Mayor Vincent Gray and Council Chairman Kwame Brown spilled blood in the water when they started spending taxpayers’ money on apparently nepotistic hiring, extravagant travel and luxury SUVs.
Incoming House Republicans are dead set on cutting spending anywhere they can, including vulnerable D.C. city services, and now Gray and company will have a tougher time defending them while fending off investigators from Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Issa Thursday announced that the panel had launched an investigation into the spending scandals.
“As the Chairman of the Committee with direct responsibility for overseeing the District of Columbia, I was deeply concerned by allegations made by a former mayoral candidate and political appointee of D.C. mayor Vincent Gray,” Issa said in a statement. “Even after the Home Rule Act, the federal government still has significant responsibilities and federal taxpayer dollars fund a large portion of the District’s budget.”
From from what Issa said in the release, the mayor’s office didn’t do a good job of trying to head this investigation off at the pass. In fact, key figures close to Gray, as well as his former chief of staff, didn’t even return House investigators phone calls about basic information regarding the allegations of nepotism and out-of-control spending, Issa said.
“The initial findings of these efforts do not give me confidence that the District government can make this evaluation,” Issa said. “As such, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has begun a full investigation to determine the facts and will report its findings.”
