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118th US Congress Rules & Investigations The Serious You: How Current Events Affect You
Started Feb-11 by WALTER784; 11797 views.
Staff
From: WALTER784
Feb-27
Exclusive: Oversight Committee Demands Account of All Economic, Military Aid to Ukraine
By Philip Wegmann - RCP Staff
February 22, 2023
As President Biden boarded a European train destined for Kyiv, back in Washington, Rep. James Comer and his team drafted a long-expected letter.
Standing next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden pledged Monday that the lifeline of economic and military aid to that nation, support already well in excess of $100 billion, would not slack, and that the United States would stand with Ukraine “as long as it takes.”
Comer, the new chair of the House Oversight Committee, delivered a different message to the Biden administration Wednesday: Save your receipts. All of them.
The committee is calling on the administration to turn over all documents and internal communications “regarding any economic assistance programs for the Ukrainian government” and to turn over similar material “regarding any anti-corruption efforts” as they relate to both financial and military aid.
The notice comes on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion. The letter announces the beginning of what promises to be the most comprehensive audit of the war effort to date. It was obtained first and exclusively by RealClearPolitics.
“Providing security and humanitarian assistance for warfighting and reconstruction purposes comes with an inherent risk of fraud, waste, and abuse,” Comer wrote, before insisting that the U.S. must develop “oversight mechanisms” to mitigate risks made worse by mandates to spend money “quickly.”
House Republicans are casting a wide net. The committee wants a comprehensive account of “strategies for end-use monitoring of weapons, equipment, direct budgeting assistance, and any other form of economic or security assistance for the Ukrainian people.” They are also calling for all materials related to how much federal money has been spent thus far “and how much remains in the spending pipeline.”
Comer furthermore wants to know about, and calls on the administration to disclose, material related to “any benchmarks for success” of aid programs as well as “any conditions imposed on funds provided as assistance to Ukraine.”
The letter was addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Administrator Samantha Powers of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The White House knew it was coming. Speaker Kevin McCarthy said ahead of the midterms that a Republican House wouldn’t write “a blank check” to Ukraine, and it was only a matter of time before the GOP made good on that oversight promise.
There are reasons for concern. While Zelensky rose to power on an anti-corruption platform, the former Eastern Bloc country has a history of struggling with government fraud and graft. They regularly rank toward the bottom of international corruption indexes, a track record that has even ardent supporters of the defensive war worried.
When Sen. Angus King traveled to Ukraine last month, the independent from Maine told RCP he warned Zelensky that misappropriation of funds or misplaced guns could undermine support in the West: “I said a scandal would really screw this up.”
That message was well received. According to King, “He got it immediately.” But verbal assurances are not enough to assuage Republican concerns, and according to the Joint Strategic Oversight Plan for Ukraine Response report, the administration has struggled to account exactly for all the billions spent. The Pentagon Inspector General, for instance, warned that the department was “unable to provide end-use monitoring in accordance with DoD policy.”
One of the specific areas Comer is demanding answers on: The policy requires tracking the serial numbers of weapons and ammunition, as USA Today and others previously noted, to ensure they are used as intended.
Congress has appropriated $113 billion in economic and security aid to Ukraine since Russian tanks rolled across the border. Over the course of two decades, by comparison, the U.S. spent $146 billion to send military and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
The administration insists that they take corruption seriously and have taken steps to guard against it from the beginning of the conflict. They just haven’t seen any maleficence thus far, according to John Kirby who said last month that neither military nor financial assistance “have fallen prey to any kind of corruption in Ukraine.”
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Staff
From: WALTER784
Mar-2
It might seem strange that Microsoft would take such a stance, but I think this came due to the 118th Congress letter to big tech companies back in Dec 14, 2022... For Microsoft, this letter was issued: 2022-12-14-jdj-to-microsoft-re-censorship-investigation.pdf (house.gov)
Microsoft Suspends Foreign Disinformation ‘Experts’ That Blacklist Conservative Media
SEAN MORAN
13 Feb 2023
Microsoft has stopped partnering with a foreign think tank, pending review, that was designed to blacklist conservative media. The tech company also reportedly removed negative flags for conservative media outlets.
After Breitbart News, the Washington Examiner, and the Daily Caller News Foundation highlighted how a Microsoft-owned ad network, Xandr, employed foreign think tank Global Disinformation Index’s (GDI) media blacklist, otherwise known as the “Dynamic Exclusion List,” Microsoft said it has stopped using its blacklist, pending review.
“We try to take a principled approach to accuracy and fighting foreign propaganda. We’re working quickly to fix the issue and Xandr has stopped using GDI’s services while we are doing a larger review,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Breitbart News.
Now, according to the Washington Examiner‘s Gabe Kaminsky, Xandr has removed “rejection flags,” for conservative outlets.
“I just checked in Xandr’s platform again and can confirm that all rejection flags have been removed from domains,” a senior ad executive told Kaminsky.
The outlet reported that 39 prominent conservative media outlets including Breitbart News, the Blaze, the Washington Times, Judicial Watch, MRC.TV, RealClearPolitics, the Daily Wire, and the Examiner were flagged as “false/misleading.”
Breitbart News’s Hannah Bleau noted:
GDI’s CEO, Clare Melford, cited Breitbart News in a 2022 podcast appearance, noting that a “whole ecosystem of organizations” targeting the outlet has led to it being deplatformed. She went a step further, pointing to Breitbart News’s coverage of crimes committed by illegal aliens. While she admitted those stories are “probably perfectly true,” she said it creates an “adversarial narrative.”
Many of these outlets that Xandr flagged as “false/misleading” were included on the GDI’s top ten list of outlets that were most at risk of spreading disinformation.
The Examiner elaborated:
However, according to an updated internal Xandr dataset provided to the Washington Examiner, all of these websites do not currently have a designation. It is unclear whether this means they now are receiving ads from certain brands, given that domains allowed to obtain ads are provided an “approved” classification, data show.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reported that GDI also receives taxpayer money from the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC).
FWIW
- Edited March 2, 2023 2:33 am by WALTER784
Staff
From: WALTER784
Mar-2
Game’s Up! MAGA 20 Want the Receipts for $113 Billion in Taxpayer Dollars Laundered Through Kiev
By Richard Abelson
Feb. 23, 2023 9:15 am
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee James Comer (R-Ky) has written to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power to demand a full accounting of the $113 billion in taxpayer funds the Biden regime has provided to the corrupt regime in Kiev.
While National Security spokesman John Kirby claimed not to have seen “any signs” of corruption in Ukraine, Comer pointed out these claims “came one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired several top Ukrainian officials amid a corruption scandal.” Providing US taxpayer funds in a war zone “comes with an inherent risk of fraud, waste, and abuse,” Comer wrote, noting that “unrealistic timelines and expectations that prioritize spending quickly lead to increased corruption.”
DoD, State and USAID must now produce all documents related to US aid to Ukraine by March 8, 2023. The letter was signed by republican Representatives including Jim Jordan, Nancy Mace, Andy Biggs, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Anna Paulina Luna.
Dear Secretary Austin, Secretary Blinken, and Administrator Power:
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The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is conducting oversight of the federal government’s administration of U.S. taxpayer-funded assistance to Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago, Congress has provided more than $113 billion for security, humanitarian, economic, and governance assistance. It is critical that government agencies administering these funds ensure they are used for their intended purposes to prevent and reduce the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse. The Committee seeks documents and information to understand how the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of State (State), and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) are conducting oversight of these funds.
On January 25, 2023, U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby claimed, “We have not seen any signs that our budgetary assistance has fallen prey to any kind of corruption in Ukraine,” and that all direct budgetary assistance, “goes through the World Bank.” Mr. Kirby continued, “I would go so far as to say the same on the security assistance side as well.” These claims came one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired several top Ukrainian officials amid a corruption scandal. Ukrainian government officials allegedly engaged in bribery, used government vehicles for personal use, and purchased inflated food supplies for Ukrainian forces. In response, President Zelensky named a new Minister of Defense. Based on Mr. Kirby’s remarks, however, the U.S. National Security Council appears unaware of this corruption scandal, heightening concerns that U.S. agencies are not conducting oversight of taxpayer assistance to Ukraine.
Providing security and humanitarian assistance for warfighting and reconstruction purposes comes with an inherent risk of fraud, waste, and abuse. The United States must identify these risks and develop oversight mechanisms to mitigate them. We learned from efforts in Afghanistan that the World Bank does not always have effective monitoring and accounting of funds, and often lacks transparency. We also learned that unrealistic timelines and expectations that prioritize spending quickly lead to increased corruption and reduced effectiveness of programs. As the United States continues to filter assistance through multilateral organizations with pressure to spend funds quickly, we must ensure proper protections are in place to prevent the misuse of funds.
To assist the Committee’s investigation into what is being done to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funded assistance to Ukraine, please provide the following documents and information, covering the period February 24, 2022, to the present, as soon as possible, but no later than, March 8, 2023:
1. All documents and communications regarding strategies for end-use monitoring of weapons, equipment, direct budgeting assistance, and any other form of economic or security assistance for the Ukrainian people;
All documents and communications regarding any anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine, including but not limited to any documents and communications detailing plans to condition assistance on Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts and how the U.S. is assisting Ukraine in developing an anti-corruption strategy;
All documents and communications regarding how much money has been disbursed for Ukrainian assistance and how much remains
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Staff
From: WALTER784
Mar-2
Probe Launched Into State Department Censorship of Conservatives
Katie Pavlich
February 23, 2023 3:00 PM
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced an investigation into the State Department after it was revealed by the Washington Examiner the federal bureaucracy spent hundreds-of-millions in taxpayer dollars on censorship of conservative news outlets.
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating reports that federal funds administered by the Department of State were used to suppress lawful speech and defund disfavored news outlets under the guise of combatting disinformation. The Committee is disturbed by recent reporting that taxpayer money ended up in the hands of a foreign organization running an advertising blacklist of organizations accused of hosting disinformation on their websites, including several conservative-leaning news organizations. The Committee seeks documents and a staff-level briefing to understand the scope of the Department’s use of federal funds for a taxpayer-funded censorship campaign,” Comer wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday.
"We continue to be concerned by efforts across the federal government to censor the lawful speech of Americans and discredit legitimate criticism as mis-, dis-, or mal- information, whether through the creation of a ‘Disinformation Governance Board,’ or labeling dissenting opinions as threats to critical infrastructure," the letter continues. "The federal government should not be censoring free speech nor policing what news outlets Americans choose to consume. And taxpayer funds should never be given to third parties with the intent that they be used to censor lawful speech or abridge the freedom of the press."
Comer is asking for a number of State Department documents to be provided and for a briefing from Blinken to Committee staff by March 3. He's asking documents be provided to "enable oversight of the Department’s administration of funds flowing to organizations working to censor lawful speech and suppress press freedoms."
1. All documents and communications regarding any grant or other funding administered by the Department or organizations funded by the Department used to suppress so-called mis-, dis-, or mal- information of individuals or news organizations within the United States from January 20, 2021 to the present;
2. All documents and communications regarding any grant or other funding administered by the Department or organizations funded by the Department issued to the Global Disinformation Index;
3. All documents and communications between any Department employee, contractor, grantee, and any other individual, whether within or outside the federal government, referring or relating to any efforts to suppress so-called mis-, dis-, or mal- information uttered or hosted by any individual or organization within the United States;
4. All documents and communications sufficient to show the identities of any Department employees, contractors, or grantees whose duties included, at any point, encouraging a third party to take action against any individual or organization within the United States uttering or hosting content considered mis-, dis-, or mal-information by the Department or organizations funded by the Department.
Probe Launched Into State Department Censorship of Conservatives (townhall.com)
FWIW
Staff
From: WALTER784
Mar-2
This is only the beginning. I'm waiting for the firework finale... after the investigation ends.
FWIW
Staff
From: WALTER784
Mar-2
No game at all... it's multiple investigations into the wrongdoings of the Democrat party that will finally pin the tail on the donkeys!!!
FWIW
Host
From: Showtalk
Mar-2
No, the Republicans are exposing what happened and the Democrats are already pointing fingers.
Staff
From: WALTER784
Mar-3
Showtalk said...
the Republicans are exposing what happened and the Democrats are already pointing fingers.
My father taught me about pointing fingers back when I was 8 years old... that was 57 years ago, but I still remember it vividly.
When you point a finger at somebody, you always have 3 of your other fingers pointing back at you! (* GRIN *)
Pointing fingers doesn't shift the blame... they just mistakenly think it does.
Remember when they pointed the finger at Trump for colluding with Russia? It's a failed tactic that they continue to use in hopes of expecting different results! (* CHUCKLE *)
The guilty party is guilty not because of finger pointing, but because of evidence showing who the real guilty part is... and pointing fingers won't change anything... except for what the liberal news media posts.
FWIW
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