BluegrassReport.org

KY5: Even More Questions Being Raised About Rep. Hal Rogers (R) Steering Government Money To His Son's Employer

Anyone else getting the same impression as me that Rep. Hal Rogers (R) is as big of a crook as those in Congress now under investigation but that things either haven't yet floated to the surface -- or the feds aren't letting it be known...yet? I've had this feeling for a long time...

Here's another reason to be suspicious:

Rogers' Role In Tourism Contract Draws Scrutiny
Association sent money to firm employing son
By Deborah Yetter, The Courier-Journal

U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers' office steered $2.9 million in federal money through the state to a nonprofit tourism group in his district, which then sent part of it to a company that employs the Kentucky congressman's son.

One of Rogers' staff members is board vice president of the nonprofit group, according to a new state audit, which detailed the transaction.

The 2004 contract — awarded through the state Transportation Cabinet — did not appear to violate any Kentucky laws, according to a 100-page report that state Auditor Crit Luallen released yesterday.

But in an interview with The Courier-Journal, Luallen said the transaction stood out among the 57 sample contracts her office reviewed.

"This one pointed out some unique problems we didn't see elsewhere," Luallen said.

[...]

Steve Ellis, an official with Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, said the contract reflects "shady dealings going on here that certainly deserve more scrutiny."

Ellis said he's concerned that Rogers had a staff member on the board of the group that received the money and part of it ended up with a company that employs Rogers' son.

[...]

State awards no-bid contract

In 2004, the Transportation Cabinet entered a "sole source" contract with the tourism group, meaning it did not seek bids because it had determined the work was specialized and another vendor would not be able to do it.

State contract documents said the sole source contract was necessary because the tourism group was already operating the center, and another group could not open a similar one without significant start-up costs, Luallen's audit said.

Once the $2.9million was awarded to the tourism group, it awarded a $1.2million subcontract to Senture, a London, Ky., call center company, to operate the information system, according to the audit and Luallen's staff. The company employs Rogers' son, John Rogers, as a computer systems administrator.

John Rogers could not be reached for comment yesterday. Senture officials did not return a call seeking comment.

[...]

The New York Times reported in May that Rogers helped arrange a $4million contract in 2004 with Senture. Rogers' son told the newspaper, "It had nothing to do with who my father is."

Luallen says the contract did NOT violate any state law, but it's whether Rogers' used his position of power on the Appropriations Committee to steer money to his son's company that is the potential problem here...

UPDATE: I mistakenly left out the crucial word "NOT" in the paragraph above when I first posted. It was a sloppy oversight. I knew that when I wrote this but omitted the word. Sorry.

Senator McConnell's (R) Office And Lobbying

The following made its way into a big USA Today story today on the inside track that "relatives" have when it comes to lobbying Congress and the relationships within Senator McConnell's (R) own office:

Relatives Have 'Inside Track' In Lobbying For Tax Dollars
LITTLE ACCOUNTABILITY IN EARMARKS
By Matt Kelley and Peter Eisler, USA TODAY

...• Lobbyist Holly Piper's firm took in $220,000 last year from e-Cavern, a company seeking federal funding to build an underground facility to protect financial information in a Kentucky cavern. Piper's husband is Billy Piper, chief of staff to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and the second-ranking Senate Republican. McConnell added $1.5 million to an appropriations bill for the project. McConnell's spokesman said Holly Piper's relationship had nothing to do with the senator's decision.

[...]

Just months after Holly Piper left her job as an aide for Sen. McConnell to join the lobbying business in 2004, she married his chief of staff.

Piper went to work for Bates Capitol Group, a Louisville lobbying firm with a client list heavy on Kentucky businesses. One company for which Piper sought money, is e-Cavern, lobbying records show. The company has teamed with local universities to turn a 3-million-square-foot cavern near the city into an underground "technology business park." There, companies or government agencies can build secure facilities to store critical infrastructure and financial records.

As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, McConnell secured $1 million in federal funding for the facility in 2004, Piper's first year as a lobbyist for e-Cavern. In 2005, McConnell secured another $1.5 million for the project. In those two years, e-Cavern's annual lobbying payments to Bates Capitol climbed from $80,000 to $220,000. Last year, two of e-Cavern's top executives contributed $1,000 each to McConnell's campaign account.

McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said Piper's relationship to the senator's top staffer had nothing to do with McConnell's steering federal funds to the project. "The senator's priorities have been (focused) on making the commonwealth's universities world class, making them competitive," Stewart said, "so that (funding) flows right into his objective."

Stewart said McConnell barred any lobbying contacts between Holly Piper and her husband after they were married. And a year later, in spring 2005, he expanded that policy to forbid anyone on his staff from having any contact with lobbyists who have a relative in the senator's office. Holly Piper has since left the lobbying business and declined to comment.

McConnell's no-contact policy for Piper "was just him trying to go above and beyond what was required," Stewart said. All of his funding decisions are made on their own merits and "are completely justified," Stewart said of McConnell. "He's willing to defend any of them."

In the case of e-Cavern, Stewart said, any lobbying of McConnell or his staff would have been done by the company's other lobbyist at Bates Capitol: company president Hunter Bates — the man who served as McConnell's chief of staff before Billy Piper got the job.

And let's not forget the nepotism hovering around Rep. Hal Rogers (R)...

Rep. Hal Rogers (R) and Republican Corruption Scandals

In the past few days, there have been reports of a federal investigation into whether Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) had improperly used his clout in Congress to steer business to his daughter:

FBI Probing Rep. Weldon, His Daughter
By Kimberly Hefling and Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The FBI is investigating whether Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., used his influence to secure lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, two people familiar with the inquiry said Saturday.

The inquiry focuses on lobbying contracts worth $1 million that Weldon's daughter, Karen Weldon, obtained from foreign clients and whether they were assisted by the congressman, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the criminal investigation.

Is it me, or does the Weldon story sound a little too similar to this front-page Sunday New York Times story from May regarding our own Rep. Hal Rogers (R)?

In Kentucky Hills, A Homeland Security Bonanza 
By ERIC LIPTON, The New York Times
Published: May 14, 2006

...It is a route that has benefited Mr. Rogers, creating jobs in his home district and profits for companies that are donors to his political causes. The congressman has also taken 11 trips — including six to Hawaii — on the tab of an organization that until this week was to profit from a no-bid contract Mr. Rogers helped arrange. Work has even been set aside for a tiny start-up company in Kentucky that employs John Rogers, the congressman's son.

[...]

Kentucky companies turned up in each phase of the early tests of the identification cards.

One of the companies, Senture, which sells call-center services, had a particularly close relationship with Mr. Rogers. Senture had just opened its doors in May 2003, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that Mr. Rogers attended. In 2004, Mr. Rogers arranged the financing for a $4 million Homeland Security contract for Senture to field calls from truckers.

Now, Senture would land even more department work, as BearingPoint, a Virginia company hired in 2004 to test prototype transportation worker cards, selected Senture to set up a call center for the test. About the time that contract was first advertised, but before it was awarded, John Rogers, the congressman's son, was hired by Senture as a computer systems administrator.

You may recall that following the Times story was the following very harsh editorial of Rogers by the ultra-conservative National Review, entitled "Hal Rogers: A Congressional Disgrace":

Hal Rogers: A Congressional Disgrace
National Review Online: Kentucky Congressman Abuses His Power

(National Review Online) This column was written by the editors.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harold Rogers, the smooth-talking Republican congressman from Kentucky, has emerged in recent weeks as an exemplary figure of congressional disgrace. Private companies have courted his favor with political donations, golf excursions, and exotic vacations — and he, in turn, has channeled millions of taxpayer dollars in their direction. From his powerful position as chairman of the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, he has plied constituents and corporations alike with funds from the national treasury. It is the work of the likes of Hal Rogers that has driven Congress' approval rating to 22 percent — and if more people knew of him, that number would only sink lower.

As the man in charge of Congress’s homeland-security budget, Rogers’s abuse of federal funds is not just a financial scandal — it is a matter of national security. Instead of directing his budget with the sole aim of providing for the public defense, he has turned the power of his position to his benefit — and, by extension, to the benefit of the companies who finance him and the local constituents who keep him in office.

As The New York Times recently recounted, lawmakers decided in 2002 to implement a standardized, tamper-proof, biometric ID card that would be issued to transportation workers nationwide. Rogers took this as an opportunity, inserting language into appropriations bills requiring that the new ID card rely on old technology that was produced at a plant in his district. Frustrated Homeland Security officials had to endure a lengthy delay and pay $4 million for a comparison study to show that the technology they preferred was superior to the one required by Rogers.

As the new ID card was developed and tested, Rogers kept up his meddling. He required that the new-technology production sites be relocated in Kentucky, and he helped award millions of dollars in contracts to various Kentucky companies that had together donated around $100,000 to his political campaigns. One of these companies employed Rogers' son as a computer-systems administrator.

Keep a close eye on this story...