CEI Today: Political Corruption, the Highway Bill, and Drug Shortages

Friday, February 17, 2012
In the News Today

Media Contacts: Christine Hall 202.331.2258 Nicole Ciandella 202.331.2773 CEI Experts by Issue Advancing Capitalism Constitutional and Legal Issues Energy and Environment Finance and Entrepreneurship Health and Safety Labor Nanny State Regulatory Reform Tech and Telecom Trade and International Transportation   Also featuring... CEI IN THE NEWS THE "FRED WEEKLY" February 17, 2012

POLITICAL CORRUPTION - BILL FREZZA Forbes: Making Sure Corruption Remains 'Made in America' If the U.S. government really wants to use its influence to get the world of global business to operate on a level playing field, instead of terrorizing American corporations for doing in Rome as do the Romans, perhaps it should run training sessions for foreign governments on how to construct a legalized system of influence peddling as subtle and backhanded as the one we have here.     HIGHWAY BILL - MARC SCRIBNER OpenMarket.org: Lame Duck Sen. Herb Kohl Continues Quixotic Battle Against Rail Carriers in Senate Highway Bill Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), who will not be seeking reelection this November, decided that he would make one last-ditch attempt to get his awful piece of legislation from last year (the Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act) passed by the Senate as an amendment to their highway bill. The primary purpose of the legislation is to remove the limited antitrust exemptions granted to America’s private railroads. Right now, the Surface Transportation Board, which is the watered-down successor organization to the tyrannical Interstate Commerce Commission, has sole authority in ruling over matters of competition policy within the railroad industry. HEALTH - GREG CONKO CEI Podcast: Washington's Prescription Drug Shortage Patients are suffering from a nationwide shortage of more than 260 different prescription drugs, many of them for different types of cancer. Senior Fellow Greg Conko explains why the biggest culprit for the drug shortage is Washington. DEA and FDA regulations make it difficult to ramp up supply, or to change prices to more accurately reflect demand. Ten Thousand Commandments By Wayne Crews Welcome to The Other National Debt -- The Cost of Regulation -> Read Today's Decrees CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: $26 billion foreclosure settlement, STOCK Act muzzling, Solyndra scandal latest and more

Monday, February 13, 2012
In the News Today

Media Contacts: Christine Hall 202.331.2258 Nicole Ciandella 202.331.2773 CEI Experts by Issue Advancing Capitalism Constitutional and Legal Issues Energy and Environment Finance and Entrepreneurship Health and Safety Labor Nanny State Regulatory Reform Tech and Telecom Trade and International Transportation   Also featuring... CEI IN THE NEWS THE "FRED WEEKLY" February 2, 2012: McDonald's and Pepsi's Different Response to Pressure CEI Podcast for February 2, 2012: The FDA’s Latest Power Grab Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies Michelle Minton breaks down the FDA’s behind-the-scenes push to regulate dietary supplements nearly as strictly as prescription drugs. >Listen at Libertyweek.org

SOLYNDRA SCANDAL - MYRON EBELL Globalwarming.org: House Ratchets Up Probe of White House Involvement in Solyndra Scandal Fourteen Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) sent a strongly-worded, five-page letter to the White House on 9th February setting a 21st February deadline for turning over documents related to the White House’s involvement in the Solyndra scandal.   The letter also demands that five officials be made available for interviews by 17th February. > Read the full commentary on Globalwarming.org   > Interview Myron Ebell, Director of CEI's Center on Energy and Environment FINANCIAL REGULATION & THE "STOCK ACT" - JOHN BERLAU OpenMarket.org:The STOCK Act’s Muzzle and How to Fix it in Conference Both the Senate and the House have now passed to STOCK Act aimed at stopping insider trading by lawmakers and staff.  But, as CEI's John Berlau warns, the bill as presented to the conference committee contains dangerous, excessive restrictions on communictaion: "Both bills must go to “conference” to produce a final identical bill to be voted on by both houses, giving members an opportunity for a fix to help make sure that whistleblowing and routine communication with outside groups from being caught in the law’s web." > Read the full commentary on Openmarket.org > Interview John Berlau, Director of CEI's Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs   BANK FORECLOSURE SETTLEMENT - HANS BADER Openmarket.org: $26 Billion Mortgage Settlement Rips Off Investors to Trim Banks’ Massive Costs of Bailing Out Deadbeat Borrowers On Friday, the Justice Department and state attorneys general announced a settlement agreement, perhaps the largest federal-state civil settlement in American history, with five banks including Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. over foreclosure practices. CEI's Hans Bader explains why investors and others will now get ripped off: "By ripping off mortgage investors, this deal will make investing in mortgages more risky, which will in turn drive up interest rates that homebuyers have to pay in the future.  This deal only covers borrowers at certain banks, not those borrowers who mortgages are held by the government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which (unlike the private banks) have never repaid their bailout, and are currently still being bailed out at an ever-increasing tab of $170 billion. This deal is not the only way that federal and state officials are messing up the housing market.  The Obama administration is forcing banks to make risky loans (in the name of 'fair lending'), thus planting the seeds of a future financial crisis. The Justice Department is suing banks that refuse to do so, and forcing them both to award preferential loans based on race, and to cough up money in 'settlements,' some of which goes to left-wing 'community' groups. > Read the full commentary on Openmarket.org > Interview Hans Bader CPAC Roundup CEI co-sponsored this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Thursday, February 9 to Saturday, February 11 in Washington, D.C. CEI speakers addressed a range of provocative topics, from energy regulation to immigration, labor union politics to government regulation of the Internet.  We'll be posting video soon.  Today, video for the immigration debate is now available: CPAC panel featuring Alex Nowrasteh: Immigration - High Fences, Wide Gates: States vs. the Feds, the Rule of Law & American Identity Saturday, February 11, 2012 > View the video > Read more by Alex Nowrasteh > Interview Alex Nowrasteh Ten Thousand Commandments By Wayne Crews Welcome to The Other National Debt -- The Cost of Regulation -> Read Today's Decrees CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta applauds passage of STOCK ACT, banning insider trading

“It’s another victory in the fight to fix the broken culture of Washington”

(Washington – February 9, 2012)    Representative Frank Guinta (R, NH-01) issued the following statement after the House passage of S. 2038, the STOCK (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act.   It was approved this morning in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 417 to 2.   Rep. Guinta was an early cosponsor of the House’s version, H.R. 1148.    

In short, the STOCK Act would prohibit Members of Congress, employees of Congress and the Executive Branch, and all federal employees from using any nonpublic information derived from the individual's position or gained from performance of the individual's duties, for personal benefit.

“The men and women who serve their country by working in Washington must be held to a higher standard,” Guinta said after the vote.  “I demonstrated that by cosponsoring the House version of the bill, HR 1148.

“When Granite Staters sent me to Capitol Hill, they told me to convey the message that they will no longer stand for the status quo.  Members of Congress and the Executive Branch, as well as their staffers, are often privy to sensitive information on a daily basis.  We must ensure that this information is used to serve our nation’s best interests, and not for personal gain.

“In the past year, I’ve fought to get rid of automatic pay raises for Members of Congress, voted to reform the pension system and have cut my own office’s budget twice – yielding an 11.4% total reduction.  As an early cosponsor of the STOCK Act, I’m pleased to see the passage of another necessary reform. Granite Staters can be assured I will continue fighting to change the broken culture of Washington at every turn.”

US Rep Bass Votes to Strengthen Prohibitions on Insider Trading by Members of Congress

House passes STOCK Act with overwhelming bipartisan support

WASHINGTON – Congressman Charles F. Bass (NH-02) voted in the House of Representatives this morning to prohibit Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and Executive Branch employees from buying or selling securities, swaps, or commodity futures based on nonpublic information related to Congressional business.  The bill would also reaffirm that Members and employees have always been subject to and are not exempt from the insider trading prohibitions or regulations derived under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The Senate passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act (S. 2038) last week.  Today, the House passed an amended version of the Senate bill, which now extends the prohibition on using nonpublic information gained from their employment for financial gain, as well as establishing new disclosure requirements, to all Congressional staff and Executive Branch employees.   

Bass, who has been a cosponsor of the House version of the STOCK Act (H.R. 1148) since November, said:

“Public servants, including Members of Congress, their staffs, and other federal employees, must be held to the highest ethical standards.  The STOCK Act helps enhance that public trust through even more transparency and disclosure and to ensure that no Member of Congress, their staff or employees of the Executive Branch uses nonpublic information derived from their official duties for personal gain.”

The Senate must now approve the House’s changes to the bill before it can be signed into law.

http://bass.house.gov

WFI - Group Petitions White House Website to Rescind Recess Appts

Please sign the petition that is on The White House webpage asking the president to follow the Constitution and rescind the recess appointments to the NLRB.

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Group Petitions WH Website to Rescind Recess Appts

Washington Examiner

Philip Klein

January 12, 2012

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/group-petitions-wh-website-rescind-recess-appts/309381

A group that fights the abusive influence of big labor on workers and businesses has taken to theWhite House's "We the People" petition website to urge him to rescind his recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, which took place when the Senate was not actually in recess.

"President Obama’s recent appointments to the National Labor Relations Board are unfair and unconstitutional," the petition, which comes from the Workforce Fairness Institute, reads. "He must rescind them immediately."

Though WFI does not expect Obama to change his mind, they hope to collect at least 25,000 signatures to “raise some noise and raise the stakes on his turf.”