Churches United is proud to present:

"Put a Smile on a Child", Tuesday May 24th, 2011 from 5 - 7 pm at Augustana's Pepsico Center.  FREE information from area agencies, FREE fun activities and FREE hot dog supper.   Sponsored by the Family Concerns Committee of Churches United of the Quad City Area

In a letter received yesterday from the Office of Legislative Affairs, the department once again denied any knowledge of the policy.  The denial comes despite the documents that have been provided to the department that are contrary to the official stance.

Grassley and Issa said in a response to Holder that they will continue to conduct constitutionally mandated oversight of the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' policy to allow guns to be purchased by known straw buyers.

"We are extremely disappointed that you do not appear to be taking this issue seriously enough to ensure that the Department's representations are accurate, forthcoming, and complete.  We will continue to probe and gather the facts independently, as it has become clear that we cannot rely on the Department's self-serving statements to obtain any realistic picture of what happened," Grassley and Issa wrote.

Grassley began looking into allegations brought forward by Agent John Dodson, and more than a dozen other ATF agents after the Justice Department Inspector General failed to investigate their concerns.  The agents indicated that their supervisors kept them from stopping gun traffickers with the normal techniques that they had been successfully using for years.  They instead were ordered to only watch and continue gathering information on traffickers instead of arresting them as soon as they could.  In the meantime, the guns were allowed to fall into the hands of the bad guys even as agents told supervisors that it could not end well.  Many of the guns have subsequently been found in firefights along the border, including a December 14, 2010 firefight where Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed.

Grassley and Issa's requests for information from the Justice Department have gone mostly unanswered about what transpired at the ATF and the Department of Justice during the time when Terry was killed and the policies instituted during Project Gunrunner that allowed guns to be sold to known straw purchasers and moved across the border without intervention.

As chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Issa has begun issuing subpoenas to uncover the facts about how this reckless policy was approved.

Here is a copy of the text of today's letter to Holder.  Here is a copy of the May 2 letter to Grassley and the February 4 letter to Grassley.

May 3, 2011

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

As Senator Grassley discussed on the phone with you yesterday, we are very concerned that the Department chose to send a letter containing false statements in response to his initial inquiry into the ATF whistleblower allegations related to Operation Fast and Furious.  To be more specific, the Department sent a letter on February 4, 2011 claiming that the whistleblower allegations were "false" and that "ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico."  When questioned in transcribed interviews last week in Phoenix, agents with first-hand knowledge of ATF operations contradicted that claim.

Specifically, in response to that exact quote, they said the Department's letter was "false" and could not explain how such a representation could be made to Congress in light of what they witnessed on the ground in Phoenix in late 2009 and 2010, prior to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.  In fact, according to these witnesses, there was a specific strategy implemented to not "make every effort" but rather to avoid interdicting weapons in hopes of making a larger case against higher-ups in the trafficking organization.

Therefore, we were surprised and disappointed to see the Department repeat once again, in slightly different language, its denial in a letter received shortly after your telephone conversation with Senator Grassley.  Yesterday's letter reads, in part, "It remains our understanding that ATF's Operation Fast and Furious did not knowingly permit straw buyers to take guns into Mexico."

The documents and information previously provided to you demonstrate that the ATF urged gun dealers to go forward with sales to known straw buyers despite the concerns expressed by at least one dealer that the guns would be transferred to the border and possibly used against Border Patrol agents.  ATF and Justice officials assured that dealer that unspecified safeguards were in place to ensure that did not happen.  Yet, guns from that case were found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's murder and at crime scenes in Mexico.

In its latest denial, the Department seems to focus more on whether ATF knew guns were being trafficked to Mexico than whether the ATF knew they were being purchased by straw buyers.  While it might be typical in Washington for lawyers to narrowly parse statements and argue over fine distinctions to confuse the issue, those are not the kind of answers that we believe the Justice Department should give to Congress when asked straightforward questions about such a serious matter as this one.

You were asked to please explain whether you deny that the ATF allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers, and if so, why given the evidence that was attached.  The reply was not signed by you, did not explain whether you stand by the denial, did not explain why, and did not meaningfully address the serious issues raised by the attached emails between a gun dealer and the ATF.

We are extremely disappointed that you do not appear to be taking this issue seriously enough to ensure that the Department's representations are accurate, forthcoming, and complete.  We will continue to probe and gather the facts independently, as it has become clear that we cannot rely on the Department's self-serving statements to obtain any realistic picture of what happened.

Sincerely,

Darrell Issa, Chairman                       Charles E. Grassley, Ranking Member
Committee on Oversight &                             Committee on the Judiciary
Government Reform                         United State Senate
U.S. House of Representatives               

Moms in Iowa and around the country have a lot on their minds: working and taking care of their loved ones, all while ensuring their families are healthy and have access to the care they need should they get sick.  Well, this Mother's Day, as we pause to honor the moms in our lives, we recognize that moms have something new to celebrate as well: more freedom and control over their health care.  The Affordable Care Act, the health reform legislation that was signed into law last year, helps to address many of the issues facing women. Here are just a few of the examples:

Insurance Companies Can't Deny Kids' Coverage. Under the law, insurance companies are already banned from denying coverage to children because of a pre-existing condition. In 2014, it will be illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against anyone with a pre-existing condition, including cancer and pregnancy. Until then, uninsured Americans with a pre-existing condition can join the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) to access affordable coverage.  For more information about Iowa's PCIP, please visit http://hipiowafed.com.

Keep Your Kids on Your Plan. If your plan covers children, you can now add or keep your children on your health insurance policy until they turn 26. Young adults are eligible if they have no other offer of health insurance from an employer, but can be married, living at home, or in school.

Choose Your Own Doctor. All Americans who joined a new insurance plan have the freedom to choose from any primary care provider, OB-GYN, or pediatrician in their health plan's network, or get emergency care outside of the plan's network, without a referral.

Free Preventive Care. All Americans who joined a new insurance plan can receive recommended preventive services, like mammograms, well-child visits, and immunizations with no out-of-pocket costs. And the law helps ensure working mothers who choose to nurse their babies have appropriate space and break time at work.

Free Benefits and Stronger Medicare. Thanks to the new law, people in Medicare can receive preventive services like cancer screenings with no deductible or cost sharing, a free annual Wellness Visit, and any senior who hits the prescription drug donut hole will receive a 50 percent discount on their brand name prescription drugs and lower copayments for generic drugs.  The Department of Health and Human Services estimates this benefit will save seniors with high drug costs as much as $11,800 over the next eight years.

More Long-Term Care Choices. Too many families have had no alternative to nursing homes to care for their parents or children with disabilities. The Affordable Care Act promotes home- and community-based care options in Medicaid and helps give people in Medicare more care choices.
Soon, Women Won't Be Charged More Than Men. Before the law, women could be charged more for individual insurance policies simply because of their gender. In 2014, insurers will not be able to charge women higher premiums than they charge men.

For more information on the health reform law, you can visit my website at harkin.senate.gov or www.healthcare.gov.

And from my family to yours, may you and all the moms you know, have a happy and healthy Mother's Day.

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