Project Katrina

Today Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced a bill, simply called The War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007, targeting fraud by government contractors supporting the occupation of Iraq and the response to Hurricane Katrina. Such profiteering would be a felony under Leahy’s legislation, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fines of $1 million or twice the gross profits of the profiteering. The bill would also clarify U.S. courts’ jurisdiction to handle cases of profiteering which occur overseas.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) also introduced a bill aimed at strengthening public corruption investigations. The proposal would extend the statute of limitations for many offenses, allow federal investigators to use wiretaps when chasing state and local officials defrauding the federal government, and would boost the FBI’s public integrity budget by $100 million over four years. I doubt anything will come of either bill, but at least a few of our elected leaders are trying.