Senate panel ban seen as double standard

[Modbert]

Senate panel ban seen as double standard

Gordon R. England's appointment to a top Pentagon post in 2006 came at a high price. The Senate committee overseeing his confirmation demanded that he give up lucrative stocks and options he held in companies that do business with the military. England said he took a big hit on his taxes and lost out on more than $1 million in potential profits that year when he divested himself of interests in companies that included General Dynamics.

If he had been a senator, he would not have had to sell anything.

The Senate Armed Services Committee prohibits its staff and presidential appointees requiring Senate confirmation from owning stocks or bonds in 48,096 companies that have Defense Department contracts. But the senators who sit on the influential panel are allowed to own any assets they want.

And they have owned millions in interests in these firms.

But panel members have access to much of the same inside information, because they receive classified briefings from high-ranking defense officials about policy, contracts and plans for combat strategies and weapons systems.

Nineteen of the 28 senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee held assets in companies that do business with the Pentagon between 2004 and last year, according to an analysis of financial disclosure forms by The Washington Post. Those holdings were worth a total of $3.8 million to $10.2 million.

The committee's Democrats held $1.3 million to $5 million during their tenure; Republicans held $2.3 million to $4.9 million. Under congressional rules, lawmakers are required to report assets only in broad ranges on financial disclosure forms.

Several members - including Sens. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) - said they sold some of the stocks on the prohibition list this year for financial reasons, but the disclosures for 2010 will not become public until the end of next year, along with those of the rest of Congress.

The Post analysis found that Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the panel's ranking Republican; Sen. Kay R. Hagan (D-N.C.); and James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), along with their family members, have had the largest amount of money invested in companies with military contracts dating to 2004.

A fine example of how both parties talk about change and transparency while profiting from what essentially amounts to insider information not privy to the American Public.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp6-wG5LLqE[/ame]

 

[Quantum Windbag]

They are politicians, they make the rules, they don't follow them.