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Politics & The Nation


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KLMNO


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010 Officials knewthey


a race to avoid embarrassment


BY PETER NICHOLAS


AND KATHLEEN HENNESSEY Obama administration offi-


cials knew they did not have all the facts this summer when they rushed to force Shirley Sherrod from the Agriculture Depart- ment after learning of a video that appeared to expose her as a racist, newly released e-mails show. The day after Sherrod’s ouster,


even as USDA officials acknowl- edged in internal memos that they had not seen the full video, a senior White House aide e-mailed them to commend the department for moving quickly so that the story would not gain “traction.” As it turned out, Sherrod had


NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST


Sandra Tahbone, left, visits Trudy Sobocienski nearNome, Alaska. Any legislation aimed at Alaska native corporations will be a source of intense discussion among Alaskans because the entities are an important part of the state’s economy and political life.


Alaska native corporations under scrutiny


Mo. senator prepares legislation that targets contracting privileges


BY ROBERT O'HARROW JR. Alaska native corporations


would lose their special contract- ing privileges under legislation that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) intends to introducenext month, a move that will stir debate about the billions of dol- lars’ worth of federal set-aside contracts that the companies re- ceive. More than 200 of the corpora-


tions, known as ANCs, were cre- ated by Congress in 1971 to settle land claims and help improve life for tens of thousands of impover- ished native people. The Penta- gon and other agencies have spentmore than $29 billion over the past decade on contractswith ANCs, which can receive deals of any sizewithout competition and do not have to be run by Alaska natives, under rules pushed through in the late 1980s by then-Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alas- ka). But relatively little of themon-


ey fromthe contracting boomhas gone into shareholder pockets, as shown by audits, annual reports and congressional documents. McCaskill said in an interview


that she thinks ANCs have been “masquerading as a solution to the problems in Alaska” without providing sufficient benefits to taxpayers or native shareholders. When told about McCaskill’s


proposed legislation, Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said he would “clearly oppose” it as “misguided” and“shortsighted.”Buthe saidhe will reviewreformproposals that strengthen the ANC program. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas-


ka) said she is also against the proposed changes. “I would oppose and fight any


legislation that strips Alaska na- tive corporations, Indian tribes and native Hawaiians of the con- tracting preferences afforded to them,” she said. “Wemust reform the program to ensure it works the way it was intended.” Executives from three large


ANCs — who last month pro- posed their own reforms — said McCaskill's approach goes too far and would harm Alaska natives. The reformers have called for caps on contracts awarded with- out competition, more transpar- ency onhowmoney isdistributed to shareholders and greater pen- alties for abuses. In a statement, the executives


fromArctic SlopeRegionalCorp., Cook InletRegionInc. andDoyon Ltd. said “that extreme efforts will serve no purpose other than eliminating economic opportuni- ties.” “As corporations that repre-


sent the interests of thousands of Alaska Native shareholders and


their descendants, we recognize that change to the 8(a) program is necessary,” the statement said. “We’ve proposed real and reason- able reforms and stand ready to make themreality.” Last year,McCaskill led a hear-


ing of the Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight that in- cluded testimony thatANCswere prone to waste and abuse, some- times by nonnative executives. Her proposed legislation comes a week after a Washington Post examination found that the fed- eral government has long known about the problems but largely ignored thembecauseANCswere a convenient way to do business and because of a shortage of well-trained contracting over- sight workers. McCaskill said shewill formal-


ly introduce the bill when Con- gress returns after the elections in November. She said the bill, which does not yet have a co- sponsor, is a starting point for reformdiscussions. “Legislating is a process of


compromise,” she said. “What we need to do is be honest about this.” In a related move this week,


McCaskill called on the Small Business Administration’s in- spector general to “initiate an investigationinto potential viola-


“We’ve proposed real and reasonable reforms and stand ready to make them reality.”


—Arctic Slope Regional Corp., Cook Inlet Region Inc. and Doyon Ltd., in a statement from executives


tions of federal statutes and regu- lations applicable to Alaska Na- tive Corporations” relating to The Post’s ANC reporting last week, according to a letter dated Oct. 6. McCaskill cited details about


H. James Nunes, a nonnative Bethesda man who earned more than $15 million in recent years whileworking as a consultant for Sitnasuak Native Corp., raising questions about whether he may have withheld information re- quired by the government. She also said she is “discouraged by the [SBA’s] continued failure to adequately manage and oversee ANC participation in the 8(a) program.” Nunes’s attorneys told The


Post last week that he earned his money by making Sitnasuak profitable and disclosed all rele- vant information to the govern- ment. “Mr. Nunes provided only


management services to SNC,” said Jason Raofield, Nunes’s at- torney. “All management fees paid to Mr. Nunes were fully disclosed in annual reports filed with SBA.” The proposed legislation will


be a source of intense discussion in Alaska,where the ANCs are an important part of the state’s economy and political life. Under McCaskill’s proposal,


ANCs would still be eligible to participate in the 8(a) program, under the same rules as other businesses, limiting the size of the contracts they could receive. They would also have to demon- strate their social and economic disadvantage like other small businesses. ANC subsidiaries that get federal contracts would have to be run by individualswho are socially and economically dis- advantaged. Supporters of the program


have said that ANCs are begin- ning to use their contracting benefits to increase direct pay- ments to shareholders and pro- vide other benefits. The 12 re- gional ANCs recently reported paying $171 million in dividends to shareholders in 2008, a sharp increase over prior years. oharrowr@washpost.com


been falsely accused, and the actions taken by Agriculture Sec- retary TomVilsack and his senior staff became a major embarrass- ment for the Obama administra- tion, raising questions about its basic competence and its pre- occupation with public percep- tions. Hundreds of pages of e-mails


released to the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington bu- reau under the Freedomof Infor- mation Act provide a detailed behind-the-scenes look at how the administration handled the Sherrod case, an episode that culminated inapologies fromVil- sack and President Obama. In mid-July, conservative me-


dia entrepreneur Andrew Breit- bart posted a 21/2


-minute video of


Sherrod,who is black, addressing an NAACP meeting in Georgia this year. Sherrod discussed her dealings with a white farmer in 1986 and how she was reluctant at one point to give him the “full force of what I could do.” That touched off a furor in conserva- tivemedia outlets,many ofwhich called for her resignation. But the videowas an excerpt of


Sherrod’s speech, and she had gone on to add that the encoun- ter with the white farmer taught her that poor people of all races need help, which she resolved to give.


Interest at highest levels The e-mails, some of which


were redacted by the Agriculture Department, do not showwheth- er theWhiteHouse ordered Sher- rod’s dismissal, long a point of speculation. Sherrod has said that when Deputy Undersecre- tary Cheryl Cook called and asked her to resign, Cook told her theWhiteHouse wanted her out. USDA and White House officials have said the decision was made within the agency. But the e-mails suggest that


the White House was watching with interest. “Just wanted you to know that


this dismissal came up at our morning senior staff meeting to- day,” Christopher Lu, who serves asObama’s liaisonto theCabinet, wrote to top Agriculture officials early July 20, the morning after Sherrod was ousted. “Everyone complimented USDA on how quickly you took this action,” he wrote, adding that it would stop an “unpleasant story” from get- ting “traction.” ‘’Thanks for the great efforts.” The first sign of trouble ar-


rived about 2 p.m. on Monday, July 19, in an e-mail from USDA communications staffer Wayne Maloney. Maloney informed Chris


lacked Sherrod facts E-mails show


Mather, the department’s direc- tor of communications, that a video had popped up online and that a conservativeWeb site soon would publicize it. “It speaks for itself and you


need to watch it right away,” Maloney wrote. Mather’s response was blunt.


“THIS IS HORRIBLE,” she wrote as she sent notice — subject line “SuperUrgent”—up the chain of command to Karen Ross, Vil- sack’s chief of staff, and her deputy, Carole Jett.


Vilsack ‘sick andmad’ It took just an hour and a half


to get a directive from Vilsack. “The S [Secretary Vilsack] is ab- solutely sick and mad over the S Sherrod issue. He wants her im- mediately on adm leave,” wrote Krysta Harden, assistant secre- tary of congressional relations. Cook responded simply,


“Done.” Five minutes later, Cook


reached Sherrod on a cellphone. Sherrod gaveher side of the story, according to a timeline assem- bled by Cook. Cook and Dallas Tonsager, un-


dersecretary of rural develop- ment, said in an e-mail sent to Vilsack a few minutes later that the subject of the speech was blacks and whites working to- gether. “She said there is a copy of the


entire speech, and Cheryl asked her to provide it as quickly as possible,” the e-mails said. But Vilsack did not wait. An


hour later, Cook called Sherrod, who was driving in Georgia, to ask her to resign. Another hour later, Cook called Sherrod again to ask her to resign by the end of the day. “I called her a fourth time at


6:35 to ask whether she’d be willing to pull over to the side of the road and submit a resigna- tion by e-mail,” Cookwrote in the account.


Quitting via BlackBerry Sherrod agreed, and her job


working with poor farmers in rural Georgia was finished. “I feel so disappointed that the


secretary and the president let a misrepresentation of my words on the part of the tea party be the reason to ask me to resign,” Sherrod wrote in her letter of resignation, typed on a BlackBer- ry to Cook. “Please look at the tape and see that I use the story from 1986 to show people that the issue is not about race but about those who have versus those who do not.” An hour later, Kevin Washo,


the USDA’s White House liaison, sent one last e-mail to Cook, “Did we ever get the full copy of the speech?” Cook said they had not. The next day, July 20, Agricul-


ture Department officials sent out a memo of talking points for defending Sherrod’s ouster. But by that afternoon, Sherrod began giving televised interviews in which she said her comments had been taken out of context. As a fuller context of Sherrod’s


speech emerged, the White House began asking whether Vil- sack would change course. An e-mail at 8:35 p.m. that night said simply, “Rahm calling Secy now” —RahmEmanuel, then Obama’s chief of staff, was phoning Vil- sack. At 2:07 a.m. Wednesday, July


21, the department released a statement fromVilsack saying he was willing to “consider addi- tional facts.” Later that day, the department was in full retreat, trying tomake amends andman- age the political fallout, the e-mails show.


—Los Angeles Times


Safety violations found at W. Virginia coal mine MSHA conducted the Seng


BY TIM HUBER


charleston, w.va. — A sur- prise inspection has turned up serious safety violations that could have caused an explosion at anotherMassey Energy coal mine inWest Virginia, the federalMine Safety and Health Administra- tion said Thursday. Inspectors caught Massey ille-


gally cutting too deeply into the coal seam at its Seng Creek Pow- ellton mine, about 40 miles south of Charleston in Boone County, the agency said. A foreman also admitted to skipping mandatory tests for explosive gases, and in- spectors caught Massey cutting coal with ventilation curtains rolled up and left out of the way, MSHA said. The curtains help flush away methane and coal dust, which can ignite and cause explosions. The Sept. 28 inspection is part


of an agency crackdown that be- gan after 29 miners died and two were seriously injured in an ex-


plosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in nearby Raleigh County. The April explosion was the deadliest at a U.S. coal mine since 1970, and it remains the subject of criminal and civil in- vestigations. “This is a reflection of the prob-


lem that we have in this mining industry with some who, regard- less of what you do, ignore the mine law,” MSHA director Joe Main said. “What we found at Seng Creek, there is absolutely no justification to be operating a mine in this condition.” Massey agreed. “This situation was very frus-


trating and totally unacceptable,” Massey spokesman Jeff Gillenwa- ter said in an e-mail. “We appreci- ate MSHA’s blitz for uncovering conduct that we did not uncover ourselves.” However, Main said it’s up to


mine operators to comply with the law. “They went out of the way to


engage in the conduct at that mine,” he said.


Creek inspection after receiving an anonymous tip that Massey was making so-called deep cuts. The practice allows mines to cut larger quantities of coal without pausing to move ventilation equipment and install roof sup- ports. The practice tends to gen- erate more coal dust and requires pre-approval fromMSHA. Gillenwater said the president


of Elk Run Coal, the subsidiary that operates Seng Creek, had told the mine’s superintendent that Massey expects compliance with the law. “The foreman in charge of the


sectionwastold thesamethingby his superintendent right before he went underground the day of the violations,” Gillenwater said. “This training was simply violat- ed.We will redouble our efforts.” Gillenwater said Massey fired


the foreman who allowed mining without the ventilation curtain and two miners and suspended nine others for three days. —Associated Press


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