Senators demand answers from Defense nominee
Lawmakers criticize Bill Lynn's responses to questions on his former lobbying for contractor and his role as Pentagon comptroller under Clinton.
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., is demanding more answers from Bill Lynn, a Raytheon executive and former company lobbyist whose nomination for deputy Defense secretary has been criticized on Capitol Hill.
In a tersely worded letter Thursday, McCain told Lynn he was not satisfied with the nominee's answers to his questions this week about the effect Lynn's lobbying activities would have on the Pentagon job.
"I am disappointed in your response to my letter of January 26 which asked you to provide a detailed list of matters and decisions which you felt you would be disqualified from under existing ethics rules," McCain wrote. "Instead of providing such a list, your letter refers to a screening process run by lawyers."
Also on Thursday, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote Lynn to demand answers about policies he adopted while serving as Pentagon comptroller in the Clinton administration. Those policies, Grassley wrote, "left the barn door wide open to fraud and mismanagement."