The U.S. House of Representatives rightfully took action this week to stop the Department of Justice from funneling settlement money that should belong to taxpayers into activist groups to further a political agenda.
Congressman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chair of the House Judiciary Committee, sponsored the bill that was approved by a vote of 238-138.
The measure permanently bars federal agencies from requiring defendants to donate money to outside groups as part of settlement agreements. If this bill becomes law, that money will either go directly to victims or to the Treasury.
“An investigation by the House Judiciary Committee last Congress revealed the Department of Justice’s abuse of power: using settlement agreements to direct money away from victims toward organizations of their choosing and away from those they disliked,” said Goodlatte after the vote.
“DOJ’s actions contradict the spending power given explicitly to the Legislative Branch and undermine Congress’s most effective tool to hold the Executive Branch accountable.
“Regardless of which party is in the White House, subverting Congress to funnel money to outside organizations is unacceptable and unconstitutional.”
Goodlatte said documents received by the Judiciary showed that third-party organizations actively lobbied the DOJ to receive the funds, and that the agency went out of its way to exclude conservative groups.
The settlements, topping $1 billion, followed the 2008 financial crisis and involved some of the largest financial institutions in the United States.
Public records of the settlement agreements show that when cash donations to liberal groups were combined with other donations in the form of loans, the slush fund may have topped $3 billion.
In an email from July 2014, a senior DOJ official explained how staffers should draft a mandatory donation provision to prevent Citigroup, Inc., from “picking statewide intermediaries like the Pacific Legal Foundation,” noting that organization “does conservative property-rights free legal services.”
In the same email, the DOJ official noted that the National Association of IOLTA Programs would be a better choice for the money because it pursued social justice changes.
Goodlatte called the documents a “smoking gun.” He identified former Assistant Attorney General Tony West as the person responsible for directing the money to liberal organizations.
“Can you explain to Tony the best way to allocate some money to an organization of our choosing?” asked a deputy of West’s in a 2013 email.
Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, said of the DOJ practice: “What’s worse is that the settlements often gave the banks double credit if they gave money to the left-wing groups rather than paying the government. Meaning, every $10 million to left-wing groups was counted the same as $20 million to the government.”
In June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that DOJ would end the practice of directing settlement payments to non-victim third parties. House Resolution 732 made that mandate permanent.
Paul Larkin, a senior legal research fellow at the Heritage Foundation who has written at length on settlement practices, surmised that Goodlatte’s legislation would help prevent future misuse of settlement dollars.
“The Obama administration gave to its cronies money that rightfully belonged to the public,” he said. “That was tantamount to theft. This bill will keep any future administration from again stealing from Americans.”
The Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2017 is similar to legislation that was approved by the House in a 241-174 vote last year, but failed to move forward in the Senate.
It is hopeful the Senate will see the benefits of approving the 2017 legislation because this should not be a partisan issue.
Every American should be concerned about the ramifications of having a president channel taxpayer money only to groups that he or she personally or ideologically supports.
In other news regarding the targeting of conservative groups, the U.S. government reached a “very substantial” settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by more than 400 organizations that were illegally targeted by the IRS during the 2012 election.
Sessions apologized to Tea Party groups and many others for their targeting by the Obama administration, a move he said “was wrong and should never have occurred.”
“There is no excuse for this conduct. Hundreds of organizations were affected by these actions, and they deserve an apology from the IRS. Indeed, though if Obama won re-election because of this weaponization of government, an apology is woefully inadequate,” he said.
Once again, this is an issue that should be of concerned to people of all ideologies. The U.S. Constitution allows all voices to be heard, and silencing a viewpoint because you don’t agree with it strips citizens of their First Amendment freedoms.
Bottom line: Fight hard for what you believe in, but fight fair. Remember the Golden Rule.
— R.R., M.G.
Commented