Investigation of Detainee Abuse

On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee released the executive summary and conclusions of its November 21 report on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody since 2001. The report itself is undergoing classification by the Department of Defense.

When you read an article referencing a congressional report like this, how can you find a copy of it to read yourself? If the report has just been released, it's months away from being published, cataloged, and distributed through the depository system. One of the easiest ways to obtain a recent report is to go to the website of the committee itself. Usually. But not in this case -- this is one of the sorriest excuses for a committee website I've seen in a decade. (Nice animated flag .gifs though, if you're looking for a flashback to the mid-90's...)

Well, the committees don't have constituents with Internet access, but the members of those committees do! So check the website of the committee's chairperson, in this case Carl Levin (D-Mich) or the websites of members who made statements to the press in the article that mentioned the report. Because the news is recent, Senator Levin has a front-page link to his statements, which explain that the report itself is being judged for classification, and a link to the non-classified executive summary and conclusions. The site can also be searched, once the front-page link is removed.

Levin's statement mentions hearings that were held during the preparation of this report. The committee website actually does link to those hearings (June 17 2008 and September 25 2008). Which is nice. Because six months later the GPO has still not published those puppies! For those with UNCG credentials, LexisNexis Congressional does have some of the transcripts available under a temporary record; eventually, official copies of the hearings will be linked directly from our library's catalog.

Remember, if you need help in tracking down government information that you read about in the news, feel free to email me or ask at the reference desk!

He Said, She Said

Ever since the mortgage meltdown, there's been a lot of finger-pointing among politicians who are trying to assign blame. It was the other party, another branch of government, anyone but them! Now, the Associated Press reports that it was Bush administration regulators who caved to pressure from members of the banking industry back in 2005, delaying any action for nearly a year, and stripping the new rules of the tough provisions that regulators had originally proposed.

How did the AP get to the bottom of things? By following the regulatory process reported in the Federal Register. When we do a search for "mortgages," we come up with Interagency Guidance on Nontraditional Mortgage Products, a series of proposed guidelines agreed upon by several agencies concerned with banking. As required by law, the agencies asked for public comments on these proposals.

Here's where it gets interesting: the public comment period ended in February of 2006, but the agencies didn't release the much-weakened rules until late that year. What changed the regulators' minds? The proposal lists the procedure for reviewing comments submitted to each of the participating agencies. By visiting their websites or emailing the agency, we can read comments from Lehman Bros. and WaMu execs (among others) accusing the government of overreacting and discouraging regulation, as well as comments from community agencies and some in the lending industry who warn that the regulators are spot on, and that without the proposed rules the industry was headed for a crisis. In the end, the agencies sided with the banks.

With so much attention on Congress, it's easy to forget the impact of all the rules and regulations that govern our daily lives, and that get created by Executive branch agencies, not legislators!