Defense contractors are challenging contracting decisions by the Department of Defense more often, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.   August Cole writes that this is due to "intense competition for scarce contracts," but his article points more to the size of contracts as driving the contractors’ disputes.  Companies who have come in with lower cost estimates are using the Government Accountability Office to challenge decisions won by their competitors in multi-billion dollar contracts for both materiel and services.   Read more here.

Vice President Cheney has tried to have it both ways — to claim executive privilege and then to claim "outsider status" in investigations of his office because he serves as president of the Senate.  In Jim Rutenburg’s New York Times piece on the subject, we are reassured — in the final sentence — that the truth will out, since the argument "has been referred to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales."  See the full article here.

John Solomon of the Washington Post writes that the Inspector General of the Commerce Department, Johnnie Frazier, is leaving his post because of major violations of government whistleblowing laws and mistreatment of his staff, but not before he celebrates with a going-away party "on government property and government time."  The planned party has drawn fire from congressional investigators looking at Frazier’s expenditures and apparent retaliation against staff who blew the whistle on him.  See the story here.

Citing competition from overseas capital markets, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson has announced plans to review regulations in the financial services industry.  The effort is aimed at firming up rules for financing buyouts and the bond market as backed by subprime mortgages.  For more, read here.

A senior NIH official, head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences David Schwarz, has attracted congressional attention due to the appearance of a conflict of interest, including high earnings as an expert witness on issues his institute studies.  See Rick Weiss’s story in the Washington Post here. 

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox announced that the SEC has launched a dozen or more new investigations, the Wall Street Journal has reported.  At issue are new methods of selling off debt that have driven leveraged buyouts in recent years, known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and collateralized loan obligations (CLOs).  The SEC is also looking at the shaky Bear Sterns hedge funds which use investment vehicles supported by subprime mortgages.  The story by Siobhan Hughes, David Reilly, and Kara Scannell and is here.

Excerpt from Charles Peters’ regular Washington Monthly column, Tilting at Windmills

Republicans love to complain that there is too much government regulation.  The truth is that there is often too little.  Consider the FAA. (more…)

The Washington Post has launched a four-part series examining how Richard Cheney has changed the vice presidency and the way the U.S. government makes and executes decisions.  Barton Gellman and Jo Becker write that Cheney was transformed by the tools of power he gained on entering office and established a “different understanding with the President” than has been usual with vice presidents.  Along with his faithful and driven staff, Cheney circumvented both executive branch agencies like the State Department and decision paths within the White House itself.  The series is viewable here.

If at first you don’t succeed, try putting it off.  This is perhaps the kindest spin one can put on the passport boondoggle plaguing American citizens in recent months. (more…)

Though I live and work in a city that is an obvious target, I join a lot of people here in Washington in purposefully ignoring, as I go about my daily life, threats like nuclear warfare or a radioactive explosive device. (more…)