Lawmakers want Pentagon included in diploma mill probe

Two senior lawmakers asked the General Accounting Office on Thursday to extend its investigation of fake educational degrees to include Pentagon employees.

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., asked GAO to broaden an investigation of federal departments that began last July.

The probe began after Linda Callahan, a senior director in the Homeland Security Department's chief information officer's office, was put on paid leave over allegations that she had received her degrees from an organization in Wyoming that essentially sold diplomas and required little or no work. Homeland Security Department officials did not respond to inquiries on Thursday.

"We agreed that the GAO's initial investigation would focus on the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation, Education, Veterans Affairs, the Office of Personnel Management and the Small Business Administration," Collins and Davis wrote in a letter to the GAO. "We are now asking the GAO to examine diploma mill degree use and reimbursement at the Department of Defense in order to get a more complete picture of the extent of the problem."

"In the long run, this GAO investigation will ensure that our tax dollars are spent wisely, and will help employees advance their careers-legitimately," Collins said in a release.

In a letter sent last week, Collins asked Education Secretary Rod Paige to develop a comprehensive list of accredited institutions that would eliminate doubt about the legitimacy of certain degrees.

"We continue to be very concerned about federal employees buying bogus degrees," Davis said. "Weeding out employees with bogus credentials--whether or not they resulted in an actual promotion--will boost morale and rectify a terrible breach of trust."