NYT: Congress Tells Auditor in Iraq to Close Office

[gratuitous]

It appears more self-writing legislation snuck into an appropriations bill. This time, the GOP is terminating the office that investigates fraud and abuse in Iraq:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/world/middleeast/03reconstruct.html

Congress Tells Auditor in Iraq to Close Office
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: November 3, 2006

Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.

* * *

The order comes in the form of an obscure provision that terminates his federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, on Oct. 1, 2007. The clause was inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed Services Committee over the objections of Democratic counterparts during a closed-door conference, and it has generated surprise and some outrage among lawmakers who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation.

* * *

Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who followed the bill closely as chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, says that she still does not know how the provision made its way into what is called the conference report, which reconciles differences between House and Senate versions of a bill. Neither the House nor the Senate version contained such a termination clause before the conference, all involved agree. “It’s truly a mystery to me,” Ms. Collins said. “I looked at what I thought was the final version of the conference report and that provision was not in at that time. The one thing I can confirm is that this was a last-minute insertion,” she said.

______________________________

The story gets around to naming a possible midnight inserter: The staff of newly-minted GOP presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter. Are you as surprised as I am?

[leveymg]

1. R&R. Extremely important. Halliburton strikes back.

Duncan Hunter now floats up near the top of the shit list.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

2. stuart bowen is on c-span wj right now.

started at 9:30.

[gratuitous]

3. Very small, minute, gratuitous brand

Kickety-kickie poo.

[gratuitous]

4. Last chance kick

Because I think it's important. I don't know why I think that . . .

[AtomicKitten]

5. This is HUGH!!!!

K&R