Secret Service chief defends agency, says Colombia was isolated incident
The director of the Secret Service on Wednesday told senators he was “dumbfounded” when he discovered agents had invited prostitutes back to their hotel rooms while preparing for President Obama’s visit to Colombia.
Mark Sullivan, the head of the president’s protective service, said the incident was an isolated event and not an indication of systemic problems at the Secret Service.
“I do not think this is indicative of the overwhelming majority of our men and women,” Sullivan said before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“I just think that between the alcohol and the environment these individuals did some really dumb things. And I just can’t explain why they would have done what they do. But I will tell you that I do not believe they would have done it, because they believe this type of behavior would have been tolerated.
“When I was first apprised of this situation I was dumbfounded.”
Making his first public appearance since the scandal erupted, Sullivan apologized to senators for the agents’ behavior.
“I am deeply disappointed and I apologize.”
The incident occurred last month in Cartegena, Colombia, when a dozen Secret Service agents on duty as the advance team for Obama’s visit allegedly invited prostitutes back to their hotel rooms.
Sullivan has taken administrative action against all of the agents who were allegedly involved in the incident, which came to light after one of the women involved spoke out.
In a packed committee room with dozens of journalists and four U.S. Capitol Police officers, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) questioned whether the agents were afraid of getting caught with the prostitutes or whether they were operating under the assumption that their behavior was condoned.
She said the agents did not try to hide what they were doing, writing their real names and the real names of the woman in the hotel’s registry…
Read the rest in The Hill here.
Rep. Issa might not have the votes to push forward Holder contempt charge
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) might not have the votes in his own committee to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.
A number of Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are wary of moving forward with Issa’s proposed measure, putting the powerful chairman in an awkward position as he attempts to build support for the move.
Two of the committee’s 23 Republicans have declined to support the measure at this point, while five other GOP panel members did not respond to repeated requests for comment over the last two weeks.
When compared with the 16 Republicans on the committee who have actively been speaking in favor of the measure, the silence, lack of outspoken support and desire by these eight GOP caucus members to avoid the issue could be a problem for Issa.
Republican leadership has been hesitant and reluctant to voice its support for Issa’s move, possibly owing to the chairman’s inability to guarantee the measure’s passage in his own committee.
For more than a year, Issa has fervidly investigated the Justice Department’s (DOJ) role in approving controversial “gun walking” tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious. Issa has regularly hinted that the tactics must have been approved at the highest levels of the DOJ and in October issued a second subpoena for thousands of documents and records in an attempt to discover who was involved.
Issa says the DOJ has stopped producing documents for the committee and is violating a congressional subpoena. And earlier this month, he began circulating a draft copy of a resolution that would find Holder in contempt of Congress.
But support for the proposed measure has been slow to build.
With only 16 committee Republicans publicly supporting the resolution — and no Democrats — Issa falls short of the 21 votes he needs to pass it out of the 40-member panel to the House floor…
Read the rest in The Hill here.
Increasing number of ethics probes rattles House Republicans
By Jordy Yager – 01/30/12 08:32 PM ET
An increasing number of House Republicans are getting wrapped up in allegations of ethics violations ahead of the November elections, handing Democrats easy campaign fodder and putting the GOP in an unexpected bind.
Republican leaders in the lower chamber pledged to run an ethically sound ship when they took control last year. But as the second session gets under way, nearly a dozen GOP lawmakers are being questions on a wide array of their financial dealings, and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has not publicly admonished them.
“The Speaker has always been clear that the American people expect members of Congress to be held to the highest ethical standards,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, when asked by The Hill whether the Speaker was concerned about ethics questions surrounding the Republicans.
By next Monday the House Ethics Committee is slated to decide whether to formally investigate Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.). Moreover, allegations arose over this past weekend that Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) might have accepted illegal campaign donations, according to The New York Times.
Additionally, there are the three Republicans — Reps. Pete Sessions (Texas), Buck McKeon (Calif.) and Elton Gallegly (Calif.) — who earlier this month were referred to the House Ethics Committee for taking part in Countrywide’s VIP mortgage program, aimed at gaining special favor from lawmakers.
Sessions serves as the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), while Buchanan serves as the GOP reelection arm’s finance chairman. Grimm is one of the NRCC’s regional chairs.
All of these lawmakers have denied any wrongdoing.
In the past, Boehner has been lauded by watchdogs for not tolerating ethics violations among House Republicans, as he was often seen to be the silent hand urging ethically challenged lawmakers such as former Reps. Chris Lee (N.Y.), Mark Souder (Ind.) and Vito Fossella (N.Y.) out of office.
Ahead of the 2010 elections, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) acknowledged that the ethics troubles surrounding Republicans in 2006 had helped cost them the House, and pledged to maintain a “zero tolerance” policy for ethics violations if they took back control.
“As the Republicans emerge as the new governing majority, it is incumbent upon us to issue a zero tolerance policy that we understand there are reasons for us being fired in ’06 and ’08 [and] some of that had to do with ethics violations,” said Cantor in a 2010 interview with the National Review.
Ethics issues have typically played a strong role in election seasons as both parties attempt to paint the other as ethically bankrupt.
And with a mounting number of ethics issues surrounding House Republicans, Democrats — who are not without their own ethics troubles this Congress — are already trying to capitalize…
Read the rest in The Hill here.
Leak to media about Ethics probes ignites chatter on source, motives
By Jordy Yager – 01/26/12 05:00 AM ET
A leak to the media that identified three Republicans who are being investigated by the House Ethics Committee has lawmakers and staffers wondering who the source is, and his or her motive.
There are many theories on who, over a four-day period, forked over the names of GOP Reps. Pete Sessions (Texas), Buck McKeon (Calif.) and Elton Gallegly (Calif.) to media outlets in reference to an ongoing investigation into VIP loans given to lawmakers by Countrywide.
The leaks stunned the three legislators, who have all denied accepting special rates on the loans in exchange for political favors.
Some are pointing the finger at House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for releasing the publicly sensitive information, though his office is pushing back at that notion.
Others are looking suspiciously at the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), who would stand to gain the most politically from the leak. But his office vehemently denies any role in the release.
Still others are blaming…
Read the rest in The Hill here.
Cummings plays foil to Darrell Issa
By Jordy Yager and Mike Lillis – 01/25/12 05:00 AM ET
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.) is the Democrat who is supposed to make life tougher for Rep. Darrell Issa.
Democrats knew they faced a sophisticated adversary in Issa when the combative California Republican took over the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and vowed to use the panel’s investigatory powers to hold President Obama’s feet to the fire.
In selecting Cummings over Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) to be the panel’s ranking member, Democrats got a tough-minded lawmaker unafraid to go to war with the Republican’s new subpoena-wielding chairman.
The gloves have been off since the first minute, with Issa and Cummings fighting over everything from committee rules to witness lists to subpoena language.
Democrats herald Cummings’s first year as a success.
“I think he’s not been shy about challenging the chairman on each and every issue that comes along to show he’s not going to be worn down,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), an active lieutenant to Cummings.
“I think he’s helped coalesce the Democrats into an important unit both in terms of articulation of issues and in making sure we’re aware of our rights and we’re insisting on them.”
But the eight-term Maryland lawmaker and co-chairman of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign says the long year took its toll.
“This is a hard job,” Cummings said in an interview in his Rayburn office at the close of the first session. “It’s been very difficult. I realize that we’re in the minority. I don’t forget that. But I’m convinced that my life is too short and my time is too valuable not to achieve some things in this committee. And it’s been challenging, to say the least.”
Issa and his staff say the chairman doesn’t have “a great working relationship” with Cummings.
“I believe he is there to be a stopping, a stumbling block … to try to stop and help and protect the administration,” Issa said in an October interview with CNN…
Read the rest in The Hill here.
Obama hopes to win Latino voters in face of GOP candidates’ immigration debate
By Jordy Yager – 01/14/12 04:42 PM ET
The Obama administration has unveiled several key decisions aimed at bolstering ties to the immigration reform community as the president’s campaign has stepped up efforts to woo Latino voters ahead of the 2012 elections.
The moves come as Republican presidential contenders have begun staking out positions on immigration, making it a focal point of political attacks leading into the South Carolina and Florida primary elections.
Latino and immigration reform groups have heavily criticized President Obama for not doing enough to overhaul the country’s immigration system to provide a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally.
The groups, on and off Capitol Hill, have stressed that the same Latino voters who helped bring Obama into office in 2008 are not a sure bet for him in 2012. As Republicans begin to attack the president on his immigration record, Obama will be forced to highlight the steps he’s taken to improve the immigration process.
In a strong nod to Latino groups this week, Obama appointed Cecilia Munoz, the former senior vice president at the National Council of La Raza — the largest U.S. Latino civil rights and advocacy group — to be the director of the Domestic Policy Council where she’ll help shape the president’s domestic policy on immigration, education, health care and energy issues.
And last week, the administration proposed a long-awaited and greatly sought rule change that would…
Read the rest in The Hill here.
House ethics panel moves to continue probe of Rep. Hastings
By Jordy Yager – 01/11/12 02:03 PM ET
The House Ethics Committee moved on Wednesday to continue its preliminary probe of Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) over allegations that he sexually harassed a staff member.
The secretive ethics panel though declined to launch a formal investigation into the allegations raised by Winsome Packer, who served as a policy advisor to Hastings as he co-chaired the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).
Hastings said the ethics panel’s decision to not empanel an investigative subcommittee into the matter at this time was an indication that he was not guilty of the charges. The committee may still vote to launch an official investigation in the future.
On Wednesday the Ethics Committee stated that it needs more time to “gather additional information necessary to complete its review” and that it would not make any further public announcements until it was finished.
Packer alleges she received “unwelcome sexual advances, crude sexual comments and unwelcome touching by Mr. Hastings,” according to a separate lawsuit filed on Packer’s behalf by the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last year.
Hastings has vehemently denied the charges against him and heralded the Ethics committee’s decision on Wednesday as a step towards proving his innocence.
“As I have said repeatedly since this matter first came to my attention, I unequivocally deny the allegations made by Ms. Packer,” said Hastings in a statement.
“The acts alleged are contrary to my character and to the main objective of my career in Congress, advancing the civil rights of all people.
“Furthermore, Ms. Packer’s allegations are completely false. I never had a romantic or sexual interest in her, nor…
Read the rest in The Hill here.
Obama’s ICE reports record number of deportations of illegal immigrants
By Jordy Yager – 10/18/11 08:08 PM ET
The U.S. deported more people — nearly 400,000 — who were in the country illegally in fiscal 2011 than ever before, according to the latest numbers released Tuesday by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau.
President Obama’s administration touted the startling figures as evidence of its progress in stopping illegal immigration, a record that could help the president win back independent voters who abandoned Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections.
A key Hispanic Democrat, however, said the figures were “nothing to be proud of,” highlighting the dangers a record number of deportations could mean for a White House focused on attracting Hispanic voters critical in swing states such as Colorado and New Mexico.
“We are deporting hundreds of thousands of people who came to the country to work, raise families, contribute to the economy, and want nothing more than to be allowed to live and work here legally,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said in a statement.
Of the 396,906 people removed from the U.S., more than half — 216,698 —had been previously convicted of felonies or misdemeanors, according to the ICE numbers, which represent a 90 percent increase in the number of criminals deported over those for fiscal 2008. The numbers mark a 10 percent increase over criminals removed in fiscal 2010 — about 195,000.
Read the rest in The Hill here.
NYC business leaders ask lawmakers to avoid Homeland Security budget cuts
By Jordy Yager – 10/03/11 04:27 PM ET
More than 100 New York City business executives are pleading with congressional leaders to maintain homeland security spending levels in order to thwart possible terrorist attacks in the Big Apple.
Business moguls, such as Kenneth Chenault, the chairman and CEO of American Express, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of News Corp., and Terry Lundgren, the chairman, president and CEO of Macy’s made the push in a letter sent on Monday to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“As employers and taxpayers, we write to express deep concern of proposed reductions in federal funding in the House and Senate appropriations legislation for homeland security programs that are essential to our country’s security,” the group wrote.
“Specifically, we are concerned about funding reductions that will dramatically increase the vulnerability of New York City to international terrorism.”
Read the rest in The Hill here.
Towns on Obama’s Midwest bus trip hope to cash in on spotlight
By Jordy Yager – 08/17/11 05:30 AM ET
Local officials hosting President Obama’s bus tour this week are hoping to cash in on the brief spotlight the large-scale event has cast on their small communities.
The mammoth event has stretched resources thin for the tiny towns hosting the presidential motorcade and thousands of spectators.
Law enforcement officials are clocking overtime hours, and every local governmental department has been called upon to pitch in by cleaning the streets, hoisting hundreds of American flags, rerouting traffic and making security accommodations.
Still, officials told The Hill, the benefits of Obama’s visit are likely to outweigh the considerable costs.
“[It was] a mild inconvenience — and nobody’s done the numbers — but the overtime our people have put in will probably be balanced off, hopefully, by things like sales tax and hotel and motel taxes that come in from all of the visitors and the attention both immediate and in the long term,” said Gerald Freund, the city administrator for Decorah, Iowa, where Obama spoke on Monday.
Obama spent the night in Decorah (pop. 8,000) after landing in St. Paul, Minn., and traveling by bus to Cannon Falls (pop. 4,000), where he held a town-hall event. On Wednesday, the president is scheduled to speak in the towns of Alpha and Atkinson in Illinois.
Obama has focused his comments during the tour on criticizing Congress while touting his own proposals for creating jobs and boosting the economy.
Republicans have blasted the trip as a taxpayer-funded, extended campaign event.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus on Tuesday said Obama should use his campaign account to pay for the trip, arguing the president was doling out talking points, not policy plans.
“No matter what the president says, his Midwest bus tour is nothing but a campaign trip,” Priebus said. “Rolling through the Midwest in a brand-new, million-dollar taxpayer-funded tour bus, the president is holding town halls to rally his disaffected supporters in states crucial to his reelection.”
The White House has defended the trip, saying it has given Obama the chance to visit small communities he would otherwise not have seen. They also insist the trip is not a campaign event, though it coincided with the Republican Ames Straw Poll in Iowa over the weekend.
Asked at a press briefing earlier this month whether it would be funded by taxpayers, Carney smiled and said, “He’s the president of the United States.” Pressed further about the trip’s details by another reporter, Carney said, “The air of cynicism is quite thick. The idea that the president of the United States should not venture forth into the country is ridiculous.”
Officials in the towns Obama is visiting don’t seem focused on the political debate. Instead, they describe a mix of community pride and hopes to cash in, if not on tourism, then on community spirit from hosting the leader of the country.
Atkinson Mayor August Junior, who said he took last week off from work when he learned Obama would be visiting his town of 972, has been mowing and weeding lawns all week and described the atmosphere as “very excited and proud.”
One local citizen donated nearly 1,000 flags to welcome the president into town, he said.
“I think we’ve already benefited from it as a community,” said Junior. “The camaraderie has been amazing.”
Atkinson is in a district represented by Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.), a freshman who defeated Democrat Bill Foster in 2010. Hultgren’s seat was once held by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R).
Aaron Reeves, the administrator for Cannon Falls, said the city’s Chamber of Commerce is planning to put together a strategic outreach plan to entice people to visit the 4,000-person community.
“They’re hoping to use a lot of the positive comments about the city that were made because of his visit,” he said.
Reeves said the city had some overtime costs associated with Obama’s visit but that they “always make sure we have some sort of cushion in there for unexpected events.”
“In looking at the numbers, we definitely think it was worth whatever overtime we might have to have the benefit of having the event in town and what it’s brought to the city,” Reeves said.
