The AIG bonus hearings on executive compensation the current “bonus bill” is a sideshow that avoids addressing the lack of enforcement of existing law.
To the layman it appears, had the law (below) been enforced, we would get to the root of the problem. Of course Congress has no interest in reducing the lobbying dollars they can collect from firms that rely on those TARP dollars. They would rather pretend to be ineffective populists than effective legislators and responsible public servants.
Doesn’t anyone feel that we could get more accomplished if we enforced the following law?
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§ 1352. Limitation on use of appropriated funds to influence certain Federal contracting and financial transactions
(a)
(1) None of the funds appropriated by any Act may be expended by the recipient of a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement to pay any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with any Federal action described in paragraph (2) of this subsection.
(b)
(1) Each person who requests or receives a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement from an agency or requests or receives from an agency a commitment providing for the United States to insure or guarantee a loan shall file with that agency, in accordance with paragraph (4) of this subsection—
(2) A declaration filed by a person pursuant to paragraph (1)(A) of this subsection in connection with a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement shall contain—
(3) A declaration filed by a person pursuant to paragraph (1)(A) of this subsection in connection with a commitment providing for the United States to insure or guarantee a loan shall contain the name of any registrant under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 who has made lobbying contacts on behalf of the person in connection with that loan insurance or guarantee.
(4) A person referred to in paragraph (1)(A) of this subsection shall file a declaration referred to in that paragraph—
(A) with each submission by such person that initiates agency consideration of such person for award of a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement, or for grant of a commitment providing for the United States to insure or guarantee a loan;
(B) upon receipt by such person of a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement or of a commitment providing for the United States to insure or guarantee a loan, unless such person previously filed a declaration with respect to such contract, grant, loan, cooperative agreement or commitment pursuant to clause (A); and
(C) at the end of each calendar quarter in which there occurs any event that materially affects the accuracy of the information contained in any declaration previously filed by such person in connection with such Federal contract, grant, loan, cooperative agreement, loan insurance commitment, or loan guaranty commitment.
(5) Any person who requests or receives from a person referred to in paragraph (1) of this subsection a subcontract under a Federal contract, a subgrant or contract under a Federal grant, a contract or subcontract to carry out any purpose for which a particular Federal loan is made, or a contract under a Federal cooperative agreement shall be required to file with the person referred to in such paragraph a written declaration referred to in clause (A) of such paragraph.
(c)
(1) Any person who makes an expenditure prohibited by subsection (a) of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $100,000 for each such expenditure.
(2)
(A) Any person who fails to file or amend a declaration required to be filed or amended under subsection (b) of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $100,000 for each such failure.
(B) A filing of a declaration of a declaration amendment on or after the date on which an administrative action for the imposition of a civil penalty under this subsection is commenced does not prevent the imposition of such civil penalty for a failure occurring before that date. For the purposes of this subparagraph, an administrative action is commenced with respect to a failure when an investigating official determines in writing to commence an investigation of an allegation of such failure.
(3) Sections 3803 (except for subsection (c)), 3804, 3805, 3806, 3807, 3808, and 3812 of this title shall be applied, consistent with the requirements of this section, to the imposition and collection of civil penalties under this subsection.
(d)
(1)
(A) Subsection (a)(1) of this section does not apply in the case of a payment of reasonable compensation made to an officer or employee of a person requesting or receiving a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement to the extent that the payment is for agency and legislative liaison activities not directly related to a Federal action referred to in subsection (a)(2) of this section.
(B) Subsection (a)(1) of this section does not prohibit any reasonable payment to a person in connection with, or any payment of reasonable compensation to an officer or employee of a person requesting or receiving, a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement or an extension, continuation, renewal, amendment, or modification of a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement if the payment is for professional or technical services rendered directly in the preparation, submission, or negotiation of any bid, proposal, or application for that Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement or for meeting requirements imposed by or pursuant to law as a condition for receiving that Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement.
(2) The reporting requirement in subsection (b) of this section shall not apply to any person with respect to—
(A) payments of reasonable compensation made to regularly employed officers or employees of a person requesting or receiving a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement or a commitment providing for the United States to insure or guarantee a loan;
(B) a request for or receipt of a contract (other than a contract referred to in clause (C)), grant, cooperative agreement, subcontract (other than a subcontract referred to in clause (C)), or subgrant that does not exceed $100,000; and
(C) a request for or receipt of a loan, or a commitment providing for the United States to insure or guarantee a loan, that does not exceed $150,000, or the single family maximum mortgage limit for affected programs, whichever is greater, including a contract or subcontract to carry out any purpose for which such a loan is made.
(e) The Secretary of Defense may exempt a Federal action described in subsection (a)(2) from the prohibition in subsection (a)(1) whenever the Secretary determines, in writing, that such an exemption is in the national interest. The Secretary shall transmit a copy of each such written exemption to Congress immediately after making such determination.
(f) The head of each Federal agency shall take such actions as are necessary to ensure that the provisions of this section are vigorously implemented and enforced in such agency.
(g) As used in this section:
(1) The term “recipient”, with respect to funds received in connection with a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement—
(A) includes the contractors, subcontractors, or subgrantees (as the case may be) of the recipient; but
(B) does not include an Indian tribe, tribal organization, or any other Indian organization eligible to receive Federal contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or loans from an agency but only with respect to expenditures that are by such tribe or organization for purposes specified in subsection (a) and are permitted by other Federal law.
(2) The term “agency” has the same meaning provided for such term in section 552 (f) of title 5, and includes a Government corporation, as defined in section 9101 (1) of this title.
(3) The term “person”—
(A) includes an individual, corporation, company, association, authority, firm, partnership, society, State, and local government, regardless of whether such entity is operated for profit or not for profit; but
(B) does not include an Indian tribe, tribal organization, or any other Indian organization eligible to receive Federal contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or loans from an agency but only with respect to expenditures by such tribe or organization that are made for purposes specified in subsection (a) and are permitted by other Federal law.
(4) The term “State” means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a territory or possession of the United States, an agency or instrumentality of a State, and a multi-State, regional, or interstate entity having governmental duties and powers.
(5) The term “local government” means a unit of government in a State and, if chartered, established, or otherwise recognized by a State for the performance of a governmental duty, the following entities:
(6)
(7) The term “Federal loan” means a loan made by an agency. Such term does not include loan insurance or a loan guaranty.
(8) The term “reasonable payment” means, with respect to professional and other technical services, a payment in an amount that is consistent with the amount normally paid for such services in the private sector.
(9) The term “reasonable compensation” means, with respect to a regularly employed officer or employee of any person, compensation that is consistent with the normal compensation for such officer or employee for work that is not furnished to, not funded by, or not furnished in cooperation with the Federal Government.
(10) The term “regularly employed”, with respect to an officer or employee of a person requesting or receiving a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement or a commitment providing for the United States to insure or guarantee a loan, means an officer or employee who is employed by such person for at least 130 working days within one year immediately preceding the date of the submission that initiates agency consideration of such person for receipt of such contract, grant, loan, cooperative agreement, loan insurance commitment, or loan guaranty commitment.
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