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The Week in Review
ending July 14
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Possible changes in appearance.
Chandra Levy. |
Missed our stories? All the headlines for the week can be found
here.
Want In The Hoop's list of the week's
Winners and Losers? Wait
no more.
The Trust Fund: Imploding or Exploding?
Any expectations that the Bush administration
was going to have it any easier than the previous
when it comes to the broken trust fund were
dramatically shattered
this week with a new report critical of the way
Secretary of Interior Gale Norton has handled the affair
so far.
The report, by court monitor Joseph S. Kieffer III,
couldn't have come at a more auspicious time.
Just a day earlier, Norton announced she had created
a new office to take place of the statistical sampling
plan which Kieffer said she approved with little knowledge
of the effort.
It also came as Interior officials admitted
the latest trust fund software didn't meet
expectations and will have to be retooled in order
to work.
Get the Story:
Norton drops
trust fund sampling plan (7/10)
Norton revamps
trust fund system (7/11)
Interior admits
latest trust fund software a failure (7/11)
Interior says
sampling not out of question (7/11)
Norton slammed
by trust fund monitor (7/12)
Trust fund
account holders call for jail time (7/12)
Contempt sought
against Norton, Babbitt (7/13)
Senate approves Interior spending bill
The Senate returned from their Fourth of July
holiday break this week and actually did some work,
passing an $18.7 billion Department of Interior
spending bill.
The bill includes an additional $25 million
for the Bureau of Indian Affairs than what
the Bush administration had proposed for fiscal
year 2002. The amount isn't likely to break the
bank, but it does beef up the amount of money
destined for Indian Country in an era of
small steps for the BIA.
The bill also includes added protections for
national monuments which some Republicans
are targeting for oil and gas development. But
Norton celebrated the failure of a provision
which would have prevented her from drilling
in an area in the Gulf of Mexico.
Get the Story:
Senate bans
national monument drilling (7/12)
Senate passes
Interior spending bill (7/13)
more stories
There's still more to read in the recap
of the top stories.
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