Janine Wedel - Shadow Elite - How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market

63. Task forces are provided for in the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). See, for example, Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of the President on Advisory Committees, Fiscal Year 1998 , http://fido.gov/facadatabase/printedannualreports%5C1998-Twenty-Seventh%20Annual%20Report%20Of%20The%20President%20On%20Federal%20Advisory%20Committees.pdf.

64. Exceptions to task force proceedings having to be open to the public are made when discussions involve classified material, proprietary data, or personal privacy. The identities of its committee members also would be a matter of public record. (GAO, Federal Advisory Committees: Additional Guidance Could Help Agencies Better Ensure Independence and Balance , Washington, DC: GAO, GAO-04–328, April 2004, pp. 9, 10 and 29, www.gao.gov/new.items/d04328.pdf.)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in June 1993 that Clinton’s status, though ambiguous, qualified her as a “de facto officer or employee” (United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Argued April 30, 1993, Decided June 22, 1993, No. 93–5086, p. 11, http://www.aapsonline.org/clinton/AAPS/APPOPIN.PDF). See also Robert Pear, “Court Rules That First Lady Is ‘De Facto’ Federal Official,” New York Times , June 23, 1993, http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/23/us/court-rules-that-first-lady-is-de-facto-federal-official.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/F/Finances.

The investigation into the Clinton task force was at the request of Congressional Republicans. In March 1993 the White House turned over “an extensive listing of working group participants drawn from the government and from outside organizations,” according to the GAO. Report from Comptroller General of the United State David M. Walker to Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, August 17, 2001, p. 5, oversight.house.gov/documents/20040831103937-54564.pdf.

65. With regard to Cheney’s office not turning over its records for public scrutiny, while only federal employees were formal members of the task force, some critics suggested that Cheney’s task force violates the FACA. Legal actions brought by the Sierra Club, an environmental membership and lobbying group, and Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, held that the Energy Task Force should be subject to FACA rules because nonfederal employees and lobbyists were de facto task force members in that they consistently and fully participated in the meetings. ( Cheney, Vice President of the United States, et al. v. United States District Court for the District of Columbia et al ., Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, No. 03–475. Argued April 27, 2004—Decided June 24, 2004, p. 2, http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=03–475.) Findings of the GAO are at GAO, Energy Task Force: Process Used to Develop the National Energy Policy , Washington, DC: GAO, GAO-03–894, August 2003, p. 2, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03894.pdf (accessed 8/20/2007). These confidential meetings (the list of which was leaked to the Washington Post years after the fact) brought in such figures as James J. Rouse, then vice president of Exxon Mobil and a major contributor to Bush’s inauguration; the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, started by Grover Norquist and Gale A. Norton, who was appointed Bush’s first interior secretary; electric utilities giants, including Duke Energy and Constellation Energy Group; and Kenneth Lay, the later indicted (and now deceased) chief of the energy giant Enron, with whom Cheney met personally. (Michael Abramowitz and Steven Mufson, “Papers Detail Industry’s Role in Cheney’s Energy Report,” Washington Post , July 18, 2007, p. A1.) However, neither these meetings, nor the identities of the individuals involved, are the public’s business, according to Cheney’s office. Invoking the need to safeguard certain executive deliberations, his office denied access to the GAO of “virtually all requested information.” (GAO, Energy Task Force: Process Used to Develop the National Energy Policy , Washington, DC: GAO, GAO-03–894, August 2003, Executive Summary, p. 2, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03894.pdf.) These records would shed light on the process by which the task force had developed a national energy policy and the role of nonfederal stakeholders in influencing that policy. Quotes and further experience of the GAO in this regard can be found at Mike Allen, “GAO Cites Corporate Shaping of Energy Plan,” Washington Post , August 26, 2003, p. A1. The GAO’s subsequent suit, filed in U.S. District Court, was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, and the GAO decided not to appeal (GAO, Energy Task Force: Process Used to Develop the National Energy Policy , Washington, DC: GAO, GAO-03–894, August 2003, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03894.pdf). With regard to the Supreme Court ruling, see, for example, Michael Abramowitz and Steven Mufson, “Papers Detail Industry’s Role in Cheney’s Energy Report,” Washington Post , July 18, 2007, p. A1, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701987.html. This is the result of legal actions brought by public interest groups.

66. Peter Baker, “White House Defends Cheney’s Refusal of Oversight,” Washington Post , June 23, 2007, p. A2, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201809.html. Also House Committee on Government and Reform, “Vice President Exempts His Office from the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information,” June 21, 2007, http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?id=1371.

67. The survey of think tanks cited is James G. McGann, Think Tanks and Policy Advice in the US (Philadelphia, PA: Foreign Policy Research Institute, 2005), p. 23.

An example of a defense industry-driven “think tank” is the Lexington Institute, which receives funding from the defense contractors who stand to benefit from the programs their experts are asked to assess. See Sean Reilly, “Analyst’s Switch Stirs Tanker Talk,” Mobile Register , June 9, 2008, http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/121300295470260.xml&coll=3.

The quote at the end of the paragraph is from McGann, Think Tanks and Policy Advice in the US , pp. 23, 24.

68. Allegiance to institutions is now often seen as retrograde. As government scholar Hugh Heclo reflects: “Thinking institutionally is about a larger sense of loyalty and mission and all those old-fashioned words that have tended to drop out of our thinking about public administration, as well as American organizational life in general.” James P. Pfiffner, Interview with Hugh Heclo, “The Institutionalist: A Conversation with Hugh Heclo,” Public Administration Review (May/June 2007), p. 421.

See chapter 2 for analysis of job security trends.

69. GAO, Foreign Assistance: Strategic Workforce Planning Can Help USAID Address Current and Future Challenges , August 2003, GAO-03–946, p. 10, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03946.pdf.

70. With regard to rules addressing the revolving-door syndrome, see, for instance, http://www.doi.gov/secretary/speeches/012609_speech.html.

With regard to government officials going to industry: For instance, David Kay moved from being a United Nations weapons inspector to a vice president at SAIC (1993 to 2002) to being hired by the CIA to head the effort in search of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (2003). Likewise, William B. Black Jr. retired from the NSA in 1997, worked at SAIC for three years, and then went back to the NSA as deputy director in 2000. SAIC subsequently was awarded $282 million to oversee the latest phase of the agency’s overhaul of its eavesdropping systems. Scott Shane, “U.S.: Uncle Sam Keeps SAIC On Call For Top Tasks,” Baltimore Sun , October 26, 2003, Telegraph, p. 1A. See also André Verlöy and Daniel Politi, Advisors of Influence: Nine Members of the Defense Policy Board Have Ties to Defense Contractors , Center for Public Integrity, May 28, 2003, http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/374/, accessed 16 August, 2008.