House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently chided the president for his complaint that Congress was muckracking via a "constant stream of investigations" that have turned up nothing, and "endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq." Pelosi's response was typical hypocrisy: "The president calls congressional oversight that has uncovered tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq a 'waste of time.' We call billions spent in no-bid contracts to Halliburton a waste of money."
The irony here is that it is Pelosi's House colleague, Rep. Jack Murtha, a self-appointed troop smearer, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, who is most guilty of "wasting" billions of dollars of taxpayer money. Murtha, after all, was caught in the 1980 FBI undercover Abscam sting. How's that for the fox charged with the henhouse.
According to a timely piece in today's Wall Street Journal (albeit not timely for Mrs. Pelosi), Jack Murtha's committee will oversee "$459 billion in military spending this year." Physician, investigate theyself.
It gets better.
"Mr. Murtha has steered more taxpayer funds to his congressional district than any other member."Johnstown's [Mr. Murtha's district] good fortune has come at the expense of taxpayers everywhere else. Defense contractors have found that if they open an office here and hire the right lobbyist, they can get lucrative, no-bid contracts. Over the past decade, Concurrent Technologies Corp., a defense-research firm that employs 800 here, got hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Rep. Murtha despite poor reviews by Pentagon auditors. The National Drug Intelligence Center, with 300 workers, got $509 million, though the White House has tried for years to shut it down as wasteful and unnecessary. Another beneficiary: MTS Technologies, run by a man who got his start some 40 years ago shining shoes at Mr. Murtha's Johnstown Minute Car Wash.
A review by The Wall Street Journal of dozens of such contracts funded by Mr. Murtha's committee shows that many weren't sought by the military or federal agencies they were intended to benefit. Some were inefficient or mismanaged, according to interviews, public records and previously unpublished Pentagon audits.
One Murtha-backed firm, ProLogic Inc., is under federal investigation for allegedly diverting public funds to develop commercial software, people close to the case say. The company denies wrongdoing and is in line to get millions of dollars more in the pending defense bill... Mr. Murtha has steered at least $600 million in earmarks to his district in the past four years, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan Washington group. The nonprofit group estimates he's sent $2 billion or more to the district since joining the appropriations committee.
Well, well. If there be "waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq" it sounds like Democrats, under Mr. Murtha's leadership, have been quite complicit -- $2 billion alone just from Murtha!
The remainder of the article details how Murtha has instigated the second life of contractors who were long ago found wasteful and incompetent. For example, "Even before the [Johnstown's National Drug Intelligence Center] center opened, the General Accounting Office had called it a waste of money because it duplicated drug-intelligence gathering in Washington and at a center on the Texas-Mexico border."
The article concludes that the FBI is currently investigating the firm of Pro-Logic, which Murtha now floods with earmark taxpayer dollars.ProLogic was subpoenaed last year as part of a broader Federal Bureau of Investigation probe of earmarks granted by Rep. Alan Mollohan, a West Virginia Democrat, whose district includes ProLogic's headquarters. Both the congressman and company have denied wrongdoing. More recently, FBI and Defense Criminal Investigative Service agents have begun looking into the alleged illegal diversion of earmarked funds to a commercial ground-radar software project, people close to this inquiry say.
One approach squeezes even more value from earmarks. James Ervin, a retired lieutenant colonel, lobbyist and longtime friend of the congressman, helped found a venture-capital fund, Four Seasons Ventures, that invests in companies that have gotten earmarks and federal contracts. In a confidential document for prospective investors reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Four Seasons says its principals include people with "long and proven expertise in government acquisitions and appropriations." The firm doesn't disclose its investors.
According to the Four Seasons Web site, portfolio companies include PharmaThene Inc., a biodefense research firm, and Raydiance, a laser maker. Both received Murtha-backed earmarks and are lobbying clients of Mr. Ervin. Mr. Ervin declined to comment.
There's no evidence that Mr. Murtha personally profits from the hometown spending he rams through Congress. He ranked No. 333 in net worth among the 435 members of the House in a 2005 analysis by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. But his campaign coffers have risen since he became chairman of the defense-spending panel. In the first nine months of this year, Mr. Murtha's campaign committees have reported contributions of more than $1.05 million.
Labels: Congress, corruption, democrats, ethics
[WSJ] What remains is a sham of a reform. A prohibition on allowing Members to trade earmarks for votes? Gone. A restriction on allowing Members and their staff from promoting earmarks from which they or their families would receive a direct financial benefit? All but gone. The original reform required earmarks to be listed on the Internet and searchable 48 hours before consideration of legislation; the new bill says this is only required if it is "technically feasible." Here's betting Congress finds other urgent uses for its tech staff during Appropriations season.
Our favorite switcheroo: Under the previous Senate reform, the Senate parliamentarian would have determined whether a bill complied with earmark disclosure rules. Under Mr. Reid's new version, the current Majority Leader, that is Mr. Reid himself, will decide if a bill is in compliance. When was the last time a Majority Party Leader declared one of his own bills out of order?
Labels: campaign finance, Congress, earmarks, ethics
