Today, the House Oversight Committee released a draft report finding “that the White House used the political affairs office to orchestrate an aggressive strategy to use taxpayer-funded trips to help elect Republican candidates for public office.” Over the course of the Committee’s investigation, they found that “from January 1, 2006, until the mid-term elections on November 7, 2006, cabinet secretaries and other senior officials traveled to over 300 events recommended by the political affairs office. All of these events were held with Republican candidates, and in most cases, the travel costs were paid for with federal funds.”

The Committee began this investigation after their hearing on “Allegations of Misconduct at the General Services Administration” disclosed that Scott Jennings, the Deputy Director of the Office of Political Affairs, “displayed PowerPoint slides to the GSA officials describing the top 36 House Republicans the White House wanted to defend in the 2008 election, the top 20 House Democrats the White House wanted to defeat, and a slide depicting the “Battle for the Senate 2008.”

Read the draft report, The Activities of the White House Office of Political Affairs >>

Appendix A: White House Memoranda (5 MB)
Appendix B: Events Spreadsheet (217 KB)
Supporting Documents (16 MB)

Last week, Chairman George Miller asked Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to withdraw two proposals that would roll back worker protections contained in the nation’s H-2A and H-2B guest worker programs. This is in light of an Office of Inspector General investigation critical of the Department’s oversight of the permanent worker program -- the same oversight system Labor proposes to use in the temporary and seasonal guest worker programs.  

Though the Department is required to conduct audits of applications submitted to ensure against fraud, the OIG found that the Department actually discontinued some types of audits nearly three years ago. Additionally, the OIG found that the Department did not even audit many applications which had been selected for either random or targeted audits.

The OIG concluded:
“The effect of [the DOL] not auditing applications selected for audit is that fraudulent or non-meritorious applications may have been certified. Certifying non-eligible foreign workers could negatively affect the U.S. workforce by reducing the amount of jobs available for U.S. workers.”

Chairman Miller's letter to Secretary Chao states:
“The OIG report demonstrates that your Department has failed to properly implement the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM), a program that is similar to one you propose in the H-2A and H-2B regulations. Thus, we worry that the Bush Administration scheme for the H-2A and H-2B programs could lead to more fraudulent or non-meritorious requests for temporary foreign guest workers, at the expense of U.S. workers, with little risk of detection.”

Note: Sensitive information has been redacted from the OIG report.

Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) led a Congressional trip to Afghanistan and met with Pres. Karzai, Gen. McKiernan, and NY troops.

Author: RepSteveIsrael
Keywords: Afghanistan steve israel
Added: October 15, 2008

Today, USA Today published an editorial by Speaker Pelosi about the need for an economic recovery package:

We need to do more
Large economic stimulus package will benefit American families

By Nancy Pelosi

On Monday, America’s foremost economists told House Democratic leaders that our economy and America’s families would benefit if Congress acted quickly on a new economic recovery package. The economists’ message echoed that of the economist who won the Nobel Prize this week — Paul Krugman — who is calling for a large fiscal stimulus program “to get us out of this recession.”

The need for this package is undeniable. America lost nearly 800,000 jobs in the past nine months and 159,000 jobs last month alone. Families throughout the nation are watching as key services — education, public safety, health care and child safety — are dramatically reduced. All families are facing higher energy and food costs.

In September, as we moved quickly to help rescue Wall Street and our financial system, the House also passed an economic recovery package for Main Street that would create and save jobs by building a 21st century infrastructure, providing extended unemployment assistance and preventing the loss of crucial health services. Unfortunately, President Bush threatened to veto the recovery legislation and Senate Republicans blocked it.

We must try again. In the weeks since, the need for responsible action to strengthen our economy has become more urgent. I have asked the chairmen of the relevant committees in the House to review the economic impact of a larger recovery package and, because of the Congress’ commitment to fiscal responsibility, the effect on the budget.

Democrats have made fiscal responsibility a top priority, reinstating pay-as-you-go budget rules on the first day we took control of Congress in 2007. In keeping with these principles, each component of our recovery package will be justified in terms of creating good-paying jobs, stimulating our economy and returning revenue to the Treasury.

When Americans are worried about losing their jobs, their savings, their homes and their chance at the American Dream, Congress and the president must work together to lift our economy and restore hope. That is the course the New Direction Congress will continue in the days and weeks ahead.