From: ah@emul1.ida.ing.tu-bs.de (Default Trumpet User)
Subject: Re: Congressional oversight
Organization: IDA
Distribution: alt
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 11:51:49 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.173533.11750@cs.ucla.edu> pierce@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Brad Pierce) writes:
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>From: pierce@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Brad Pierce)
>Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy,alt.news-media
>Subject: Congressional oversight
>Message-ID: <1992Nov9.173533.11750@cs.ucla.edu>
>Date: 9 Nov 92 17:35:33 GMT
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>From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
>Subject: CENSORED: WHO'S OVERSEEING CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT
>Message-ID: <1992Nov9.091524.10052@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
>Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 09:15:24 GMT

>WHO'S OVERSEEING CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT?

>Oversight is one of Congress's chief responsibilities, along with
>writing laws, raising revenue and spending public money.  So why is it
>that on the whole, Congress is failing that responsibility, allowing
>waste, fraud and abuse to go unchecked throughout the federal
>bureaucracy?  A National Academy of Public Administration report once
>charged it's because "Congressional oversight in general is more geared
>to garnering media attention" than making government work better.
>According to current and former Congressional investigators, the
>oversight process today is in a shambles; many investigations are
>superficial and scattershot at best.  Too many lawmakers are am-
>bivalent about oversight and subject to pressure from the targets of
>their investigations.  Sources within federal agencies have withered;
>many whistleblowers, no longer nurtured by Congress, remain silent.

>No better (or worse) example can be found than the Government Op-
>erations Committee -- designed to be the House of Representatives' most
>tenacious government watchdog.  The committee has floundered since Rep.
>John Conyers (D-Mich.) replaced the tough Rep.  Jack Brooks (D-Texas),
>who had chaired the committee for 13 years.  "We have 360-degree
>authority to pursue waste, fraud and abuse," says committee member
>Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), "we should strike fear in the hearts of
>bureaucrats and contractors.  But nobody's afraid.  "

>Sources on and off Conyers' committee say the chairman, who has
>solicited and received contributions from a number of parties with a
>stake in his committee's investigations, isn't aggressive or focused
>enough.  The 14-term lawmaker, in one insider's words, tends to
>"accommodate the people being investigated rather than the
>investigators."  In fact, Conyers' accommodating nature cost 15-year
>congressional investigator Tom Trimboli his job -- for doing his job too
>well.  This is the same man who played a key role in un-covering the
>Wedtech scandal.  The same man Conyers called "as good as they get' --
>six months before dismissing him.

>The dismissal was the result of a committee investigation, led by
>Trimboli, of the Unisys corporation,, major defense contractor.
>Trimboli was looking into charges that Unisys was defrauding the
>government in a $ I .7 billion computer contract they had won with the
>Air Force.  It took only one unhappy phone call to Rep.  Conyers from
>Unisys Chair Michael Blumenthal before Trimboli was fired, paralyzing
>the Unisys investigation.  To this date, no hearings have been held
>and no final committee report has been issued

>The sad state of congressional oversight is best summarized by 30- year
>veteran investigator Don Gray, who recently left the Hill.  According to
>Gray, seldom heard are the sweetest words a lawmaker can say to an
>investigator:  "Take it where it goes.  I'll back you up all the way."

>(SSU CENSORED RESEARCHER:  RACHAEL KlNBERG)

>SOURCE:COMMON CAUSE 2030 M St.  NW, Washington, DC 20036

>DATE:July/August 1991

>Title:"See No Evil"

>AUTHOR:Jeffrey Denny

>COMMENTS:  Jeffrey Denny, senior editor at Common Cause, charges that
>"The problem addressed in 'See No Evil' -- waste, fraud and abuse runs
>largely unchecked through the federal government because Congress's
>oversight function has been undermined by lawmakers' close rel-
>ationship with special interests and federal agencies -- by its very
>nature receives insufficient exposure in the mass media.  "The mass
>media by and large views Congress's oversight committees as friendly
>sources, ignoring the confluence of pressures -- i.e. lawmakers' need to
>raise campaign money from special interests and win favors for
>constituents from bureaucrats -- that undermine tough, effective
>enforcement.  "Too often the mainstream media has been used by
>publicity-seeking members of Congress whose 'investigations' are little
>more than quick-hit press events.  When oversight efforts are reported,
>key questions remain unasked:  Was the committee lobbied by the target
>to ease up and what was the impact of the lobbying effort?  Did the
>target provide campaign-contributions to members of the committee?
>Did the committee use all its powers to compel testimony and documents
>from the executive branch?  Were findings used to achieve action, such
>as Justice Department prosecution?

>"In three recent cases, the mass media missed a key angle in its
>coverage of the HUD, S&L and Iran-contra scandals:  Where was Congress,
>with all its oversight powers, while these scandals brewed?"

>Denny says that more information about the failure of Congressional
>oversight could "provoke Congress to make institutional -- and
>attitudinal -- changes that will improve its ability to cover waste,
>fraud and abuse -- perhaps improving public trust in government and
>saving taxpayers money.''  As it is, Denny adds "Ultimately, special
>interests that are ripping off government stand to benefit from the
>lack of coverage of Congress's lax oversight.  So long as Congress
>feels it can spoon-feed the press investigatory pabulum and fool the
>public into believing it really is doing something about waste, fraud
>and abuse, there will be no incentive for lawmakers to change."  He con-
>cludes that the mass media no longer can think of Congress as a friendly
>source, but "rather must hold it accountable as an elected branch of
>government with a serious job to do.  "

>-------------------  END OF FORWARDED POSTING  -----------------------
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