RADAR ALERT: Do You Know Where Your Taxpayer Dollars Are?

MRAs, check it out:

You may already know about the outlandish (and unsupported) claims made against men and fathers in House Resolution 590 (HRES-590). RADAR has critiqued these extensively at http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARanalysis-HRES590.pdf. But a little-noticed aspect of HRES-590 is one of its final "Whereas" clauses:

"Whereas there is a need to increase funding for programs carried out under the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (VAWA 2005) ..." (p.4)

The stated purpose of HRES 590 is to promote even more funding for VAWA programs, such as services that include emergency shelter, counseling, and legal services for victims. In the 2005 reauthorization of VAWA, Congress added a requirement that the General Accounting Office (GAO) investigate and report on just what services are being provided to which people under the act. This is important because nearly half of VAWA funds go to such programs ($507 million in fiscal year 2007 alone)

Two months ago, the GAO released a report to Congress entitled "Services Provided to Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Dating Violence, and Stalking." (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07846r.pdf) The findings in the report are damning. Programs that receive VAWA funds ("grant recipients") have not been providing reliable or consistent data about the people they serve. They have been accepting the VAWA money, but are not being held accountable for how they spend it. Per the report,

"... as a result of discussions with grant recipients, we could not be assured that any survey data we obtained would be consistent and reliable enough for analysis of the specific information required, i.e. the number, age, and gender of victims receiving each available service." (p.3)...

... We are asking you to call or fax Congressman Buck McKeon (R), ranking member of the Education and Labor Committee, and urge him to "Say NO to HRES 590!"

Phone: (202) 225-1956
Fax: (202) 226-0683

Be sure to call our beloved Old Men from Washington, and let them know how much their efforts are NOT appreciated.

This bill is yet another fine example of our government throwing not-so-good inflationary fiat dollars after bad, and inflaming the fire that they seek to put out.

My tax dollars at work.

Kumo.