Financial Reform Bill Full of Loopholes

Newsweek.com http://bit.ly/8ZmcuD

Re: Bill S.3217-- Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010

Senator's pursuit of border fence kills attempt to reform secret holds

Center for Investigative Reporting http://bit.ly/c5tLKw 

Federal employee travel credit card abuse "in the millions of dollars" each year

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From: POGO- Project on Government Oversight

Taxpayers are Victims of Continued Government Charge Card Abuse

Contact: Scott Amey, 202-347-1122 or Marthena Cowart, 202-347-3958

[In a bureaucracy the size of our federal government, we can expect, during peace time and prosperity, daily small financial abuses from many of its employees. However, in the time of wars and skyrocketing national debt, credit card abuse during the George W Bush administration is shameful. -ATR]


A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) highlights long-standing systemic weaknesses and mismanagement in federal credit card spending.

CRS’s report details abuses in the federal government travel card program that are costing the government and taxpayers “millions of dollars annually.” Travel cards are used by government officials for airline, hotel, and related travel expenses. CRS looked at Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Inspector General (IG) travel card reports, and found that:

• Improper or unauthorized charges included $3,700 for laser eye surgery, reimbursement of nearly $10,000 for tickets that an official didn’t purchase, a first-class trip to Hawaii, and numerous upgrades to premium-class accommodations.
• Agencies failed to recover millions of dollars in unused tickets – the Department of Defense had $100 million in unused tickets from 1997 to 2003.
• Delinquent travel card payments prevented the government from receiving maximum potential rebates from card vendors.
• Travel card spending increased from $4.39 million in FY 1999 to $8.28 million in FY 2008.

“A private travel agency would be out of business running this kind of operation,” declared Scott Amey, POGO’s General Counsel. “This report summarizes problems with individual transactions and, more importantly, with government agencies that aren’t safeguarding taxpayer dollars. Immediate improvements are needed, including improved oversight of all transactions, increased penalties for misuse, and enhanced processes to take full advantage of the benefits that travel cards were expected to bring.”

Legislation is pending in the Senate (S. 942) and House (H.R. 2189) that will add taxpayer protections for government travel cards and purchase cards (used for supplies and services).

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Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights passes US Senate; President Obama expected to sign identical House bill before Memorial Day

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From: U.S. PIRG

Statement: Credit Card Bill passes Senate

Statement of Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director On Senate Passage of the Credit CARD Act

“U.S. PIRG commends the Senate on overwhelming passage of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, S 414, as introduced by Senator Chris Dodd, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee. While the House has already passed a similar Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, we expect that the House will simply pass the identical Senate bill so Congress can send a final bill for the President to sign before Memorial Day.

For too long, owning a credit card company has been a license to steal. Over the last few years, the banks increased their use of abusive tactics, such as changing due dates so they could trick consumers into paying late. Worse, they charged a double whammy—a high late fee first and then tripled interest rates to 36% APR or more. Second, they started charging good customers higher rates because they supposedly paid some other creditor late (universal default). But that wasn’t enough, so they started raising the rates of customers who’d been late to no creditor, for no reason at all. That was their biggest mistake. Gouging everyone caused thousands and thousands of Americans who just want a fair deal to contact Congress and even the Federal Reserve.

The Credit Card Act bans nearly all retroactive rate increases on current balances, it prohibits universal default in the first year and it protects college students from unfair marketing of credit cards.

I’ve been in Washington twenty years. For the first 19 we couldn’t even get a committee vote on credit card reform despite these practices.

Due to abusive practices by credit card companies, we are now on the verge of historic credit card reform. Is it everything we want? No, we should also ban raising rates going forward, not just retroactively, and we should ban forced arbitration clauses in credit card contracts and reinstate usury ceilings. But final passage of this historic credit card reform legislation will stop big credit card companies, many of which are feeding at the TARP taxpayer trough, from cheating Americans out of their hard-earned money. That will help working families so that they can become part of our economic recovery, not lurch on a credit card debt treadmill. It’s about time.”

-30-

Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at May 19, 2009 02:01 PM

[Original U.S. PIRG article accepts comments]

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For sale in June Theresa Amato book “Grand Illusion: the Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny”

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From: Ballot Access News

Theresa Amato, Nader Campaign Manager in 2004, Speaks to Maine League of Women Voters State Convention May 2nd, 2009

The League of Women Voters is holding its state convention May 1-2, at Bowdoin College, Brunswick. The speaker for May 2, at 1 p.m. through 2:30 p.m., is Theresa Amato, Ralph Nader’s campaign manager in 2000 and 2004. Because Amato is about to publish a book about Nader’s 2004 campaign, focusing on the historically unprecedented attempts by the Democratic Party to prevent voters from voting for Nader, it is virtually certain that Amato’s talk will focus on ballot access. The book, to be published soon by The New Press, is titled, “Grand Illusion: the Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny.”

[This Ballot Access News article accepts comments]

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Vote for 2008 Porker of the Year

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From: Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)

Help Decide the

2008 Porker of the Year!

And the Nominees are:

Sen. Christopher Dodd

Rep. John Mica

Rep. Jim Moran

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid

Sen. Ted Stevens


Please visit CAGW and cast your vote now! Thank you


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How to make easy money on we, the taxpayers

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From: Project on Government Oversight (POGO)

The Usual Suspects of Contract Abuse

Government Executive reports that the Army is investigating whether Combat Support Associates, an Orange, Calif.-based contractor, overcharged the government on its contract supporting U.S. troops in Kuwait.

CSA performs equipment maintenance and security work at Army bases in Kuwait under the Services Support Contract - Kuwait (CSSC-K), a contract the Army awarded in 1999, shortly after the company was formed. The contract, which had a projected 10-year value of $547 million when it was awarded, has so far cost the government more than $2 billion.

It is not surprising that CSA is under suspicion. Read the story and you immediately see some of the “usual suspects” of contract abuse: 1) a multi-year, cost-plus contract; 2) a war zone; 3) an understaffed contract oversight office; and 4) a Cayman Islands subsidiary set up shortly after winning the contract to avoid paying taxes on its overseas employees and to escape the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.

There is an important aspect to this story not mentioned in the Government Executive article. We hasten to call it a usual suspect, but Blackwater Worldwide has certainly seen its share of contracting controversy. Last year, when a shooting in Baghdad put Blackwater in the spotlight, new questions arose in regard to Andrew J. Moonen, a Blackwater guard accused of shooting a an Iraqi vice president's bodyguard on Christmas Eve 2006. Moonen was fired and quickly sent home after the incident, but within weeks he was hired by CSA and sent off to Kuwait. Moonen ended up working for the company for six months.

The incident was a cause of embarrassment for the State Department, which helped Moonen get out of Iraq and apparently did nothing to prevent him from getting work on other Iraq War-related contracts. CSA claimed it was unaware of Moonen's history when it hired him.

-- Neil Gordon

[Original article accepts comments]

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Insurance company AIG already abusing its own bailout from the US government

Henry Paulson, Secretary of the
Treasury.
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From: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Oversight Committee to Paulson: U.S. taxpayers are paying for AIG’s profligate spending

October 7th, 2008 by Karina

During today’s Oversight Committee hearing to examine the regulatory mistakes and financial excesses that led to the bailout of AIG the committee learned, among other things, that a week after the government spent $85 billion dollars bailing out AIG, executives went on a retreat at a luxury resort spending $443,343.71. Chairman Waxman asked at the hearing that a letter to Secretary Paulson about these expenditures be inserted into the record. Below is the letter:

October 7, 2008

The Honorable Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
Secretary
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20220

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Today the Oversight Committee held a hearing examining the $85 billion government bailout of AIG. The hearing showed that even after the bailout, AIG has spent freely on executive compensation and perquisites. U.S. taxpayers are paying for AIG’s profligate spending.

Today’s hearing revealed that shortly after the bailout was signed, executives from AIG’s major U.S. life insurance subsidiary, AIG American General, held a week-long conference at an exclusive resort in California. The company spent nearly half a million dollars in a single week at this resort, including thousands of dollars on catered banquets, golf outings, and visits to the resort’s spa and salon.

The hearing also revealed that AIG continues to pay one million dollars a month to an official who helped bring about the company’s downfall. This official, Joseph Cassano, is the former president of AIG’s Financial Products division, the unit that sold the credit default swaps that caused billions in losses for AIG. Mr. Cassano resigned from his position in March 2008. Yet AIG has inexplicably decided to pay Mr. Cassano up to $34 million in unvested bonuses. Even today, it is continuing to employ him as a “consultant” for one million dollars a month.

Secretary Paulson, this situation is unfair to taxpayers. AIG received $85 billion in taxpayer money, yet it continues to lavish its executives with undeserved payments and perquisites. We urge you to protect the taxpayers’ money and end this profligate spending.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman
Chairman

Elijah E. Cummings
Member of Congress

Bruce Braley
Member of Congress

Jackie Speier
Member of Congress

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House Speaker Pelosi denies Republican calls for Rep. Rangel ouster from Ways and Means Committee

Left to right, Reps. Pelosi, Rangel, Sen. Durbin
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From: Judicial Watch

Pelosi Blows Off Calls To Oust Rangel

Wed, 09/10/2008 - 15:49 — Judicial Watch Blog

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ignoring calls from fellow lawmakers to remove a veteran Democrat representative, who has repeatedly violated ethics rules and used his office to raise money from corporations with business before him, as chair of a powerful tax-writing committee.

In a hard-hitting letter signed by several outraged congressional colleagues, Pelosi is told that as Speaker of the House she must insist that Charles Rangel, who has represented Harlem for nearly four decades, step down from his House Ways and Means Committee chairmanship pending an investigation into his ethical lapses.

Given Chairman Rangel’s continuing ethical lapses, the letter says, he cannot effectively carry out is duties as committee chair. Rangel’s latest violation, exposed by the media this week, evidently pushed his colleagues to finally call for his ouster from the prestigious committee which actually writes the federal tax code.

It turns out that the self-proclaimed champion of the poor has for decades excluded rental income—$75,000 in 20 years—from a luxurious Caribbean villa on federal and state tax returns. He also failed to mention the earnings on congressional financial disclosure forms which are sworn statements.

A few months earlier, Rangel was exposed by his hometown newspaper for having four extremely rare rent-stabilized apartments in New York—a violation of state and city regulations as well as House ethics rules—even though he regularly criticizes his district’s lack of affordable housing.

In the same week, news reports revealed that Rangel used his congressional office to solicit millions of dollars in donations from corporations with business interests before his panel. The money, about $30 million, will be used for a new academic center that will be named after him and eventually house his papers when he retires. Rangel got the project started with a highly controversial $1.9 million congressional earmark.

None of this seems to bother to Pelosi, who vowed to implement ethics reform when she took over as speaker with her infamous “maybe it takes a woman to clean house” rhetoric. Through a spokesman, Madam Speaker said the call to oust Rangel is a ploy to divert attention from the continuing fallout of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and its culture of corruption.

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DOI's Mineral and Mining Service wins "Worst Misconduct Abuse" award

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From: Project on Government Oversight (POGO)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Danielle Brian or Mandy Smithberger, 202-347-1122
POGO: DOI’s Mineral and Mining Service Wins “Worst Misconduct Abuse” Award

Washington, D.C. – The Project On Government Oversight welcomed the news today that federal investigators at the Department of Interior OIG have documented evidence that employees at the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) have accepted gifts, ski vacations, and sex from industry personnel. The charges illustrate the improper relationship between the regulatory agency and the oil and gas industry that it is tasked with over-seeing. This cozy relationship with the industry has been the subject of several inquiries in recent years.

U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, Chairman, Energy and Natural Resources Committee had requested the OIG investigation.

Sources have told POGO that three Department of Interior OIG reports show systemic and reckless abuse at MMS that extends to its leadership, explicitly naming retired Associate Director Lucy Denett as being responsible for contract rigging contract at the agency.

“Given the billions of dollars at stake, and number of people involved, this is easily the worst instance of government misconduct that POGO has seen,” said Danielle Brian, Executive Director of POGO.

The IG’s findings confirm POGO’s earlier reports that Denett rigged a contract to allow a former MMS employee, Jimmy Mayberry, to work as a consultant for MMS. These allegations provide further insight into how MMS has failed its mission to collect royalties owed on federal oil and gas leases on behalf of taxpayers.

For several years, POGO has been monitoring and reporting the department’s gross mismanagement of the Mineral and Mining Services (MMS) office. For more information go to, www.pogo.org.

Founded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight is an independent nonprofit which investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more accountable federal government.

.
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Tell your two US Senators and US Representative YES to a strong whistleblower protection bill

Public Citizen is asking us to send a message to our respective two US Senators and US Representative in support of government whistleblowers. Last year, strong whistleblower protection bills were passed in both houses of Congress. Now, the Senate and the House have both passed bills by a veto-proof majority, but they must be reconciled- now it's time for Congress to finish the job by passing a final bill; emphasis should go to the House version.

When scientific research is altered or suppressed, government contractors waste millions of taxpayer dollars, or national security documents are falsified, witnesses need to know that they can blow the whistle without reprisals endangering their careers and their lives. Please go to this Public Citizen whistleblower campaign's webpage and send your message to emphasize the House version for strongest whistleblower protection (you can edit the message if you wish). If you prefer to call the Capitol Switchboard, the phone number is 202-224-3121. Thank you