Who Will Guard The Guardians?

It appears that transparency in the Obama Administration will be provided by smoke and mirrors.  Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is squawking about a provision in the stimulus bill that seems to limit the independence of the Inspectors General.  Byron York at the DC Examiner and Government Executive have coverage; here is Byron York:

You’ve heard a lot about the astonishing spending in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, signed into law this week by President Barack Obama. But you probably haven’t heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated — or not investigated — throughout the federal government.

The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.

In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.

Government Executive contacted some IGs:

Spokesmen for several IGs said it was too early to say if the final language in the stimulus bill would tie their hands, as Grassley has alleged. Some expressed concern that the hastily amended requirements for the board provide more questions than answers. A group of IGs whose agencies are slated to receive stimulus funds are expected to meet Thursday to review the stimulus language line by line. "The independence of IGs is sacrosanct, and anything that would have a chilling effect, real or perceived, is something to be concerned about," said J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

Odd that Dick Cheney never thought of this.  Oh, well - this looks like transparency and oversight we can believe in.

[END OF THREAD]

Comments

[clarice]

Lots os ftuff popping today--The AG's should challenge this in court if Congress doesn't amend this provision. (HEH)

In the AIPAC case, the Court has ruled that the classification called by the defense --the most knowledgeable of all of them and the only one who reported to the president in such matters--can testify for the defense..the prosecution case is sunk with this reuling even before the appeal is resolved on other pretrial rulings by Judge Ellis.

And CNBC's market expert let Obama have it right in the kisser meatphorically speaking (Drudge)

Finally, this from Newsday:

Newsday.com
US files new lawsuit in UBS bank secrets case to find tax cheats
By Associated Press

12:34 PM EST, February 19, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities have filed a lawsuit against Swiss-based bank UBS AG seeking the identities of tens of thousands of U.S. customers.

The suit filed in Miami Thursday seeks to force the firm to turn over information on as many as 52,000 U.S. customers who hid their accounts from the U.S. government in violation of tax laws.

The move comes a day after the Justice Department struck a deal with UBS to get access to some of its customers who used Swiss bank secrecy law to hide billions of dollars in assets.

According to the government's lawsuit, the accounts in question held about $14.8 billion in assets in the past decade.

As part of its deal with prosecutors Wednesday, the bank agreed to pay $780 million in fines and penalties.

[Jane]

So will Geithner be in charge of charging these tax cheats?

[Neo]

More importantly .. does Geithner have a UBS account ?

[Jane]

I bet Nancy Pelosi does, and John Kerry, and Harry Reid and Tom Daschle and on and on and on.

[bad]

Due to Geithner's financial sophistication he keeps his resources in unmarked, non sequential bills inside his mattress..... of the waterbed.

[bad]

TM, thank you for addressing the RAT Board. This issue needs some sunlight. I'm eagerly awaiting the WH's clear and concise position regarding the RAT board.

[Sue]

The RAT board? Who named it? I love it! Very fitting.

[matt]

Hey, don't you know the AG is far too busy right now calling America racist? Silly commoner...don't you know the Imperial staff don't have to answer to the likes of the rabble?

[clarice]

You sure know how to get that shiv in, Jane.

[Neo]

What is illegal is 'identity theft'

Marvin Hoffman is listed in campaign finance records as one of the many lobbyists with the powerful PMA Group donating money to lawmakers. But Hoffman is a soon-to-retire information technology manager in Marina del Rey, Calif., who has never heard of the Arlington lobbying firm or the Indiana congressman to whom he supposedly gave $2,000.

"It's alarming that someone is stealing my identity somewhere," Hoffman, 75, said in an interview. "I've never heard of this company."

This obviously would be illegal for PMA Group to do, but what isn't know yet, is whether any of the targets of PMA Group knew this was going on.

[matt]

PMA Group is apparently shutting down now....very suspicious....This thing has some very serious implications not only for Murtha, but for a bunch of other earmarkers.....and I'm sure they're not the only ones.....but then, I doubt there will be too many bulldog reporters trying to make their bones on this story....

[Wilson's a liar]

Two reasons for this provision:

1. Quash any investigation of Fannie and Freddie

2. Prevent IGs from reporting on which Congressmen's pals get all the contracts

[RichatUF]

Wilson's a liar-

It's also about access. The IG's can get access to personnel, programs, and documents that political appointees might have difficulty reaching. It is also to build a seperate power structure in the bureaucracy accountable only to Obama outside the normal appointee process.

[DebinNC]

The more we learn about the RAT Board, the worse it seems.

And the Recovery.gov site where citizens supposedly will be able to see exactly where the money goes? Cnet News says:
Although the site is advertised as proof of the president’s commitment to transparency, its technical design seems to betray that spirit. Most importantly, the site currently blocks all requests by search engines, which would ordinarily download and index each page to make the information more accessible to the Web-searching public. [...] Although the White House Web team did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the single-line comment at the top of the [robots.txt] file indicates that the blocking of search engines is no accident but rather a statement of policy."

[JM Hanes]

Over at Quasiblog, I tagged Henry Waxman as the secret RAT.

[bad]

The RAT board? Who named it? I love it! Very fitting.

RAT Board stands for Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board according to the the Washington Post. I assume it was named by the geniuses crafting the porkulus bill.

The acronym is incredibly fitting isn't it?

[boris]

OT Watchtower thread: http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2009/02/there-must-be-some-kind-of-way-out-of-here/comments/page/666/#comments

[boris]

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2009/02/showing-up/comments/page/666/#comments