October 30, 2006
Contractor abuse? Say it ain't so...
DailyKos poster jorndorff has a great article up about Republican's hindering oversight of government contractors by Congress. Instead of doing the right thing for the country, as the Democrats did in World War 2 and Vietnam, the Republicans have allowed their contributors to feed uninterrupted at the government trough.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the recent firing of 60 contracted investigators from the Surveys & Investigations Staff (S&IS) of the House Appropriations Committee. The S&IS has been an active component of the House Appropriations Committee for 63 years, made up of former employees of the FBI, CIA and other federal investigative bodies. The bulk of its work is done covertly, its findings largely classified and rarely published.On October 16th, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) unilaterally fired the 60 contractors, leaving the unit gutted with only 16 permanent investigators remaining in the unit. (Lewis himself has spent over $50k on lawyers over the course of this past month, as federal investigators continue to look into his history with the Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton and White lobbying firm and more specifically former disgraced congressman-turned-lobbyist Bill Lowery.)
So, I guess Republicans are for less government only when it comes to making sure taxpayers are actually getting their money used efficiently. This is especially intereating in light of all the stories about bad acts (here and here) with taxpayer funds by Halliburton, the former corporate home of VP Cheney. But there's no collusion there. Yeah, and I'm a washing machine.
Posted by mcblogger at October 30, 2006 01:25 PM
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