November 05, 2009, 2:59 pm

TRANSPORTATION: Buffett’s New Company Sure Knows How to Lobby

By Matthew Lewis

President Obama wants Washington to get more creative on infrastructure funding. Railroads are undoubtedly part of that big financial future. Warren Buffett, an Obama economic confidante, has just placed a huge bet that could accelerate that creativity to his and rail’s overall benefit.

Buffett-chaired Berkshire Hathaway’s $26 billion acquisition of freight railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) comes amidst an administration that transportation lobbyists hope will make serious investments in American rail. Even before Buffett, BNSF was certainly in as good a position as anyone to take advantage of such a climate — with 33 federal lobbyists in its employ over the course of 2009 at a cost of $4,380,000 through September. In fact, between itself and its trade association, the Association of American Railroads — which has employed 49 lobbyists this year at a cost of $6,987,515 — BNSF enjoys a seriously comprehensive web of beltway relationships largely unrivaled in the transportation sectors, except perhaps by its other freight rail counterparts. And all of the industry’s efforts come at a key time for transportation policy.

The below charts provide an overview of BNSF’s multiple connections to key House and Senate committees through former members, their personal staffers, and committee staffers, all of whom have contracted with BNSF across seven different firms. The second chart shows the entirely separate but equally impressive series of relationships through the rail trade association’s 12 lobbying firms and in-house staff. To add to all that lobbying, BNSF has also contributed $895,441 to federal candidates this year – eleventh among companies nationwide according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

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November 05, 2009, 11:38 am

IN MEMORIAM: John W. Mashek

By Josh Israel

Mashek (left) interviews Frank Moore The Center for Public Integrity lost a part of its family on Tuesday with the sudden passing of veteran reporter and The Buying of the President 2008 contributor John W. Mashek. He was 77.

Mashek, a longtime Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and U.S. News and World Report reporter, turned usnews.com blogger, covered every presidential election from 1960 to 1996 and was a proud three-time panelist for the national presidential debates.

In 2007, Mashek recruited and led a team of Washington reporting legends for an unprecedented series of more than 100 interviews with 2008 and former presidential candidates, fundraisers, donors, strategists, and other experts about the evolving role of money in presidential politics. Over the next two years, Mashek’s dozens of interviews for the project included Howard Baker Jr., Michael Dukakis, George McGovern, and Walter Mondale. His booming voice, gregarious personality, and frequent gifts of cakes and cookies made him a highly popular presence in the Center’s newsroom.

We extend our heartfelt condolences to his wife Sara, his four sons, and his seven grandchildren.

November 05, 2009, 7:00 am

The Daily Watchdog: November 5, 2009

By Peter Newbatt Smith

A daily roundup of just-released investigative reports, drawn from oversight agencies, congressional committees, and government offices across Washington.

FINANCIAL STABILIZATION: “Troubled Asset Relief Program: Continued Stewardship Needed as Treasury Develops Strategies for Monitoring and Divesting Financial Interests in Chrysler and GM” (Government Accountability Office). Concludes that the Treasury Department “is unlikely to recover the entirety of its investment in Chrysler or GM, given that the companies’ values would have to grow substantially above what they have been in the past.”

DETAINEES: “A Review of the FBI’s Involvement in and Observations of Detainee Interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq” (Justice Department’s Inspector General). Originally released in May 2008, this revised version contains material subsequently declassified.

IRAQ: “Preliminary Observations on DOD Planning for the Drawdown of U.S. Forces from Iraq” (Government Accountability Office).

ENVIRONMENT: “Coal Combustion Residue: Status of EPA’s Efforts to Regulate Disposal” (Government Accountability Office).

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October 30, 2009, 1:22 pm

DEFENSE: Vast Undercount of War Contractors by Defense Tracking System

By Nick Schwellenbach

Nearly one-quarter of defense contractor employees deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and elsewhere in Southwest Asia — some 74,000 employees — are not being counted by the Defense Department’s tracking system, according to a document to be released on Monday by the Commission on Wartime Contracting. The finding brings into question the Pentagon’s continuing difficulty in monitoring and managing its contractor workforce.

The Synchronized Pre-deployment and Operational Tracker, or SPOT, is the Defense Department’s primary system to track contractors. Contractor companies are required to maintain individual employee accountability within SPOT, according to the system’s website. Government representatives use SPOT for oversight of the contractors they deploy.

SPOT counted about 170,000 employees in the region. However, a census by the Army’s Central Command counted about 243,000. Both counts occurred in the second quarter of 2009. U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department contractors are just beginning to be counted by SPOT, the Commission said.

Courtesy of Wartime Contracting Commission

The biggest difference in counts was in Afghanistan. SPOT counted around 30,000 contractor employees and the Army found more than twice as many, almost 74,000. The difference was minimal in Iraq.

It took more than two years to produce an order to implement the SPOT database — which was supposed to have achieved 100 percent coverage by the fall of 2008 — according to Clark Irwin, the Commission’s spokesman. The SPOT database, as shown by the 74,000 employee discrepancy, is still far from achieving 100 percent coverage.

By the time of publication, the SPOT program had not responded to a request for comment.

On Monday, the Commission will review the lack of an accurate count of contractors, among other issues.

October 30, 2009, 10:31 am

MONEY & POLITICS: Leaked Document Reveals Six “Murtha Method” Reps. Under Investigation

By Nick Schwellenbach

Seven members of a powerful subcommittee that was the subject of a recent Center investigation are now being scrutinized by the House ethics committee, according to The Washington Post. The paper also reports that they are among more than 30 lawmakers being scrutinized for ethics violations, according to a leaked confidential document.

Last month, the Center reported that a dozen members of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee received campaign contributions from earmark recipients who also used the lobbying services of former staffers of those lawmakers or the subcommittee. “The Murtha Method” story, named after Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha, the chairman of the panel, identified six of the seven subcommittee members under investigation as being in these controversial networks of influence.

Murtha, along with Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), James Moran (D-Va.), Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) are being scrutinized by ethics investigators from the House ethics committee and/or the new Office of Congressional Ethics created by the ethics reforms of 2007. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who is also under investigation, did not appear in our review of fiscal years 2008 and 2010 defense appropriations earmark recipients because we did not identify any former Kaptur staffer acting as a lobbyist for her earmark recipients. Tiahrt appeared in our review of 2008 earmarks, but not of those in 2010; the rest appeared in both reviews.

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) does not have subpoena power and can only make recommendations to the ethics committee (officially, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct), which does have subpoena power. According to the Post, the OCE inquiry is an examination of lawmakers who may have been “accepting contributions or other items of value from PMA’s PAC in exchange for an official act.” The PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm, was headed former House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee staffer Paul Magliocchetti and was considered widely influential in gaining earmarks from that subcommittee. It had been previously disclosed that the House ethics committee was examining the activities of the PMA Group.

In a statement released yesterday, ethics committee chair Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and ranking member Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), wrote “at any one time, the Committee has dozens of matters regarding Members, Officers, and employees before it… no inference to any misconduct can be made from the fact that a matter is simply before the Committee.” They said the leak of documents came from a former junior staffer who was able to gain “unauthorized and inappropriate” access the documents from his home computer.

October 29, 2009, 7:00 am

The Daily Watchdog: October 29, 2009

By Peter Newbatt Smith

A daily roundup of just-released investigative reports, drawn from oversight agencies, congressional committees, and government offices across Washington.

ENVIRONMENT: “EPA Needs a Better Strategy to Identify Violations of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act” (Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General). Reports that EPA lacks a systematic framework for identifying violations of and enforcing compliance with the Clean Water Act’s provisions regulating discharge of dredged or fill material into wetlands.

ENVIRONMENT: “Federal Electronics Management: Federal Agencies Could Improve Participation in EPA’s Initiatives for Environmentally Preferable Electronic Products” (Government Accountability Office). And see hearing on “IT Procurement and Disposal: Application of the Federal Government’s Green Policies in the Life Cycle Management of IT Assets” (House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement).

“LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION: Some Progress Made in Addressing Governance and Accountability Weaknesses, But Challenges Remain” (Government Accountability Office). And see hearing on “The Legal Services Corporation” (House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law).

“RECOVERY ACT: Preliminary Observations on the Implementation of Broadband Programs” (Government Accountability Office). And see hearing on “Oversight of the Broadband Stimulus Programs in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” (Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee).

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October 27, 2009, 7:00 am

MONEY & POLITICS: Blue Dogs’ Fundraising Totals Plummet in Third Quarter

By Josh Israel, Aaron Mehta

It’s official. The Blue Dog’s fundraising slowdown was not just a symptom of the dog days of summer. Newly released public disclosure forms indicate that over September, the coalition’s PAC took in its smallest monthly total yet this year.

Our analysis of the fiscally conservative and increasingly influential Blue Dog Coalition and its funding noted that the group’s political action committee had averaged more than $176,000 in receipts from other PACs over the first half of 2009. Their monthly haul dropped to a surprisingly low $27,000 in July, rebounded somewhat in August, and but then dropped again to just $12,500 in September.

That September money came from just three donations — $5,000 from accounting and professional services giant Ernst & Young’s PAC, $2,500 from the Food Marketing Institute PAC, and $5,000 from the National Rifle Association of America Political Victory Fund.

After raising $1.1 million from January to June, the committee raised less than $87,000 between July and September — less than it brought in during any one of the preceding five months. And in just three months, the Blue Dog PAC’s monthly fundraising average dropped by more than $50,000 — probably not the sort of fiscal conservatism the 52-member coalition was hoping for.

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October 27, 2009, 6:59 am

The Daily Watchdog: October 27, 2009

By Peter Newbatt Smith

A daily roundup of just-released investigative reports, drawn from oversight agencies, congressional committees, and government offices across Washington.

LAW ENFORCEMENT: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Foreign Language Translation Program” (Justice Department’s Inspector General). Finds that the FBI continues to have significant backlogs of audio and electronic files collected for counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigations but not translated into English and reviewed for important information.

MILITARY PROCUREMENT: “Many Analyses of Alternatives Have Not Provided a Robust Assessment of Weapon System Options” (Government Accountability Office).

DRUG SAFETY: “FDA Needs to Enhance Its Oversight of Drugs Approved on the Basis of Surrogate Endpoints” (Government Accountability Office).

DISASTER RESPONSE: “Influenza Pandemic: Key Securities Market Participants Are Making Progress, but Agencies Could Do More to Address Potential Internet Congestion and Encourage Readiness” (Government Accountability Office).

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October 26, 2009, 3:36 pm

DEFENSE: Pentagon Contracting Audit Chief Removed Following Critical Senate Hearing

By Nick Schwellenbach

The head of the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), April G. Stephenson, is being removed, according to an e-mail she wrote today to DCAA employees. And at least some observers see the move as a result of misdirected anger from Congress. Her removal comes after a contentious September hearing focused on Government Accountability Office findings of widespread deficiencies in DCAA audits conducted before Stephenson's tenure as director of the DCAA.

One knowledgeable observer, who requested anonymity, told PaperTrail, “The Director of DCAA has been scapegoated for weaknesses in the contract audit system, both real and imagined.” DCAA is supposed to make sure that contractors are billing the government correctly for costs. The observer said Stephenson deserves much credit for policy changes that received significant pushback from the contracting community.

However, during the September hearing, Stephenson bore the brunt of criticism from members of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. “I can’t understand why the management of this agency hasn’t been completely changed,” Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said at the hearing.

She is being reassigned to the office of Robert Hale, the Defense Department’s comptroller. She had been in the DCAA position for just over a year. Her last day in the position is November 8.

Some improvements at DCAA occurred after Stephenson launched a review of the agency’s metrics system, which had previously provided incentives for DCAA field offices to produce many audits quickly — a high-quantity, rather than high-quality approach. Another policy change removed barriers for DCAA employees to submit referrals of suspected fraud and other behavior to Defense Department criminal investigators, which PaperTrail first reported earlier this year.

Criminal investigators are indeed looking into problems related to the original 2008 GAO report on DCAA audits in California. The Defense Department inspector general’s office has launched investigations into at least one senior Defense Department official, government sources have told PaperTrail. The report states that the Defense Criminal Investigative Service “continues to investigate the actions taken by acquisition officials relating to the” Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, which provides space-launch capabilities for the Air Force.

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October 26, 2009, 9:26 am

TRANSPORTATION: While Federal Action Stalls, a Battle Rages in Virginia

By Matthew Lewis

Use our interactive map to see which Virginia-based groups are lobbying Congress on transportation, including the details on lobbying for five specific projects. As transportation enthusiasts wait for official Washington to hash out a brand new $500 billion transportation bill, a duel just over the Potomac may provide a glimpse of the debate to come.

Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates — Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Bob McDonnell — are going down the stretch of their campaign arguing transportation blueprints, gas taxes, and other issues of keen interest to a transportation lobby long dependent on lawmakers both in state capitals and in Washington D.C.

The Center’s recent report on the Transportation Lobby reveals that at least 74 Virginia-based public and private interests lobbied the U.S. Congress in the first half 2009 in hopes of influencing future policy. The number includes 46 national associations based in northern Virginia that work on behalf of the transportation and construction industries as well as an array of other Beltway interests like manufacturers and lobbying firms. In addition to those players, 28 locally-minded groups and Virginia companies — including the City of Norfolk, real estate firm Silver Companies, and the Greater Richmond Transit Company — also paid federal lobbyists on transportation this year.

At least 20 groups in the Center’s Virginia data, such as freight railroad Norfolk Southern and the Southern Environmental Law Center, are also lobbying at the Virginia state capital on a variety of concerns. Transportation policy typically requires having a foot in both the federal and local camps.

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