to the president," she said.

Asked later by a reporter whether he intended to deliver that message, Powell smiled and said: "Yes, absolutely, it will be delivered."

Landrieu also expressed hope that the administration would, as it has done in other major disasters, waive a provision in current law that requires local or state governments to put up 10 percent of their own money in order to qualify for federal Community Development Block Grants, which have been used in the Gulf recovery effort to replenish the ruined public housing stock.

Czerwinski told the panel "a disaster of this magnitude ... makes it impossible for local communities to come up with their share of the money."

One of the consequences of enforcing the 10 percent rule, he said, was that some communities have had to rely on private contractors to front the money, leading to higher carrying costs and greater strain on the local governments.

He also said that banking on private capital had the effect of dealing small, local contractors out of the reconstruction business since they do not have the up-front resources themselves.

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Social Security nominee warns furloughs may be imminent

David Hess — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0500

During testimony at his nomination hearing, Astrue faced tough questioning about his views on partial privatization of Social Security payments and benefits, as well as large backlogs in processing claims for disability benefits.

On private accounts, Astrue promised the committee he will "stay out of that debate," particularly after Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., warned that the proposal, advocated by President Bush, was "a non-starter" in the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Astrue said 10-day furloughs of the agency's workers are inevitable if enough money is not added back to the agency's budget. The money apparently would have to be incorporated in the anticipated yearlong continuing resolution that the House and Senate is expected to approve by Feb. 15, when the current CR expires.

Baucus said he intends "to work with appropriators to restore the [SSA] cutbacks ... It is critical. It would be absolutely irresponsible not to do it." Astrue testified that the money pinch has undercut morale in the agency and remains a major distraction.

A furlough of all employees, he said, "would have a serious impact on service." And, he said, the agency's managers are trying to figure out how to do it with the least damage to providing services for the millions of recipients and claimants.

"Any way you do it will be ugly," Astrue said. "It will demoralize employees and lead to backups in handling claims."

Astrue also was sharply questioned by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., who complained about the long delays in managing disability claims, some spanning four years, and delays of up to two years in checking out Social Security numbers submitted by employees to determine if new workers are using false or recycled numbers. Bunning said Astrue was simply citing long-standing problems at the agency, which appear to him to be getting worse rather than better.

"The agency has absolutely sat on its duff in our [congressional] efforts to accelerate the processing of disability claims. It's outrageous. Some people die before they get their hearings," said Bunning, who added that the problem is not simply a lack of funding. "The problem is internal to the agency and must be fixed within the agency. I am sick and tired of [SSA] appearing before Congress and saying, 'We've got this problem.' Don't tell me we need only more dollars to fix it."

On the privatization issue, Astrue acknowledged he had "huge difficulties with the transition costs" of shifting trust fund resources to help pay for private accounts.

Independent actuaries have estimated it would cost the government about $5 trillion over 20 years to cover the cost. As for making any far-reaching changes in the agency itself, Astrue told the committee: "I tend to be an incrementalist. ... I'm a highly unlikely candidate to do any sweeping reorganization."

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Senators take new look at Interior royalties blunder

David Hess — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Six of the companies -- which control about 20 percent of the production from deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico -- have agreed to renegotiate their contracts with Interior. The remaining leaseholders, including ExxonMobil, are apparently waiting to see if Congress acts to extend their leases before coming to the bargaining table.

On that point, Assistant Interior Secretary C. Stephen Allred told the committee that such guarantees on contract extensions could induce the balky companies to revamp their leases.

The whole matter, which has been under investigation for months by Interior's inspector general and the Government Accountability Office, stems from the failure of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service to include price thresholds for royalty payments in leases granted in 1998 and 1999.

Companies that drill in deep water are eligible for lower royalty payments to the government until they exceed certain thresholds on the volumes they produce or market prices for the oil or gas. According to the GAO, about $1 billion in such payments have been lost, and over the next decade the loss could reach $10 billion.

Interior IG Earl Devaney, echoing his earlier testimony to Congress, told the committee today that there is "no smoking gun" to prove that a lone bureaucrat or higher official was culpable for the lapse in royalty collections -- which were collected for the three years before 1998 and every year since 2000.

But Devaney blasted the department for "a shockingly cavalier management approach to an issue with such profound financial ramifications." He called it "a jaw-dropping example of bureaucratic bungling." And while his office has concluded this particular inquiry, Devaney said his deputies are looking into at least a dozen other instances in MMS, "some of which are criminal in nature."

Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., acknowledged the department's progress in getting half a dozen companies to renegotiate their contracts. But "this is a far cry from making the American people whole," he said, alluding to the failure of other leaseholders to come to the bargaining table.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., angrily proposed to Allred that Interior simply refuse to deal in the future with companies that balk at such negotiations. "We need to let bidders know very clearly that we won't do business with them again when mistakes are made in contracts that cost taxpayers billions of dollars," he said.

Allred said department lawyers had advised him that the contracts "can't legally be abrogated," particularly in this case when "a conscious decision to drop the price thresholds had been made" by MMS officials. "That would make it very difficult" for the department to win a lawsuit should the companies contest the abrogation, he said.

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New Amtrak chief urges more funding

David Hess — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Alexander Kummant made clear only one thing for sure during a two-hour introductory session with the panel: even the most efficient rail passenger service, anywhere in the world, needs government subsidies to survive.

"Amtrak is both a business and a public enterprise," he told the committee. "Amtrak was created by Congress, it relies on funding from Congress, and in many ways you are the company's primary shareholders."

While Amtrak faces multiple problems -- from aging infrastructure to dirty rail cars and schedule delays -- its biggest challenge now, Kummant said, is lack of capital to finance such projects "as bridge and tunnel replacement" as well as doing "a better job of explaining the importance of these capital investments to [Congress]."

By now, most citizens are familiar with the annual struggle by Amtrak to wring enough money from Congress to maintain the service.

As House Transportation and Infrastructure Railroads Subcommittee Chairman Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, remarked, "Congress has a habit of giving [Amtrak] just enough money each year to fail."

Moreover, there is an ongoing battle between the Bush Administration (with its advocates in Congress) and rail-passenger devotees over whether to sell off major segments of its infrastructure -- effectively privatizing it -- or provide the wherewithal to make it a truly modern national passenger service run by a quasi-governmental agency.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., like Bush, favors the privatization route, on the theory, he explained Thursday, that Congress will not provide the massive infusion of capital -- estimated at between $18 billion and $35 billion over time -- to upgrade the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor alone. Mica said private investment will be needed to preserve Amtrak and make it an efficient, high-speed form of public transportation.

In his testimony and subsequent dialogue with the panel, Kummant stressed the need for "a federal and state partnership" to provide the money for infrastructure.

After the hearing, he told reporters there are several options, including private investment, that he will consider as he ponders ways of raising the needed money. He would not commit himself to a particular source of capital, though he said he would look at state-issued bonds and investment tax credits as possible ways to raise the money -- along with federal subsidies.

Looking down the road in forming what he called "a vision" for Amtrak's future, Kummant said, "We are at a pivotal point in the history of rail passenger service, particularly in this country. ... .At a time of high oil prices, growing highway and airport congestion and record rail freight volumes, we should be embracing rail [passenger] service and developing it as quickly and as responsibly as we can."

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OMB chief urges action on revised line-item veto bill

David Hess — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

In a briefing at the National Press Club, Portman said he was confident that the Senate would pass a revamped version of the presidential line-item veto if it could be sprung to the floor. But he acknowledged that there is "more legislation than time" left in this session.

President Bush issued a strong endorsement Tuesday of the legislation, which has passed the House by a comfortable margin with bipartisan support. An earlier version of such legislation was enacted in the late 1990s and helped former President Clinton strike about $2 billion worth of questionable projects from spending bills, but the law later was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court as an executive incursion on Congress' power of the purse.

This time around, the House-passed bill tries to skirt the constitutional issue by setting up an enhanced, fast-track rescission process that would enable the president simply to redline pork projects -- without actually removing them -- in a spending bill and send it back to Congress for reconsideration. Congress would have 14 legislative days to either reject or approve the redlined items by a simple majority vote of both houses.

In the House, Portman said, noting the bipartisan vote for the bill, "It was viewed as a good, common-sense idea. It really should be a non-partisan issue. I think we'd have a good bipartisan vote in the Senate if we could just get it to the floor."

But other sources said Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., have placed holds on the line item veto bill to prevent its timely movement to the floor.

Portman said he believes "90 percent of [Senate] Republicans and a lot of Democrats" would vote for the bill on the floor, suggesting that such broad backing, with continued prodding by the White House, could dislodge it during a lame-duck session after the midterm elections.

With Congress winding down this week for the re-election season, about the only chance for the legislation would come in a post-election session. Portman said he thinks "we have a shot then" to win Senate approval.

But other observers are not so sure. David Williams of Citizens Against Government Waste said prospects for the bill appear dim this year, despite "some momentum we have" from the House's approval. In addition to CAGW, the news briefing Wednesday was sponsored by the National Taxpayers Union, Taxpayers for Common Sense, American Conservative Union, and Freedom Works -- all lobbies that have long lamented the soaring spending and borrowing of the federal government.

CAGW's "Pig Book" for 2006 denotes about 9,963 "pork projects costing a record $29 billion" in the 13 appropriations bill. Williams pointed to several boxes containing 23,000 petitions supporting the bill that the group has collected from voters, which he said would be delivered today to the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

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Interior IG blames 'bungling' for royalty collections lapse

David Hess — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

In testimony before the House Government Reform Energy Subcommittee, Earl Devaney said his investigators have yet to find any criminal wrongdoing in their ongoing investigation. But he insisted that the failure of a long train of department officials to enforce a law requiring leaseholders, once they reached certain price thresholds in oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, to start paying royalties in 1998 and 1999 betokened a "dysfunctional process" he said still exists in the department.

Devaney's probe, though not yet completed, has drawn attention from Congress. The subcommittee has been conducting its own inquiry of how the lapse in royalty collections occurred and why -- once it was discovered by department officials in 2000 -- it was covered up and apparently not reported to top managers of the department.

Under a law enacted in 1995 to spur lagging exploration in the Gulf for gas and oil, drillers were excused from paying royalties until they reached certain levels, or thresholds, of volume and pricing for the minerals. In subsequent regulations drawn up by the department in early 1998, the pricing threshold, which had been in effect in leases signed in 1996, 1997 and 2000, was omitted from the royalty requirement.

Energy Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said this lapse in collections has cost the government $2 billion in foregone royalty revenue and could end up costing $10 billion or more.

Lamenting what he called "an institutional culture and organizational intransigence" in the department, Issa said department officials who took part in the approval process for the offshore leases "failed to ensure that the price threshold policy was implemented."

Devaney said there is "plenty of blame to go around," since the lease-granting process went through multiple layers of officials before leases were finalized, from head-office reviewers to the department's lawyers. "There are too many people signing off on this thing," he said, noting that it was difficult -- after intensive questioning of 29 officials -- to fix responsibility and to hold any individuals accountable.

"I'm satisfied there isn't anything that would allow us to take this to the U.S. attorney," Devaney said, for criminal action. But, he told the panel, there appear to be clear grounds for internal disciplinary action.

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Interior official defends agency's oil lease management

David Hess — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

In testimony before the House Government Reform Committee, Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett responded to Inspector General Earl Devany's report on the failure to collect up to $10 billion in royalties from deepwater leaseholders in the Gulf of Mexico. In earlier testimony, Devany told a subcommittee that a "classic bureaucratic" blunder in 1998 and 1999 had led to the lapse in royalty payments and that the whole department had a long history of irresponsible and unaccountable management.

"He [Devany] makes broad and serious, yet vague, allegations," Scarlett said. "The department disagrees with the IG's broad-brush characterization. We take seriously any and all instances in which we find -- whether through our own management efforts or from IG investigations -- waste, fraud, ethical violations and other inappropriate actions."

Scarlett and Johnnie Burton, director of the agency's Minerals Management Service, went over in some detail how the major lapse had occurred, and went on to describe steps taken to prevent a recurrence. Both officials also said that subsequent royalties owed to the government had been collected since 2000 and will continue to pour into the Treasury as long as oil and gas revenues produced from deepwater wells remain high.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the panel continued to express outrage at the mismanagement, and demanded that disciplinary action be taken against any Interior officials who were responsible for the loss of revenue. The Government Reform Energy Subcommittee conducted its own inquiry of the situation. The subcommittee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., pledged to support efforts dictated by Congress to retrieve the lost royalties.

He and Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., also denounced a five-year coverup of the lapse in payments and called on Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to hold to account those responsible for the mismanagement.

Meanwhile, House Government Reform ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chided the Bush administration for opposing the House-passed bill that requires the Interior Department to bar energy companies that benefited from the lapse in payments from future oil and gas leases unless they make good on the royalties they failed to pay.

On that score, Scarlett said the White House "believes that the federal government must be a reliable business partner and must honor its contractual obligations, even when in retrospect the terms of those contracts appear unfavorable."

She said the department is engaged now in "voluntary negotiations" with the affected leaseholders to see if they can be coaxed into coughing up the money. Burton acknowledged, however, that of the 55 companies that own interests in the 1,032 deep water leases, only 20 have responded so far to the department's call for talks.

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Chertoff offers progress report on anti-terrorism efforts

David Hess — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

In a one-hour speech to a packed crowd at Georgetown University, Chertoff underscored the ongoing threat of terrorism as the key issue in President Bush's midterm campaigning to retain Republican control of Congress.

Answering congressional complaints that Homeland Security has, at the expense of prime big-city targets, too widely disbursed its anti-terrorism funding to areas that appear unlikely to be attacked, Chertoff reminded critics that al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden has vowed to "bankrupt" the United States and its western allies.

He insisted that the U.S. government must not "act hysterically" against all risks, no matter how small, but must balance its response and limited resources to those threats that appear most likely to materialize. Homeland Security's focus, Chertoff said, must remain on fending off the use of weapons of mass destruction, halting the infiltration of this country by international terrorists, and rooting out homegrown terrorists bent on radical and violent acts.

After ticking off a long list of anti-terrorist measures already put in place by Homeland Security and other federal agencies, Chertoff acknowledged that more needs to be done.

He said plans are under way to double the size of the U.S. Border Patrol to 18,000 by the end of next year; create counterfeit-proof driver's licenses and other forms of identification; set up an international system of fingerprinting for visas and passports to help in identifying potential terrorists; install radiation-detection devices at every major U.S. port by the end of next year to screen "one hundred percent" of incoming cargo, and train state and local first-responders in new communications technology to better coordinate with the federal government during natural disasters.

As for the chemical-plant and communications-intelligence bills in Congress, Chertoff said most private plants have cooperated in strengthening their facilities against sabotage but some have dawdled. Homeland Security, he said, must have the clout to pull them into line. And the president, he said, needs broader reach in surveillance of suspected terrorist communications as a way of "stopping attacks before they happen."

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