Congress

  • Anne Perry and Jonathan Aronie, partners at Sheppard Mullin, will answer questions about the bid protest process. April 17, 2012(Encore presentation May 22, 2012)

    April 17, 2012
  • The American Federation of Government Employees has asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate the case of a VA doctor who believes she was unfairly targeted by superiors due to her critical Senate testimony.

    April 17, 2012
  • A former General Services Administration executive created a culture of lavish spending — and fear among his employees who spoke up against him — according to testimony in a House subcommittee hearing today.

    April 17, 2012
  • The conference spending scandal at the General Services Administration will create a more cautious environment throughout government, said Bill Bransford, partner at Shaw, Bransford and Roth.

    April 17, 2012
  • Inspector General Brian Miller testified Monday that GSA's Region 9 remains under further investigation for potential bribery and kickbacks. Martha Johnson, the former chief of the General Services Administration, was hammered by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee over what she knew about a 2010 Las Vegas conference and when she knew it. Johnson resigned her post after an inspector general report detailed excessive spending at the $822,000 event.

    April 16, 2012
  • Read tweets about the hearings and join the conversation using hashtag #GSA.

    April 16, 2012
  • Sunlight Foundation Policy Counsel Daniel Schuman is leading the campaign to improve the Library of Congress website that reports congressional data.

    April 16, 2012
  • Congress returns to session this week with a few short months to reach a budget resolution for the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1 and agree on how to avoid the automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade that will be triggered Jan. 2, 2013, under the Budget Control Act debt limit deal. But don't expect much to get accomplished before the election, say budget experts.

    April 16, 2012
  • Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenas Jeff Neely, PBS region 9 commissioner, to appear. Along with Neely, PBS Deputy Commissioner David Foley and former Administrator Martha Johnson are on the witness list. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee also is expected to hear from GSA Deputy Administrator Susan Brita, CFO Alison Doone and event planner Lisa Daniels.

    April 16, 2012
  • Current and former officials at the General Services Administration will face a gauntlet of congressional hearings this week, following reports of excessive spending on a 2010 regional training conference and other programs. In an interview on In Depth with Francis Rose, former Virginia Congressman and Chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tom Davis shared his insights and what to look for during the hearings.

    April 15, 2012
  • Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has broadened the scope of Congress' probe into the GSA conference scandal, requesting a list of all overnight conferences attended by more than 50 employees at 23 federal agencies and departments.

    April 13, 2012
  • Internal emails from the General Services Administration show high-level agency officials were aware of a spending problem months before the scandal burst into public view. And as early as last summer, officials disagreed over how to reprimand the employees responsible for excessive spending at a 2010 regional training conference.

    April 13, 2012
  • Shortly after the Titanic sank 100 years ago, the Senate conducted an investigation into in the disaster. Transcripts of these hearings are available in libraries across the U.S.

    April 13, 2012
  • In 2008, Congress mandated the Pentagon to keep an inventory of service contracts and review it annually to make sure government work wasn't being improperly outsourced. But the Government Accountability Office, in a recent report, found a lack of guidance from the top has led to challenges in implementing that requirement.

    April 12, 2012
  • The White House launched a new "Do Not Pay" tool on Thursday to prevent improper payments to individuals and companies. Agency heads must submit plans to adopt the tool by June 30.

    April 12, 2012