Dirt Diggers Digest No. 44
November 5, 2003
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. Online access to CRS reports curtailed
2. Contractor-contributors clean up in Iraq and Afghanistan
3. Report on drug industry political investments at the state level
4. Study begins systematic analysis of board interlocks
5. Scrushy indictment available online
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1. Online access to CRS reports curtailed
Secrecy News, an online publication of the Federation of American
Scientists <www.fas.org>, reported recently that the limited public
access to Congressional Research Service reports has become even
more limited. For several years, a selection of the invaluable CRS
reports, which cover a wide range of subjects (including ones relating
to business), has been available on the websites of several members
of Congress such as Wisconsin Rep. Mark Green. Those links
recently went dead, without explanation. It is not yet clear whether
some or all of the CRS material will make its way back to the
public web.
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2. Contractor-contributors clean up in Iraq and Afghanistan
More than 70 American companies and individuals have been
awarded up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and
Afghanistan over the past two years, according to a new report
called the "Windfalls of War" <www.publicintegrity.org/wow> published
by the Center for Public Integrity. The U.S. companies, the Center
found, have contributed more money to the presidential campaigns
of George W. Bush --a little more than $500,000--than to any other
politician over the last dozen years. The biggest contract winners,
of course, were Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary and
Bechtel. The report has good background profiles on more than
50 contractors.
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3. Report on drug industry political investments at the state level
A new report by the Institute on Money in State Politics
<www.followthemoney,org> found that the pharmaceutical
industry has spent more than $13 million on contributions to
state-level political candidates and party committees during
the past three election cycles. The report, "Drug Firms Prescribe
Cash for Political Ills," found that the money was about evenly
split between Republican and Democratic candidates, but the
industry favored GOP party committees. Industry leader Pfizer
and its employees led the pack with more than $2 million in
contributions.
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4. Study begins systematic analysis of board interlocks
The Corporate Library website <www.thecorporatelibrary.com>
recently issued a study that lays the groundwork for a
systematic analysis of changes in the composition of boards
of directors of large companies. Titled "Corporate and Director
Interlocks in the USA," the report is especially concerned with
those situations in which companies share board members
<http://store.thecorporatelibrary.net/publications/files/Interlocks2003.pdf>.
Using data from some 1,700 companies, the study develops a
methodology for beginning to measure the extent to which
interlocks translate into potential conflicts of interest. Using
The Corporate Library's high-priced board database and software,
the study creates what it calls "ego network" diagrams to
illustrate relationships among companies and well-connected
individuals.
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5. Scrushy indictment available online
This week's federal indictment of Richard Scrushy, who is being
charged with 85 criminal counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and
other offenses while heading HealthSouth Corp., can be read online at:
<http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/hsouth/usscrushy102903ind.pdf>.
Scrushy is the first chief executive at a major company to be charged
with violating the Sarbanes-Oxley law passed last year.
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Philip Mattera
Director of the Corporate Research Project
Good Jobs First