DDD44

Dirt Diggers Digest No. 44

November 5, 2003


Editor: Philip Mattera


1. Online access to CRS reports curtailed

2. Contractor-contributors clean up in Iraq and Afghanistan

3. Report on drug industry political investments at the state level

4. Study begins systematic analysis of board interlocks

5. Scrushy indictment available online


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1. Online access to CRS reports curtailed


Secrecy News, an online publication of the Federation of American

Scientists <www.fas.org>, reported recently that the limited public

access to Congressional Research Service reports has become even

more limited. For several years, a selection of the invaluable CRS

reports, which cover a wide range of subjects (including ones relating

to business), has been available on the websites of several members

of Congress such as Wisconsin Rep. Mark Green. Those links

recently went dead, without explanation. It is not yet clear whether

some or all of the CRS material will make its way back to the

public web.


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2. Contractor-contributors clean up in Iraq and Afghanistan


More than 70 American companies and individuals have been

awarded up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and

Afghanistan over the past two years, according to a new report

called the "Windfalls of War" <www.publicintegrity.org/wow> published

by the Center for Public Integrity. The U.S. companies, the Center

found, have contributed more money to the presidential campaigns

of George W. Bush --a little more than $500,000--than to any other

politician over the last dozen years. The biggest contract winners,

of course, were Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary and

Bechtel. The report has good background profiles on more than

50 contractors.


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3. Report on drug industry political investments at the state level


A new report by the Institute on Money in State Politics

<www.followthemoney,org> found that the pharmaceutical

industry has spent more than $13 million on contributions to

state-level political candidates and party committees during

the past three election cycles. The report, "Drug Firms Prescribe

Cash for Political Ills," found that the money was about evenly

split between Republican and Democratic candidates, but the

industry favored GOP party committees. Industry leader Pfizer

and its employees led the pack with more than $2 million in

contributions.


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4. Study begins systematic analysis of board interlocks


The Corporate Library website <www.thecorporatelibrary.com>

recently issued a study that lays the groundwork for a

systematic analysis of changes in the composition of boards

of directors of large companies. Titled "Corporate and Director

Interlocks in the USA," the report is especially concerned with

those situations in which companies share board members

<http://store.thecorporatelibrary.net/publications/files/Interlocks2003.pdf>.

Using data from some 1,700 companies, the study develops a

methodology for beginning to measure the extent to which

interlocks translate into potential conflicts of interest. Using

The Corporate Library's high-priced board database and software,

the study creates what it calls "ego network" diagrams to

illustrate relationships among companies and well-connected

individuals.


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5. Scrushy indictment available online


This week's federal indictment of Richard Scrushy, who is being

charged with 85 criminal counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and

other offenses while heading HealthSouth Corp., can be read online at:

<http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/hsouth/usscrushy102903ind.pdf>.

Scrushy is the first chief executive at a major company to be charged

with violating the Sarbanes-Oxley law passed last year.


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Philip Mattera

Director of the Corporate Research Project

Good Jobs First

pmattera@goodjobsfirst.org

www.corp-research.org