CCAGW Slams $388 Billion Omnibus Bill
"Congress stuffed the bill with pork," Schatz says
Council For Citizens Against Government Waste Press Release. November 22, 2004

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(Washington, D.C.) - The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today criticized Congress for passing an omnibus spending package that funds nine of the 13 fiscal year 2005 appropriations bills. The $388 billion 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Act is temporarily being held up after members of Congress expressed outrage over the discovery of an obscure line in the 1,690-page bill that would give the chairmen of the Appropriations Committees and their staff assistants the authority to access the income tax returns of any American. Republican leaders promised to delete the provision in a special session on Wednesday. President Bush announced his intention to sign the final bill once the provision is removed.

"This bill confirms that the appropriations process is broken," CCAGW President Tom Schatz said. "The complex spending package was made available to members of Congress only hours before the vote. The invasive IRS measure is typical of last-minute additions to spending bills. Taxpayers have little to be thankful for, as members of Congress have helped themselves to the whole hog on this Thanksgiving."

While lawmakers and President Bush lauded the omnibus for holding domestic spending, excluding defense and foreign aid, members of Congress showed no restraint in their hunger for pork-barrel projects. The thousands of earmarks lurking in the bill include: $3.5 million for bus acquisition in Atlanta, Ga.; $2 million for kitchen relocation in Fairbanks North Star Borough in Fairbanks, Alaska; $1.5 million for a demonstration project to transport naturally chilled water from Lake Ontario to Lake Onondaga; $500,000 for the Kincaid Park Soccer and Nordic Ski Center in Anchorage, Alaska; $250,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn.; $200,000 for Fenton Street Village pedestrian linkages in Montgomery Co., Md.; $100,000 for a municipal swimming pool in Ottawa, Kan.; $80,000 for the San Diego Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center; $75,000 for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wis.; $35,000 for the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame; and $25,000 for fitness equipment for the YMCA in Bradford County, Pa.

"The fiscal 2005 federal budget is stingy only in a relative sense," Schatz continued. "If Congress is truly tightening its belt, then why was it necessary to increase the debt ceiling by $800 billion? There is little purpose to a debt 'ceiling' that can be arbitrarily raised to accommodate the congressional appetite for pork. The boasting over this bill shows that Congress is a long way from passing a truly balanced budget."

The domestic discretionary spending cited by congressional leaders represents only one-seventh of the total $2.3 trillion federal budget. The administration plans to halve the deficit over five years, but during that time and even after the baby boomers begin to retire, the national debt will continue to rise.

"If Congress cannot make the easy decisions by eliminating unnecessary earmarks, like $200,000 for the Aviation Hall of Fame or $100,000 for the Punxsutawney Weather Museum, there is very little hope for social security or tax reform," Schatz concluded. "Deeper cuts must be sought in the federal budget to prevent a fiscal disaster. A critical part of rooting out wasteful and unnecessary spending is to consider and debate appropriations bills separately, in a timely manner, in order to avoid resorting to a pork-filled omnibus."

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.

WASTE NEWS

CAGW Investigations and Reports


House leaders make deal to keep tax returns private
Measure in spending bill to be removed in December session
CNN.com, Tuesday, November 23, 2004

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Lawmakers have reached an agreement on how to remove a provision in a giant spending bill that would allow two committee chairmen to review individual tax returns, a spokesman for Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday.

The agreement, the spokesman said, is that the House minority leader will allow an extension of a continuing resolution to fund the government until December 8. The House will reconvene December 6 to vote on removing the language from the omnibus spending bill.

That means the House and Senate will meet before Thanksgiving for what will likely be minimalist sessions to pass an extended continuing resolution.

The actions are necessary because the omnibus bill is being kept in the Senate and not sent to the president for his signature until the offending language is removed. The Senate approved a resolution to remove the offending language Saturday night after the House had left.

The provision would bypass other laws that govern "the disclosure of income tax returns or return information" -- and that impose steep penalties and fines on such disclosure -- to allow the chairmen of the House and Senate appropriations committees or their agents "access to Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein."

In discussions over how to remove the tax-returns provision, Pelosi had objected to regular GOP use of a parliamentary technique -- called "martial law" or a "same day" rule -- that expedites final votes on bills, often before lawmakers have time to read them.

Pelosi said she believes that kind of expedited schedule was to blame for the provision slipping past lawmakers and into the bill.

Angry House Republican leaders -- already embarrassed by the IRS flap -- contended "martial law" is a necessary tool to manage Congress and was used regularly by Democrats when they were in the majority.

"This is about good government, not about Democratic obstructionism," Pelosi aide Brendan Daly said. "We want to prevent Republicans from shoving these massive bills down members' throats with no time to look at them."

When they return in December, lawmakers could also address the intelligence overhaul bill that stalled last weekend.

Republicans said the IRS provision was never designed to allow snooping into people's private records, but was intended to improve oversight of the agency, which just got a half-billion-dollar budget increase. Nevertheless, Republicans moved to ditch the provision after Senate Republicans and Democrats complained.

Rep. Ernest Istook, the Oklahoma Republican whose subcommittee was responsible for the provision, said it had been misrepresented.

Staff members of Sen. Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, found the language in the 3,500-page bill Saturday after the House passed it on to the Senate as the deadline before the Senate's holiday recess rapidly approached.

Conrad said Monday the measure was "too dangerous" and should "never become law."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and his Democratic counterpart Tom Daschle ironed out an agreement to pass the $388 billion bill and remove the language by resolution, while holding it in the Senate until the House passes a similar resolution. Only then will the bill go to President Bush for his signature.

Frist said Sunday that "accountability will be carried out" against whoever slipped in the provision.

Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the episode points up the problems created when Congress passes gigantic spending bills quickly at the end of a session.

CNN's Joe Johns and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.


Frist: Tax-returns measure indefensible
Senate leaders vow author will be held accountable
CNN.com, Sunday, November 21, 2004

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday that "accountability will be carried out" against whoever slipped a provision into an omnibus spending bill that would have allowed two committee chairmen to view the tax returns of any American.

"I have no earthly idea how it got in there," Frist said on CBS's "Face The Nation." "Nobody is going to defend this."

The language was caught and removed in the Senate on Saturday, but the House will have to approve the fix before the spending bill can be sent to the White House for President Bush's signature.

However, the delay will not cause a government shutdown. Congress already had passed a stopgap resolution to fund government agencies through December 3 in order to give the White House time to consider the omnibus bill.

A military plane flew that resolution to Chile, where Bush was attending the APEC summit, so the president could sign it to avoid any disruption of government.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in a written statement that "The Republicans' lack of transparency and willingness to abuse their power is undermining democracy. It should be of grave concern to all Americans that their privacy could be invaded by such an outrageous provision."

Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the episode points up the problems created when Congress passes gigantic spending bills at the end of a session, before anyone has time to read them.

"If there is ever a graphic example of the broken system that we now have, that certainly has to be it," the Arizona Republican said on NBC's "Meet The Press." "How many other provisions didn't we find in that 1,000-page bill?"

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York called Sunday for a "full and complete" investigation into how the language got into the bill, followed by "appropriate punishment" for those responsible.

"This harkens back to the days of [FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover, when some unknown person could go and snoop on you," he said on CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer."

Saturday, rushing to adjourn for the year, the House passed the $338 billion omnibus spending bill, which was necessary to keep government operations funded after Congress ran out of time to pass nine regular appropriations bills. The bill ran to more than 1,000 pages. (Full story)

Saturday had been scheduled as the final day of a lame-duck session for the 108th Congress. On Sunday, top Democrats and Republicans expressed frustration over the House's failure to pass a broad intelligence reorganization bill. A vote in December is still possible, as Congress has not gone into recess. (Full story)

After the House passed the spending bill, Democratic Senate staffers discovered that it contained a provision allowing the chairmen of the House and Senate appropriations committees, or their agents, to examine the tax returns of any American.

The two lawmakers who would have gained that power -- Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, and Rep. Bill Young, a Florida Republican -- both said they wouldn't use it, and the Senate approved a resolution deleting the language.

Frist and outgoing Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat from South Dakota, agreed to hold the bill until the House could pass a similar fix, which could not happen before Wednesday.

Schumer said Pelosi told him she planned to hold up consideration of the bill in the House "until we find out who put this provision in."

Some Democrats implied that the measure was inserted for political gain.

"Does anyone believe that some staffer without permission thought up a scheme by which a chairman's 'agent' could have access to every IRS facility everywhere in this nation and every single IRS filing of every citizen of this nation?" said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat.

"I mean, you know, we weren't born yesterday."

Frist said he did not know who was responsible for inserting the language, "but, obviously, somebody is going to know, and accountability will be carried out."

The Senate leader also noted that passing appropriations together into one omnibus bill was "not unusual," and that the appropriations subcommittees have been working on it for nine months.

"This thing wasn't written over the last three or four days," he told CBS, though he conceded that the budget process needed to be changed.

"We're going to work on that in the next Congress," he said.


For Imediate Release: Monday, November 22 2004

Contact: (202) 572-5500
Sheila McCormick, 7034
Mike Drapkin, 7011

NTEU Will Monitor Private Tax Debt Collection, Educate Public on Risks to Taxpayer Information

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Washington, D.C.-A House-Senate Conference Committee "has acted in a truly unfortunate manner" by ignoring strong bipartisan efforts in Congress that would have stopped personal and sensitive taxpayer information from falling into the hands of private companies, the leader of the nation's largest independent union of federal employees said today.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) called the committee's action in stripping the taxpayer protections from the 2005 Omnibus Appropriations bill "a step backward for consumer privacy" as well as a waste of taxpayer money. The omnibus funding bill was approved by Congress on Saturday.

She promised that the union will monitor implementation of an Internal Revenue Service effort to use private debt collection agencies, which will be paid a commission based on the amount of tax debt they collect, and added that NTEU will continue to educate the public about the risks of such a program to their sensitive and personal tax information.

At issue was language in the 2005 Transportation-Treasury funding bill, advanced by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), that would have prevented the IRS from using any funds to contract with private debt collectors to collect tax debts.

At the time she offered the amendment to the pending legislation, Rep. Capito warned that the privacy issues and potential for harm inherent in the use of private tax collectors "should be cause for
alarm."

Prior to the November election recess, Congress had approved, in an unrelated tax bill, a provision permitting the IRS to enter into such contracts. That approval came despite the demonstrated inability of the IRS to monitor and manage its private contractors on a variety of issues-and despite the history of a failed attempt at tax debt privatizing eight years ago.

A 1996 pilot program produced such poor results-including far lower than expected collections, along with abuse of taxpayers by private debt collectors-that a planned 1997 program was cancelled by the agency.

The pilot program resulted in instances of the worst practices of the debt collection industry and violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, including dunning phone calls to taxpayers as early as 4:19 a.m. NTEU has "no reason to believe" that this program will fare any better, Kelley said.

The committee's action also ignores the concerns of consumers who continually flood the Federal Trade Commission with complaints about the aggressive nature of debt collectors. That industry has earned, for the third year in a row, the dubious distinction of being the most complained about industry in America.

NTEU has been leading the fight against tax debt privatization, emphasizing the dangers of private taxpayer information getting into the hands of private sector companies, particularly at a time when identity theft is a real and growing problem.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including some 98,000 in the IRS.


Bush signs $800 billion debt limit hike
Party-line vote sent measure to Bush for signature
CNN.com, November 19, 2004

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush signed legislation on Friday raising the government's debt limit by $800 billion, a measure forged by the same budget pressures that squeezed the spending bill.

Congress sent the measure to President Bush on Thursday, spotlighting how the budget has lurched out of control in recent years and how hard it will be to afford future initiatives.

The House approved the measure by a near party-line 208-204 vote as White House and bipartisan congressional bargainers moved to the verge of agreement on a year-end spending package expected to total $388 billion. Negotiators said just a handful of issues remained unresolved, and a package might be ready for votes by late Friday.

With the government facing imminent default because it has depleted its authority to borrow money, the debt limit bill would pump up the federal borrowing cap to $8.18 trillion. That is 70 percent the size of the entire U.S. economy, and more than $2.4 trillion higher than the debt Bush inherited upon taking office in 2001.

"The president commends the Congress for passing the debt limit increase," the White House said in a written statement that did not mention the magnitude of borrowing involved or its causes. "Passage of this legislation was important to protect the full faith and credit of the United States."

In an effort to reassure the financial markets that federal borrowing would be unimpeded, the statement said Bush would sign the legislation by next Monday.

Republicans said they were being responsible because the increased borrowing will let the government pay Social Security benefits and its other bills. They blamed Democratic spending for the problem, and accused them of playing politics by opposing the measure.

"Let's not use our elderly as political pawns in trade for a seven-second sound bite back home," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

Democrats said the red ink was due to GOP tax cuts and their refusal to require budget savings to pay for tax reductions or spending increases. They accused Republicans of passing the buck to future generations.

"I want someone to explain to me how it can be moral for a father to stick his kids with his bills," said Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Mississippi.

Lawmakers hope to end their postelection session, which began Tuesday, by passing both the spending and debt-limit measures and possibly an intelligence agency overhaul by this weekend.

Negotiators spent Thursday clearing away final disputes on the massive spending bill. They agreed to $577 million, the same as last year, to continue developing a nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, one lawmaker said.

Remaining problems included an effort by some legislators to curb Bush's plan to contract out federal jobs to private businesses, as well as a plan to pay for some of the bill's increases by cutting unspent defense funds.

The bill would grant increases to such priorities as veterans' health care and the FBI and will probably contain thousands of home-district projects.

Hewing to Bush's demands to curb domestic spending, it also would cut grants for local water improvements and research supported by the National Science Foundation, while holding the federal subsidy for Amtrak to $1.2 billion, the same as this year.

Aid to help refugees in Sudan's war-torn Darfur province would be $404 million, including $93 million to be transferred from Iraq reconstruction money that is being spent at a snail's pace.

Spending-bill bargainers also sorted through a stack of policy changes that lawmakers and lobbyists were trying to shove into one of the last measures Congress will approve this year.

Congressional aides said they believed a milk subsidy extension sought by Midwesterners and an effort to repeal required country-of-origin labels for meat would not make the final bill. Also thwarted was a drive to ease rules designed to protect endangered species from pesticides, the aides said.

The spending measure, covering the government budget year that started Oct. 1, is an amalgamation of nine separate bills financing all federal agencies except the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department.

The GOP-led Senate approved the debt limit increase on Wednesday, 52-44, almost strictly along party lines.

The fight over raising the debt limit has become a staple of the Bush years, which will have now seen three such increases and two consecutive record annual deficits.

The government reached the current $7.38 trillion cap last month, paying its bills since with investments from a civil service retirement account, which it plans to repay. Even so, Republican leaders postponed the showdown vote until after the election, realizing Democrats would use the issue to highlight the red ink of the Bush years.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Pro-Lifers and Catholic Bishops are happy:

Bishops' Official Applauds Passage Of Pro-Life 'Conscience Protection' In Appropriations Bill

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WASHINGTON (November 22, 2004) – A federal spending bill passed by Congress on Saturday includes protection against discrimination for hospitals and health care providers who decline to provide, pay for, or refer for abortions. The provision, known as the "Hyde-Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment," is named after its House sponsors, Reps. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and Dave Weldon (R-Fl.).

"We applaud Congress' recognition that hospitals and other health care providers should have a right to choose not to be involved in destroying life," said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq., Director of Planning and Information for the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. "Over a million abortions are done every year by willing abortion providers in this country. It is outrageous to suggest that Catholic health care providers and others with moral objections should be forced into the practice of abortion."

"The threat of discrimination is not theoretical, it is real," said Ruse. "Already, hospitals in Alaska, New Jersey, and New Mexico have been discriminated against because of their pro-life policies."

Current federal law already protects "health care entities" from having to perform or provide for abortions. The Hyde-Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment was needed because current law had been misinterpreted to protect only individual physicians and training programs, leaving hospitals, health plans, nurses, and other health care participants without protection.

"This Amendment simply clarifies what should be obvious," Ruse said. "Legal protection for 'health care entities' should include the full range of participants who provide health care – no one who provides health care should be forced to participate in abortion."

"The opposition of abortion activists to this Amendment is telling," said Ruse. "The champions of 'choice' worked to deny the choice of health care providers to choose not to perform abortion. Here's more evidence that 'pro-choice' really does mean 'pro-abortion.'"


November 23, 2004 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

But Planned Parenthood is not:

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So-Called "Abortion Non-Discrimination Act" Threatens Women's Health
Sweeping Refusal Clause Strips State Autonomy And Jeopardizes Women's Reproductive Health
November 22, 2004

Washington, DC - Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) decried the passage of the Weldon so-called "Abortion Non-Discrimination Act" (ANDA), today, citing its potential to gravely hinder a woman's right to choose. The legislation, originally proposed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and passed today as an amendment to the final version of the omnibus appropriations bill, would allow health care organizations to refuse to comply with existing federal, state or local laws pertaining to abortion.

"This amendment's name makes it sound like it protects women who are seeking abortions from discrimination. In fact, it discriminates against them," said PPFA President Gloria Feldt. "It allows any health care provider or institution, religious or otherwise, to refuse to provide a much-needed reproductive health care service. The bill is not about religious freedom - there is no federal law that requires health care providers to perform abortions in the first place."

ANDA was added to the appropriations bill by anti-choice Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL). The bill provides a sweeping exemption from existing laws relating to safe and legal abortion services. Health care entities, as defined by the law, include hospitals, provider-sponsored organizations, health maintenance organizations, health insurance plans or any other kind of health care facilities, organizations or plans.

"This amendment not only intrudes on private, personal medical decision making, but it also intrudes on state and local government rights," said Feldt. "The vast majority of Americans oppose allowing health care entities to deny services to women, even if those entities claim their refusal is based on religious or moral grounds, which ANDA does not even require. This sweeping federal refusal clause will allow the whims of a corporate entity to trump the conscience and very real medical needs of women nationwide."

Planned Parenthood Federation of America is the nation's largest and most trusted voluntary reproductive health organization. We believe that everyone has the right to choose when or whether to have a child - and that every child should be wanted and loved. Planned Parenthood affiliates operate nearly 850 health centers nationwide, providing medical services and sexuality education for millions of women, men, and teenagers each year.
Contact:
Sylvia Ballinger (202) 973-4975
Erin Libit (202) 973-4883

Texas Representative Ron Paul Fails to Stop Mental Health Screening Without Parental Consent by the US Government