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The Revolving Door: The
Deepwater Horizon disaster dramatically illustrates the enormity of the
risk to our safety, the environment, the economy, and the general public
interest by the capture of government agencies by private industry. The
revolving door between the oil and gas industry and its regulator is at
the rotten core of the lax oversight that led to oil spilling into the
Gulf of Mexico.2
While S.
The Revolving Door: The
Deepwater Horizon disaster dramatically illustrates the enormity of the
risk to our safety, the environment, the economy, and the general public
interest by the capture of government agencies by private industry. The
revolving door between the oil and gas industry and its regulator is at
the rotten core of the lax oversight that led to oil spilling into the
Gulf of Mexico.2
While S. 3516, the Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 2010, includes
measures to slow the revolving door between the oil and gas industry
and its regulator, the House's CLEAR Act does not yet include such
measures.
POGO Recommends:
The CLEAR Act should include the Senate
language, but increase the cooling-off period to two years and add civil
and criminal penalties. Existing restrictions should be expanded and
strengthened so that all employees of the Department of the Interior
with responsibilities under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act - not
just the highest-ranking employees - would be banned from lobbying for
industry for two years after leaving Interior, and also from making
lobbying contact with Interior for at least one year. In addition, there
should be a two-year cooling-off period that bans former Interior
employees from employment with any party that had interests pending
before them in their previous year of civil service. The
fox-in-the-henhouse phenomenon created by the reverse revolving door can
be addressed by ensuring that Interior employees cannot oversee matters
relating to their former industry employer or client for two years.
Both civil and criminal penalties for violations should be included.3
Training Academies (Sec. 102): The CLEAR Act
authorizes the Secretary to enter into cooperative educational and
training agreements with oil and gas operators and related industries.
POGO supports improved training, but no entity or industry being
regulated should be involved in the training of the federal inspectors
who will regulate them. In any regulatory agency, inspection is a core
function of the agency, and the agency must keep organic in-house
expertise in the laws and regulations enforced. That in-house expertise
is generally embodied in the federal employees who train the inspectors.
In addition, the cooperative educational and training agreements and
the programs should be more transparent.
POGO Recommends:
Whistleblower Protections and Incentives:
Whistleblowers are on the front lines of oversight and are the first
best defense against waste, fraud, abuse and other wrongdoing. If oil
and gas industry employees had had adequate protections against
retaliation and incentives for warning regulators, perhaps the Deepwater
Horizon disaster could have been averted. The CLEAR Act does not yet
provide for the whistleblower protections and incentives required for
adequate oversight and accountability.
POGO Recommends:
The CLEAR Act must provide oil and gas
industry employees with best-practices whistleblower protections such as
those included in the financial reform legislation for financial
industry employees, and the protections established for manufacturing
and transportation employees, Department of Defense contractors, and
others. Important disclosures to a supervisor, employer, law
enforcement, Interior and other regulators, Congress and others must be
protected. Real protections when retaliation occurs include adequate due
process rights, an administrative review at the Department of Labor,
and jury trial access. In addition, an incentive program to encourage
whistleblowers to come forward and disclose wrongdoing to the Department
of the Interior should be established. Such a program would allow for
an award to whistleblowers whose information leads to the federal
government pursuing successful sanctions on those regulated under the
OCS Act. Similar incentive programs exist at the IRS, and are included
in the financial reform legislation to encourage disclosures to the SEC
and CFTC.4
Conflicts of Interest: Investigations conducted by
the Department of the Interior's Inspector General and POGO revealed
gross misconduct at multiple Minerals Management Service (MMS) offices.
Instances of misconduct included reports of MMS personnel receiving
inappropriate gifts from industry, performing outside work that clearly
conflicted with the ethical performance of their duties, and in at least
one instance, negotiating for a job with a company that they were
inspecting. These findings are all indicative of an agency that is
inappropriately close to industry. While S. 3516, the Outer Continental
Shelf Reform Act of 2010, clarifies that gift bans and conflicts of
interest rules apply to all employees at Interior with responsibilities
under the OSC Act, the House's CLEAR Act does not yet include such
measures.
POGO Recommends:
Including the Senate language, but
including both civil and criminal penalties for violators of the gift
ban or conflicts of interest rules.
Federal Advisory Committees (Secs. 109 and 605):
The CLEAR Act rightly establishes that the OCS Safety and Environmental
Advisory Board is subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA),
but FACA is only the floor for ethics and transparency in these bodies.
In 2004, the Government Accountability Office thoroughly examined the
FACA process and raised serious concerns about the ways agencies select
and designate members. The Government Accountability Office (GAO)
recommended greater transparency for the member selection process such
as "providing information on how the members of the committees are
identified and screened, and indicating whether the committee members
are providing independent or stakeholder advice."5 In
order to ensure that the advisory board fulfills its requirement to
provide the agency with "independent scientific and technical advice,"
strengthening language is needed. In addition, any body that includes
non-federal employees and is providing information or guidance to the
federal government should be under FACA, and then have additional
disclosure requirements and safeguards against conflicts of interest.
This is particularly important given the role in grant making given to
the Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Review Panel in the bill.
POGO recommends:
Regional Citizens' Advisory Council: The CLEAR Act
does not provide for adequate public participation in oversight of the
regional oil and gas operations and its impacts. A Regional Citizens'
Advisory Council would provide a forum for public participation to
generate recommendations for exploration, development, production,
refining, and transportation of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico and of
prevention, response and restoration measures related to the social,
economic and environmental impacts of an oil spill, drilling disaster or
gas release.
POGO Recommends:
The CLEAR Act should establish a Gulf of
Mexico Regional Citizens Advisory Council to increase public
participation in oversight. The Council should include representatives
of groups disproportionately impacted by risks of energy production from
each of the five Gulf States selected by their peers to conduct
citizens' oversight. The Council should be modeled after successful
citizens advisory councils in Alaska authorized in the Oil Pollution Act
of 1990 after the Exxon Valdez disaster.6
Improving Natural Gas Reporting (Sec. 314): The
CLEAR Act requires the Secretary of the Interior to provide long-overdue
reforms to ensure accurate determination and reporting of BTU values,
but more could and should be done to improve standards.
POGO Recommends:
Incorporating Rep. Carolyn Maloney's
(D-NY) Study of Ways to Improve the Accuracy of the Collection of
Federal Oil, Condensate, and Natural Gas Royalties Act of 2009 (H.R.
1462), which would require a more comprehensive assessment to ensure
that taxpayer get their fair share for natural gas royalties.
Developing Innovations and Technology and Awards for Industry
(Sec. 219): POGO supports efforts to encourage the development of oil
spill and containment and response technologies, but we're concerned
about cash-prize award programs for industry and that current
technologies are not sufficiently evaluated. The cash-prize award
program is subject to conflicts of interest and also is unnecessary. The
grants offered and the exploration requirements in the CLEAR Act
provide sufficient incentives for the development of new technology.
POGO Recommends:
Measuring the Effectiveness of Reforms: The CLEAR
Act contains many important reforms, and yet there are not enough
measures to determine the effectiveness and impact of the reforms in the
bill.
POGO Recommends:
The bill should require a GAO evaluation
as to whether the reorganization addresses previous GAO and IG concerns,
whether the increased hiring authority for the Secretary made Interior
more effective at addressing their oversight missions, and if there has
been a sufficient reduction in the conflicts of mission and interest.
Inspector General Reports: The Inspector General
has conducted many investigations tracking the problems at the Minerals
Management Service. The public must continue to have to access to their
work to hold Interior accountable for being effective custodians of
taxpayer resources.
POGO Recommends:
The CLEAR Act should make all Interior
Inspector General reports and investigations public.
___________________________
Endnotes
1 These recommendations are based upon the
Discussion Draft of the Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R.
3534, the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources Act of 2010,
dated June 22, 2010, and which was under consideration in the House
Natural Resources Committee Hearing on June 30, 2010.
2 The revolving door problem is well documented,
including in POGO's report Drilling
the Taxpayer.
3 POGO and 12 other organizations sent a
letter of support for the Wyden Revolving Door Amendment to S. 3516,
the Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 2010.
4 POGO can provide detailed recommendations for
best-practice legislation.
5 "Federal Advisory Committees: Additional Guidance
Could Help Agencies Better Ensure Independence and Balance," GAO, April
2004.
6 The Citizens' Advisory Commission also is
supported by the Publish What You Pay coalition, as referenced in their
recommendations on July 7, 2010.
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more effective, accountable, open and honest federal government.
"Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or healthcare, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing."
"It's becoming nearly impossible for working-class people to buy and keep a roof over their heads. Congress must respond with a plan that matches the scale of this crisis."
That's according to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who on Wednesday introduced the Homes Act in a New York Timesopinion piece and an event with supporters of the proposal on Capitol Hill.
"Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or healthcare, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing," the pair wrote in the Times. "That's why we're introducing the Homes Act, a plan to establish a new, federally backed development authority to finance and build homes in big cities and small towns across America. These homes would be built to last by union workers and then turned over to entities that agree to manage them for permanent affordability: public and tribal housing authorities, cooperatives, tenant unions, community land trusts, nonprofits, and local governments."
"Our housing development authority wouldn't be focused on maximizing profit or returns to shareholders," the congresswomen continued. "Rent would be capped at 25% of a household's adjusted annual gross income. Homes would be set aside for lower-income families in mixed-income buildings and communities. And every home would be built to modern, efficient standards, which would cut residents' utility costs. Renters wouldn't have to worry about the prospect of a big corporation buying up the building and evicting everyone. Some could even come together to purchase their buildings outright."
In addition to establishing the new authority under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the bill would repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prevents the use of federal money for building new public homes. Under the new plan, construction would be funded by congressional spending and Treasury-backed loans.
"In New York, the average worker would need to clock in 104 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. "This country is staring down a full-blown housing crisis. A crisis where affordable housing is slipping out of reach."
"This bill would create more than 500,000 jobs and create 1.25 million affordable housing units," she noted, declaring that "everyone deserves a place to call home."
It's not just New York City where lower-wage people are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Smith pointed out that "more than 90% of workers cannot afford a modest one-bedroom apartment. Americans across the country are bidding for homes against the wealthiest financial firms and they're losing."
"We have a severe housing crisis," she stressed. "The private market cannot meet this moment on its own. The Homes Act meets peoples' needs through social housing."
As Jacobin's Samuel Stein wrote Wednesday:
The housing system sketched out in the Homes Act looks nothing like what we are used to in the United States. Though we have an important social housing legacy, we have never normalized decommodification as the cornerstone of our housing system.
Introducing legislation like the Homes Act does not accomplish that goal in and of itself, but it offers us a concrete depiction of what that transition could look like. It also highlights the severe disjuncture between what our housing and urban planning system does right now—promote private profits in real estate while minimizing the public provision of housing—and what we need it to do.
The goal of legislation like this is not to pass it immediately, since no sober person would expect the current U.S. Congress to line up in support. Nor is the goal to supplant the messy work of organizing with the schematic and technical language of legislation. Instead, the point is to inspire organizing: to show that the status quo is not the only way our housing could operate, to give tenant organizations a concrete and affirmative vision to build toward, and to offer socialist candidates for office a platform to run on.
The bill to create a social housing authority—introduced less than two months out from the U.S. general election—is backed by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and its affiliates from across the country.
"Working families are being forced to make sacrifices in order to pay the skyrocketing cost of keeping a roof over their heads, while corporate landlords and Wall Street executives are getting even richer," said CPD co-executive directors Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper. "This legislation provides a clear alternative to for-profit housing. It creates a framework to make community-owned, permanently affordable green social housing a reality."
Advocates from both sponsors' states also spoke out in favor of the bill.
"In Greater Minnesota, counties and towns don't have staff to build affordable housing projects, financing is another huge issue. We don’t have as many philanthropic organizations or financial institutions as urban areas," explained Noah Hobbs, policy director at One Roof Community Housing in Duluth. "This bill is the first real investment we've had in years. We're incredibly proud to endorse this legislation."
Aisha Hernandez, secretary of the Coalition to Save Affordable Housing at Co-op City in the Bronx, said that "cooperative housing gave me the ability to co-own my home. A few years ago, my neighbors and I came together to ensure our housing stays affordable, that our management is working in the interest of homeowners and prevent any corporate takeover of Co-op City."
"We are co-owners, not at the whims of corporate landlords," Hernandez added. "I want my fellow Americans to have the same access to housing that co-op has afforded me. This bill has the ability to do that. So let's get it done."
"This research provides a view into just how embedded the corporate, profit-fueled war machine is in our higher education and cultural institutions," said one campaigner.
A trio of human rights groups on Wednesday announced a new interactive initiative exposing what the coalition is calling a "Genocide Gentry" of weapons company executives and board members and "54 museums, cultural organizations, universities, and colleges that currently host these individuals on their boards or in other prominent roles."
The coalition—which consists of the Adalah Justice Project, LittleSis, and Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE)—published a map and database detailing the "educational and cultural ties to board members of six defense corporations" amid Israel's ongoing annihilation of Gaza, for which the U.S.-backed country is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
" Israel has destroyed every university in Gaza and nearly 200 cultural heritage sites since October 2023, using bombs and weapons manufactured by the companies included in the Genocide Gentry research," the coalition said. "As of April, these attacks have killed more than 5,479 students and 261 teachers and destroyed or critically damaged nearly 90% of all school buildings in Gaza."
"Universities across the country including the likes of Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and New York University have remained largely silent on Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza," the groups added. "Behind closed doors, these same universities are hosting executives and board members of the companies manufacturing the weapons used in these attacks as board members, trustees, and fellows."
Members of the Genocide Gentry include:
"Students on university campuses across the country have not only been demanding divestment, but transparency," said Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project. "Transparency about their institutions' investments, partnerships, donors, and decision-makers, and their connections to individuals and companies directly enabling and profiting off war and genocide."
"This research helps provide some of this transparency by illuminating just how embedded the interests of the weapons industry are within our institutions, so we can begin chipping away at the power and influence that they wield," she added.
ACRE campaign director Ramah Kudaimi noted that "as part of its genocide since October 2023, Israel has targeted universities and cultural centers across Gaza, destroying campuses, museums, libraries, and more."
"That this is all backed by the United States means U.S. educational and cultural institutions have a responsibility to consider what their role is in helping end these war crimes, and that starts with reconsidering their connections with the weapons companies profiting from the destruction," Kudaimi said.
Munira Lokhandwala, director of the Tech and Training program at LittleSis, said: "This research provides a view into just how embedded the corporate, profit-fueled war machine is in our higher education and cultural institutions. Through this research, we show how the defense industry shapes and influences our civic and cultural institutions, and as a result, their silence around war and genocide."
"We must ask our institutions: What role are you playing in whitewashing war and destruction by inviting those who profit from manufacturing weapons onto your boards and into your galas?" she added.
"The Fed must continue to cut rates aggressively in the coming months to prevent a slowing labor market and provide much-needed relief to people who are bearing the brunt of high interest rates," said one economist.
Economists and working-class people across the United States on Wednesday welcomed the Federal Reserve's decision to cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point as an incredibly overdue and necessary move.
In line with signals from Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech last month, the Federal Open Market Committee lowered the federal funds rate by half a percentage point to 4.74-5%, the first cut "since March 2020 when Covid-19 was hammering the economy," as The Associated Pressnoted. Additional cuts are expected over the next two years.
"Finally," wrote Kenny Stancil, a senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and former Common Dreams staff writer, in a blog post. "The Fed should have provided interest rate relief months ago. While this overdue move is welcome, we must reiterate that Powell's deferral of interest rate cuts has hurt the clean energy transition and inflicted other economic harms."
Lawmakers and experts, including Groundwork Collaborative chief economist Rakeen Mabud, have long called for rate cuts and highlighted the harms of refusing to pursue them.
"Today's rate cut is a step in the right direction, but only a first step," said Mabud in a statement Wednesday. "The Fed must continue to cut rates aggressively in the coming months to prevent a slowing labor market and provide much-needed relief to people who are bearing the brunt of high interest rates."
Center for Economic and Policy Research senior economist Dean Baker also welcomed that the Fed is changing course, saying: "This is a belated recognition that the battle against inflation has been won. Contrary to the predictions of almost all economists, including those at the Fed, this victory was won without a major uptick in unemployment."
"Unfortunately, the Fed waited too long to make this turn," Baker continued. "As a result, the unemployment rate has drifted higher. While there is little basis for concerns about a recession, if the unemployment rate is 0.5 percentage points higher than it needs to be, that translates into 800,000 people out of work who want jobs."
"It is good that the Fed has now recognized the weakening of the labor market and responded with an aggressive cut," he added. "Given there is almost no risk of rekindling inflation, the greater boost to the labor market is largely costless. Also, it will help to spur the housing market where millions of people have put off selling homes because of high mortgage rates."
Liz Zelnick of Accountable.US similarly stressed the benefits, saying that "while it should have come sooner, the Fed's interest rate cut will ease some burden for many Americans that found it simply too expensive to buy new homes or cars."
"Fortunately, the Fed's aggressive interest rate strategy defied odds and did not spur a recession as the economy continues to grow hundreds of thousands of jobs every month while wages are rising," she said. "Persistently high interest rates were never going to get at the root of the corporate price gouging epidemic that has needlessly kept prices high on many necessities—a problem that is on Congress to fix."
Some members of Congress who have been pushing for rate cuts also applauded the belated action—including Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), chair of the Joint Economic Committee.
"Let's be clear: Today's decision is a big win for families across the country," he declared. "Lower rates mean that more families will be able to buy a home or a car without high interest payments looming over them, and their credit card bills will go down."
"But there is still work to be done," he said. "I will continue to work with my colleagues to fight for policies that raise wages, strengthen our economy, create new jobs, and lower prices for families in New Mexico and across the country."
Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, has also criticized the central bank's refusal to cut rates and praised the Wednesday reversal.
"We've made significant progress on inflation, but House Democrats know there is more to be done to bring down the cost of everyday goods and take on corporate price gouging," Boyle said, nodding to the November election in which former Republican President Donald Trump is facing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
"While House Republicans continue trying to inflict higher costs and higher taxes on the middle class with Trump's Project 2025 agenda," he added, "House Democrats will never stop fighting to deliver an economy that works for working families."
Harris similarly applauded the "welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices" while acknowledging that more must be done and vowing that "my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down."
"I know prices are still too high for many middle-class and working families, and my top priority as president will be to lower the costs of everyday needs like healthcare, housing, and groceries. That is why I am proposing plans to cut taxes for more than 100 million working and middle-class Americans, pass the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on food and groceries, and make housing more affordable by building 3 million new homes and giving more Americans down payment assistance," she said.
The Democrat also took aim at Trump's intentions, warning that "while proposing more tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, his plan would increase costs on families by nearly $4,000 a year by slapping a Trump Tax on goods families rely on, like gas, food, and clothing. He wants to repeal the law I cast the tie-breaking vote to pass that caps the costs of prescription drugs for seniors, including insulin at $35. He would end the Affordable Care Act and erase the progress we have made to lower premiums for millions of Americans by hundreds of dollars a year."
"Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists say his plan would increase inflation, and a Moody's report found it would cause a recession by the middle of next year," she noted. "This election is about whether we are going to finally build an opportunity economy that gives every American a shot not just to get by, but to get ahead. As president, that will be my priority every day."