Mad cow is the symptom

Progressive, The, Feb, 2004

What happened at Bush's USDA has also ccurred at many other agencies in his bureaucracy: The foxes are guarding one chicken coop after another, and they pay the President for the privilege.

At the Department of the Interior, advocates of industry are calling the shots. "The Department of the Interior is now packed with people previously engaged in the employ of industry," David Helvarg reported in our June 2003 issue. "The department's Deputy Secretary Steve Griles is a former mining and oil lobbyist. ... Norton's special assistant on Alaska is a former oil lobbyist, her assistant secretary for water and science is a former mining lawyer who has called for the abolition of the Endangered Species Act, and her solicitor is from the Cattlemen's Beef Association, where he lobbied for cheap grazing fees on Interior lands."

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton herself represented mining interests before taking over the agency.

The mining companies gave a total of $2,851,000 to the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) in the 2000-2002 election cycles, according to Public Campaign.

At the Environmental Protection Agency, Deputy Administrator Linda Fisher was a lobbyist for Monsanto. The EPA's assistant administrator for the office of air and radiation is Jeffrey Holmstead. He "formerly represented the Alliance for Constructive Air Policy, a sixteen-member industry coalition, four members of which are defendants in New Source Review enforcement actions. One of these, Ohio utilities giant American Electric Power, is the biggest polluter in the industry," Public Campaign reports. "The company has given $17,950 to the Bush campaign and the RNC since 1999." As an attorney, Holmstead also represented the Chemical Manufacturers Association, Monsanto, BASE and Uniroyal, the group notes.

Marianne Lamont Horinko, assistant administrator for the EPA's office of solid waste, also used to represent the Chemical Manufacturers Association, as well as the Koch Petroleum Group and ALCOA, adds Public Campaign.

The EPA and the USDA are just two examples. There are plenty of others. Bush, by recess appointment, put two pro-business members onto the National Labor Relations Board: Michael Bartlett and William Cowen. "Bartlett was most recently director of labor law policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce," wrote reporter Tula Connell for In These Times. "Cowen is founder and principal attorney for the Institutional Labor Advisors, which provides 'union avoidance' advice for its primarily coal-mining clients."

Over at the Treasury Department, "the man President Bush has picked to help enforce the nation's tax laws just won a major decision that could undermine a government crackdown on some corporate tax shelters," The Wall Street Journal wrote on July 11, 2001, referring to B. John Williams.

The conflicts of interest are inescapable. "Overall, twenty-two of the top 100 Bush officials had significant holdings in thirty-three companies that lobbied their departments, agencies, or offices," the Center for Public Integrity reported in 2002.