Federal Budget & Tax

Federal Budget & Tax: News Blog Background

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Rebecca Carr of Cox Newspapers is reporting that West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd has also had an annonymous hold on S. 2590 in addition to Sen. Stevens. I'm immediately inclined to wonder: Is this characteristic of Senators in their 80's?

Unlikely. Here's an explanation from Byrd's press spokesman Tom Gavin for the Senator's hold:

Senator Byrd wanted time to read the legislation, understand its implications, and see whether the proposal could be improved. There was an effort to pass a bill on an important subject without debate just before the Senate recess. Senators have an obligation to their constituents to know what they are voting on before signing off on any proposal

In addition, Byrd has announced he is lifting his hold on the bill. I suppose the slow-down over the last four weeks during the August congressional recess has allowed him sufficient time to read and understand the mammoth seven page bill.

Posted by Adam Hughes, 04:28:05 PM

Hold On One Second...

Rumors are flying that Sen. Byrd (D-WV) also has a hold on S. 2590.

I suppose we need to figure out what Coburn did to him as well?

More at TPMMuckraker.com

Posted by Adam Hughes, 12:59:27 PM

Does the Administration Drink Its Own Kool-Aid?

OMB Watch has been trying for the past year or so to connect the dots to expose the farce that is the administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). Here's another great example:

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) was reviewed under the PART survey in 2003 and given the highest rating of "effective." Some excerpts from the PART survey itself:

[NCES] makes a unique contribution to knowledge about the conditions and outcomes of education in America.

Educational administrators, researchers, and policymakers report high levels of customer satisfaction with the comprehensiveness and utility of program publications and services.

Despite this rating, the President has proposed cuts to funding for NCES each year since the review of the program was conducted. If the president has repeatedly said his administration is going to focus on spending government revenue wisely and only on programs proven to work, and his own evaluation tool finds that NCES is performing admirably, why would he want to elimiate it?

Aside from the demonstrated bias against the Department of Education within PART reviews, a partial answer to that question may have come last week from a new study released by none other than the NCES. The study was a comparison of fourth grade student performance in 2003 between students enrolled in charter schools and students enrolled in public schools. In short, the study found that the public schools, on average, were performing better than charter schools.

This report left me wondering not about whether charter schools are a good idea (full disclosure: my wife is a public charter school teacher in Washington, DC), but whether the Bush administration sees the NCES as a threat to one of their highest policy priorities: promoting school choice.

The more we delve into the PART, the more evidence we find that even the Bush administration doesn't believe the PART is an unbiased evaluative tool. It's simply another way for them to advance an agenda - but only when it is convenient. When it isn't convenient, they will just ignore it.

Posted by Adam Hughes, 11:58:14 AM

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Pots, Kettles, and the Ironic Blackness of the U.S. Senate

Earlier today we blogged about Sen. Stevens' (R-AK) "secret" hold on legislation of a fellow Senator - Tom Coburn (R-OK). We speculated that the reason Stevens' office gave for the hold was probably about as accurate as OMB's deficit projections have been over the past few years.

But what is the reason? Obviously, the shenanigans that occurred last fall over the bridge-to-nowhere earmark are a prime suspect as the two players were trading barbs front and center. Coburn offered the amendment to strip the funding for the bridge and divert it to reconstruct the Twin Spans Bridge in New Orleans while Stevens gave an impassioned defense of the funding that would benefit his state and the 50 folks on Gravina Island.

Case closed, right? Maybe not. We already commented on the irony of a bill promoting transparency and disclosure being blocked by a "secret" hold. But the irony of this story doesn't end there. We unearthed this eerily-foreboding Roll Call article from last summer where our two favorite Senators were once again front and center, but with a deliriously ironic twist. This time it was Coburn who, back in March 2005, was putting holds on bills coming out of Stevens' Commerce Committee - one which Stevens himself had written.

Though Coburn did not acknowledge putting holds on all four bills, but he did admit to putting a hold on one of Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens' (R-Alaska) ocean research bills.

But that's not even the best part. The article goes on to talk about how Coburn will use holds as a tool to accomplish his goals whether people like it or not, in addition to "air[ing] his views about wasteful and unnecessary government spending" through his subcommittee chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee - the very same committee that Coburn's database bill emerged from. Seriously folks, you can't make this stuff up.

So, what goes around comes around I suppose. Or, maybe it's...what's good for the goose if good for the gander?

Posted by Adam Hughes, 07:03:14 PM

Sen. Stevens, Come on Down!

It's official - the secret hold on S. 2590 is none other than Sen. Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens (R-AK). Sen. Stevens is the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and all around Senate curmudgeon. What's interesting about the fact that Stevens put a hold on the bill is his rationale. According to Stevens' spokesman Aaron Saunders, the Senator is worried "that the bill would create more bureaucracy. He wants to see a cost-benefit analysis."

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK)

That explanation seems unlikely given Stevens' track record. What is more likely is Stevens was trying to stick it to Coburn. Stevens is famous for a temper-tantrum he threw on the Senate floor last fall over what he considered was a "betrayal" by his colleagues. Stevens was angry at his fellow Senators - particularly Sen. Coburn (R-OK) - who refused to allow the "bridge to nowhere" earmark to remain in legislation after extensive negative publicity. Stevens even went so far as to say he would resign from the Senate and perhaps even "be taken out of here on a stretcher."

Stevens' office denies the hold was a secret, but you could have fooled me (and a number of highly trafficed blogs). Stevens apparently had objections to the bill for a while, but neglected to attend any of the hearings or markup of the legislation despite sitting on the committee of jurisdiction. How can this be seen as anything other that political payback? There's certainly more than one reason Sen. Stevens might be upset with his Oklahoma counterpart.

Posted by Adam Hughes, 05:02:51 PM

Secret Holder Unmasked

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has put a hold on S. 2590.

TPMmuckraker reporting:

A spokesman for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) just confirmed his boss was the man behind the secret hold on the Coburn/Obama spending database bill, which has captivated a segment of the political blogging community in recent days.
"Sen. Stevens does have a hold on the bill," said the spokesman, who would only speak on the condition he not be named.

Posted by Craig Jennings, 03:05:05 PM

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Who Is The Secret Holder: From 100 Down to 5

TPMMuckraker, with the help of GOP Progress and porkbusters.org (who originally started the tally), has narrowed the list of possibilities of the "secret hold" on S. 2590 in the Senate to five candidates (in fact, in the time I took writing this post, the list narrowed from eight to five):

Of those five, two are former Chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and could have more of a reason to be sheepish about disclosure of how the government spends its money than the others (they are long-time Sens. Byrd and Stevens btw).

Keep your eye on TPMMuckraker's running tally of denials of the hold as the secret Senator is unmasked - maybe sometime later today!

Posted by Adam Hughes, 05:46:18 PM

Secret Hold Update

TMPmuckraker has a handy-dandy tally of senators who have been cleared of being the secret holder.

Their tally includes senators cleared by Porkbusters, GOP Progress, and TPMmuckraker. It also includes a list of senators who have refused to answer queries about the hold or who have not issued a denial.

Posted by Craig Jennings, 11:05:20 AM

Friday, August 25, 2006

Katrina Contracts: One Year and $8.75 Billion Shy

Yesterday, the U.S. House Government Reform Committee’s Minority Staff Special Investigation Division released a report on waste, fraud and abuse in procurement spending in response to Hurricane Katrina.

The report, requested by Reps. Henry A. Waxman, Dennis A. Cardoza, David R. Obey, John S. Tanner, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and John F. Tierney, examines 19 Katrina contracts, collectively worth $8.75 billion, with significant overcharges, wasteful spending, or mismanagement.

According to the report, only 30 percent of these contracts were awarded with full and open competition and over 47 percent were awarded on a sole-source basis.

The highlights:

Full and Open Competition is the Exception, Not the Rule. As of June 30, 2006, over $10.6 billion has been awarded to private contractors for Gulf Coast recovery and reconstruction. Nearly all of this amount ($10.1 billion) was awarded in 1,237 contracts valued at $500,000 or more. Only 30% of these contracts were awarded with full and open competition.
Contract Mismanagement Is Widespread.Hurricane Katrina contracts have been accompanied by pervasive mismanagement. Mistakes were made in virtually every step of the contracting process: from pre-contract planning through contract award and oversight. Compounding this problem, there were not enough trained contract officials to oversee contract spending in the Gulf Coast.
The Costs to the Taxpayer Are Enormous. This report identifies 19 Katrina contracts collectively worth $8.75 billion that have been plagued by waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement. In the case of each of these 19 contracts, reports from the Government Accountability Office, Pentagon auditors, agency inspectors general, or other government investigators have linked the contracts to major problems in administration or performance.

What has the Administration learned in the year since Bush praised Brownie? The report provides this clue:

"Earlier this month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded new contracts worth over $1 billion to several of the same companies implicated in the wasteful Hurricane Katrina response."

Posted by Dana Chasin, 01:15:18 PM

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Indentity of Secret Holder Remains a Mystery

The quest to smoke out the Senator who is placing a "secret" hold on legislation to create a free, searchable, online database of all federal grants and contract continues today with a Cox News story that appeared in the Houston Chronicle. The story quote's OMBW own Gary Bass as saying:

It really is outrageous to do this in the dead of night as Congress is recessing. The public has a right to know how the government spends money.

Porkbusters 'Who's the Secret Holder?' page now lists 27 Senators as having publicly denied placing a hold on the legislation. If we assume a cosponsor of the bill would not place a hold on it, we can add in an additional 15 Senators, giving us 43 Senators. That means there are only 57 who could be placing the annonymous hold.

You Can Help Unveil The Secret Holder
Call the Capitol Hill switchboard (202.224.3121) and ask to be transfered to your Senators offices an ask them if they put the secret hold on S. 2590. When you get an answer, send me a note at ahughes @ ombwatch.org to let me know about it.

Posted by Adam Hughes, 11:14:23 AM

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Secret Hold in Senate Blocks Transparency Effort

While the inner-workings of Congress can often be full of illogical, ironic, and bizarre happenings, the latest behind the scenes buzz on Capitol Hill (and in the blogosphere) certainly takes the cake. OMB Watch has been supporting S. 2590 (see here and here for some of the BudgetBlog's coverage), a bill to create a free, searchable, downloadable database of all federal grants and contracts information. This effort is supported by progressives and conservatives, and nearly everyone in between, and has the support of a varied and eclectic mix of Senators.

But it seems there is at least one Senator who is not so wild about disclosing to the public how, on what, and with whom the government spends its resources (think Duke Cunningham). And the best part of it is the Senator (or Senators) in question has put an anonymous hold on the legislation, preventing it from passing unanimously.

Because the bill is widely supported in the Senate (both Party Leaders are cosponsors), the bill's author, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), decided to attempt to fast track the bill through the Senate before the August recess and pre-election pressure push it off the Senate's plate altogether. Passing non-controversial legislation by "unanimous consent" is a common process that helps the Senate save time and still allows a single Senator to stop the bill by objecting.

But the irony of a "secret hold" being used to stop a bill promoting transparency and disclosure of government information was too much for many in Washington to take - and an effort launched by Porkbusters to expose the secret Senator has taken off through the blogosphere. While the approach used by Porkbusters - called a "desperate manhunt" by the Wall Street Journal (apparently they thought the female members of the Senate should not be included in such a tongue-in-cheek reference) - may not be the preferred method of congressional staffers, it certainly is raising the profile of the issue, and hopefully turning up the heat on the anonymous Senator.

Check out the Porkbusters Secret Holder page for updates as the public attempts to shed light on a secret effort to stymie government transparency.

Posted by Adam Hughes, 07:12:08 PM

Friday, August 11, 2006

Contract and Grants Database Legislation Gets State Support

Legislation to create a free, searchable database with government information on all federal grants and contracts picked up the endorsement of Republican Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels last week (Daniels is a former Director of the Office of Management and Budget). Daniels sent seperate letters to Indiana Senators Evan Bayh (D) and Richard Lugar (R) urging them to support the bill.

Interestingly enough, Daniels' letter highlights the importance of the proposed database not to decrease funding and root out waste, fraud, and abuse (although he does mentin that) but as a tool for states to be able to identify and compete for additional federal resources. Daniels' - who we believe has a good head on his shoulders - certainly understands the myriad positive aspects of this database.

In addition, the bill received an official cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. CBO expects the legislation to cost $15 million over the next five years.

Posted by Adam Hughes, 10:22:24 AM

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Dems Question IRS Downsizing

House Democrats are challenging a recent move by the IRS to downsize its estate tax auditing department (More here and here). Rep. John Olver (D-MA) just threw his hat into the ring, too. From BNA (subscription required):

Olver expressed "strong concern" despite IRS's assertions that the change is due to the declining number of returns as a result of a bigger exemption.

The Massachusetts Democrat pointed out that estates of more than $2 million are still subject to the tax.

"I am greatly concerned that this sudden and substantial personnel reduction will cripple the ability of the IRS to detect tax cheating among the wealthiest estates," Colvert said in an Aug. 1 letter to Commissioner of Internal Revenue Mark Everson.

IRS has taken significant heat from Congress since it announced July 24 that it intends to offer voluntary retirements to 157 of the 343 existing estate tax attorneys who audit estate and gift tax returns.

Olver asked Everson to delay the personnel reductions "until it can be definitively shown that the IRS will enhance and not weaken its current efforts" in the estate tax area." In fact, he said, "I believe that the IRS should increase, not decrease, its audit coverage in this area."

On July 28, 25 other House Democrats sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson questioning the decision. From BNA again:

Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), ranking member of the Oversight Subcommittee, and Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), a senior panel member, said they fear IRS may not be devoting adequate resources to compliance in this area.

Taking a more urgent tone, 23 House Democrats said in another letter to Everson that IRS should rethink the decision at once.

"We have serious concerns about this significant shift in tax collection policy and request that you immediately delay this decision until Congress has adequate time to review your plan," said the lawmakers, led by Rep. Steven Rothman (D-N.J.) and including Ways and Means member Rep. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.).....

"We cannot understand why you would want to eliminate auditors from a division that is not only the most productive, but also, according to your agency, where there is a growing need for audits," the Rothman group said.

BNA: Olver Criticizes IRS Decision to Reduce Attorneys Working on Estate Tax Audits

BNA: Decision to Reduce Estate Tax Auditors Not Political, Everson Insists at Hearing

Posted by Matt Lewis, 11:24:44 AM

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