Clean Government

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) has raised many eyebrows in the past few weeks with his novel, somewhat surprising, suggestion regarding the potential public funding of his campaign for the presidency. On Feb. 1, the Obama Exploratory Committee submitted a request to the Federal Elections Commission for an Advisory Opinion (AO). The committee is asking the FEC if it is within legal limits for Sen. Obama to “provisionally” take funds from private donors for his campaign but to also have the option, should he get the Democratic nomination, of returning those contributions in order to accept public funds. However, this would only happen if the Republican opponent also agreed to do so.

This proposition is wrought with intrigue, not to mention brilliant strategy. By making the request to the FEC, Sen. Obama has made it publicly known that he is not precluding the use of public funds. That’s likely to make some supporters of public financing very happy, especially after the disappointment such individuals may have felt after Hillary Clinton -by some media accounts – single-handedly killed the presidential public financing system. The proposition, if accepted by the FEC and if Sen. Obama becomes the Democratic nominee, also presents a challenge to the Republican opponent to fight fair. The political costs incurred by the Republican nominnee for turning down such a noble challenge are immeasureable.

The U.S. Department of Education erred from the outset of the Reading First program in focusing on selected reading programs and a single assessment in training sessions for state officials applying for a share of the $1 billion-a-year program, a report by the department’s inspector general concludes.

Federal officials also failed to screen a contractor for potential bias and conflicts of interest, says the report unveiled this week.

Those errors led to widespread confusion over the program’s requirements and fueled perceptions that there was an approved list of commercial texts and tests for use in Reading First. Moreover, the department did not ensure that employees and representatives followed legal restrictions that prohibit them from directing or influencing curriculum and assessment decisions.

Full story…

By CREW on Executive Branch corruption

Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks the executive branch ethics rules need to be fixed:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for tighter ethics rules in federal agencies Wednesday after government officials approved the purchase of a $980,000 vacation home by a top Justice Department lawyer with an oil company lobbyist.

Pelosi’s criticism followed an Associated Press report last week that department ethics officials did not object when Sue Ellen Wooldridge, then head of the environment division, was buying a South Carolina beach house with Donald R. Duncan, the top Washington lobbyist for ConocoPhillips.

“If in fact Ms. Wooldridge got such a pass from the ethics committee of the executive branch, then certainly the executive branch ethics process needs a look as well,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said when asked about the house purchase at a San Francisco news conference.

Nine months after the purchase, Wooldridge approved an agreement that allowed ConocoPhillips an extension of pollution cleanup requirements at some of the company’s refineries. The company says Duncan was not part of those negotiations.

It’s almost as if people in the executive branch can’t police themselves so Congress needs to step in.

More from Marketplace on loopholes in the new House Ethics rules (you can also listen to the piece at that link). In this report, Marketplace takes a look at the provision that allows political action committees (PAC) to pay for travel with lobbyists:

This is the way the leadership PAC loophole works: Hoyer’s guests give thousands of dollars to his PAC. Because there are few restrictions on how PAC money can be spent, Hoyer’s PAC uses some of the cash to pay for the congressman’s trip to Puerto Rico. The PAC also provides entertainment, golf, even nifty little gifts bags for all the guests.

The lobbyists and donors who have supplied the cash for this party then pay their own way to Puerto Rico. And in return for their generosity, they get to golf and hang with the congressman in the Caribbean.

Hoyer’s PAC has booked 137 rooms for his May event. Lobbyists who didn’t want to be named tell us it will be a blast.

It may not look good, but it is legal, and well within congressional ethics rules.

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NASA does not follow its own guidelines in paying incentive awards on contracts, contributing to sometimes excessive payments to companies that miss schedule and cost targets, according to a new report.

The Government Accountability Office found problems in how NASA uses cost-plus-award-fee contracts, an arrangement in which outcome-based payments reward good performance. Almost half the contract dollars the agency spent from 2002 to 2004 were covered by that type of arrangement, auditors found (GAO-07-58).

Full story…

This past Friday, former Senator and current presidential candidate John Edwards called for public financing of all elections during an interview on Real Time With Bill Maher. Click here to download and watch the clip (2.5 MB).

Eight ethics training sessions apparently didn’t have quite the desired impact on former CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo.  The Politico has the details on Foggo’s prominent ethics role at the agency:

The high-ranking CIA official accused of steering contracts to a childhood friend once oversaw ethics at the agency, according to federal charging papers.

The case against Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, whose indictment is linked to the investigation that landed former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., in prison, has embarrassed the CIA. And it comes when Democrats, now holding a majority in Congress, are working to make good on campaign promises to eradicate the specter of corruption that they charged hung over the Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration.

Foggo, who retired last year as the third-ranking CIA official, served two years as a “deputy ethics official” and sat through ethics training eight times, according to the federal grand jury indictment handed down last week in San Diego. But Foggo covered up gifts and a job offer he received from his alleged co-conspirator, the indictment asserts. And it quotes an e-mail in which he seems to suggest ethics reporting requirements are burdensome.

WASHINGTON – The Interior Department has “a culture replete with a lack of accountability” and at least a half-dozen major management problems that have festered for years, federal officials testified Friday.

The department faces “enormous challenges in several areas,” Inspector General Earl Devaney said at an oversight hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee.

In the past two years alone, Devaney’s office has uncovered golf outings, dinners, hunting trips, concert tickets and box seats at sporting events being accepted against the rules by Interior officials. They have also uncovered exclusive access and special favors by Interior employees to select outside groups.

Full story… 

The Government Accountability Office has issued a report on illegal use of government funds in Iraq construction projects. The following is the text of the GAO summary:The Department of Defense (DOD) has relied extensively on contractors to undertake major reconstruction projects and provide support to its deployed forces, but these efforts have not always achieved desired outcomes. Further, the Iraqi government must be able to reduce violence, sustain reconstruction progress, improve basic services, and make a positive difference in the daily lives of the Iraqi people. This statement discusses (1) factors affecting DOD’s ability to promote successful acquisition outcomes on its contracts for reconstruction and for support to deployed forces in Iraq, (2) the deteriorating security situation and the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces, and (3) issues affecting the Iraqi government’s ability to support and sustain future reconstruction progress. The testimony is based upon our work on Iraq reconstruction and stabilization efforts, DOD contracting activities, and DOD’s use of support contractors spanning several years. This work was conducted in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

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Rumors continue to swirl in Washington (San Francisco Chronicle columnist David Lazurus and the Consumer Affairs site have detailed entries), about the possible appointment of industry lobbyist Michael Baroody to the vacant chairmanship of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). As far as we know, the Senate has not even received a nomination, so the notion of a stealth recess appointment of an industry lobbyist to a consumer job is insulting to that body. But then again, Bush’s abject failure to make either a timely or consumer-oriented nomination is a demonstrable failure to the American people. Since the agency has had no chairman for six months, under its rules it no longer has a quorum to conduct business, including to impose penalties on wrongdoers. This week, Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) moved a bill through Senate Commerce to fix that problem, but it is not yet law. We don’t have an official position on the non-nomination of Michael Baroody of the National Association of Manufacturers to chair the nation’s consumer product agency, but we are certainly not impressed that the President thinks he can sneak an industry lobbyist in on Lincoln’s Birthday. We can easily think of a half-dozen consumer advocates who could and should fill the job. Our previous blog on the departure of former Chairman Hal Stratton.