Category: Adam Kredo
Shays, Meehan Lead Push for Congressional Ethics Reform
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 – In 1994 Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, took a bold bipartisan stand when he and Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., proposed sweeping campaign finance reform legislation in Congress. In 2002, their joint effort to restrict unregulated “soft money” contributions became law.
Now, Shays and Meehan are again uniting to press for an overhaul of Congress’s ethics rules and practices.
Last week, they filed legislation that would reform the congressional ethics process by establishing an independent Office of Public Integrity that would oversee ethics concerns for both the House and the Senate.
“The American people need to be able to trust that our government is run ethically,” Shays said in a press release. “Recent scandals have eroded that trust, and creating an Office of Public Integrity is an important step to regain it.”
The new office would consolidate several responsibilities currently handled by the House and Senate Ethics Committees, but it would not eliminate the need for the committees. Instead, the office would act as a prosecutor for the two committees and as “a clearing house for allegations” against members and lobbyists, Shays’ office said.
The committees would continue to be the judges, making decisions about members’ ethics practices
“Really, what Congress should do is not do the investigating and the prosecuting, if necessary, but should be the judge,” Shays said in an interview Wednesday. “It should just have to decide whether the information provided by the professional staff merits action and, if so, what kind of action.”
If his proposal is adopted, he said, “the system will work better. It’ll be more honest. I think it will be more responsive, actions will be taken more quickly and people can feel comfortable that legitimate claims will be investigated.”
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has proposed a similar version of the bill in the Senate.
Fred Wertheimer, president and CEO of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocate of congressional campaign and ethics reform, said in an interview that “the process for overseeing and enforcing ethics rules in Congress is completely broken.” He said this is particularly true in the House, saying that the House Ethics Committee (formally, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct) did not function at all during 2005.
“This is a tough issue because members of Congress don’t like to investigate each other,” Wertheimer said. He added that one of the biggest problems for the ethics process is getting an inquiry started. For him, this “is one of the great advantages” of the proposed office.
The Office of Public Integrity would allow anybody to initiate the investigative process by filing a complaint, according to the bill. The director of the office would then present evidence to the Ethics Committee, allowing its members to determine whether a case is credible and worthy of further investigation.
” If you don’t fix the enforcement system, then the new rules are liable to end up just the way the old rules did-being ignored by too many people,” Wertheimer said.
Shays, in the interview, said he agreed. One of the merits of the proposal, he said, is that “the public can hear the finding and judge for themselves. They can feel comfortable that it’s been taken outside the jurisdiction of the Republican and Democratic party.”???
Leading the office would be “a publicly credible, professionally experienced individual selected jointly by the Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress,” according to the Shays press release.
In the interview, Shays said the leaders should look for someone with “judicial skills, investigative skills, and someone who basically is not looking to have a further job in government, so that they’re not in any way inhibited by what they do in any way.”
The legislation includes several safeguards against potential partisan abuse of the system. After an investigation, if the director determines an allegation to be frivolous, he or she may prevent the complainant from ever filing again, according to a report by Shays’ office.
In addition, the Ethics Committee in each house could stop an investigation by a two-thirds vote. It would then have to issue a public report explaining why the investigation was stopped.
Aside from its prosecutorial duties, the office would provide guidance and information to members and their staffs on the permissibility of certain actions under House rules. This could include such gray areas as accepting gifts from constituents who are pleased with their representatives’ work.
The office would create an internet database in which lobbyist reports would be available for public viewing.
Connecticut Delegation Scores in Top 5 Percent for Environmental Votes
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 - In a report released Tuesday by the League of Conservation Voters, the Connecticut congressional delegation received an average score of 78 percent for votes on environmental legislation in 2005, placing the delegation in the top five percent overall.
The 2005 National Environmental Scorecard rates members of Congress based on votes on 20 environmental bills in the Senate and 18 in the House.
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, scored 78 percent, down from his 2003-04 score of 87 percent, while Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman scored 90 percent and 70 percent respectively.
"I believe we will not have a world to live in if we continue our neglectful ways," Shays said in a statement after reviewing his score. "This belief has driven me to advocate and vote for legislation that focuses on conservation rather than consumption." Although Shays' score declined overall, it was well above the average for all House Republicans, which was 11 percent.
The league praised Shays for his solid voting record "on behalf of the environment, health and quality of life of Connecticut families."
"In particular, we appreciate his leadership on clean, forward-looking energy solutions, including his recently introduced bill which helps reduce our dependence on oil and protect consumers," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, the league's legislative director.
Of the 18 House bills the league used to rate the members, Shays was absent from two votes and voted twice in a manner the league deemed negative for the environment, according to the report. The two missed votes also counted negatively toward his score. Dodd, in a statement from his office, said that he "believes that protecting our environment should be a top priority" but that "sadly there are too many in Washington that fail to realize that." Lieberman, who scored higher than his 2003-04 score of 56 percent, also was penalized for not voting. Casey Aden-Wansburry, Lieberman's communications director, said in a written statement that Lieberman's " 2005 score was lower than usual because of several votes he was forced to miss for family reasons. " Lieberman is still a "leader" when it comes to the environment, said Patty Pendergast of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association.
Tony Massaro, the league's senior vice president for political affairs, said the group "cast an unbiased eye" on every member of Congress after a congressional session "in which many of our core environmental laws were under attack."
One of the league's main concerns is preventing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and Sittenfeld, in a press release, commended Lieberman for his "tireless leadership in successfully fighting multiple efforts to drill in the Arctic Refuge."
Moreover, the league heavily criticized Congress for the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a bill that sets guidelines for policies than can help determine energy prices in America. The league, in a press release, called the legislation the "most anti-environmental bill signed into law in recent memory," saying it "fails to protect consumers in any way from rising energy prices."
Agreeing with the league, Curt Johnson, the senior attorney and program director for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, said in a telephone interview that the Republican Party "as a whole has turned its back almost entirely on the environmental agenda." While he noted the great amount of progress the federal government has made over the past 30 years, Johnson said that there is still a great amount that needs to be accomplished.
Congressional Committee Hears from Whistle-blowers
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 - How would your boss react if you blew the whistle on fraud, abuse or waste within the workplace? Instead of celebration, what if your company retaliated with harassment and intimidation, forcing you to either step down from your position or retire?
For government employees working in national security agencies, this type of retaliation could be restricted under legislation Congress is considering.
"Whistle-blowers in critical national security positions are vulnerable to unique forms of retaliation," Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, said at a hearing Tuesday. "Those with whom we trust the nation's secrets should not be second-class citizens when it comes to answering their rights to speak truth to power."
Shays, vice chairman of the Government Reform Committee, chairs its National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations Subcommittee, which heard from a number of witnesses Tuesday.
Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer said he was harassed and intimidated by his superiors for disclosures he made to the 9/11 Commission. Shaffer, who said he was deployed twice to Afghanistan to collect sensitive intelligence information about terrorists, said he revealed that more could have been done by the government "to maximize the intelligence and promise" of certain security programs. As a result, he said, he was threatened with rank demotion.
"I became a whistle-blower not out of choice, but out of necessity - necessity to tell the truth," Shaffer said at the hearing.
The other witnesses on the panel recounted similar stories.
Russell Tice, a former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency, said he was subjected to an "emergency psychological evaluation" and was covertly followed by FBI agents after revealing to a Defense Intelligence Agency's officer that he thought a co-worker was engaged in espionage.
"My Kafkaesque journey from that time on involved surveillance by the FBI," Tice said. He said a National Security Agency security officer was sent to his home "to threaten me in person with dire consequences if I talked to the press."
"I was not given substantive options for reporting the injustices that were inflicted upon me as a whistle-blower," Tice said.
Each witness agreed that the current legislation protecting whistle-blowers - The Whistleblower Act of 1998 - is not sufficient.
The proposed House bill would clarify the scope of protected disclosures by a federal employee to include "any lawful disclosure an employee or applicant reasonably believes is credible evidence of waste, abuse or gross mismanagement," according to the bill titled The Federal Employee Protection Disclosures Act.
Government employees "go to the media as a last resort," Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
"There are not enough protections in place right now for whistleblowers to be protected going through the normal channels," she said. The committee is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free legal assistance to journalists.
Mayor Moccia Goes to Washington – Demands Earmarks
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 - Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia and Police Chief Harry Rilling came to Washington on Wednesday to urge the Connecticut delegation to set aside federal money for many city projects.
"Any help, earmarking, we could get would be great," Moccia said on Wednesday during a meeting with Sen. Joseph Lieberman's staff. "Norwalk really has been shortchanged."
An earmark is money designated for a specific project in a specific state or locality.
When asked how he felt about lobbying for earmarks and federal grants in a reform-oriented climate, Moccia said: "It's a necessity; you have to do it. If you don't apply, the money's not gonna fly."
The mayor also met with Sen. Christopher Dodd's staff and with Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4 th ).
During the meeting with Lieberman's staff, Moccia pulled from his bag two thick binders containing grant information and stressed the need for full funding of phase two of the Norwalk Harbor dredging project.
Phase one cost $1.7 million, and phase two will require an estimated $7 million, Moccia said. He said that as part of the second phase contaminants caused by salty oils that drain into the harbor from the I-95 bridge will be cleaned and removed.
Calling it a "catch-22," Moccia said that, at this point, the Connecticut Department of Transportation has refused to provide filters for the bridge, and this allows contaminants to continually enter the harbor. Without money for phase two, the city will not be able to comply with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's requirements, such as removing 35,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the harbor, the mayor said.
"I don't know where we are" with the dredging project, he said, although both the city and the Lieberman staff agreed that the project, as one of the senator's aides said, "can't afford a delay."
Moccia requested $200,000 to improve what he called an "obsolete" security system at the South Norwalk train station,. The money also would include new traffic lights, bikeways and road improvements
The city is requesting more transportation earmarks then it has in the past, according to Paul M. Pimentel, a Shays aide.
"Brownfields and dredging are very important," Moccia said, "but in the transportation area, obviously, we need some help."
The mayor said that even though Norwalk is the state's sixth-largest city, it continues to get "shortchanged" on federal grants. In particular, the Environmental Protection Agency has denied Norwalk grants several times in the past, Pimentel said.
Addressing environmental brownfield grants for South Norwalk, the mayor expressed concern about the area's current status.
"We seem to have gone from an industrial state to a service state," Moccia said, as he explained why Norwalk needs such grants. Brownfield grants would allow the city to identify and, if sucessful, clean up areas of South Norwalk. "It's very important for us to assess and clean up these sites," Moccia said.
If grants are obtained, and the clean-up effort succeeds, Moccia said, he will follow through with his plan to rezone some of the older areas that were once inhabited by light industry. According to the mayor, this would pave the way for either affordable housing or new types of light industry. Moccia said his main goal was to "make the area attractive to new people."
After the meetings, Moccia admitted his inexperience with the lobbying process, calling himself a "novice mayor" and saying: "I've only been in office for 10 weeks. I'm still learning a little bit, but I'm trying."
He also cited the fact that Norwalk lacks a grants coordinator as a reason for his naïveté.
Overall, though, despite his inexperience, the mayor said he was "just having fun."
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Shays Returns from Eleventh Trip to Iraq
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 - Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4), who returned to Washington Tuesday after spending the weekend in Iraq, said he is most concerned about Iraq's economy.
"It's costing too much to protect those who are trying to help the folks in Iraq," Shays said after his 11th trip to Iraq.
But he said that politically and militarily the Iraqis are making headway. "They're more likely to succeed than fail as long as you don't rush them," Shays said in an interview in his office Wednesday.
He also discussed misconceptions commonly associated with Iraq.
"This is a real country.. It's not just sand and oil," Shays said. He said Iraq is somewhat distorted by the broadcast media. "Put your hand like a telescope and look at the room," Shays said as he articulated the camera's limitations. "It's never the same - it's not like you're looking at a room where everything is frozen."
Furthermore, Shays said, the mass bombings are truly aimed at the American press. "Wherever the press is, that's where the bombings take place," Shays said. "The bombings are for the benefit of Americans - the public - not for the benefit of Iraqis."
Between meetings with Iraqi officials, Shays said he took time to meet with American troops. He assumed responsibility for 100 pounds of personal hygiene items collected for the troops by students at the Thurgood Marshall Middle School for Social Justice in Bridgeport. The students also sent cards and signed a poster wishing the soldiers in the 101 st Airborne Division a safe return home.
While Shays said the troops were delighted by the students' gifts, he expressed concern over the length of time forces have spent in Iraq.
"Too many of them have been asked to do a second or third tour," Shays said. "We have to be careful to not overwork our troops."
Shays, who was joined by Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.), John Doolittle (R-Calif.), and Katherine Harris (R-Fla.), said the main goal of the trip was to understand exactly how the war is going as well as how the reconstruction effort is progressing.
"I want to have an honest assessment of how we're doing, and I want to report back to people," Shays said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon before leaving for Iraq. "I want to have an impact."
Shays said he travels to Iraq every two or three months and he evaluates the country's progress by comparing each trip to the previous one. He said he aims to bring the issues into clear focus by evaluating three main areas - Iraq's economy, its politics and its security.
After a review, Shays said he is able to create a graph of all progress. For him, this technique provides a clear view of what America must do "different or better" in Iraq, he said.
While the results of his reviews are mainly for Congress and the Bush Administration, Shays said he also looks to give his constituents a clear view of the situation in Iraq
Shays also discussed the recent victory by Hamas in the Palestinian elections.
"I'm surprised that we were surprised" by the election results, Shays said. He attributes his lack of astonishment to an earlier West Bank trip. "I could see what was happening years ago," Shays said.
At that time, Shays said, he saw Hamas offering charity directly to needy students who had lost their educational grants. During this time, the Palestinian Authority was too busy dealing with political affairs, according to Shays. He said this experience demonstrated how Hamas has won friends.
On his next trip to Iraq, Shays said, he would like to evaluate Iraqi intelligence capabilities. He said Iraq needs good intelligence to win the fight against insurgents.
Lieberman Proposes Legislation to “Clean up Washington”
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 -Sen. Joe Lieberman is calling for "immediate action" on a Democratic-sponsored bill that would clean up what the party's Senate leader has termed "the Republican culture of corruption."
"We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reach agreement on a broad set of reforms that will reduce the cynicism with which many of the American people view their government," the Connecticut Democrat said in a Wednesday press release he issued along with Sens. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006 would prohibit members from accepting transportation or lodging on trips sponsored by non-profit organizations with links to lobbyists.
The bill, introduced by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Jan. 20, would prevent members of Congress and congressional aides from accepting gifts from lobbyists.
Currently, contributions and gifts, such as prepaid travel and lodging, from lobbyists are not included in the Senate's "banned gifts" list.
"The status quo stinks and cries out to us to lead the way to clear the air," said Lieberman in his press release. "Mark my words: Congress will come together this year to reform our lobbying laws and remove the cloud of suspicion currently hanging over this institution."
Introduction of this legislation comes as Congress faces severe scrutiny for its dealings with lobbyists.
Speaking of the recently convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Lieberman said at a Jan. 25 Senate hearing on the bill, "The consequences of Abramoff's crimes are so antithetical to our way of governance and so embarrassing to Congress that Democrats and Republicans, House members and Senators, agree that Congress must act."
The hearing was before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, on which Lieberman is the senior Democrat.
Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who recently proposed similar reform legislation in the House, said in a December press release that the Abramoff scandal raised the need for increased fiscal transparency.
"Sunshine tends to have a cleansing effect," Shays said.
Lieberman's bill would inject "sunshine" into the Senate by amending the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 - a law that requires lobbying firms to register their employees as lobbyists.
The proposed legislation would mandate quarterly instead of twice-yearly filings of lobbying disclosure reports and require senators to disclose all "paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying."
It would call on Congress to install an online, electronic database to contain lobbying disclosure information. The public would be able to view the database over the Internet.
It also would double the time to two years that former government officials must wait before becoming lobbyists.
Connecticut Delegation Offers Strong Words on Bush’s Speech
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 - Although television viewers sat through countless standing ovations at the President's State of the Union address on Tuesday, not everyone from the Connecticut delegation agreed with the President's plans for the economy, Iraq and the nation's mounting deficit.
"I would have liked to hear the President drop his demands for a permanent tax cut for the wealthiest Americans," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) in a statement.
Lieberman said such tax cuts would most likely "come at the expense of programs that help [our nation's] neediest."
Instead, the country's tax policy should "be one of fairness to working families, and should not result in increasing our deficit," Lieberman said.
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) criticized Bush's "reckless" fiscal policies.
"The president continues to push for tax cuts for those who need it the least," Dodd said in a statement.
He added that the President's "shortsightedness extends to failing to recognize the tremendous struggle middle class families are facing when it comes to their financial security."
Dodd attributes problems in the economy and consumer confidence to "skyrocketing energy costs." Moreover, he said too many people lack health care. "That is wrong. we can do better," Dodd said in his statement.
Taking a different approach to the President's comments on energy, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said he thought that Bush spoke more directly than he had in the past.
"I think it's important that this Texan who grew up on oil is saying we're addicted to the stuff and we need to go in a different direction," Shays said in a telephone interview.
Regarding energy independence and security, Lieberman urged the President to support his recently proposed legislation to reduce America's oil consumption by 10 million barrels a day.
Lieberman noted that "we remain a nation at war."
Dodd said he is frustrated by the fact that President Bush failed to offer a concrete timetable for bringing the nation's troops home from Iraq.
"Our troops are still valiantly fighting on the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan," Dodd said in his statement. "The President still has yet to offer a concrete strategy for bringing this conflict to an end."
Shays was pleased by Bush's "direct" discussion of Iraq.
"This President was not avoiding Iraq," Shays said. "When you're talking about opportunity for Iraqis to have democracy as opposed to dictatorship, that sounds like civil rights to me."
The legislators expressed hope for a bipartisan approach to solving problems.
"Now more than ever, it is imperative that he reach out to work collectively to address our nation's many pressing challenges," Dodd said in his statement.
"I want action," said Shays. "What I think we need is for Congress - Republicans and Democrats - to work more closely with each other. We have a constitutional responsibility to make sure we're doing proper oversight. I have real determination that this will happen."
Shays Calls For Full-Funding of Block Grant Program
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - In a letter to President Bush this week, Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and 28 other members of Congress have called for full funding of the Community Development Block Grant program in the President's forthcoming fiscal 2007 budget proposal.
"We encourage the administration to propose funding for this vital program at traditional levels and continue to have CDBG administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development," the letter said.
The letter highlights the importance of community involvement in deciding how the federal money is spent. And in a press release, Shays said, "Community Development Block Grant dollars allow local communities to determine priorities for community development. They have a tremendously positive impact on the cities and towns."
"I believe in this program," Shays said in an interview. "The money is spent exceptionally well" by the local communities.
Shays said he finds the idea of cuts in the program "mind-boggling."
Communities receiving block grants are allowed to decide how to spend the money, which is why many supporters of the program want to keep it fully funded.
"These are some of the most flexible funds local municipalities have," said Larry Kluetsch, executive director of the Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut.
Mainly programs would be affected by a decrease in federal grant money, according to community program managers.
"The less money we're given, the less money we have for the [low-income] people who apply to our programs," said Michael Moore, senior community development project manager for the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency.
Because of the bipartisan efforts of more than 180 House members and 55 senators, the grants remained unaltered last year. As a result, Norwalk received more than $1 million, according to a press spokesperson for Shays.
Shays' letter said the block grant program "has been a vital tool in helping to rebuild communities for the last 30 years."
"As you mentioned in your speech in New Orleans on January 12," the letter to the President said, the block grant program "is playing an important role in helping to aid recovery in the Gulf States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina."
In this instance, the block grants empowered the New Orleans community to rectify local programs on their own, while continuing to support the area's neediest citizens, according to the letter.
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