LegiStorm: Transparency's Sidekick

The fallout from former congressional staffer Ernest B. Moore's guilty plea to fraud has continued over the past few days.

Moore, who pleaded guilty last week to charges that he'd used aliases to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, was fired from his visiting professor job at Williams College, the Bershire Eagle reported today.

Williams College also had to postpone a Congressional Black Caucus symposium that Moore had organized and was scheduled to take place on the campus Monday. The college's interim president William Wagner sent a letter to the college community Friday saying the event would not happen this week because of questions regarding Moore's involvement.

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The guilty plea this week by an aide to Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) - an aide who doesn't appear in official records at times that he was working for Davis - may raise questions for the lawmaker since ethics rules prohibit maintaining slush funds and hiring unpaid staff except under strict circumstances.

Staffer Ernest B. Moore confessed to fraud charges for using multiple aliases to run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card bills and student loans. On Capitol Hill, he went by the aliases Bernard Glenn-Moore and Bernard Moore. Moore came to the Hill in 2004, when he had a one-year senior policy fellowship with Davis's office through the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (such official fellowships are permitted under ethics rules). In 2006, he transfered to Davis's office as a legislative assistant and earned a salary for a few more months. After that, no official record ties him to Davis's office, despite public evidence that Davis knew he was claiming to represent Davis as an aide.

Politico broke the story of Moore's plea and described how he maintains a working house.gov email address, has organized events on behalf of Davis and claimed in his Williams College biography, where he has taught over the past few years, to be a continuing aide to Davis.

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LegiStorm has uploaded and made available nearly 2,500 personal financial disclosures filed by House and Senate staffers in 2009.

Our financial disclosure database now includes the disclosures from all staffers from both houses of Congress who filed by the May 15 deadline. We will continue to add filings for those staffers who received extensions of the deadlines or who file amendments throughout the year.

LegiStorm already posted the financial disclosures of every member of Congress who filed by the deadline earlier this month.

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When LegiStorm launched in 2006, we shone a spotlight on congressional aides like never before and that made some staffers understandably a little nervous. After all, it's a rare exception to the rule that the aide should never be the subject of news. Even good news about a staffer can tend to hog the spotlight from the boss and that's not a good thing for lawmakers who need to hoard all the attention they can get.

But when the news about a staffer is bad, well, that's obviously no good for the elected boss. Elizabeth Becton, an aide to Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), discovered that this week when a rather unfortunate email exchange of hers made it into the hands of a reporter. In the over-the-top correspondence, she scolds a lobbying firm representative for slipping and calling her Liz.

Now, "Don't Call Me Liz" Becton finds herself a minor Internet sensation, with many thousands of people visiting her page on LegiStorm and hundreds leaving flames for her.

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House staffers might receive $33 million in benefits, according to a story in Roll Call. The possible increase comes as part of the fiscal year 2010 budget request by Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard.

At a hearing of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch Wednesday, Beard pointed out that benefits for House staffers lag behind those of executive branch officials and other legislative agencies, such as the Library of Congress. Among the benefits that stand to be created or enhanced with the new money are tuition reimbursement and child care subsidies.

"So many of our employees are young people just starting out," said Beard. "What we want to do is have a benefits package that convinces employees to stay."

Local news media outlets across the country have taken an interest in congressional staff bonuses, using salary data provided by LegiStorm.

The stories - in places like Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah - follow up on a Wall Street Journal article earlier this month that reported that House members handed out the highest seasonal bonuses in years to their own employees in 2008. The scrutiny of congressional staff bonus practices comes as members of Congress have railed against CEOs who paid hefty bonuses with taxpayer bailout money. 

For example, the Salt Lake Tribune reports that former Utah Rep. Chris Cannon (R) handed out bonues equivalent to a 50 percent pay raise for some of his staffers after losing his district's Republican primary. According to the Tribune, Cannon "wanted to thank his staffers for the work they had done and entice them to stay until he left office in January. But his primary motivation was helping them get bigger salaries in their next jobs."

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In what has become an all-too-common pattern this year, another former congressional aide pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy in the long-running Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

James Hirni, a former legislative director to Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.), admitted in court that he helped provide an all-expense paid trip to the 2003 World Series to two congressional aides. At the time, Hirni was a lobbyist working on Abramoff's team.

There's no reason to believe this is the end yet.

Nearly three years after lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and fraud, the scandal is still playing out.

Thursday, former congressional staffer Trevor L. Blackann pleaded guilty to charges he failed to report gifts he received from lobbyists on this tax returns.

Among the more than $4,000 in gifts received was a trip to New York City for the opening game of the 2003 World Series. Blackann admitted to knowing the trip was paid for by lobbyists. The court documents do not identify the lobbyists in question, but the Department of Justice issued a release calling the case part of the investigation into the lobbying activities of Abramoff. Blackann also did not report the trip to Congress.

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When congressional staffers get in trouble, newspapers often cite LegiStorm. Aides rarely do good in the media - if they do, their elected bosses take the credit. 

The Washington Post cited our employment data in reports that one such aide, Jeffrey Rosato of Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) staff, was arrested last Friday on charges of receiving and distributing child pornography. Boxer fired him immediately upon learning of the charges.

The past year has led to several other such news announcements about congressional aides, minors and pornography.

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The Washington game of musical chairs has begun in earnest as current and former congressional aides angle for new positions. Last week's election has created plenty of opportunity for staffers. Former aides Daniel Maffei, Betsy Markey and Eric Paulsen were actually chosen by voters to return as members of Congress.

One congressional aide has already been named to the new presidential administration. Phil Schiliro, a long-time Hill hand who was chief of staff for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), has been selected the head of President-elect Barack Obama's legislative affairs office during the transition, and is expected to be Obama's legislative affairs director when the new administration takes office in January. Obama will likely take a large cohort of his Senate staff with him, as well. His own chief of staff, Pete Rouse, is co-chairing the transition team and is expected to serve as a deputy chief of staff in the White House.

Jim Messina, a former chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), joined the Obama campaign earlier this year and is the personnel director for the transition team. Robert Gibbs served as Obama's Senate communications director before moving to the same role in the campaign and will likely be the next White House press secretary.

As the adminstration takes shape over the coming weeks, expect many other top congressional aides to move up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.