Since the Pentagon had been attacked on 9/11 and it is believed that United Flight 93 might have been heading for another Government building, it should come as no surprise that there has been a recent effort to make the Capitol Building more secure against potential terrorist attacks. In order to implement these necessary security changes, contracts were drawn up by the Army Core of Engineers and handed out to the companies after a bidding process. According to CQ.com, however, there has been some serious questions about the process in which those contracts were issued.
By 2004, there was already an investigation GÇ£into allegations that security contractors had showered a Defense Department employee with kickbacks in the form of Redskins tickets, golf outings, a set of golf clubs and meals.GÇ¥ Furthermore, it is believed that the contracts were drawn up so that there was only one particular company that would be able to place the winning bid. In 2005, however, a halt was put to the investigation even though it wasnGÇÖt fully complete. On top of the fact that corruption was potentially involved in the process the secure a symbol of our democracy, there is a belief among some of the investigators that Dennis HastertGÇÖs office was a strong influence in why the investigation was stopped.
GÇ£They had resisted all along,GÇ¥ the other investigator said about the SpeakerGÇÖs office. Nonetheless the investigator said he was GÇ£stunnedGÇ¥ when the inquiry was shelved about a year ago. Pearre, a former FBI agent [and the team's director], had strongly backed the inquiry until shortly before he ordered them to stop their work on it.What is perhaps the most concerning factor of this investigation was that it was also looking into how the potential corruption affected the security measures that workers were attempting to implement. As the article on CQ.com points out, the contracts had given a significant amount of money to companies for work that was GÇ£physically or technically impossible.GÇ¥ Since these security measures weren't going to be effective, lives were going to be in danger if an attack on the Capitol did take place. Nonetheless, the program discretely remained in tact.The order was GÇ£get out of there by sundown,GÇ¥ Garant said, referring to the secure offices they had used for the probe because of its sensitive nature.
Garant said the investigators believed that the SpeakerGÇÖs office had successfully pressured appropriators to stop their inquiry. GÇ£From our perspective it was obvious. . . . The only people who would give a [expletive] was the SpeakerGÇÖs office because this was an organization very close to them.GÇ¥
GÇ£That whole organization was very, very secret and very few people even knew that it existed, but it was a great dispenser of money,GÇ¥ said Garant, who was dismissed in March from his position as a contract investigator.Ultimately, this means that Dennis HastertGÇÖs office is once again under suspicion of preventing an investigation into something that could affect the safety of people working in the Capitol Building. This time, however, his office was doing more than just trying to save a Republican Representative's seat in the House of Representatives. His office was placing the safety of Congressional pages, Members of Congress, and anyone else in the Capitol at risk. The mere suspicion of inappropriate behavior illustrates the fact that Hastert's office cannot be trusted when it comes to matters of ensuring the public's saftey. As a result, I strongly encourage Republican members of the House not to elect him minority leader after the November elections. Failure to do so would only further endorse the inappropriate behavior that has been surrounding Hastert's office.