January 2006 Archives

« December 2005 | Main | March 2006 »

Rep. George Miller Lays out Priorities for 2006

CONCORD, Calif. – In a wide-ranging press conference in Concord today, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) delivered a stiff warning to Bay Area residents about deep budget cuts pending in Congress for college students and low-income families and about the dire consequences of the culture of corruption that has permeated Washington’s leaders in Congress and the White House.

Miller said that when Congress returns to work after its December break next week it should take dramatic and thorough steps to sever the corrosive relationship between lobbyists and lawmakers, a relationship that he said has cost taxpayers dearly.

“I have been in Congress for thirty-one years and I have never seen the corruption and cronyism that we see today,” Miller said. “Democrats are fighting to make the changes that will put Congress back to work for all Americans, not for wealthy lobbyists.”

Miller said he favors specific lobbying reforms and will vote for them if they are serious, but he said those reforms alone will not go far enough to stop the culture of corruption. He called for publicly funded campaigns, otherwise known as “Clean Money campaign.”

“Trips and meals and baseball tickets for lawmakers is not the end of the story, even if it is the end of the Republican plan for lobby reform,” said Miller. “The consequences of their corruption impose real costs on Americans: legislation like the prescription drug bill and the energy bill that shower benefits on special interests and increase costs to the American people.

“You have to take the money out of the political equation,” he added, “so that Congress can work for the American people who sent us here to address their concerns. Clean money campaigns is the only solution.”

Miller also used his press conference to highlight deep budget cuts that are scheduled for a vote in the House next week. Specifically, he said the federal budget bill would result in cuts to local Head Start programs, child welfare services, Medi-Cal, and other critical services for low-income children and families. For example, Contra Costa County Head Start served approximately 2,843 children last year, but under the pending federal budget bill will receive approximately $180,000 less than they did last year and will be forced to cut the number of children served or the types of services provided – or both.

In addition, $12.7 billion will be cut from the federal student loan programs, cuts that Republican leaders are making to finance additional tax breaks and giveaways for the wealthy. The cuts to students come at a time of skyrocketing college tuition and fees – community colleges in Contra Costa County alone have nearly tripled between 2002 and 2005.

appropriations budget corruption economy ethics taxes

Posted by Intern, CA07 at 09:45PM | Comments ()

Miller says White House meddling in Abramoff case requires appointment of independent outside Counsel for entire Investigation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) has broadened his original request for an outside counsel for part of the investigation of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his ties to the Justice Department, Congress and the White House, supporting the call that Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) made today for a full outside independent counsel to carry out the Abramoff investigation.

The senators called for an outside special counsel in the Abramoff case, akin to Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald in the Libby/Rove/Plame investigation.

“With the White House stonewalling on providing pictures of the President and Abramoff or information about contacts between him and his staff about Abramoff, and now with the President nominating the lead investigator of Abramoff to become a judge and essentially taking him off the case, I have very serious concerns about whether the White House intends to let this investigation go wherever the evidence would lead it,” said Miller.

“It looks like the White House has reached in and tampered with an ongoing investigation,” Miller said. “This is an investigation with far reaching implications, in terms of the Congress and the White House and the Justice Department, and I think the actions by the White House raise very serious questions about whether they intend to really let this investigation remain independent. I agree that an outside counsel should be appointed.”

In October of 2005 and then in January of this year, Miller and several colleagues in the House called for an outside counsel for one aspect of the Abramoff investigation. Today, Miller said it should encompass the entire investigation in light of new developments.

Initially, Miller believed that a special counsel was needed to investigate allegations that the White House, in 2001, replaced acting US Attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Fred Black. Black's demotion came just one day after a federal grand jury subpoena had been issued in a criminal investigation initiated by Mr. Black into Mr. Abramoff s lobbying activities for the Guam Superior Court. Abramoff also reportedly helped to quash a classified Justice Department investigation of immigration loopholes in the Marianas that posed a potential threat to U.S. security. Abramoff emails show that he learned of the report and discussed it with then Attorney General Ashcroft’s chief of staff at a Washington Redskins football game. At the time of the replacement of Black, the White House counsel was Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales is now the U.S. Attorney General with jurisdiction over the Abramoff investigation.

Today, President George W. Bush appointed the lead investigator in the Abramoff case to become a judge in New Jersey, prompting Miller to call foul.

corruption ethics

Posted by Intern, CA07 at 08:11PM | Comments ()

Oil and Gas Companies shortchanging taxpayers by hundreds of millions of Dollars - Where is Congress?

WASHINGTON, DC - The New York Times reported today that oil and gas companies shortchanged the government and American taxpayers last year by as much as $700 million in royalty payments due for extracting natural gas from public land. In response, high-ranking Members of Congress are demanding hearings on the matter.

Though market prices for natural gas have ballooned recently, royalty payments are essentially the same as they were five years ago. The Times reported that the oil and gas companies used a “byzantine set of federal regulations” to report to the government lower sales than they report to their shareholders. This allowed the companies pay less in royalties than market prices would suggest.

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), a member of the Resources Committee, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), a member of the House Government Reform Committee, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Government Reform Committee, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a member of the Resources Committee, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) today urged the Chairmen of the Resources Committee and the Government Reform Committee to arrange the hearings to investigate the matter (http://www.house.gov/maloney/issues/oil/012306RoyaltiesHearings.pdf).

“This is exactly what we mean when we describe the Republican Culture of Corruption - it is about one party running Washington for the benefit of the wealthy few at the expense of the rest of America,” said Miller. “Because Congress has granted the President unchecked power, there is no oversight and no accountability. That’s why we are calling for hearings now and why we need to end the culture of corruption.”

“As Americans pay huge gas bills this winter to heat their homes, they are going to be furious that the oil and gas companies are skipping out on paying the bill they owe the American taxpayer,” said Maloney. “These companies are making billions upon billions off of land that belongs to the American taxpayers, and it’s sickening that they would cheat the taxpayers. It’s time that Congress brings the oil companies in for real hearings - and this time, they need to be sworn in.”

“These giveaways to the oil and gas companies are stupefying in their magnitude and inexcusable in their impact on the budget,” said Waxman.

“Thanks to the Republican leadership, the big oil companies are drowning in record profits and the American people are paying the price twice - consumers are socked with astronomical bills at the pump and are subsidizing big industry through the tax giveaways that the Republican leadership dished up for energy companies,” said Markey. “I have introduced a bill that would impose a 50 percent tax on oil companies for oil sold at prices above $40 a barrel and return half of the generated revenue to consumers who have been bearing the brunt of high gas prices by giving an income tax rebate.”

Rep. Markey is the author of the Windfall Profit and Consumer Assistance Act of 2005 which would also exempt profits that are reinvested by oil companies to increase refinery capacity or invest in new production.

According to the Times, prices for natural gas were almost twice as much in 2005 as they were in 2001, but the federal government collected only $5.15 billion in gas royalties in 2005, compared to $5.35 billion in 2001.

Last year, according to the New York Times, Burlington Resources admitted that it had underpaid approximately $76 million in royalties during the 1990s. In 2003, an Alabama jury determined that Exxon had failed to pay $63.6 million in royalties from gas wells. In the late 1990s, Congress led investigations into companies who were cheating the government out of oil royalties. Yet since 2000, Congress has failed to provide sufficient oversight of this program despite two General Accountability Office (GAO) studies.

According to Resources Committee staff, the committee has conducted no oversight on oil and gas auditing and compliance of royalty payments since 2001, when it did a hearing on the RIK (Royalty in Kind) program. In 2000, Chairman Don Young did hold a hearing on the subject, but the purpose was to investigate POGO (Project on Government Oversight) and attempt to hold them in contempt of Congress.

corruption economy energyandenvironment ethics gas prices

Posted by Intern, CA07 at 10:18PM | Comments ()