{"id":1548722,"date":"2022-07-11T13:04:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T17:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1548722"},"modified":"2022-07-11T13:04:34","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T17:04:34","slug":"exclusive-gop-lawmakers-blast-return-of-swampy-slush-fund-settlements-under-bidens-doj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-gop-lawmakers-blast-return-of-swampy-slush-fund-settlements-under-bidens-doj\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: GOP Lawmakers Blast Return Of Swampy \u2018Slush Fund\u2019 Settlements Under Biden\u2019s DOJ"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-gop-lawmakers-blast-return-of-swampy-slush-fund-settlements-under-bidens-doj%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1548722&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/5729289226_d7564cf1ac_k-1-e1657557060969.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>More than two dozen Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday blasting White House plans to revive \u201cslush fund\u201d settlements, wherein federal agencies redirect taxpayer dollars to third-party interest groups.<\/p>\n<p>In May, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/ag\/page\/file\/1499241\/download\">interim rule<\/a> to bring back the Obama-era practice in which the administrative state sends settlement money to entities that are not directly involved in the dispute. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Obama DOJ secretly negotiated settlements requiring defendants to pay \u2018donations\u2019 to activist groups, including the National Council of La Raza, the National Fish &#038; Wildlife Foundation, and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition,\u201d lawmakers wrote. \u201cIn exchange for every dollar of these mandatory \u2018donations\u2019 made, defendants received two dollars credited towards their settlement obligations, thus greatly reducing the overall monetary amount to be paid out by the defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter drew 20 signatures in the House and 15 in the Senate, including Texas Rep. Lance Gooden and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville who led the effort. Each has proposed companion legislation in their respective chambers to ban the practice of government settlements involving outside groups known as \u201cslush fund\u201d settlements. <\/p>\n<p>Tuberville <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/06\/16\/sen-tommy-tuberville-proposes-bill-to-end-slush-fund-settlements-to-far-left-groups\/\">reintroduced<\/a> the \u201cStop the Settlement Slush Fund Act\u201d last summer after first bringing the bill forward five years ago. Gooden <a href=\"https:\/\/gooden.house.gov\/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=509BF031-F276-46C8-9F67-525A6D8AF0F8\">introduced<\/a> a House version of the bill in October. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Biden knows Republicans are set to regain control of the House next year and is determined to circumvent the constitutional role of Congress to fund his radical agenda,\u201d Gooden told The Federalist. \u201cSettlement agreement payments should go to the victims, not fund Democrats\u2019 partisan pet projects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSerious conflicts of interest arise and public trust is eroded when the DOJ requires defendants to donate to activist groups selected by the DOJ,\u201d lawmakers wrote to Garland. \u201cWhat is even more alarming is the glaring lack of transparency; more than 11 years after the practice began, Congress and the American people still have no idea where or how the majority of funds directed to third parties, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, was spent.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>While 14 senators joined Tuberville in signing the letter, only one, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/117th-congress\/senate-bill\/2079\/cosponsors\">co-sponsor<\/a> of Tuberville\u2019s legislation. Only 15 members of the House have signed onto Gooden\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n<p>The letter to Garland comes a month after President Joe Biden\u2019s deputies at the Department of the Interior <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/07\/bidens-swamp-brings-back-sue-and-settle-to-hide-behind-courts-as-it-stomps-out-fossil-fuels\/\">dismantled<\/a> a Trump-era website publicizing agency settlements and consent decrees. The website closure signals the return of a similar practice among environmental agencies known as \u201csue and settle,\u201d wherein friendly interest groups present a legal challenge to a federal policy with proposed changes that the administration endorses. The agency in turn voluntarily settles and enacts the preferred policy outcome under the cover of the courts, and the allied interest groups pocket a handsome payout of taxpayer dollars in the process.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than two dozen Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday blasting White House plans to revive \u201cslush fund\u201d settlements, wherein federal agencies redirect taxpayer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1548722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}