Government Executive - Authors - Peter Bell

Deficit Reduction Among Top Priorities for Political Insiders

Michael Catalini, Naureen Khan, and Peter Bell, National Journal — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:41:59 -0500

On a National Journal poll of political insiders, deficit reduction ranked among the top priorities for Democrats, tying with tax reform in popularity. Republicans rated it as even more pressing.

What two issues should be the top priorities for your party this year?

DEMOCRATS (107 VOTES)

Deficit reduction: 21%
Energy: 7%
Guns: 14%
Immigration: 64%
Jobs: 66%
Tax reform: 21%

Deficit reduction

“Deficits imperil the economy and could destroy the safety net; and Washington could actually fix the problem.”

Energy

“Our constituencies want action on climate change. Now is the time.”

Guns

“Now that Obama has made guns a signature issue, he has to be able to claim victory on his priorities.”

Immigration

“This will be the best year to do comprehensive immigration reform for years to come.”

“Democrats must lock in the image with the fast-growing Hispanic communities, as we have done for decades with African-Americans, that they can be at ‘home’ with our party.”

“Gotta get immigration done, at least to thank the Latinos who gave Obama his margin.”

Jobs

“Jobs solve so many problems! Everyone wants a balanced budget, but they would prefer to be employed!”

“If the unemployment rate continues to hover around 8 percent, the midterm elections will be difficult for Democrats. Jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Tax reform

“Create jobs and have everyone pay a fair share, and most of the other problems—except guns, which will never be solved—will go away.”

What two issues should be the top priorities for your party this year?

REPUBLICANS (94 VOTES)

Deficit reduction: 54%
Energy: 7%
Guns: 3%
Immigration: 50%
Jobs: 57%
Tax reform: 24%

Deficit reduction

“Prevent Obama from spending us into economic oblivion.”

“Controlling the ‘size and scope of government’ is key to the base, and immigration is key to party growth.”

Energy

“Access to affordable energy leads to job creation.”

Guns

“We’ve got to stop standing in the way of gun reform—it makes us look crazy.”

Immigration

“Do Republicans really want immigration used against them again in ’14, ’16, and beyond? Do comprehensive now, and give a future candidate a chance to be heard by more than 47 percent of the electorate.”

“Settle the issue, start the healing.”

Jobs

“Since when did 7.8 percent unemployment become the new normal?”

“Jobs would indicate we actually were awake.”

“The country is growing too slowly to fix any other problem.”

Tax reform

“Make Democrats defend the absurd current revenue code.”

Click here to see more results, including how the parties view sequestration.

(Image via larry1235/Shutterstock.com)

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Disaster aid offsets still popular among congressional Republicans

Taylor West and Peter Bell — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

In this week's National Journal Congressional Insiders Poll, Republican Congressional Insiders are maintaining a nearly united front in demanding that any disaster relief funds allocated by Congress must be offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Some 86 percent of Republicans surveyed said they believe that any federal disaster aid allocated by Congress must be offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Republican members of Congress expressed concern about debts and deficits.

"We cannot afford to treat any new Washington spending differently with respect to offsetting its cost with corresponding budget cuts," said one Republican lawmaker.

"Endless borrowing will lead to a disaster," said another.

"Our national debt does not distinguish," added a third.

Some Republican respondents suggested that Washington should have been planning ahead for the possibility of disaster needs.

"Remember the work of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., on this issue," said one Republican member of Congress. "We know every year that we will have massive natural disasters and can easily budget from past expenditures."

Another agreed, saying, "We should budget it as contingency spending and, if that's not enough, cut elsewhere. That is what families do."

Democratic Congressional Insiders reacted with dismay to the idea that aid might be delayed by negotiations over spending.

"This is why the emergency designation exists," said one. "To hold aid hostage to another budget fight would be unconscionable."

"That is dumb," said another. "We pay for emergencies all the time. Why is this different? This cut, cut, cut the budget is getting out of hand."

Several Democratic Insiders expressed the opinion that the urgency of the need should outweigh spending concerns.

"It's always better to pay for the actions we take," said one Democratic member of Congress. "But in the case of suffering Americans, we shouldn't let political posturing delay the aid and support we are obligated to deliver."

Another echoed that point, saying, "It's not ideal, but we simply can't leave people hanging at a time like this."

One Republican Congressional Insider felt offsets were necessary to curb abuse of the budgeting process. "Congress has been gaming the 'emergency' bills for too long. Time to budget - and pay - for them."

But a Democratic Insider found hypocrisy in the debate, stating, "We have no problem sending billions in 'emergency funding' to fight unwinnable wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with no offsets whatsoever. Why can't we do the same for our own needy Americans who have had their homes, farms, and businesses completely destroyed by flooding?"

The National Journal Congressional Insiders Poll is a regular anonymous survey of Democratic and Republican Members of Congress.

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Congressional insiders back boosting employee retirement contributions

Peter Bell and James A. Barnes — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

National Journal Congressional Insiders Poll.

When asked the question, "Should federal employees have to match the amount that the government contributes to their pensions?" 78 percent of Republicans said yes, but so did 36 percent of Democrats. Only 46 percent of Democratic respondents said employees shouldn't have to match contributions, along with 19 percent of Republicans.

A total of 22 Democrats and 27 Republicans responded to the survey.

Republicans felt that given the budget constraints, federal employees should be treated more like those who work in the private sector when it came to their retirement. "We're broke, and it's time for the federal government programs to better match up with the private sector," said one GOP Congressional Insider. Added another: "Really, it's only fair relative to everywhere else across the country."

Roughly a third of the Democrats agreed, but with some conditions. "The change should happen over time, not all at once, and it should be prospective only," said one Democratic Congressional Insider.

At the same time, a plurality of Democrats was opposed to simply forcing federal workers to take a cut in their paycheck to fund their pension. "It is tantamount to breaking a contract," declared a Democratic Congressional Insider. "Federal employees pay into the retirement system and do not 'vest' for several years," said another. "Any change in pension contributions should be accompanied by an examination of the 'vesting' rules."

Only a handful of Republicans agreed. "Our pension plan is key to retaining some of the most talented staff we have," noted a GOP Congressional Insider. Said another, "They shouldn't have to match the amount but they should contribute more than what they are currently contributing."

Democrats who didn't respond directly to the question seemed to be open to change, but not unilaterally. "Federal employees have various negotiated benefit packages, depending on their occupation and contract of employment," noted one Democratic Congressional Insider. "Any changes to those should be bargained and a matter of employer-employee negotiation." Another Democrat observed, "The policy should fit the circumstance. The key to pensions like tax is creating a fair, sustainable system."

But that kind of cautious and gradual approach probably won't appease many Republicans. Speaking of the federal workers and having them match for their retirement, one GOP Congressional Insider said bluntly, "Unless the Democrats get supermajorities back, that is the least that will happen."

The National Journal Congressional Insiders Poll is a regular survey of Democratic and Republican members of Congress.

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First-term House Dems win earmarks while dueling over mantle of reform

Megan Scully and Peter Bell — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Congressional Republicans trying to reclaim the mantle of fiscal responsibility and their majority in the House will have to contend with a Democratic freshman class loath to share its signature issue: earmark reform.

Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee blasted those freshmen Democrats who voted to defeat a GOP amendment to the Higher Education Act reauthorization bill that would place a moratorium on earmarks and create a select committee to change the earmark process.

On Tuesday, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, unveiled a Web site dedicated to earmark reform. With anti-earmark champion Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the likely GOP presidential nominee, the issue is likely to get more exposure.

There is no doubt House freshmen learned quickly how to bring federal dollars back to their districts with the fiscal 2008 Defense and omnibus appropriations bills.

Based on figures compiled by the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense and scheduled for release Thursday, House freshmen accounted for $263 million in personal, single-sponsor earmarks. Democratic freshmen accounted for $237 million of that.

Whether their successes become liabilities as Republicans ratchet up their calls for reform and promise to make it a yearlong refrain is shaping up to be a central issue in the fall campaigns.

Some Republicans think they have found a winning issue. "It serves two purposes. It allows us to point out broken campaign promises, while speaking to Republican supporters that we're serious about earning back the majority," said a Republican campaign aide. "It's a good issue on two fronts."

The aide said GOP challengers will look to highlight a freshman's votes for bills containing any embarrassing projects, as well as for projects that he or she sponsored.

"They are on thin ice," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., an Appropriations Committee member and a co-chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Frontline program to prepare vulnerable freshmen Democrats for re-election.

Wasserman Schultz said most freshman offices use a formal process to evaluate the worthiness of requests before they are submitted to the Appropriations Committee for review.

One such freshman is Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa. During his first year in office, Sestak reached out to municipalities, first responders, local organizations and small businesses in his district, using public sessions aimed at walking them through the appropriations and federal grants processes.

His office put together a "how-to" guide to help local governments and organizations make grant requests in an effort to steer his constituents to use grants rather than earmarks, when appropriate. It also created a seven-page earmark request form.

But the retired three-star admiral also runs a proverbial tight ship. Sestak's office heavily vets earmark submissions.

In many cases he runs defense earmark requests by the military to make sure the project is a product they want or could use before sending letters to the subcommittee chairmen with a brief argument in support of the add-on and following up with the chairmen and committee staff. If there is an overlap between campaign contribution and earmark requests, he said, he promptly returns the contributions.

Sestak's military experience gave his defense earmarks credibility with appropriators, and helped him secure $23.4 million in military-related add-ons. Sestak's earmarks came to $32 million.

But he acknowledged that his requests for add-ons were not always given the same priority as those of more vulnerable freshmen.

"I do know this," Sestak said. "Because I wasn't on Frontline ... I was not on the Tier One list for earmarks."

Indeed, senior appropriators have credited politically vulnerable freshmen for bringing funds for large, defensible projects back to their constituents.

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., for example, received $9.3 million for the Submarine Learning Center at his district's New London Submarine Base. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., secured $11.6 million to accelerate the construction of a new chapel complex at Ft. Leavenworth in her district.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., another co-chairman of the DCCC Frontline group, said he thinks members of the group will not necessarily respond to organized Republican earmark attacks in the same way. Cardoza suggested a strong offense might be the best defense.

Were he a freshman, Cardoza said he would "explain to voters that the number of earmarks exploded under Republican leadership, and that on the very first day of the 110th Congress, Democrats took historic steps to bring transparency and accountability to the earmark process, which resulted in halving the total number of earmarks."

That's a figure Taxpayers for Common Sense disputes. The group says earmarks have declined 23 percent since 2005. And, notwithstanding efforts to make the process more transparent, the odds favor Republican congressional challengers finding requests among the thousands in the fiscal 2008 omnibus to isolate and criticize.

For now, Republican efforts to rehabilitate their reputation for fiscal responsibility have a toehold. Of the seven Democrats who sided with Republicans on last week's procedural vote on earmarks, six were freshmen.

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The Money Trail

Peter Bell — Mon, 01 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

A year after returning from Iraq, a young veteran takes a second look at rebuilding.

A year after returning from Fallujah, Todd Bowers is energized by the conviction that his six-member team, part of the Marine Corps 4th Civil Affairs Group, managed its reconstruction money better than most. "For every dollar I gave out, the paperwork was insane," says Bowers, 26, describing how a copy of each contract he let went to a comptroller, to his team leader and to the Marine infantry battalion to which his team was attached. Bowers' command estimates the team oversaw about $2 million in contracts.

Bowers' vantage on reconstruction didn't go beyond the officers immediately above him, or much past the contracts he and his team assembled in Fallujah in 2004 and 2005. On his own, Bowers was limited to handling contracts of $5,000 or less. But when records of his efforts and those of other disbursers are loaded into a central database operated by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, a fuller measure of the reconstruction can be taken.

Parts of that bigger picture have emerged, but the IG's progress has been spotty. In February, at the outset of the office's third year of accounting for how the $18.4 billion Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund is spent, Special Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen Jr. told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "It is difficult for me to assess the current progress of the overall project portfolio, or to identify potential problems with individual projects. . . . difficulties in extracting data from U.S. government agencies in Iraq hinder our responsiveness."

Collecting accurate data was a priority for Bowers and his team. Another was sharp shopping. After the U.S. military's assault on Fallujah in November 2004, Iraqis slowly began returning to the city in mid-December. That was when Bowers and his colleagues encountered Rafeed, an Iraqi engineer who volunteered to organize laborers to work at the team's humanitarian aid site in the northwest part of town. After a background check, Rafeed was hired. But Bowers handled the money. "He would organize the workers, they would work all day long, and at the end of the day we would line them up, and I would pay each person individually," says Bowers. The team would spend three months or more building trust with Iraqis such as Rafeed before cutting them checks for thousands of dollars to build a school or to renovate some other facility. "That was very rare. No one else was doing it that way," says Bowers.

When his team compared its disbursements to those of other teams, including ones operating in less densely populated areas, it found that "people were spending ridiculous amounts of money," Bowers says. The group prepared cost estimates before reviewing bids, which allowed it to bat down high ones. But, says Bowers, "We started to realize that a lot of these guys would go find somebody else to give this bid to. We became known as these guys that would be hard-asses when it came to these contracts."

That distinction was sometimes at odds with the goal of putting Iraqis to work and quickly re-establishing an economy in the shattered city. Bowers says his team leader, a captain, heard from superiors that the group was not disbursing money quickly enough. But the team was reluctant to relax its contracting protocols. Then as now, Bowers worried that money lost to unfamiliar contractors could end up funding the insurgency. "We don't want American taxpayer dollars to buy [rocket-propelled grenades] and AK-47s," he says.

Still, the lethal environment in Iraq can overcome even trusted hires like Rafeed. Last September, after Bowers returned to classes at The George Washington University, he learned that Rafeed and his brother were assassinated by insurgents holding the engineer's daughter for ransom.

In the year following his return from Iraq, Bowers did more recounting than accounting. In August, his homecoming was profiled in Washingtonian magazine. Last fall, he joined Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., at a press conference to pressure the Pentagon into formalizing an equipment reimbursement program. (During a firefight in Fallujah, a nonregulation rifle scope and protective eyewear that Bowers had acquired on his own deflected a sniper's bullet.) And, he went on a college speaking tour with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, formerly called Operation Truth. Bowers calls himself the tour's "token Republican" because he was a junior staffer to Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., from 2001 until his initial deployment in 2003.

Now Bowers has taken up accounting again. When his commitment to the Marines ended in mid-March, Bowers was hired by the nonprofit watchdog group Project on Government Oversight as a defense investigator. POGO lends material support to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Follow the Money project, which tracks where taxpayer money for those wars and reconstruction is going. "I think in the position I'm in at POGO now, I can continue to help the guys on the ground," says Bowers, "but maybe with a suit and a tie, walking the halls of Congress." His civil affairs unit returns to Iraq in June.

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Sandra Pack

Peter Bell — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Treasury
Sandra Pack
Assistant Secretary for Management,
Chief Financial Officer,
Chief Acquisition Officer

After a delayed start, Sandra Pack became the Treasury Department's chief financial officer and assistant secretary for management, a position filled by acting personnel since the departure of Teresa Ressel in January 2004. She also is the department's first chief acquisition officer since the position was created in December 2003.

Pack's name was put forward in May, but Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus used his ranking position on the Finance Committee to block all of Treasury's nominees. He was dissatisfied with the department's decision to tighten requirements on U.S. agricultural shipments to Cuba. In late July, Baucus relented and the Senate confirmed Pack along with seven others.

Prior to her confirmation, Pack, a certified public accountant, managed the finances for two of President Bush's most visible efforts: She was treasurer of both his election campaigns. From November 2001 to December 2003, she was assistant secretary of the Army for financial management and comptroller.

In Pack's absence, Deputy Chief Acquisition Officer Tom Sharpe managed operations and represented Treasury at meetings of the Chief Acquisition Officers Council.

Pack comes to a department with mixed marks on the presidential management score card. Though Treasury remains in the red on the financial management component, its competitive sourcing score has gone from red to green since 2003. Sharpe points to information technology modernization at the Internal Revenue Service as a factor. In 2004, the IRS beat private sector competition with its proposal to cut three quarters of its information technology staff at 10 tax return processing centers and consolidate three distribution centers.

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Catherine Tyrell

Peter Bell — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Health and Human Services
Catherine Tyrell
Chief Acquisition Officer

In May, Clay Johnson, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, gave the government's chief acquisition officers an Oct. 1 deadline: Use strategic sourcing to identify three contracting areas where products could be purchased more cheaply and more efficiently. One month later the Health and Human Services Department had found six, prompting it to strike new contracts for office supplies, furniture and equipment, custodial products, IT peripherals and document management. With three more contracts currently under review, these nine account for about $200 million in spending-a fraction of the approximately $11 billion the department spends annually on procurement. But according to Chief Acquisition Officer Catherine Tyrell, it's an important first step. "We started with the low-hanging fruit because it gets people on board," Tyrell says.

Tyrell came to HHS in February 2001 to work for the Administration for Children and Families after a three-year stint with the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee. Eight months later, she joined the newly created Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management as special assistant to the secretary. ASAM has the largest procurement office in the department (HHS has 36 procurement offices), and it houses the procurement policy shop. There, Tyrell discovered the size and the scope of HHS purchasing. "I learned that the question of what we buy often ends up being the question of what don't we buy," she says. Tyrell became the department's first chief acquisition officer in May 2004.

HHS must deal with the effects of turnover. About a third of the department's 65,000 employees now are eligible for retirement, and procurement is a specialized field where departures will be quickly felt. As Tyrell notes, "You can't just hire someone off the street. You need a real business focus."

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Joseph A. Neurauter

Peter Bell — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Housing and Urban Development
Joseph A. Neurauter
Chief Procurement Officer

Joseph A. Neurauter cuts a somewhat unusual figure for a chief procurement officer. He isn't a former accountant, or a business executive or even a consultant. He didn't navigate Washington's political machinery before arriving at the Housing and Urban Development Department in mid-August. Neurauter is a former Army trial and appellate judge and a retired colonel in the Judge Advocate General Corps. "We were looking for a good manager, because we have a young and diverse workforce," says A. Jo Baylor, Neurauter's predecessor at HUD.

During a distinguished military legal career Neurauter earned nearly a dozen awards and medals before retiring from the Army. In 1997, he presided over several of the high profile Aberdeen Proving Ground trials, in which five men were convicted of sexual misconduct or rape of female recruits at the Maryland facility in 1995 and 1996. His JAG career also exposed him to contract law. "I was lucky to be something of a generalist," says Neurauter.

After retiring from the Army in 1998, Neurauter spent three years working for the Pentagon as a civilian judicial adviser to the Army's Judge Advocate General.

Then it was on to the General Services Administration, where he was an acquisitions deputy and the agency's suspension and debarment official. In 2004, he investigated an information technology contract administered through the Interior Department that was used to supply the Army with civilian interrogators in Iraq.

HUD has had a chief procurement officer since 1998, but unlike the chief acquisition officer positions created governmentwide by Congress two years ago, the department's CPO is not a political appointment requiring Senate confirmation. The CPO title remains distinct from CAO, which belongs to multi-tasking HUD Deputy Secretary Roy Bernardi.

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No agency left behind in hurricane relief effort

Peter Bell — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Cabinet Agencies

Agriculture
USDA's first responsibility in an emergency is to make food available to victims. The Food and Nutrition Service has sent thousands of tons of food to the Gulf Coast from nearby warehouses, and it has issued emergency food stamps. The department sent veterinarians to head off any animal-borne diseases in the region; just inland is the heart of the U.S. poultry industry. The Farm Service Agency announced that emergency loans are available to farmers and ranchers who lost crops or livestock. The Forest Service has extensive incident-response experience from fighting seasonal wildfires in the West, and its personnel were among the first to arrive at the flooded Gulf Coast. Some 2,000 Forest Service workers were clearing roads of debris, so that emergency supplies could be delivered.

Commerce
Several Commerce Department agencies play significant roles in disaster readiness and recovery efforts. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration uses satellites and surveillance jets to track threatening storms at sea. After Katrina made landfall, NOAA's Office of Coast Survey used boats equipped with sonar and scanners to assess underwater damage to the region's numerous ports, including the Port of New Orleans, the country's fourth-busiest. The Coast Guard and individual port authorities use NOAA's surveys to decide when to open or close ports.

On land, engineers and scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology evaluate how buildings and other structures withstand disasters, both natural and human-caused. NIST has not yet sent staff to the Gulf Coast to survey damage, according to NIST spokesman Michael Newman.

Economic Development Administration employees aren't first responders, but EDA officials have begun identifying opportunities for future economic development in the region. The EDA's community investment programs have helped communities redevelop after military base closings, after the departure of large local employers, and after disasters such as hurricanes.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration manages the federal use of communications spectrum. Along with the Federal Communications Commission and the private sector, the NTIA provides wireless-frequency spectrum support for the Federal Emergency Management Agency during emergencies. When FEMA requested additional channels, NTIA worked to clear and transfer the needed spectrum.

Defense
When the National Response Plan is activated, the Army Corps of Engineers leads the reconstruction of public works such as levees, dams, and bridges. The department can also deploy armed forces to help civilian authorities deliver supplies, maintain order, and conduct urban search-and-rescue missions. Defense per- sonnel and assets remain under the military chain of command. As of September 6, there were 13,000 active-duty troops and 40,000 National Guard troops in the region, and 21 Navy ships nearby.

Education
Federal officials have met with state school executives to devise innovative, ad hoc plans for educating hundreds of thousands of displaced students. Federal law requires states to ensure that students who are homeless and those with permanent addresses receive equal access to education. "The 'homeless' statute was not written with something of this magnitude in mind," said Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. "We will worry about the fine print later."

Energy
The Energy Department is responsible for maintaining the nation's power supply, and its biggest asset is the nation's 700 million-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman authorized the loan of 12 million barrels of oil to energy companies to offset the initial shutdown of almost all U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. To further offset production losses, President Bush authorized the sealed-bid sale of approximately 30 million barrels, as part of a cooperative effort with the other 25 member nations of the International Energy Agency.

HHS
Under the National Response Plan, Health and Human Services leads health care efforts in a national emergency. HHS deploys strategic stockpiles of medicine and supplies, as well as the department's numerous doctors and nurses, many of whom have volunteered to serve at 40 field hospitals that HHS is setting up at regional military facilities.

Many of the doctors, nurses, and technicians of the National Institutes of Health are staffing field hospitals at military bases along the Gulf Coast. NIH sent 100 personnel to operate a field hospital in Meridian, Miss. Other NIH staff remained in Bethesda, Md., answering questions about individual patient treatment from physicians in the field. The Food and Drug Administration has also sent 275 Commissioned Corps doctors and nurses to the region.

When its medical expertise is requested, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides personnel and lab support to local and federal health agencies. Last week, the CDC sent 30,000 doses of tetanus vaccine to the Gulf Coast.

Homeland Security
When the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002, its secretary was put in charge of coordinating the government-wide responses to future crises. Secretary Michael Chertoff and FEMA Director Michael Brown have been the government's most visible actors in the Katrina aftermath, and both men have become targets for criticism. But other DHS elements have received praise: Coast Guard search-and-rescue teams pulled almost 23,000 people out of harm's way in the week after Katrina, while Customs and Border Protection distributed $2.4 million worth of clothing earlier seized at U.S. ports. Depending on the scale of a disaster, FEMA works with as many as 28 federal agencies to achieve 12 "emergency support functions." FEMA itself leads the urban search-and-rescue function, as well as the information and planning functions.

HUD
After a disaster, the Department of Housing and Urban Development collects assessments of damage to housing stocks. On Tuesday, HUD estimated that 436,000 government-assisted housing units had been affected in the Gulf Coast region, leaving an estimated 1.1 million people displaced. HUD identified 5,600 immediately available vacant units in department-owned housing, and announced it would offer mortgage-assistance programs to homeowners, and emergency construction funds to local housing agencies.

Interior
All of the Interior Department's agencies have been involved in Katrina-related activities. The Minerals Management Service oversees the nation's natural resource development, including oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. In Katrina's wake, MMS's regular inspections were delayed because most of the agency's helicopters were given over to relief and rescue work. A week after the storm hit, MMS reported that about 70 percent of the Gulf of Mexico's usual daily 1.5 million barrels remained bottled up.

The Fish & Wildlife Service has been clearing debris so that emergency supplies and personnel can reach afflicted areas. The National Park Service is the caretaker of the nation's 388 national parks, seashores, and monuments. In the days after Katrina hit, displaced residents began arriving at parks; NPS decided to temporarily waive campground fees nationwide.

"We're doing rescue, and squeezing in the science when we can," said U.S. Geological Survey spokeswoman Carolyn Bell. Many of the agency's boats are being used to rescue stranded residents and deliver food and supplies. USGS scientific responsibilities include measuring water levels and coastal erosion. The agency estimates that Katrina's storm surge may have reached 26 feet, about 8 feet higher than Hurricane Camille's.

The Bureau of Reclamation is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to restore public works in New Orleans. The Corps has requested 300 bureau engineers and employees, to oversee debris removal and the raising of temporary buildings. The bureau also hauled an experimental water purifier that can clean 200,000 gallons of water a day, from a government test site in Almagordo, N.M., to Pascagoula, Miss.

Justice
Justice Department agencies lend support to local law enforcement during an emergency. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives enforces the nation's gun laws in cooperation with local police forces. ATF's New Orleans field office was evacuated before Katrina hit. After the hurricane, ATF was regrouping and summoning additional personnel from out of state.

Labor
After a disaster, the Labor Department uses National Emergency Grants to put unemployed citizens back in the workforce, at least temporarily. By September 6, the Labor Department had made about $200 million in grants to Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, for the hire of approximately 60,000 evacuees into relief and recovery jobs. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has staff advising cleanup crews on work-site safety and distributing safety checklists in the region. Exhaustion is another concern. OSHA has no standard for the extended hours that relief workers sometimes take upon themselves, but it has encouraged supervisors to observe workers for signs of physical, mental, and emotional fatigue.

State
The State Department has been holding incident briefings for diplomats and reviewing offers of international assistance. It has accepted all offers of funds. Offers of specialized personnel and equipment remain under consideration until FEMA identifies matching needs.

Transportation
In national emergencies, the Department of Transportation is responsible for providing transportation for rescue and relief efforts. Many of the 1,600 supply trucks that DOT has so far provided came from a company in Atlanta that the department retained for emergency circumstances a few years ago, said spokesman Brian Turmail. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta also requested that ships from the civilian Ready Reserve Fleet, ordinarily used to re-supply the armed forces, head to the Gulf Coast. Perhaps the biggest contract was a post-hurricane one with commercial air carriers. On September 3, commercial jets began arriving at Louis Armstrong International Airport, delivering food and medical supplies, and departing with passengers. Two dozen Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers and three dozen technicians directed and serviced the relief flights after generators were brought in and a makeshift control tower was erected.

Treasury
The Treasury Department has waived tax-credit requirements for owners of low-income housing units, letting them offer housing to all parties without penalty. Treasury spokesman Taylor Griffin said that Texas Gov. Rick Perry
's office estimated this measure would make available approximately 20,000 units in Texas. The Internal Revenue Service has extended September tax-filing deadlines for individuals and businesses in the affected area until October 31, and is supplying individuals with copies of their tax returns upon request.

Veterans Affairs
Katrina spared the veterans' haven of Pensacola, Fla., but not the VA hospitals in Gulfport, Miss., and New Orleans. VA's Gulfport facility was evacuated before Katrina hit, but about 200 patients and 360 staff and family members weathered the storm in New Orleans before military cargo planes and trucks transported them to other VA facilities.

Independent Agencies

EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency's emergency function is to identify and assess environmental hazards at disaster sites. EPA has been working with state health authorities to test the safety of local drinking and wastewater facilities, and conducting air surveillance to spot chemical and oil leaks. Like other agencies with their own air and water transportation, the EPA assisted the Coast Guard with rescue operations. On the regulatory side, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson waived regional clean-fuel requirements to allay gasoline shortages sparked by Katrina.

FDIC
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has encouraged financial institutions to temporarily suspend ATM fees, overdraft fees, and credit card limits in the affected area. FDIC has also posted an online list of which FDIC-insured banks are open in the region.

FCC
In an emergency that knocks out communications systems, the Federal Communications Commission acts to sustain or restore the system by lifting regulatory restrictions. The commission has issued over 30 such waivers since Katrina hit; one allowed a company to outfit a Humvee with satellite dishes and provide mobile VOIP phone service. But the damage to the region's communications infrastructure remains vast: Some 2 million telephone lines are down, affecting both landline and cellular phone service.

FTC
After a disaster, the Federal Trade Commission focuses on educating citizens about how to re-establish their credit status. The FTC also watches for charity scams and predatory offers of loan assistance.

GSA
The General Services Administration provides support to federal agencies involved in disaster relief and recovery. The task will require billions of dollars' worth of building space, supplies, equipment, and services contracts.

NIFC
The National Interagency Fire Center isn't a staffed agency, but a coordination group. Based in Boise, Idaho, it mobilizes incident-response teams and resources from nine government and state agencies, including the Forest Service and the NOAA. NFIC draws incident-response teams from member agencies, and then keeps track of where personnel and equipment have been deployed during a disaster.

NRC
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is responsible for oversight of private nuclear power-plant operations. The night before Katrina hit, two NRC observers and 140 Entergy employees slept on air mattresses inside the Waterford 3 Nuclear Plant near New Orleans, shutting down the reactor and preparing to restart it after the hurricane had passed and evacuation routes were cleared.

SBA
After the president declares a federal disaster area, the Small Business Administration can offer home and business loan assistance to individuals in the region. The SBA disbursed $2 billion in loans related to last year's hurricanes. SBA disaster loans currently carry fixed interest rates of 2.6 percent for homes and 4 percent for businesses; the rates are a bit higher for borrowers who qualify for credit from private lenders. Second homes aren't eligible for disaster loans, and flooded businesses must secure flood insurance before the SBA will release funds.

USPS
The Postal Service suspended delivery to dozens of ZIP codes along the Gulf Coast, and is encouraging displaced citizens to file change-of-address forms at any post office or via telephone or the Internet. At post offices in the region, the Postal Service set up 10 hubs where citizens could receive their Social Security checks, which had already been mailed. Unclaimed checks were sent to forwarding addresses or returned to the Social Security Administration.

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Aging computers hamper Justice unit's activities

Peter Bell — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

With few exceptions, those who fall under the act's rules must complete a detailed accounting of their activities, from who met with a lawmaker to how much was spent on office supplies in the service of a client. FARA requirements are much more rigorous than those imposed by the Lobbying Disclosure Act, which covers lobbying by domestic entities. But the stewardship of the FARA filings is not.

FARA filings are updated on a rolling deadline of every six months from the time a lobbying firm was first retained. With no single deadline, it is impossible to compare firms over any given time period. In addition, the Justice Department unit that maintains the FARA records uses computer systems that are at least 10 years old. Last month, the FARA unit's four public terminals -- the only public access to the filings -- were out of commission for more than a week.

The department signed a half-million-dollar contract last spring for a new computer system that is supposed to be in place by December. But neither FARA unit employees nor the contractor, Dynamic Research, would comment on how the upgrade will improve the system. For the time being, public access to the filings will remain a shoe-leather affair, not an online one. "There's a tremendous amount of data that needs to be formatted," said Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra.

National Journal gathered the most recent six-month FARA filings for each of the top lobby firms. In the first half of 2004, Patton Boggs reported $2.5 million in FARA-related earnings, while Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld took in $1.5 million, and Van Scoyoc Associates reported $200,000 over roughly the same period. Barbour Griffith & Rogers reported earning $179,000 from December 2003 through May 2004, and Piper Rudnick reported $2.18 million from September 2003 to February 2004. Cassidy & Associates reported $58,000 in earnings from December 2002 through May 2003, while Greenberg Traurig reported $350,000 from November 2002 through April 2003. Williams & Jensen last received FARA-related fees in 1995 and terminated its registration that year. Dutko Group is not registered with FARA.

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