1. Two-Face Talk about "Up or Down Votes": The GOP mantra when radical conservative judges were renominated to the appeals courts -- nominees so radical that they threaten the very ability of the federal government to protect the public -- was that parliamentary maneuvers such as holds and filibusters should not prevent the nominees from going to the floor and getting an up-or-down vote (in other words, being allowed to simply be elevated to lifetime judgeships without any real fight). Much of this talk died down when a centrist coalition agreed to tie the hands of Democratic Senators and "save" the filibuster by making it irrelevant. Apparently, though, hashing things out in the open only matters when it comes to lifetime appointments to the federal bench, not when it comes to $60 billion tax cuts for the wealthy.

2. Unfunded Mandates -- Now They Care about Them, Now They Don't: We have been monitoring developments that threaten to expand the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. A recent change to an UMRA parliamentary procedure was invoked to kill a proposal to raise the minimum wage. So "unfunded mandates" -- in the GOP parlance, it means opposing protections of the public on the grounds that federal policy decisions result in costs to state and local governments -- matter when it comes to killing the minimum wage, but not when it comes to kicking abused and neglected children out of federally-funded foster care. By restricting eligibility for the Title IV-E entitlement, the House bill shifts the cost for the now ineligible abused and neglected children entirely to the states. (By the way, those kids aren't getting any less abused or neglected.) Get more details on the cut programs here.) Just goes to show that the phrase "unfunded mandates" does not signify a problem that demands solutions; instead, it is a political weapon, deployed to freeze new public protections and then conveniently holstered when it would otherwise threaten an anti-government agenda.

The Bush administration has missed dozens of deadlines set by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks for developing ways to protect airplanes, ships and railways from terrorists.

A plan to defend ships and ports from attack is six months overdue. Rules to protect air cargo from infiltration by terrorists are two months late. A study on the cost of giving anti-terrorism training to federal law enforcement officers who fly commercially was supposed to be done more than three years ago.

"The incompetence that we recently saw with FEMA's leadership appears to exist throughout the Homeland Security Department," said Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. "Our nation is still vulnerable."

Some of the missed security deadlines could even have helped allay the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, according to Rep. Thompson. "Thompson said the government has yet to develop a comprehensive plan to protect roads, bridges, tunnels, power plants, pipelines and dams. He said a broad plan to protect levies and dams might have helped prevent the New Orleans levies from being breached."

From chemical plant security to food safety, insecurity in our national infrastructure is pervasive and could have devastating effects in the event of a terrorist attack or another natural disaster. Read more about national security failures in the latest Watcher: "Katrina Exposes Some, But Not All, Unmet Security and Safety Needs"

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 12:50:31 PM

Friday, October 28, 2005

Times apparently aren't good for workers in the post-Katrina aftermath. Most notably, of course, the White House waived Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage requirements for contractors, until the political pressure became too much to bear. Almost immediately after the hurricane hit, the Bush administration also announced a slew of waivers of regulatory protections, including waiver of the already atrocious rules for the maximum number of hours trucking companies can force their drivers to work without rest. (That waiver has now expired.)

Earlier this month, National Public Radio reported that thousands "of Latino workers, both documented and undocumented, fled the U.S. Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Now there are reports of discrimination by law enforcement officials, harassing suspected illegal immigrants at a Red Cross shelter in Long Beach, Miss. Contractors are also suspected of bringing undocumented workers into disaster areas for rebuilding projects, and dumping them at shelters as a form of subsidized housing."

Just last week came word that some "contractors leading reconstruction projects in the hurricane-hit southern United States have badly exploited workers and taken away business from local firms."

Cash alone won't rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast; it will take the labor of American workers. Something's going terribly wrong if there are this many reports of failures to protect those workers.

Posted by Robert Shull, 04:19:28 PM

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Mismanagement Failing to Keep America Safe
The dramatic (and heavily covered) speech by former State Dept. Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson is most noted for its reference to a White House "cabal" that drove America into war with Iraq, but it's worth noting that Wilkerson's speech addressed a fundamental problem of mismanaging government that has not just international but also domestic policy consequences:

Generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita -- and I could go on back -- we haven't done very well on anything like that in a long time. And if something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence. . . . Read in there what they say about the necessity of the people to throw off tyranny or to throw off ineptitude or to throw off that which is not doing what the people want it to do. And you're talking about the potential for, I think, real dangerous times if we don't get our act together.

Underlying it all, according to Wilkerson, is a failure to engage the bureaucracy: "When you cut the bureaucracy out of your decisions and then foist your decisions, more or less out of the blue, on that bureaucracy, you can't expect that bureacuracy to carry out your decision out very well. And furthermore, if you're not prepared to stop the feuding elements in that bureaucracy as they carry out your decision, you're courting disaster."

The Bush administration's answer to the problem of a resistant bureaucracy appears to have been cronyism: installing people who are loyal to the administration, especially to its anti-regulatory, pro-corporate agenda, at the head of every agency and program in order to shove that agenda through as firmly as possible. Adbusters asks about the consequences of this approach: "in a crunch, just how many of Bush’s appointments can actually be trusted to do these jobs, both competently and with impartiality?"

When "truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic" happens, we'll find out the hard way.

Posted by Robert Shull, 06:37:54 PM

Friday, October 21, 2005

Small Business is Not So Small
The government's definition of small business is so expansive that billion dollar corporations are receiving Katrina cleanup contracts dedicated to small businesses. From the Washington Post:

The government's list of small businesses receiving Katrina-related federal contracts along the Gulf Coast includes one of the largest debris-removal firms in the country and a billion-dollar corporation that boasts former vice president Dan Quayle on its board of directors.

Neither company is a small business by any conventional standard. But because of a loophole in federal regulations, a company can be counted as one if it was once small even if it is not now, raising questions about the statistics the government has been citing to defend itself from charges that it has favored big companies in the massive Hurricane Katrina cleanup.

Big businesses taking advantage of special breaks provided for small businesses is not limited to Katrina clean up.

A study last year for the Small Business Administration found $2 billion worth of contracts awarded in fiscal 2002 that were listed as going to small businesses that were not really small. A Government Accountability Office review in 2003 found $460 million worth of small-business awards to five large firms in fiscal 2001.

"This is not an occasional occurrence. This is a problem they've had for quite some time. And they seem either unwilling or unable to correct it," said Steven Sims, vice president of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, a trade group.

Businesses that fall under the SBA's definition receive preferential treatment in the rulemaking process and in Congressional initiatives for regulatory reform. Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, regulators have to consider the impact of regulations on small businesses. In Congress, legislators continually hold up the plight of small businesses as a rationale for regulatory reform. Yet the businesses that benefit are rarely the romanticized mom and pop store. Large corporations are in better position to take advantage of these special breaks while real small businesses are continually left out in the cold.

Read more: Small Businesses Not So Small

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 12:17:42 PM

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Latest Watcher
Be sure to check out the latest issue of our biweekly newsletter, The Watcher. Katrina-related policy articles this time:

Katrina Exposes Some, But Not All, Unmet Security and Safety Needs

Republicans Use Katrina To Push For More Drastic Cuts

Congress Mistakenly Focusing On Katrina Spending As Top Fiscal Danger

Post-Katrina Affordable Housing Bill to Include Nonprofit Gag Provision

Posted by Robert Shull, 10:58:30 AM

Friday, October 14, 2005

Bills to Dismantle Government
Hurricane Katrina revealed more dramatically and tragically than ever before in recent memory just how much we need public institutions to protect the public and meet critical needs. There are bills pending in Congress that go in completely the wrong direction -- dismantling government rather than creating the public institutions we need.

The common themes are (1) shutting down government programs through mandatory sunsets, and (2) giving the White House the power to reorganize government with no effective oversight from Congress.

Click the links above for more information, including downloads of bill text.

Bills that mandate sunsets or call for power to shut down government programs:

• S. 1399
• H.R. 973
• H.R. 3277
• H.R. 3282

Bills that would give President Bush the power to reorganize government programs with little or no oversight:

• S. 1155
• S. 1399
• H.R. 2470
• H.R. 3276

And don't miss OMB Watch's testimony on two of those bills in the House.

Posted by Robert Shull, 06:53:45 PM

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Toxic Gumbo... Flowing from YOUR Tap, Too?
Grist Magazine is exploring whether New Orleans is alone in seeing a "toxic gumbo" in the drinking water:

Last month, "toxic gumbo" entered the American lexicon with the speed and force of the floodwaters it describes.... "I want to be very clear," cautioned EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, describing the situation in the devastated city to the press. "Emergency response personnel and the public should avoid direct contact with any floodwater."

It was a dire warning. And to some water-quality experts, it came as no surprise. Our national water infrastructure -- everything from streams, lakes, and coastal waters to treatment plants and the pipes that carry the precious liquid to our individual taps -- is in serious trouble, they say. Toxic gumbos are simmering, for the most part out of sight, all across the country. New Orleans was just the first to boil over on a grand scale.

Check it out here.

Posted by Robert Shull, 04:13:32 PM



Groups Demand Better Protection for Katrina Cleanup
From Medical News Today:

Gulf Coast Cleanup Workers Must Be Protected from Serious Health Hazards

The U.S. Congress should immediately act to protect the health and safety of workers and residents engaged in the cleanup of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, according to a group of more than 100 of the nation's foremost labor, religious, environmental, community, public health and public interest organizations and more than 100 academic, medical, religious and public health leaders.

Posted by Robert Shull, 03:52:48 PM

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Latest Watcher
Be sure to check out the latest issue of our biweekly newsletter, The Watcher. Articles related to Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath include the following:

EPA May Be Next for Power to Waive Law

Scrambling to Offset Katrina Costs, Republicans Continue Dangerous Fiscal Policy

Katrina Update: Government's Inadequate Response Continues

Early Reports of FEMA Reimbursement Policy Misleading

Posted by Robert Shull, 08:05:53 PM

Monday, October 03, 2005

Time to... NOT Invest in America?
Business as usual after Hurricane Katrina? The tragedy of Katrina revealed the consequences of failing to invest in what it takes to keep America safe. The anti-government agenda hasn't gotten the message: a subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee held a hearing last week on a White House proposal to force agencies to stop their work every 10 years and spend precious resources on justifying the need for their continued existence. Unless Congress affirmatively acts to save them, programs would automatically die. In other words, despite the obvious need for investments that keep America safe, some congressional conservatives are pushing a disinvestment strategy.

Related to the sunset proposal is a proposal to give the White House sweeping powers to reorganize government and force reorganization proposals through Congress on a fast-track, take-it-or-leave-it basis. Of course, as we saw with FEMA's reorganization inside Homeland Security, reorganization is not a merely technical issue: it can have real consequences.

OMB Watch testified at the hearing:

> >Read the press release

> >Download the testimony

Posted by Robert Shull, 05:49:48 PM

Friday, September 30, 2005

Katrina trumps No Child Left Behind
The Washington Post is reporting on the Dep't of Education's decision to ease NCLB regs for schools affected by Katrina:

'No Child' Rules to Be Eased for a Year

 

Under pressure from hurricane-stressed states, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced yesterday that the agency will for one year relax academic accountability standards under the administration's signature education initiative, allowing schools affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to...

[Via washingtonpost.com - washingtonpost.com - US government, national security, science and national news and headlines.]

Posted by Robert Shull, 11:46:51 AM

Thursday, September 29, 2005

No-Bid Contracts: a No-Good Idea
Be sure to check out the latest article from two GW law professors on efforts to make no-bid contracts and other erasures of procurement law the rule rather than the exception in natural disasters and other crisis events. From the abstract:

As Hurricane Katrina relief efforts grow into the billions of dollars, the U.S. Congress is considering additional legislation to liberalize procurement, including H.R. 3766, co-sponsored by Representatives Kenny Marchant and Tom Davis. In these comments on the proposed legislation, Professors Christopher Yukins and Joshua Schwartz asked whether the proposed changes, which would eviscerate competition for most procurement related to disaster relief, are truly necessary. Professor Yukins suggests that, though it might in some circumstances be necessary to dismantle the federal regulatory regime to accommodate a wave of new firms in the federal market, there is too little evidence yet to support such radical measures. Professor Schwartz argues that there is no basis, empirically or analytically, for any effort to undo the careful protections afforded by the federal procurement system.

Click here to download the articles.

Posted by Robert Shull, 11:35:51 AM

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Katrina's Unnatural Disaster
The Center for Progressive Reform has released a comprehensive report detailing how the systemic failures of the federal government to heed past calls for health, safety and environmental protections contributed to the magnitude of devastation in New Orleans. The report also examines policy decisions related to emergency response that led to the dismal failures of FEMA to adequately evacuate, shelter, rescue and relocate storm victims. From the report:

It is clear even at this early stage that the Hurricane Katrina tragedy is not a .wakeup call, as some have described it; rather, it is a consequence of past wake-up calls unheeded. By any reasonable measure, government failed the people of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster of enormous proportion, but its tragic consequences have been made even worse by an unnatural disaster--the failure of our government adequately to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to the devastation that the hurricane brought.

The report concludes with an analysis of "how and why poor policy-making and short-sighted planning guaranteed that Katrina visited disproportionate suffering on New Orleanians who were poor and African-American."

The full report is available at: http://www.progressivereform.org/Unnatural_Disaster_512.pdf

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 02:01:47 PM