Justin Rood reports on the ABC News Investigative blog on the several different investigations of Rep. John Murtha, the defunct PMA Group which funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions to Murtha from its PAC, employees and its clients, many of which were the beneficiaries of Murtha earmarks. Rood notes that these investigations are all distinct inquiries:
The federal probes do not appear to be directly connected or controlled by a single office, agency or prosecutor, but instead involve various combinations including the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Defense Criminal Investigation Service, the ...Continue reading
Journal-Gazette finds Lugar earmark disclosures
Sylvia A. Smith, finds, to the best of my knowledge, the first online disclosure of earmark requests by a member of the Senate: Sen. Richard Lugar:
WASHINGTON " Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has asked Congress to set aside $3.5 million to help Navistar develop a hybrid Humvee at the truck company's Fort Wayne plant.The request is one of 31 he submitted to the Appropriations Committee as it begins weighing the lawmakers' bids for pet projects in their states.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has said he will not request money for projects he singles out. The process, often called ...
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Whither stimulus contracts?
The Washington Post's Kimberly Kindy reports that the Dept. of Energy is awarding stimulus funds to companies specializing in nuclear clean-ups that have a mixed track record:
A private company was being paid $300 million by the federal government to clean up radioactive waste at two abandoned Cold War plants in Tennessee when an ironworker crashed through a rotted floor. That prompted a major safety review, which ended up forcing work to an abrupt halt, and the project was shut down for months. The delay and a host of other problems caused cost estimates to rise, eventually hitting $781 ...Continue reading
More transportation reauthorization earmark requests
A couple of staffers have emailed links to postings that their members have put online; I've updated our little Dabble database of earmark requests (I love Dabble, by the way -- fast becoming one of my favorite tools). So I've added requests for Rep. Zack Space and for Rep. Joe Wilson.
I guess we'll continue to update the database, at a much slower rate, throughout the week, but as with our previous efforts in this area, I'd much rather be looking at actual earmark requests than criticizing the process of posting them online.
I note, for example ...
Continue readingRequirements matter: Just 83 members disclosed transportation earmark requests
Apparently, deadlines do matter. Just 83 House members disclosed their earmark requests for the upcoming transportation reauthorization bill (that last version, SAFETEA-LU, was loaded with Prairie Parkway and Bridge to Nowhere--both of which were earmarks) on the same day that they submitted them to the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.
Rep. James Oberstar, chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, didn't require members to disclose their earmark requests online in the same way that the House Appropriations Committee does. The latter requires members to post all their earmark requests online before they submit them to the committee for consideration -- at least ...
Continue readingEarmark disclosure: Do Deadlines Matter?
When the House Appropriations Committee required members to post earmark requests on their Web sites before they submitted them to the committee, 321 members had them online in a reasonably accessible format. When the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee suggested members post earmark requests for the next big transportation reauthorization bill on their own Web sites--but didn't require it--we found just 71 disclosures online. That's comparable to the number that used to disclose requests voluntarily when there was no requirement to disclose.
Oeadlines do matter.
Continue readingWhere to find stimulus contracts
A company that offers outsourcing services to federal and state governments got a a contract award for $2.8 million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- the stimulus -- to set up call centers for the FCC's digital transition effort; they advertised for jobs paying $16.38 an hour in Buffalo, N.Y. The Dept. of Health and Human Services spent $326,000 in stimulus funds to purchase and install 98 workstations (and an option to store them until needed at a cost of $35 per pallet); a Midland, MI-based company, Space, Inc., got the sale. And ...
Continue readingGM, Chrysler to cut 3,000 campaign contributors
...er...dealers:
General Motors Corp and Chrysler aim to drop as many as 3,000 U.S. dealers and are expected to begin sending notifications as early as Thursday, three people briefed on the still developing plans said.GM, facing a U.S. government-imposed deadline of June 1 to restructure or file for bankruptcy, is expected to send termination notices to up to 2,000 dealers -- a third of its roughly 6,000 U.S. dealers, the sources told Reuters.
Chrysler, which filed for bankruptcy on April 30, will also tell up to 1,000 of its 3,189 U ...
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Earmark request disclosures: do deadlines make a difference?
Adam Hughes of OMB Watch asks a trenchant question in response to a report by Jackie Kucinich in Roll Call. Kucinich notes that Rep. James Oberstar, chair of the House Transportation Committee, which will be overseeing the massive transportation reauthorization bill (the last one, as Taxpayers for Common Sense's Steve Ellis tells Roll Call, contained earmarks for the bridges to nowhere), will have less stringent earmark disclosure rules than the House Appropriations Committee. The latter, chaired by Rep. David Obey, requires members post their earmark requests online before they submit them to the committee. Oberstar, by contrast "set a ...
Continue readingCram down look ups, cont. cont….
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