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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (26579)	4/23/2008 3:58:04 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224748

Double digit or not....it was enough to keep her in the race so they can continue to beat each other up....good news for McCain.... J.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (26579)	4/23/2008 5:30:32 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Respond to of 224748

Credit where credit is due: Congrats to the US House for closing the following loophole: >House moves to close contract fraud loophole By LARA JAKES JORDAN - WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Wednesday to close a multibillion-dollar loophole in a crackdown on contract fraud, approving plans to force the Bush administration to act within six months. It's not clear if the Senate will follow the House voice vote with similar legislation. The Senate Judiciary Committee has expressed bipartisan interest in the plan, said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. At issue is a Bush administration rule requiring government contractors to report misuse of taxpayer dollars to the Justice Department. The rule, as originally published last November, included a loophole to exempt contracts performed overseas. More than $102 billion has been spent on government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan alone in the last five years. The loophole was first reported by The Associated Press. Administration officials told lawmakers at a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing earlier this month that the loophole was a "drafting error" and likely would be removed. The House bill, sponsored by Welch, requires the Bush administration to eliminate the exemption within 180 days. "I don't totally trust the administration to get it right and I'm skeptical of their explanation that this was quote, a mistake," Welch said Wednesday. "Words don't mysteriously appear on their own. So the statute gives us assurance that it'll happen." The administration since has stripped the loophole from the proposed rule, which likely will be finalized later this year. At the House hearing, a top official for the White House Office of Management and Budget predicted the exemption would not be included in the final rule. The Justice Department said has charged at least 46 people in investigations over the past several years into kickbacks, bribes and other abuses of government-funded contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. It opposed the loophole.<