GSA official Neely pleads the Fifth
By Mike Lillis - 04/16/12 02:16 PM ET
The General Services Administration official at the center of a scandal over lavish government spending declined to answer questions at a congressional hearing on Monday, invoking the Fifth Amendment.
"Mr, Chairman, on the advice of my counsel I respectfully decline to answer based upon my Fifth Amendment constitutionally privilege," Jeff Neely, the GSA official, said repeatedly in response to a string of questions from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Issa had subpoenaed Neely for his role in organizing a 2010 Las Vegas conference of the GSA's Public Buildings Service, for which Neely serves as a regional commissioner.
A damning GSA Inspector General report, released earlier this month, detailed the almost $823,000 taxpayer-funded tab for the conference, including $146,527 for catered food, $6,325 for commemorative coins and $75,000 for a cooperation-building exercise to construct bicycles.
The report led to the quick resignation of GSA's Administrator Martha Johnson, and brought a wave of loud condemnation from Republicans, who contend it reveals a culture of corruption in the GSA, in particular, and a trend of overspending in the Obama administration, in general. Democrats have also loudly criticized Neely and GSA, something they continued at Monday's hearing.
With Capitol Hill quiet for the last two weeks of spring recess, the GSA story caught fire in the media, creating a circus-like atmosphere Monday in the Rayburn hearing room on Capitol Hill, where the line to get in snaked down an otherwise quiet hallway and the press table spilled with reporters even 30 minutes before the hearing began.
Other GSA officials – including Johnson and David Foley, deputy commissioner of the Public Buildings Service – offered no attempt to defend the spending on the Vegas junket, instead apologizing repeatedly for the scandal that occurred under their watch.
"I personally apologize to the American people for the entire situation," Johnson said. "As the head of the agency, I am responsible."
Brian Miller, the GSA Inspector General, applauded the internal oversight system that allowed his office to issue its damning report without political interference. But he warned that more needs to be done to ensure that taxpayer dollars aren't similarly wasted in the future.
"While a private business may use its profits to rewire employees in a lavish fashion, a government agency may not," Miller said in his prepared testimony.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), senior Democrat on the oversight committee, was quick to pile on the criticism, particularly when it came to Neely's actions.
"I do not support granting Mr. Neely immunity at this time," Cummings said.
Cummings warned that Neely's behavior shouldn't be used to attack all federal workers.
"They disregarded one of the most basic tenets of public [government?] service: It's not your money," Cummings said. "It tarnishes the reputation of hard-working government workers," Cummings said. "They should not be painted with the same brush."
Monday's hearing is just the start of Congress's probe into dubious GSA spending. On Tuesday, the Transportation Committee's subpanel on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management – headed by Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) – will take another shot at the embattled agency. And Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), head of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's Financial Services Subpanel, have both scheduled hearings on the topic Wednesday.
Like Issa, Denham has requested testimony from Johnson, Neely and other GSA officials directly involved in the Vegas junket. The Senate Democrats, by contrast, have invited only Miller and Dan Tangherlini, GSA's acting administrator who replaced Johnson.
