Woo-hoo!! Kerry legislation would punish profiteers in Iraq rebuilding

[MH1]

LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2732283&mesg_id=2732283

saw that in my Inbox and came here to post, but sabra beat me to it!

[TayTay]

1. News conference today

Senate Indian Affairs Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Senate Small Business Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass. - News conference


Senate Indian Affairs Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Senate Small Business Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass.

**New

TIME: 12 noon

EVENT: Senate Indian Affairs Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Senate Small Business Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass. hold a news conference to announce introduction of legislation to reform federal contracting rules. Introduction of the bill comes on the heels of a report released late last month by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction that found "tens of millions of dollars in wasteful spending in Iraq reconstruction aid."

DATE: February 15, 2007

LOCATION: Senate Radio/TV Gallery, U.S. Capitol

CONTACT: Barry Piatt or Fran Benton, 202-224-2551

[MH1]

3. Great! Could I impose on you to post that to the LBN thread?

It might be time for a kick, anyway. ;-)

But seriously, someone might be interested. (I am actually surprised the thread is getting so little attention. Maybe sabra should change the title to say "Feingold", then correct that in the body.."now that I have your attention..." Sigh.)

[TayTay]

4. Added this to the thread

and did a Reccomend. Now on Greatest Page.

[MH1]

8. Thanks! n/t

[whometense]

10. Pardon a stupid question:

Why Indian Affairs?

[karynnj]

11. I think that's just the committee he chairs

I think he held "Democratic" hearing on some of these issues last year.

[TayTay]

12. Not sure, but I would venture on the contracting issue

Jurisdiction rule on Indian Affairs Committee:

(2) It shall be the duty of the select committee to conduct a study of any and all matters pertaining to problems and opportunities of Indians, including but not limited to, Indian land management and trust responsibilities, Indian education, health, special services, and loan programs, and Indian claims against the United States.

This would mean that this committee has jurisdiction to go and find out if federal contracts are being kept from Native Americans. (Hmmmmm, dovetails nicely with a Small Biz jurisdiction, when you come to think about it.)

[TayTay]

2. Interoperability Amendment approved in Commerce

SENATE COMMERCE PANEL CLEARS INTEROPERABILITY, 911' LEGISLATION
TR Daily (02-13-2007)

The Interoperable Emergency Communications Act (S 385) and the 911 Modernization Act (S 93) were among a slate of items that sailed through the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee with almost no debate in a brief markup this morning.

S 385 was introduced by Sens. Daniel K. Inouye (D., Hawaii) and Ted Stevens (R., Alaska), the committees chairman and ranking member, and aims to provide guidance to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on how to disburse $1 billion in interoperability grants.

The legislation today was moved forward with a managers package of amendments. Among them was one offered by Sens. John Sununu (R., N.H.) and Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) aimed at ensuring that public safety agencies can use funds for Internet-protocol based interoperability solutions. Other amendments authored by Sen. Sununu would (1) ensure that final rules are issued within 90 days of enactment; (2) ensure that any consensus standards for interoperable communications are voluntary; and (3) require the FCC to report, with 90 days of the bills enactment, to report on interoperability issues around the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders.

Two more amendments were authored by Sen. Cantwell: one would expand the eligible assistance categories to include software and services, and the other would clarify that the voluntary equipment standards would apply only to equipment for which such standards exist.

Finally, an amendment offered by Sen. Stevens and Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) would establish a joint advisory committee on communications capabilities of emergency care facilities and authorize emergency medical communications pilot projects.

The inability of our first responders to communicate with one another during an emergency is an especially troubling problem when the ability to quickly and effectively communicate saves lives, Sen. Inouye said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the 911 legislation, also introduced by Sens. Inouye and Stevens, cleared the committee today without any changes or amendments. That bill would allow the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to borrow $43.5 million from the U.S. Treasury against future spectrum auction revenues for immediate use as grants to support wireless-technology upgrades for 911" call centers. - Brian Hammond, [e-mail]

[Mass]

5. Cool - I also posted it on GD this morning and just noticed it made the homepage.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=216696&mesg_id=216696

[MH1]

7. Excellent - great job. I just looked in LBN when I got the news alert. n/t

[ProSense]

9. This is awesome and it's on

DU's home page now.

[MBS]

6. This is great news.

Thanks for posting!

[Democrafty]

13. I'm so happy about this.

I've been hoping he'd try to stick it to these bastards at some point.

[MBS]

14. Rick Jacobs on Huffington Post. .

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-jacobs/dorgan-kerry-and-leahy-_b_41375.html
Excerpts:

We are so used to being in the opposition that our minds bend when we can support those in power. While little noticed by the blogs or the main stream media, real leadership shined through Thursday morning in Washington when Senator Byron Dorgan, Chair of the Democratic Policy Committee, backed by Senators John Kerry and Patrick Leahy, followed through on his commitment to rein in contracting fraud and abuse that has been the hallmark of the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton outsourcing of their private war in Iraq.
. . .

When reading the provisions, I can only wonder why creating such law seems revolutionary. These are common sense provisions that protect taxpayers, make America stronger and keep business from owning government. But after twelve years of control in the Congress and six years in the White House, the right wing utterly gutted the concept of accountability. With the full support of Senator Dorgan, who is a quiet hero on such matters, backed by Senator Kerry, who used his vast email network to arrange screenings of Iraq for Sale last fall and Senator Leahy, who is featured in the film doing his job last year and always getting turned down by the Republicans, we have a chance to restore trust in government, one law at a time.

The job is far from done. This bill has to go to committee, to the Senate floor, pass through the conference committee with the House and then be signed into law. With our help, we can turn up the pressure on members of the Senate and House to support the Dorgan bill and then make it politically expensive even for this President to veto it by building a groundswell of support for accountability.

Stay tuned because with your help, that's just what we'll do.

[dwahzon]

15. Of course,

it was posted here as well...

http://blog.johnkerry.com/2007/02/wheres_the_armor_wheres_the_mo.html

Too bad the people who watch the kerry site won't know how you all feel about it.

[MH1]

16. um,

My post here was posted yesterday. The JK blog post was only put up this morning.

I'll get around to commenting over there at some point. You are right, we need to comment over there. But, I like to read all the links and watch any videos, and that takes time, and can't always be done during the day.

[dwahzon]

17. You're right

of course. The Herald article was written in advance of the press conference actually being held.

It's still important to post feedback over there.

The Rick Jacob post on Huffpo that's mentioned and kicked this up to the top is quoted in the JK blog entry as well.