BOPAC Administration considering breaking faith with wounded Veterans. From CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.
Lawmakers say they'd reject a proposal to make veterans pay for treatment of war wounds with private insurance.
Lawmakers say they'd reject a proposal to make veterans pay for treatment of war wounds with private insurance.
But the proposal would be "dead on arrival" if it's sent to Congress, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said.
Murray used that blunt terminology when she told Shinseki that the idea would not be acceptable and would be rejected if formally proposed. Her remarks came during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs about the 2010 budget.
No official proposal to create such a program has been announced publicly, but veterans groups wrote a pre-emptive letter last week to President Obama voicing their opposition to the idea after hearing the plan was under consideration.
The groups also cited an increase in "third-party collections" estimated in the 2010 budget proposal -- something they said could be achieved only if the Veterans Administration started billing for service-related injuries...Continue Reading
Obama picks another loser with corruption baggage in his former office. Change We Can Believe In My Butt.
2 arrested in FBI raid at Obama appointee's office
March 12, 2009 - 1:43pm
WASHINGTON - A D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer employee and a private contractor have been arrested in a federal bribery sting, sources tell WTOP.
D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer employee Yusuf Acar and Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation (AITC) President and CEO Sushil Bansal have been arrested, sources tell WTOP.
Acar, 40, was taken into custody Thursday morning by FBI agents at his home in Northwest D.C.
In 2008, Bansal's firm received .Net Development Support and Peoplesoft Consulting Support contracts from the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Office totaling $350,000...
...Government records show Bansal is not a U.S. citizen and holds an H-1B visa, which is given to foreign workers in specialty occupations.
Channing Phillips, a spokesman for D.C.'s U.S. Attorney's Office, tells WTOP that two people are in custody and should appear in federal court later Thursday.
The FBI is currently serving a search warrant at the office of D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer.
"We are there as part of a continuing ongoing criminal investigation," FBI Washington Field Office spokesperson Katherine Schweit tells WTOP.
Schweit would not comment on the details of the investigation.
More than a dozen FBI agents - including evidence technicians - are at the office, located at 1 Judiciary Square on 4th Street in Northwest, WTOP's Mark Segraves reports...
...The 10th floor has been closed to the public while the FBI searches the offices that house the Administrative Services Modernization Program, Segraves reports.
On March 5, President Barack Obama named D.C. Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra as the federal government's chief information officer.
Kundra's last day was March 4.
Kundra, who was in charge of technology in the District since 2007, has been a consultant to Obama since he won the election.
Kundra has not been linked to Thursday's raid....Read Full Article
