When this was first reported in 2006, it
seemed to be a serious scandal:
A recent probe into Amtrak's legal department by the Department
of Transportation's inspector general and Amtrak's inspector
general at the request of Congress found more than $100 million
in mismanaged legal fees from June 2002 to June 2005. According
to the report, released on Oct. 25, Amtrak was billed more than
$40 million by 10 law firms. The report found that those firms
submitted bills with vague time sheets, inappropriately billed
for secretarial or administrative work and billed at rates that
may not have adhered to typical government-discounted rates.
That was before Eleanor Acheson was hired as Amtrak's general
counsel. But after the Democrats took over Congress in
January 2007, everyone seems to have lost interest in what
went on in the legal department before Acheson's
arrival. Until last month, when
IG Fred Wiederhold submitted a 94-page legal report --
and then immediately retired.
Now, questions are being asked on Capitol Hill. As
I reported Tuesday, the Republicans who are asking the
questions have begun to wonder if their Democratic
counterparts are equally determined to get answers to those
questions. And then there was this headline in the Washington
Post last week:
Financial Agency IGs Say Bill Threatens
Independence
The bill was
sponsored by Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), chairman of the
House Democratic Congress.
A little background on Larson.