The New Media Journal | 7 on House Committee Among 30 Facing Ethics Inquiry into Arms Deals

The New Media Journal | 7 on House Committee Among 30 Facing Ethics Inquiry into Arms Deals: "More than 30 US politicians, among them seven members of a defense procurement committee, are being investigated in congressional ethics inquiries into influence-peddling, according to a document leaked accidentally onto the internet.

The disclosure sheds light on a process by which billions of dollars a year are spent on defense projects that the Pentagon does not want and which limits funds available for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

House Representatives named in the document include John Murtha (D-PA), the chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Sub-committee, who added so-called “earmarks” worth more than $100 million to last year’s defense budget and received $743,000 in campaign contributions from defense contractors. The contributions were funneled through the PMA Group, a lobbying company set up by a former aide to Mr. Murtha which closed after being raided by the FBI this year.

Five of the seven members named in the leaked document are Democrats, which is an embarrassment for Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, who pledged to “drain the swamp” of corruption and excessive corporate influence on Capitol Hill.

This week President Obama signed a Defense Authorization Bill providing $680 billion in military spending for the coming year, including $2.5 billion for ten transport aircraft even though the Pentagon said that it has enough of them. The Bill authorizes funding for an alternative engine for the F35 joint strike fighter that the Air Force says it does not need and a destroyer that the Navy says is obsolete.

Mr Obama noted that the Bill scrapped a presidential helicopter and an unproven airborne laser but he admitted: “There’s still more waste we need to cut.” He pointed to $296 billion of cost over-runs.

The practice of earmarked military spending is based on the right of congressional representatives to award no-bid contracts to defense companies, usually in their own states, whether or not the Department of Defense approves them.

That entitlement has fostered a culture of mutual dependence between lobbyists and politicians that has proved impossible to eradicate.

No specific wrongdoing is alleged in the 22-page report of the Ethics Committee but it revealed an inquiry of House members suspected of “accepting contributions or other items of value in exchange for an official act.”"