Senate Vote Favors Iraq Reconstruction Watchdog (would reverse Bush law closing office)

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/Reuters: Senate Vote Favors Iraq Reconstruction Watchdog
By REUTERS
Published: November 14, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to keep alive the federal agency that looks for waste and fraud in taxpayer-financed reconstruction projects in Iraq, hoping to reverse a recently passed law that would close the office next year.

On a voice vote, the chamber embraced a bipartisan plan to keep the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction open until 10 months after 80 percent of the funds for Iraqi reconstruction have been spent, whenever that is....

The office has focused on contracting problems involving large companies such as Halliburton, which was formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. In one recent report, the office said Halliburton routinely hid information about its work in Iraq from the public by marking the data as proprietary when it wasn't.

The provision to extend the office's life was attached to a military construction spending bill that was expected to pass the Senate this week. Its fate in the House was unclear.

Some in the Senate have blamed House Republicans for the plan to close the inspector general's office next October, which was inserted earlier this year into legislation that President George W. Bush signed into law. House Republicans deny any stealth was involved in getting the provision approved....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-iraq-reconstrucion.html