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Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Preview of things to come on a more massive scale?

The True (And Incredible) Story Of Hill Staffers On The
Industry Payroll

By Lydia Dennett

As
a Fellow in Senator Harry Reid's (D-NV) office specializing in energy policy in
2001, Peter Winkour spent his days working on the Energy Policy Act of 2002, a
977-page bill that included tax legislation on renewable energy and would have
created tens of thousands of jobs.

Like
many Hill staffers, he wrote legislation, offered advice, met with lobbyists
and public interest groups, and attended meetings on press and policy strategy.

But
unlike other staff members, Winkour wasn't being paid by the Senator's office
-- he was earning $120,000-per-year from the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE-USA), an industry group whose stated goal is to
"recommend policies and implement programs specifically intended to serve
and benefit the members."

Many
people are aware of the corrupting influence of lobbying, campaign
contributions, and gifts, and all of these methods of influence are monitored
to some degree. But the role of Congressional Fellows affecting the legislative
process has largely escaped public notice.

This
kind of arrangement between Congress and outside groups -- which can lead to
blatant conflicts of interest -- is not uncommon.

In
any given year, there are likely hundreds of Congressional Fellows sponsored by
outside organizations who are given the opportunity to work on the staff of a
member or Committee of the US House or Senate.

One
Congressional Fellow this year received her $124,000 annual salary from the
Sandia National Laboratory while working on the Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources, the committee with oversight and jurisdiction over the
Sandia lab.

To
understand the full extent of this relationship between Congress and special
interests, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) examined all 2,014
publicly available forms on file at the Senate Office of Public Records
relating to Congressional Fellows.

What did we find?

In
the House, we found nothing because, astoundingly, there are no rules requiring
Members or Fellows to file any paperwork -- so there is no government record of
how many Fellows are working in any of the 435 offices, what groups they're
from, how long they've been there, or how much they're paid.

In
the Senate, there are rules designed to ensure that Fellowship positions do not
even give the appearance of a conflict of interest. Senate rules also require
fellows and their supervisors to file disclosure forms detailing which entity
is paying their salary and how much, which are collected by the Senate Ethics
Committee and publicly available at the Senate Office of Public Records.

However,
the POGO investigation found that Senators do not consistently follow these
disclosure rules. Approximately 27 percent of the forms we reviewed did not
include the source of the Fellow's compensation, and about 24 percent failed to
disclose how much the Fellow was being paid.

It's
also impossible to know how many Senate offices have Fellows on staff, but have
not filed any paperwork at all.

One
place to look is the sponsoring organizations themselves. For example, IEEE-USA
keeps a list of their 87 Fellowship alumni dating back to 1974. Just under half
of these Fellows worked in Senate offices, and, of those, 76 percent did not
file any documentation with the Senate Office of Public Records.

These
programs can be a great way for people outside the Beltway to learn about
Congress through direct exposure. It can also be valuable for Congress to have
outside experts periodically embedded on staff.

But
Congressional Fellows have the kind of access to lawmakers that most lobbyists
can only dream about. Without clear, comprehensive, and enforceable rules to
prevent conflicts of interest, these programs are deepening the
already-too-cozy relationship between Congress and special interests.

Dennett is an
investigator at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). She investigates
the safety and security of nuclear weapons and power facilities, works with
federal whistleblowers, and develops POGO's Foreign Influence Database.

Thought for the day

Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!

Individual One’s tweet at 4:52 AM - 17 Feb 2019 after a long, hard day of playing golf at Mar-A-Lago on Day Two of our “national emergency.”

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