Senators Target Fat Cat Abuse of Financial Bailout Money

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As we’ve seen from numerous contracting scandals in Iraq, the federal government can be great a handing out money (sometimes literally shrink-wrapped piles of it), but less skilled in tracking where it goes. So it’s without much surprise that we now see it throwing hundreds of billions of relatively unaccounted for dollars at financial companies as part of the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP). But if senators Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) get their way, the free-for-all may soon be reined in. According to a statement released today, they plan to reintroduce their Accountability for Economic Assistance Act (.pdf) to the Senate when it reconvenes in January. “At present, we don’t know whether these companies are using these funds to fly on private jets, attend lavish conferences or lobby Congress,” says Feinstein. “This bill puts clear restrictions on how funds can be used and mandates public reporting requirements to allow taxpayers to find out how their money is being spent.”

The bill’s provisions, according to the press release:

  • Prohibit firms receiving economic assistance from Treasury or emergency loans from the Federal Reserve from using such funds for lobbying expenditures or political contributions;
  • Require that firms receiving assistance provide detailed, publically available quarterly reports to Treasury outlining how federal funds have been used;
  • Establish corporate governance standards to ensure that firms receiving federal assistance do not waste money on unnecessary expenditures; and,
  • Create penalties of at least $100,000 per violation for firms that fail to meet the corporate governance standards established in the bill.
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    WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

    “Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

    That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

    That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

    Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

    This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

    “This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

    Wow.

    And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

    About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

    If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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