We already know about John Boehner’s plan to fund the DOMA defense with magical taxpayer dollars conjured out of thin air. Well, House Democrats aren’t buying his magic trick and want The Boehn Man to release additional details about the House General Counsel’s contract with Bancroft PLLC, the law firm that has agreed to defend DOMA.
According to a letter from the committee on House Administration Ranking Member Robert A. Brady, reprsentatives Zoe Lofgren, and Charles A. Gonzalez:
“During a hearing of the Legislative Branch Appropriations subcommittee last week, we learned that this contract may violate the fundamental principle of the Anti-Deficiency Act by improperly committing taxpayer funds without appropriate authorization. We were also disturbed to learn that the House General Counsel’s office did not seek guidance from the Committee on Ethics regarding the 25% discount on non-attorney time provided by the contract, which still provides for more than $500 an hour in attorneys fees to be paid by taxpayers. The failure to consult the Committee on Ethics raises questions about how the blended rate was developed. We request you instruct the General Counsel to furnish the Committee a list of the hourly rate paid each employee of the Bancroft firm working on the litigation and an explanation on how the blended rate was calculated.”
This comes after last week’s revelation that King & Spaulding agreed to defend DOMA before its in-house ethics board had even finished looking over the contract.
Seeing as Speaker Boehner has not responded to previous letters from the Democratic Committee Members and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, don’t expect him to explain how he’ll fund the $500,000 contract, the departures from standard House procurement guidelines, or “his failure to seek guidance from the Ethics Committee on questionable provisions of the contract.” After all, who’s gonna question you when you’re the one holding the gavel?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Hyhybt
Thanks for the update. I’m still surprised to have heard nothing about this anywhere else.
Cam
Why would he? Politicians are NEVER asked to back up what they say. He is so used to that, that it probably never occured to him that people may have further questions about his statements that he would have to answer.
robert in NYC
I wonder which check book this family values, sanctity of marriage man used to pay the two female lobbysists he is alledged to have had sex with I wonder? Of course, this was silenced by the right wing media, so transparent. Good fodder for the 2012 campaign though.
WillBFair
I was complaining weeks ago about the sleazoid factor of using tax payer dollars to influence the judicial process.
Meanwhile, with zero evidence to back them up, the conservative ‘gay’ blog Independent Gay Forum was scolding us for bullying K&S into dropping the case.
Now I wonder if the Republican Party actually finances conservative ‘gay’ groups. Lord knows they’ve got the cash for it.