Senate set to Advance $1.1T Spending Bill

While the country focuses on the Tiger Woods scandal and the upcoming holidays, the United States senate is set to pass a filibuster proof end-of-year $1.1 trillion spending that will reward most federal agencies with a generous budget increase. It also includes a loan guarantee program for steel companies, and an improved arbitration process to challenge General Motors' and Chrysler's decisions to close more than 2,000 dealerships.

The $1.1 trillion measure combines much of the year's unfinished budget work - only a $626 billion Pentagon spending measure would remain - into a 1,000-plus-page catchall spending bill that would give Cabinet departments such as Education, Health and Human Services and State increases far exceeding inflation.

After a 60-36 test vote on Friday in which Democrats and a handful of Republicans helped the measure clear another GOP obstacle, the bill was expected to win on Saturday the 60 Senate votes necessary to guarantee passage. A final vote is expected Sunday.

The measure provides spending increases averaging about 10 percent to programs under immediate control of Congress, blending increases for veterans' programs, NASA and the FBI with a pay raise for federal workers and help for car dealers.

It bundles six of the 12 annual spending bills, capping a dysfunctional appropriations process in which House leaders blocked Republicans from debating key issues while Senate Republicans dragged out debates.

Just the $626 billion defense bill would remain. That's being held back to serve as a vehicle to advance must-pass legislation such as the debt increase.

Continued at ApNews.MyWay.com…

Follow the Money: Feds Rule Bloggers Must Disclose Payments for Endorsements

From BizJournals.com:

The Federal Trade Commission has issued guidelines that require bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers to disclose if they receive cash or an in-kind payment to review a product.

The notice incorporates changes to the FTC’s "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising," which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.

Among the changes is one to reflect commission case law that states that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement, or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers.

The guidelines, approved by the Federal Trade Commission in a 4-0 vote, will be published soon in the Federal Register.

U.S. Pension Insurer May Need Tax Aid

From the Journal Star.com:

The rapidly deteriorating financial health of the federal agency that guarantees 44 million Americans' pensions is raising alarms in Congress.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. deficit was $33.5 billion in the red at the end of March, triple its deficit six months earlier.

The recession threatens to add to the strain on the corporation by pushing more companies into bankruptcy and leaving the struggling agency responsible for their pensions.

For example, the agency faces a potential tidal wave of claims from Chrysler and General Motors, whose pension plans are underfunded by an estimated $29 billion, the Government Accountability Office said.

If the PBGC’s condition continues to deteriorate, the government could come under pressure to shore it up with taxpayer funds, the GAO said in testimony to the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging.

“The Committee has grave concerns about the agency’s viability,” said Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., the committee’s chairman.

The agency does not insure 401(k) plans, but its fate is important not only to the workers covered by more than 29,000 employer-sponsored benefit pension plans but to all taxpayers who could be asked to foot the bill on a bailout if the agency ever becomes insolvent.

Despite the deficit, the PBGC will be able to meet its obligations to pensioners for many years, acting PBGC director Vincent Snowbarger told the panel. That’s because the payments it owes are not due all at once; they are spread over the beneficiaries’ lifetimes, Snowbarger explained.

Finances aside, the GAO is concerned that the PBGC could have trouble simply handling the added work. The agency suffers from weaknesses in its management and governance, the GAO’s Barbara Bovbjerg, who oversees workforce and income security issues, said in a statement to the committee.

A recent report by the agency’s inspector general alleged that Charles Millard, a former PBGC director, had improper contacts with big Wall Street firms while they were bidding on contracts to help manage PBGC investments. Millard allegedly asked an executive at the financial firm BlackRock how to tailor a contract requirement to winnow the field of bidders. In addition, he allegedly received help with a job search from an executive at another bidder, Goldman Sachs.

Kohl and the agency’s acting director recommended that the contracts, worth a total of $100 million, be canceled.

Millard, who served under President George W. Bush, declined to answer questions at a hearing last week, invoking his Fifth Amendment right not to give testimony that might incriminate himself.

Millard previously asserted that he complied with all legal and ethical obligations. “I acted in what I believed to be the best interests of the PBGC to implement desperately needed reforms of PBGC investment policy,” Millard said in a letter to the inspector general.