Thread: Under fire, Napolitano halts Border projects for review

Under fire, Napolitano halts projects for review
By EILEEN SULLIVAN Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press
Sept. 16, 2009, 5:16PM


WASHINGTON — Facing criticism for her handling of federal stimulus money, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that she would not start any new border construction projects while the department reviewed how projects were selected.

Napolitano has faced questions since The Associated Press reported last month that Homeland Security officials did not follow their internal priority lists when choosing which border checkpoints would get money for renovations. Under a process that is secretive and susceptible to political influence, officials planned to spend millions at tiny checkpoints, passing over busier, higher-priority projects.

The criticism peaked Wednesday when a senior Senate Democrat, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, said that, despite Napolitano's assurances, he felt Homeland Security was treating the economic stimulus plan like a "bottomless pit" of taxpayer money. It was unusually pointed criticism from a member of the president's own party about how the administration is handling economic recovery spending.

"There's no common sense at all to a requirement that says you've got to put up a $15 million facility for a small port of entry that's host to about five vehicles an hour," Dorgan, whose state stood to receive $128 million for checkpoint improvements, said in a telephone interview.

Within hours, Napolitano promised not to begin any new border construction projects and set up a 30-day review of how the projects were selected.

"At the end of that review, I will make all information, not involving national security concerns, public," Napolitano wrote in a letter to Dorgan.

So far, Homeland Security has refused to release its internal priority list or its justifications for deviating from it. Instead, officials say the final project list is all they need to make public.

While Napolitano's review may disclose information about the selection process, it appears unlikely to change much. That's because Homeland Security has already signed many construction contracts, including low-priority projects such as the $15 million renovation for the sleepy border checkpoint at Whitetail, Mont.

Congress required the department to create a priority list in 2003 but the Obama administration added its own subjective decision-making to the process, making it vulnerable to the political influence that Obama pledged to keep out of the stimulus.

Two Montana Democratic senators, for instance, said they personally appealed to Napolitano to get money for lower-priority border projects. That includes the $15 million plan for Whitetail, which will build a checkpoint the size and cost of a Hollywood mansion at a crossing that serves three travelers a day.

Napolitano defended those decisions in her letter, saying northern border stations could be repaired for a fraction of the cost of busier checkpoints. But she said the department would review those decisions.

"Americans should have confidence in the objectivity and openness with which Recovery funds are spent and the Department of Homeland Security is committed to upholding this responsibility," Napolitano wrote.

Dorgan sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee, which helps control the purse strings for the federal government.

"We're deep in debt, we really do need to be smart about how we spend money," Dorgan said. "In my judgment, this is not a smart investment."
______

Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 22308.html

"There's no common sense at all to a requirement that says you've got to put up a $15 million facility for a small port of entry that's host to about five vehicles an hour," Dorgan, whose state stood to receive $128 million for checkpoint improvements, said in a telephone interview.

A honest man as opposed to:

Two Montana Democratic senators, for instance, said they personally appealed to Napolitano to get money for lower-priority border projects. That includes the $15 million plan for Whitetail, which will build a checkpoint the size and cost of a Hollywood mansion at a crossing that serves three travelers a day.

PORKERS!

The chutzpah, arrogance and snootiness coming from the federal government gets more amazing, and amazingly apparent every year. If an employee overseeing a department in private business met in the corner with others in that department and when the big boss came around, asking what they were doing and they told boss none of his/her business, how long would those employees last?
We, the American taxpayers, are the bosses and that point to be driven home daily to these secretive folks forming the policies and spending plans of our money behind closed doors. And taxpayers have no say in if there should be a mansion built on a crossing from Canada, when the illegals arriving from that country usually take a footpath through the woods, avoiding customs altogether, knowing they can buy a fake ID on any street corner.
I am dang-nab furious!

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4520--0-0.html

They are purposely Trying to Destroy our Nation. Stearing funds away from the US/MEXICO border where they are direly needed, to send them to the most remote place in MONTANA is either the most stupid thing DHS could possibly do, OR they are doing it on purpose in order to leave our Southern Border less protected...

Is Janet Napolitano and the people at DHS that stupid? NO

They are traitors through and through and seek the demise of our nation.