I just noticed this today but it looks like another good and long overdue piece of legislation being introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Many Democratic Senators joined Leahy in reintroducing a bill creating criminal penalties for war profiteers and cheats who would exploit taxpayer-funded efforts in Iraq and elsewhere around the world. The War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007 builds on earlier efforts by Leahy, who is also a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, to crack down on this type of rampant fraud and abuse.
Here's a link to the release.
This thing actually appears to have some nice points in it, from the release.
§ Criminalizes war profiteering, which is defined as materially overvaluing any good or service with the specific intent to excessively profit from the war and relief or reconstruction activities
§ Statute would strengthen the tools available to federal prosecutors to combat war profiteering by providing clear authority for the Government to seek criminal penalties and to recover excessive profits for war profiteering overseas.
§ Prohibits any fraud against the United States, Iraq, or any other foreign country involving a contract for the provision of any goods or services in connection with a war, military action, or relief or reconstruction activities.
§ Subjects violators to up to 20 years imprisonment and a fine not to exceed the greater of $1,000,000 or twice the amount of any illegal gross profits, or both.
§ Prohibits making a false statement in any matter involving a contract for the provision of any goods or services in connection with a war, military action, or relief or reconstruction activities.
§ Subjects violators of this provision to up to 10 years imprisonment and a fine not to exceed the greater of $1,000,000, or twice the amount of any illegal gross profits, or both.
§ Creates extraterritorial jurisdiction over offenses committed overseas, and covers any person in the United States or abroad who violates its provisions.
I'll have to say that any doubts I had in my mind that things would be business as usual once the Democrats took power are quickly being erased. This press release also covers something called the Effective Corruption Prosecutions Act of 2007. This one does the following:
Provides federal investigators and prosecutors the statutory tools and the resources needed to ensure that serious and insidious public corruption is detected and punished.
Extends the statute of limitations for the most serious public corruption offenses, including bribery, deprivation of honest services, and extortion by a public official, from five years to eight years.
Facilitates the investigation and prosecution of a key federal statute used for prosecuting bribery involving state and local officials, as well as officials of the many organizations that receive substantial federal money
Authorizes $25 million over each of the next four years to give federal investigators and prosecutors needed resources to go after public corruption.
Being in the majority is pretty damn nice. Take a minute to show Leahy some love.
Update: From an idea in the comments - if you have suggestions on how to improve either of these bills now is the time to email, call or fax Leahy's office. Maybe amendments can be offered.
Update II: Figured I should throw in a plug too. Go support netroots filmmaker Robert Greenwald by buying and watching Iraq for Sale. Robert's been working very hard to get this issue out in public and I'd like to think he was one person on our team that helped make this a reality by creating public support.