GSA scandal: Is Congress engaged in hearing overkill?
By Brian Montopoli, CBSNews.com
In addition to providing general oversight, lawmakers say they can help them figure out possible solutions to the problem at hand that they wouldn't necessarily get from simply reading a report. And as a staffer with one of the committees told Hotsheet, "Congressional hearings are not expensive to conduct." While they take up lawmakers' time, the hearings are held in rooms that are already built, on days when officials would be on Capitol Hill anyway. Other than the glasses of water provided to witnesses, there is virtually nothing in the way of expenses.
So do the hearings constitute waste? It depends on your perspective. There's no doubt that there is overlap in what is being asked and what is being said in each hearing, and that lawmakers are sometimes more concerned with offering up camera-ready condemnations than investigating the situation at hand. But the hearings may help lawmakers craft solutions, they don't cost much and the shame visited on the participants could prevent future transgressions. And depending on your views of government, you may or may not think they have something better to do.
GSA scandal probe moves to Senate
By Joe Davidson. The Washington Post
“We’re not looking for photo ops of people taking the Fifth,” Boxer said. She was referring to a House hearing on Monday where senior GSA official Jeffrey Neeley, who could possibly face criminal charges, refused to testify.
Yet members from both parties have pressed former and current GSA officials with questions that indicate that no matter what the political affiliation, Congress is concerned about a squandering of taxpayer dollars.
“There must be justice and restitution for this,” Boxer said, “and those who are responsible for the outrageous conduct and who violated the public trust must be held accountable.”
GSA Scandal: Democratic-Led Senate Questioning Agency Officials
By LARRY MARGASAK, TheHuffingtonPost.com
In a separate Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Miller said he was investigating whether there were kickbacks paid to vendors for the Las Vegas conference and those by other regions. He said the regions tried to outdo each other in arranging conferences, and added that Neely wanted the Western Regions Conference in 2010 to be "over the top" in extravagance.
Miller said GSA officials would negotiate upgrades for themselves with the resorts where the conferences were held. For instance, at the Las Vegas conference, the resort upgraded some officials to $1,100 two-story loft suites for the federal allocation of $93 per night. The hotel did so, Miller said, in return for the extensive catering that GSA ordered at the facility.
The real GSA scandal: job-killing Big Labor payoffs
By Michelle Malkin, michellemalkin.com
The total price tag for GSA projects built with PLAs remains unknown. But here’s just one example: The Washington Examiner reported in 2010 that the GSA paid the federal Lafayette Building’s general contractor an additional $3.3 million above the initial $52 million contract to ensure that the project was built with a union payback PLA. The Obama administration had previously tried to slip a PLA mandate into a $35 million jobs center construction project in New Hampshire, but retreated when state contractors challenged the provision as an unfair restriction on competition. According to The Washington Times, just 8.7 percent of construction workers are unionized in New Hampshire.
Among the GSA administrators fired over Vegas-palooza was Robert A. Peck, chief of the agency’s Public Buildings Service. That’s the same office overseeing the $5.5 billion in stimulus contracts for capital projects like the Lafayette Building. But neither Peck nor any other GSA official nor the White House has been held accountable for job-killing union favoritism in its everyday contracting practices.