Appropriations investigative unit gets a makeover
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Mon Apr 23, 2007 at 04:59:05 PM EST
It's doubtful many of you have ever heard of the House Appropriation Committee's Surveys and Investigations team...I sure hadn't. But it exists, and is tasked with providing oversight of contracts and other appropriations processes. It used to be headed by Robert Pearre, appointed by then-Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA); last fall, Pearre effectively dismantled the unit by firing the majority of its staff without warning.
But it looks like the team is being put back together under new Chairman David Obey's (D-WI) watch - he's just replaced Pearre with his own deputy staff director, David Pomerantz:
A Democratic Appropriations staffer said that the team would be rebuilt, although it is unclear if it will end up larger or smaller than it was before the October firings. "It has to be driven by the oversight needs, and there's a lot of them," [a] staffer said. "S&I is going to be busy and we'll staff up to meet that."
One of the first things they'll reportedly do is complete the Hurricane Katrina probe that was derailed by the firings.
"In general we're going to be looking at all of the oversight things including Katrina to see if we need to do the work," the aide said, noting that other committees and agencies are also investigating. "From my perspective, we're the appropriators, we're the ones who spent tens of billions and we have a responsibility to make sure that money is well-spent."
Democrats plan to integrate the investigative team with the regular oversight work of the committee, which has expanded significantly since the Democrats took over the majority. The Democrats also are looking to augment the staff with more detailees from the GAO, the FBI and inspectors general's offices.
Most of the unit's reports are not publicly released, but that policy is being reconsidered. In any case, these new developments promise more oversight than in the previous few years.
The investigations team has faced years of turmoil, with a perception among some former investigators that a lack of Republican desire for tough oversight of the Bush administration and other sensitive issues had kept investigations from getting off the ground or quashed them in midstream.
For instance...
Former investigators also have said that Pearre ordered them to stop an investigation in 2005 into alleged bid-rigging and waste involving hundreds of millions of dollars in secret Capitol Hill security contracts....
...Ted Van Der Meid, then-Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-Ill.) chief counsel, had sought to quash the probe and hindered the investigators' work, the former investigators said.
Appropriations is the committee - who gets what, when, and how much are all determined by the men and women who sit on this committee. It's obvious, then, why having an investigative unit would be useful and ethical - let's just hope their investigations proceed methodically and non-partisanly, so that we can enjoy the benefits of real oversight for once.
Tags: House Appropriations Committee, Surveys and Investigations, Rep. Obey, David Pomerantz, Robert Pearre, Jerry Lewis, ethics in government, oversight, contracts (all tags)
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