Ethical Questions

Last week the U.S. House Ethics Committee cleared Rep. Heath Shuler (D - NC) of wrongdoing for contacting the TVA when that agency was considering a controversial water-access deal in which he had a sizable stake.

Shuler was part of an investment group that received approval from TVA for a water-access transaction at the same time that Shuler sat on a congressional committee that provided oversight of the utility.

They cleared Shuler before the TVA Inspector General's report became public. The report became public after the Knoxville News Sentinel requested it under the Freedom of Information Act.

An earlier water-access request had been rejected for the property that Shuler owned. Then Shuler's Chief of Staff called called a TVA employee and left a message to call him back. And then there was Shuler's call to TVA CEO Tom Kilgore that Shuler denied.

“Specifically, if all of this was above board, why did TVA and Shuler feel compelled to tell the media that there was no contact between the congressman and TVA in relation to the Maintain and Gain application?” the report said. “There obviously was.”

The TVA IG, however, said the Shuler transaction was legitimate. They also absolved themselves from blame. It was a lack of protocols that was the reason they did not seek the usual independent review of their actions.

The House Ethics Committee had a copy of the report when they made their decision.

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RESOURCES
TVA Inspector General website.
TVA Inspector General bio. He was appointed in 2003
Redacted Report dated May 15, 2009 PDF 85 pgs.

PDF Pg 5

The TVA OIG has no jurisdiction over the conduct of a
United States Congressman and we make no judgment as to whether Congressman
Shuler’s actions connected to the Blackberry Cove matter violate any existing ethical
standard.

PDF Pg 14 Begins detailed report on how Shuler formed the development company and then became sole owner.

Most damning.PDF Pg 24

TVA did not use its normal internal and external concurrence process for Blackberry’s Maintain and Gain proposal which ordinarily would have included the internal committee review and the review of external natural resources agencies.

The scale of the Blackberry project is found on PDG Pg 18. "Blackberry had 155 lots over approximately 185 acres which would cost an estimated $8.6 million to develop."

PDF Pg 54

If it is reasonable to require federal employees to recognize their own conflicts of interest, then it is reasonable to require a federal agency to report suspected conflicts such as the ones that occurred in this case. The same logic that makes self-reporting for employees critical applies to federal agencies.

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ED - There simply wasn't any independent review. The TVA bypassed that part of the process.

It is reasonable for a reader to conclude after reading the report that the TVA bureaucrats do not suffer from a great deal of Congressional oversight from either Republicans or Democrats. This is probably true of a good many Government Agencies and that invites chronyism, clubiness and corruption.

In Shuler's case, he and two others bought the property in 2005. He was elected in 2006 to a solid Republican district. He was elected again in 2008. Wikipedia refers to his membership in The Family, a pseudo-Christian group is described as "most politically well-connected fundamentalist organization in the US." The Family earns more than $1,000,000 annually through its sponsorship of the National Prayer Breakfast.

Extra-marital affairs of three Republicans in the group appear to contradict their religious intents. Two of the affairs were reportedly known to the Family several months before becoming public. Shuler is considered a Blue Dog Democrat. He voted for Cap and Trade.

The big question is why in the world would he be appointed to a committee that has responsibility to oversee the TVA when it was KNOWN that he had a blatant conflict of interest? That speaks to the possible corruption of House leadership, the Democrat party and the White House.

And, more importantly, why would he accept it? That tells you a lot about the man.