Well, it gets more and more interesting ...
“Even members of the House and Senate knew what Project Gunrunner was.”
No they didn’t, no one had time to read the bill.
And then another question might be ... what else is in that bill we don’t know about?
Even if they had read it ..probably many glazed over it.
But someone knew...and put it in.
Who penned the damn thing then? Obama?
Regardless of if they read the bill before voting on it or not they had the opportunity to do so and should have! Voting for a bill specifically because you know it has funding for your pet project or pet cause is no way to perform your job duty as an elected representative. This is just like a CEO claiming plausible deniability for fraud or other illegal dealings of his company that occurred under his watch (he should have known about it because he is in charge - it is his bailiwick).
This is exactly what is wrong in washington!
Hey, they had to pass it to know what was in it (heavy sarcasm intended). If they knew funding for it was in the bill, then aren’t they complicit? This is why they will not be screaming for further investigations nor the indictments of the administration that are neck deep in the scandal.
No they didn’t, no one had time to read the bill.
Yeah, I thought the same thing, but realized that the "Border Safety Bill" HR 495 must have had a sponsor, etc..... [Note: this is the bill rolled into HR1. This is not HR45, the one that sounded alot like confiscation, which died.] At first I felt too lazy to go and look, but decided to give it a shot.
From http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h495/text:
Mr. RODRIGUEZ (for himself, Mr. TEAGUE, Mr. ENGEL, and Mr. REYES) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL To authorize additional resources to identify and eliminate illicit sources of firearms smuggled into Mexico for use by violent drug trafficking organizations, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘Southwest Border Violence Reduction Act of 2009’.
SEC. 2. PROJECT GUNRUNNER. (a) In General- The Attorney General shall dedicate and expand the resources provided for the Project Gunrunner initiative of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to identify, investigate, and prosecute individuals involved in the trafficking of firearms across the international border between the United States and Mexico.
(b) Activities- In carrying out this section, the Attorney General shall--
Yeah, there is a couple more paragraphs, but we already know what Project Gunrunner is about. Thanks mostly to the brave agents, both the one(s) who have given their lives, and those who have risked their lives and careers in order to bring this issue forward.
The bold formatting added by me, of course. The attorney general specifically is given the authority to hire agents. I realize that the way beauracracy works, this either would, could or should be a delegated responsibility. But I wonder why it does not just say "Dept of Justice". Is giving hiring authority to the Attorney General --called out specifically by his position -- the standard operating procedure in these appropriations bills?
Sheesh.