Ethics? We don't need no stinkin' ethics!

The House ethics committee is investigating
whether Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.,
arranged a hearing on credit card issues
in order to pressure companies into making
political donations.

Homeland Security chairman faces ethics probe

Rep. Bennie Thompson's panel under investigation after credit card hearing

By Carol D. Leonnig and Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post
updated 12:06 p.m. MT, Fri., Dec . 4, 2009

WASHINGTON - At a hearing in late March, the nation's credit card companies faced the threat of expensive new rules from an unlikely regulator: the House Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).

The committee had never before dealt with credit card issues, but Thompson warned Visa, MasterCard and others that Congress might need to impose tighter security standards costing millions of dollars to protect customers from identity theft.

Behind the scenes, some of Thompson's staffers sensed a different motive -- an attempt to pressure the companies into making political donations to the chairman, according to several former committee staffers.

Now the House ethics committee is investigating the propriety of the committee's operations, and whether its members' interactions with companies compromised its work. Within a few weeks of the hearing, Thompson collected $15,000 in donations from the credit card industry and its Washington-based lobbyists, a Washington Post analysis shows. No legislation on card security has been introduced.

Several former committee staffers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have told The Post that the credit card hearing was one of several committee actions that caused staff concerns because of their consideration of potential donors and contractors friendly to Thompson. The current ethics inquiry was prompted this summer, according to an ethics document obtained by The Post, when a former committee aide alleged she was fired after complaining to her bosses that a lobbyist made improper requests of staff members.

Thompson -- who made headlines separately this week by calling a committee hearing to investigate Tareq and Michaele Salahi's ability to get past Secret Service and into a White House state dinner without invitation -- said he did not arrange a hearing to generate campaign donations.

"That's incorrect," he said of the suspicion. "We do hearings all the time -- sometimes we are able to generate legislation earlier, and sometimes we have to make [build] a public record."

He added that he has never been told of staff complaints about his hearings and was not aware that a committee staffer said she was fired for raising objections about inappropriate lobbyist requests.

"I would assume if discomfort was there with the staff they would have shared it, " he said. "I have not heard this."


Committee staff director Lanier Avant, who also serves as the congressman's chief of staff, said the credit card hearing was prompted by a data breach at a payment company, Heartland Payment Systems, that compromised the credit information of millions of customers.

Several congressional ethics experts said it could be an ethics violation if a lawmaker or senior staff member arranged a hearing for the express purpose of collecting campaign contributions. Proving such a case would be difficult, they said. In Congress, committees hold hearings on a wide range of subjects and have some overlapping jurisdictions. Countless corporations and lobbyists affected by specific committee hearings end up donating to the chairman or other members of Congress, so investigators would need to have evidence that a lawmaker intended to use a hearing for fundraising leverage.

Sarah Dufendach, a vice president at Common Cause, said the House ethics committee should take the staffer's allegation against her former boss seriously, especially because Thompson's office has had a number of staff departures. She questioned whether credit card security was a top committee priority, given terrorism threats and the need to plan for pandemic flu.

"You have to wonder: Did this take precedence over everything else that was on your committee's plate?" she said. "Homeland Security is not a committee that should be wanting for things to have hearings on."

Joshua Levy, an attorney for the fired staffer, Veronique Pluviose-Fenton, declined to comment.


Numerous credit card lobbyists, asked about their donations, would not comment for the record. Officials at Visa and the industry-sponsored Payment Card Industry Council, who were asked to testify at the hearing, said they were not aware of the staffer's allegation and did not have concerns about the hearing.

"Visa appreciated the opportunity to appear at the hearing and educate members and staff about its role in the industry and efforts to secure sensitive consumer data such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard," said Visa spokeswoman Sandra Chu. She added that Visa did not contribute to Thompson and did not direct its lobbyists to contribute.

Thompson's committee has been roiled by turnover this year, with at least 10 staff members resigning or being fired, according to congressional payroll records. Former and current staffers said many departures came after employees objected to committee operations. Many blame the staff turmoil on Avant, a 30-year-old Thompson confidante. Avant played a role in planning the March 31 credit card hearing, hosted by the subcommittee on cyber-threats.

Avant said politics have not guided his committee decisions. "I've never asked anything that they would be uncomfortable with," he said. "I ask people to come to work and work hard, to help our members do the best they can to oversee the department."

Thompson and his subcommittee chairman suggested the industry should use better data encryption and new technologies to prevent identity theft, such as microchips in credit cards.

"I'm concerned that as long as the payment-card industry is writing the standards, we'll never see a more secure system," Thompson warned then, calling credit card security an "ongoing threat."

Legislation never surfaced. Avant said that the hearing helped inform lawmakers and the public about the issue, and that the committee might consider legislation at a later date.

In April and May, donations of $250 to $1,500 came in from lobbyists registered to represent Visa, American Express, MasterCard, Heartland and the National Installment Lenders, among others, as well as from the American Bankers Association political action committee.

Stanley Brand, a congressional ethics expert and veteran defense lawyer, noted that House ethics rules prohibit lawmakers or staff members from accepting any benefits, such as donations, "under circumstances that might be construed by a reasonable person as influencing their official duties." He stressed that the ethics committee would need an e-mail or witness indicating this was the intention.

Thompson's committee also has faced steady criticism that it has been overly focused on helping and encouraging minority contractors -- especially in his poor Mississippi district -- to get federal government work. Thompson's Web site highlights opportunities for small, disadvantaged businesses in the Department of Homeland Security, as does a newsletter the chairman circulates.


"Securing our homeland is one of the nation's most critical needs," he wrote. "Artificial barriers that prevent those with good ideas from contributing to this important endeavor can no longer be permitted to remain unchecked."

But in March, both Republican and Democratic staff raised concerns when Thompson moved to hold a committee oversight meeting at his alma mater in Mississippi, Tougaloo College, on how small and minority-owned contractors could get department contracts. The session included a series of firms explaining their value to the department, and staffers complained that it appeared to be an advertisement for companies and an inappropriate use of committee resources.

In July, Thompson held a hearing on Federal Emergency Management Agency housing alternatives in a disaster. Three of the invited witnesses were contractors who developed temporary shelters, and they testified about the value of their domes, trailers and assorted services. Two of those companies' executives, lobbyists and family members donated to Thompson within a few weeks of the event.

Avant said the March meeting was an official committee meeting to help companies learn how to tap into $787 billion in economic stimulus funds. He said the July hearing was intended to let lawmakers hear "outside the box" housing solutions from the private sector.

Thompson said the committee invites "companies all the time to come tell us what new ideas are." At the Mississippi meeting, he said, he had a log of participants and feedback that "it was an excellent conference."

© 2009 The Washington Post Company

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34276543/ns/politics-washington_post/page/2/

* * * * *

The most transparent and ethical administration evah!

mmmmmmm--mmmmmmm--mmmmmmm...