Thursday, June 17, 2010

Another committee, another branch of organized crime

Obama wants $15 million for spill panel

President Barack Obama is asking Congress to set aside $15 million for the commission he recently named to look into the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and make recommendations on the future of offshore drilling.

Here's the letter sent to Capitol Hill today.

Congress had considered putting together a commission that would have subpoena power and presumably a budget. Obama wanted to act faster. Now, Congress will consider adding subpoena power to Obama's panel and also funding them.

One other note: the requested funding level for the spill commission, to be headed by former EPA chief Bill Reilly and former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), is 30 times the $500,000 reportedly allocated by the White House for the debt commission, which Obama also announced unilaterally.

(For what it's worth, while that "lacked the scratch" comment in the Tax Notes article just linked to sounds like classic Alan Simpson, he denied to me that he ever said the debt panel had to constrain its activities for lack of funds.)

No comments: