How about a bit of equal justice for the pot calling the kettle black?
#maytheheavensfall
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
Showing posts with label OMB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OMB. Show all posts
Saturday, September 5, 2020
OMB Race Training Memorandum - What About The Congressional Black Caucus?
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
Friday, January 17, 2020
GAO OMB Decision On Withholding Ukraine Security Assistance
This is interesting.
A legal arm of Congress comes out with an opinion to support Congress in support of its congressional Articles of Impeachment.
Very interesting considering the fact that the GAO does not have the greatest history, particularly when we are dealing with children, but, hey, what do I know?
I know I have been on the GAO for more than a hot minute.
I also know that this is quite interesting that the GAO came up with this opinion, without examining any documents or questioning any humans.
This sounds like a CPS recommendation to terminate parental rights case.
You just cannot make this stuff up.
The independent watchdog said in an opinion issued Thursday that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) withheld the appropriated funds last summer not as a programmatic delay but in order to advance the president’s own agenda.
By doing so, the watchdog concluded, the White House violated what’s known as the Impoundment Control Act (ICA).
“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” the report said. “OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA)...Therefore, we conclude that OMB violated the ICA.”
The GAO opinion touched on a matter at the center of impeachment proceedings against President Trump: The decision by the White House to withhold nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Kyiv as it fights off pro-Russian separatists.
Democrats allege Trump dangled the promise of aid and a White House meeting as leverage to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open investigations into a 2020 political rival. They argue the White House then sought to obstruct their impeachment inquiry by blocking the testimony of current and former White House officials, while asserting absolute immunity over their testimony.
The OMB, however, pushed back against the GAO opinion, arguing that the White House office used the “apportionment authority to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the President's priorities and with the law."
Acting OMB Director Russ Vought tweeted that the GAO report "comes from the same people who said we couldn’t keep National Parks open during the shutdown."
Administration officials have argued they were seeking to ensure Ukraine was properly fighting widespread corruption, despite the Pentagon already certifying at the time of the delay that Ukraine had met the requirements set by Congress and after notifying Congress of its intent to release the funds.
A senior administration official on Thursday characterized the GAO report as an “overreach” and blasted the independent watchdog for getting involved “in the media's controversy of the day.”
“In their rush to insert themselves in the impeachment narrative, maybe they'll have to reverse their opinion again," the senior administration official said, pointing to changes to earlier GAO opinions.
Still, the timing of the report’s release could not be more inconvenient for Republicans.
The GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday is expected to set a time for the House impeachment managers — who will be arguing the case on the Senate floor to remove Trump from office — to exhibit the articles of impeachment charging Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors.
The Senate procedure comes one day after the Democratic managers silently marched the two charges — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — over to the upper chamber, setting the stage for the impeachment trial over Trump’s contacts with Ukraine.
Democrats, who have pushed Senate Republicans to allow new witnesses and testimony, are seizing on the GAO report as reinforcing their argument that the president abused his authority for politically motivated purposes.
“This bombshell legal opinion from the independent Government Accountability Office demonstrates, without a doubt, that the Trump Administration illegally withheld security assistance from Ukraine,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who requested the GAO to review the hold, said in a statement. “The GAO’s independent findings reinforce the need for the Senate to obtain all relevant documents and hear from key fact witnesses in order to have a fair trial.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) in a statement said the GAO opinion “demonstrates once again that the President violated his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed as he put his personal and political interests above the interests of the nation and its security.”
Pointing to the GAO opinion that federal employees and officials take oaths to protect the law of the land, Schiff said: “Now, the Senate will have the opportunity to act on its oath.”
The GAO report said Trump overstepped his authority. Congress has the power of the purse, the watchdog said, while the president has the power to accept or veto legislation passed by both chambers. But the president does not have the authority to then bend or ignore a law once it is enacted, the report said.
“The President is not vested with the power to ignore or amend any such duly enacted law,” the GAO said. “The Constitution grants the President no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation... Instead, Congress has vested the President with strictly circumscribed authority to impound, or withhold, budget authority only in limited circumstances as expressly provided in the ICA.”
The GAO noted that the White House could have provided a detailed and specific reasoning to justify the withholding under the Impoundment Control Act at the time, but the OMB did not do so.
“Not only did OMB not submit a special message with such a proposal, the footnotes in the apportionment schedules, by their very terms, established dates for the release of amounts withheld,” the GAO wrote.
The only other authority to put a freeze on the aid, the GAO said, is to withhold the funds through a deferral, a decision that would be justified if the administration had recognized “savings or efficiencies that would result from a withholding, or any law specifically authorizing the withholding.”
“In its response to us, OMB described the withholding as necessary to ensure that the funds were not spent ‘in a manner that could conflict with the President’s foreign policy,’” the report said. “The ICA does not permit deferrals for policy reasons...OMB’s justification for the withholding falls squarely within the scope of an impermissible policy deferral.”
Mark Sandy, a senior OMB official, told House investigators during a closed-door deposition in late November that Trump's delay rankled agency staffers, leading two employees to resign in part because of their frustration.
“This person expressed to me concerns about actions vis-à-vis the Impoundment Control Act,” Sandy testified, referring to an OMB lawyer who had resigned.
The GAO report comes shortly after the House acquired new evidence from Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has claimed the president was aware of a scheme to seek the removal of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and to create conditions to push Zelensky to announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in order to help Trump’s 2020 reelection chances.
The White House has denied the claims of wrongdoing, attacking the credibility of Parnas, who is under indictment.
Democrats also received ammunition from former national security adviser John Bolton after he said in a statement earlier this month that he would be willing to testify if the GOP-controlled Senate chose to subpoena him for testimony.
It is unclear whether witnesses will be allowed in the trial.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been cold to the idea of calling any witnesses, but Democrats won a near-term victory on Wednesday when the GOP leader agreed to a rules package that leaves open the potential for new witnesses to appear.
Anything less, Democrats have charged, would be a dereliction of the Senate’s duty.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
A legal arm of Congress comes out with an opinion to support Congress in support of its congressional Articles of Impeachment.
Very interesting considering the fact that the GAO does not have the greatest history, particularly when we are dealing with children, but, hey, what do I know?
I know I have been on the GAO for more than a hot minute.
I also know that this is quite interesting that the GAO came up with this opinion, without examining any documents or questioning any humans.
This sounds like a CPS recommendation to terminate parental rights case.
You just cannot make this stuff up.
GAO finds Trump administration broke law by withholding Ukraine aid
The Trump administration’s decision to freeze the release of security assistance to Ukraine violated the law, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report.The independent watchdog said in an opinion issued Thursday that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) withheld the appropriated funds last summer not as a programmatic delay but in order to advance the president’s own agenda.
By doing so, the watchdog concluded, the White House violated what’s known as the Impoundment Control Act (ICA).
“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” the report said. “OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA)...Therefore, we conclude that OMB violated the ICA.”
The GAO opinion touched on a matter at the center of impeachment proceedings against President Trump: The decision by the White House to withhold nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Kyiv as it fights off pro-Russian separatists.
Democrats allege Trump dangled the promise of aid and a White House meeting as leverage to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open investigations into a 2020 political rival. They argue the White House then sought to obstruct their impeachment inquiry by blocking the testimony of current and former White House officials, while asserting absolute immunity over their testimony.
The OMB, however, pushed back against the GAO opinion, arguing that the White House office used the “apportionment authority to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the President's priorities and with the law."
Acting OMB Director Russ Vought tweeted that the GAO report "comes from the same people who said we couldn’t keep National Parks open during the shutdown."
Administration officials have argued they were seeking to ensure Ukraine was properly fighting widespread corruption, despite the Pentagon already certifying at the time of the delay that Ukraine had met the requirements set by Congress and after notifying Congress of its intent to release the funds.
A senior administration official on Thursday characterized the GAO report as an “overreach” and blasted the independent watchdog for getting involved “in the media's controversy of the day.”
“In their rush to insert themselves in the impeachment narrative, maybe they'll have to reverse their opinion again," the senior administration official said, pointing to changes to earlier GAO opinions.
Still, the timing of the report’s release could not be more inconvenient for Republicans.
The GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday is expected to set a time for the House impeachment managers — who will be arguing the case on the Senate floor to remove Trump from office — to exhibit the articles of impeachment charging Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors.
The Senate procedure comes one day after the Democratic managers silently marched the two charges — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — over to the upper chamber, setting the stage for the impeachment trial over Trump’s contacts with Ukraine.
Democrats, who have pushed Senate Republicans to allow new witnesses and testimony, are seizing on the GAO report as reinforcing their argument that the president abused his authority for politically motivated purposes.
“This bombshell legal opinion from the independent Government Accountability Office demonstrates, without a doubt, that the Trump Administration illegally withheld security assistance from Ukraine,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who requested the GAO to review the hold, said in a statement. “The GAO’s independent findings reinforce the need for the Senate to obtain all relevant documents and hear from key fact witnesses in order to have a fair trial.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) in a statement said the GAO opinion “demonstrates once again that the President violated his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed as he put his personal and political interests above the interests of the nation and its security.”
Pointing to the GAO opinion that federal employees and officials take oaths to protect the law of the land, Schiff said: “Now, the Senate will have the opportunity to act on its oath.”
The GAO report said Trump overstepped his authority. Congress has the power of the purse, the watchdog said, while the president has the power to accept or veto legislation passed by both chambers. But the president does not have the authority to then bend or ignore a law once it is enacted, the report said.
“The President is not vested with the power to ignore or amend any such duly enacted law,” the GAO said. “The Constitution grants the President no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation... Instead, Congress has vested the President with strictly circumscribed authority to impound, or withhold, budget authority only in limited circumstances as expressly provided in the ICA.”
The GAO noted that the White House could have provided a detailed and specific reasoning to justify the withholding under the Impoundment Control Act at the time, but the OMB did not do so.
“Not only did OMB not submit a special message with such a proposal, the footnotes in the apportionment schedules, by their very terms, established dates for the release of amounts withheld,” the GAO wrote.
The only other authority to put a freeze on the aid, the GAO said, is to withhold the funds through a deferral, a decision that would be justified if the administration had recognized “savings or efficiencies that would result from a withholding, or any law specifically authorizing the withholding.”
“In its response to us, OMB described the withholding as necessary to ensure that the funds were not spent ‘in a manner that could conflict with the President’s foreign policy,’” the report said. “The ICA does not permit deferrals for policy reasons...OMB’s justification for the withholding falls squarely within the scope of an impermissible policy deferral.”
Mark Sandy, a senior OMB official, told House investigators during a closed-door deposition in late November that Trump's delay rankled agency staffers, leading two employees to resign in part because of their frustration.
“This person expressed to me concerns about actions vis-à-vis the Impoundment Control Act,” Sandy testified, referring to an OMB lawyer who had resigned.
The GAO report comes shortly after the House acquired new evidence from Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has claimed the president was aware of a scheme to seek the removal of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and to create conditions to push Zelensky to announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in order to help Trump’s 2020 reelection chances.
The White House has denied the claims of wrongdoing, attacking the credibility of Parnas, who is under indictment.
Democrats also received ammunition from former national security adviser John Bolton after he said in a statement earlier this month that he would be willing to testify if the GOP-controlled Senate chose to subpoena him for testimony.
It is unclear whether witnesses will be allowed in the trial.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been cold to the idea of calling any witnesses, but Democrats won a near-term victory on Wednesday when the GOP leader agreed to a rules package that leaves open the potential for new witnesses to appear.
Anything less, Democrats have charged, would be a dereliction of the Senate’s duty.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
CONYERS, CUMMINGS, CONNOLLY & CICILLINE Request Documents about President Trump’s Regulatory Task Forces’ Secret Meetings and Conflicts of Interest
Washington, D.C. (August 7, 2017)—Today, Reps. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Gerry Connolly, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, and David Cicilline, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law, sent a letter, below, to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Neomi Rao expressing grave concerns about the secrecy of the Regulatory Reform Task Forces and requesting information about the nature of their meetings.
“We write to express our alarm concerning the lack of transparency, accountability, and independence of the Regulatory Reform Task Forces,” the Members wrote. “We believe that the interests of the American public must be paramount when reviewing the worthiness of regulations. Therefore, these Task Forces must have an effective and transparent guard against conflicts of interest, especially those in which industry lobbyists seek to overturn environmental and health protections for financial gain. It appears that the current Task Forces are already failing on this front, and instead are actively hiding their members and their meetings from public view.”
The Democrats explained that press reports indicate these Task Forces appear to have operated in private without public input, and some agencies have refused to release basic information about their activity or maintain a record of their meetings as required by the Federal Records Act.
“Withholding the names and titles of Task Force participants may also violate the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA),” the Members wrote. “Simply put, it is unacceptable for federal agencies to operate in such a clandestine and unaccountable manner especially when the result could be the undoing of critical public health and safety protections.”
The Members also expressed concern that several employees stand to profit from their work on the Task Force. For example, the wife of one Task Force member at the Environmental Protection Agency is the top lobbyist for a large oil company.
“Rather than ‘drain the swamp,’ these conflicts threaten to influence the outcome of the review process against hardworking Americans and in favor of regulated industries and agency staff,” the Members wrote.
The Members requested documents and information, including a description of every Task Force created pursuant to the executive order, a list of the names and titles of every member of each Task Force, and communications related to non-governmental entities participating in Task Force meetings.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Stop the U.S. Senate from Undermining Key Protections for American Families!
Stop the U.S. Senate from Underminin
Corporate interests are demanding that Congress weaken critical protections for American families — protections that we need to make sure that our air is breathable, our water is clean, our food is safe to eat, and our economy is stable.
This Thursday, June 23, at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to consider "regulatory reform" legislation that would hamstring government agencies, making it more difficult for them to protect us.
Here are two things you can do to make your voice heard:
- Call the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to tell them they should work on making sure regulations protect the public from harm and enforce them. The Committee will be considering several bills this Thursday that once again put special interests above public interests — and undermine public protections. Call (202) 224-2627 to tell them enough is enough. Your voice makes a huge difference.
- Tell your senators to stand up to special interests and defend public protections for American families!Click here and make your voice heard by using our system to find your senators’ phone numbers and log a record of your calls.
Tell your senators that we need stronger, not weaker, protections to ensure:
- Safe food: Approximately 3,000 people die in this country as a result of foodborne illnesses.
- Clean air: Thousands of people die and thousands of children develop asthma every year as a result of air pollution.
- Stable financial system: Approximately 8 million jobs were lost as result of the tragic near-collapse of our economy three years ago. That crisis was caused by a lack of regulation of our financial system.
- Safe workplaces: Every day, 12 workers die as a result of workplace injuries, and more than 135 workers die from occupational diseases. It now takes nearly 10 years to issue each new workplace safety and health rule designed to prevent these deaths.
Contact your senators today and urge them to oppose any legislation that blocks agencies from carrying out their main mission: protecting the American people from health, safety, environmental, economic, and other hazards.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Federal Protective Services To End Abuse In Child Welfare
Unfortunately, the U.S. HB 5613 of 2008 bill was passed, but the DOJ and HHS H.E.A.T. partnership was subsequently created under the administration of Attorney General Mukasey.
Priority for the newly appointed DHHS Region Directors shall be to end state abusive relationships with the Federal Government in Medicaid, specifically, child welfare fraud.
If the public is educated to call child protective services when one is abusing a child, then I am here to educate the public to call federal protective services when a state is abusing Medicaid.
Abusers will be placed on the Central Registry.
OMB Statement of Administrative Policy on State Medicaid Fraud
Priority for the newly appointed DHHS Region Directors shall be to end state abusive relationships with the Federal Government in Medicaid, specifically, child welfare fraud.
If the public is educated to call child protective services when one is abusing a child, then I am here to educate the public to call federal protective services when a state is abusing Medicaid.
Abusers will be placed on the Central Registry.
The Central Registry of Child Welfare Fraud!
For many years the Congress of the United States has worked diligently to protect the health and welfare of the nation's elderly and poor by implementing legislation to prevent certain individuals and businesses from participating in Federally-funded health care programs. Legally Kidnapped has mandated that the health and welfare of the nation's children and families must be protected by including Child Welfare Agencies in this exclusion database. Foster Care and Adoption Agencies should be banned from entering contracts using federal funds if the bases for exclusion have been met.
Bases for exclusion include for child welfare program-related fraud, child abuse, child deaths, licensing board actions, improper and questionable claims, false reports. The effect of not being able to participate in federally funded contracts is:
|
OMB Statement of Administrative Policy on State Medicaid Fraud
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)