While Illinois’ Senator Dick Durbin was gaveling
open the fourth Congressional hearing in three days looking into GSA’s
scandalous excesses and abusive spending of taxpayer funds, his Missouri
colleague Senator Claire McCaskill introduced the first legislative measure
aimed at correcting such misbehavior. In his opening remarks as Chairman of the
Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, Durkin sought to shift emphasis of the fourth hearing
this week into GSA’s scandals away from the most glaring abuses at the 2010 Las
Vegas conference, and to focus on more general questions about efficiency and
effectiveness within the agency.
GSA oversight has been on the agenda of Durkin’s
subcommittee for months, but he admitted that “The IG’s release of disturbing
findings disclosing serious management deficiencies relating to an internal
conference have added a new dimension to our discussion. … What is most
regrettable is that incidents such as this tarnish the public perception of the
workings of the entire Federal government, the services delivered by its dedicated
workforce, and the stewardship of precious Federal funds. … There are other
issues that deserve our attention as well, and those include GSA’s ability to
fulfill its program obligations and the future space needs of federal agencies
during a time of debt reduction.”
Meanwhile, Senator McCaskill, chairman of the Senate
Committee on Contracting Oversight, was busy introducing the Accountability In
Government Act, a measure designed to eliminate the abuses GSA indulged from
all federal government agencies. McCaskill’s bill includes provisions requiring
an agency head or upper management designee to approve all conferences costing
over $200,000.00; annual reporting of every agency to Congress of the details
of conference expenditures; and prohibition of paying any bonuses to agency
employees under IG investigation, who have been found in violation of
contracting rules, or found to have taken action leading to fraud, abuse or
waste of taxpayer funds.
Other Senators participating in Wednesday’s two
Senate hearings on GSA abuses also sought to broaden the focus of the Congressional
inquiry. New Mexico Senator Tom Udall said, “We need to root out the waste and
abuse at GSA and get back to the work the taxpayers what us to do, like economic
development and border security.” Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe remarked, “I
believe that this goes beyond a onetime event. I am concerned that this type of
waste has become an imbedded part of the culture of GSA.”
Earlier Wednesday, Senate Committee on Environment
and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer called to order her hearing into the
GSA excesses with these remarks: “The latest misconduct at the General Services
Administration makes me cringe for the taxpayers who expect every agency in
their government to fulfill their mission with integrity. And it makes me
cringe that the good people at GSA who work hard every day have been humiliated
by a few bad actors. … There must be justice and restitution for this, and
those who are responsible for the outrageous conduct and who violated the
public trust must be held accountable.”
Deborah Neely, wife of the GSA bureaucrat whose
over the top conference and travel expenses included taking her along on
several jaunts around the South Pacific, told journalists she is hiring her own
lawyer, and will not comment until she has met with her counsel. Up to now, a
total of 13 GSA leaders and managers have resigned, been fired or placed on
administrative leave in the wake of the scandal.
