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Eye Opener: House panel to investigate OMB

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
More intimidation.

Eye Opener: House panel to investigate OMB

Eye Opener

Happy Wednesday! A House committee has opened an investigation of the Office of Management and Budget after officials there allegedly told an inspector general that they'd "make life miserable" for him if he complained to Congress about his budget.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has also asked OMB Director Peter R. Orszag to look into the allegations, top House Democrats said Tuesday night.

In a letter to the committee, Patrick E. McFarland, inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management, wrote that OPM's budget office received a "not so veiled threat from OMB" against telling Congress of concerns about its budget.

A 2008 federal law allows inspectors general to inform Congress if they believe their proposed budgets would inhibit oversight duties. The law was designed to protect watchdogs from top agency officials that might cut watchdog budgets in retaliation for hard-hitting investigations.

"Such statements, if made, are entirely improper," Reps. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) wrote to Orszag. "They are a direct threat to the independence and integrity of inspectors general." Towns chairs the committee, and Lynch chairs a subcommittee on the federal workforce.

"The Office of Management and Budget respects the independent role that federal inspectors general play and takes issues of this sort very seriously," said OMB spokesman Thomas Gavin. "The concerns raised by the OPM inspector general about the possible actions of one OMB employee will be investigated thoroughly and quickly. If any improper interference has occurred, appropriate actions will be taken."

Town and Lynch's decision to quickly investigate McFarland's allegations is notable, but comes as Towns has faced criticism from Republican committee members that he didn't act more quickly to subpoena Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner regarding what he knew about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's role in advising American International Group about limiting disclosures about billions of dollars in bonuses.

McFarland's allegations follow last summer's political firestorm surrounding President Obama's decision to fire Gerald Walpin, inspector general at the Corporation for National and Community Service and subsequent investigations led by Republican lawmakers. The Walpin affair came amid allegations of political interference at other agencies and the Library of Congress.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/01/house_panel_to_investigate_omb.html?wprss=federal-eye
 
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