What about Dianne Feinstein?
Anti-war leader Bill Hackwell, a spokesman for the Answer Coalition, said he hates to see politically connected firms like URS win big defense contracts at a time when budgets for schools, health care, housing and other domestic programs are shrinking.
"We regular people don't have any say in all of this, whether the contracts are bid out or not," Hackwell said, adding that the "the whole military industrial complex is becoming enmeshed with the government."
Feinstein spokesman Howard Gantman ridiculed a reporter's question about whether it might be a conflict that the senator voted for a bill that urged federal departments to outsource civil service jobs to contract employees. He noted that the bill that set the outsourcing trend in motion had passed the Senate by unanimous consent and been signed by former President Bill Clinton.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/PROFILE-Richard-Blum-The-man-behind-URS-next-2617380.php#page-1
URS Corp., a San Francisco planning and engineering firm partially owned by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, landed an Army contract Monday worth up to $600 million.
The award to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism efforts is the latest in a string of plum defense jobs snared by URS. In February, the firm won an army engineering and logistics contract that could bring in $3.1 billion during the next eight years.
Government contracting has come under increasing scrutiny by Congress and citizen groups, with critics decrying the political connections of firms winning lucrative jobs. Richard Blum, Feinstein's husband, serves on the company's board of directors and controls about 24 percent of the firm's stock.
A Feinstein spokesman Monday declined to comment on the contract.
Blum and several URS representatives could not be reached for comment. A Pentagon spokesman said he was unfamiliar with the contract.
URS boasts some 25,000 employees working in more than 20 countries. Although the firm has a long history of government work, it has focused more on those activities since acquiring EG&G from the Carlyle Group investment firm.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Army-contract-for-Feinstein-s-husband-Blum-is-a-2621196.php
Anti-war leader Bill Hackwell, a spokesman for the Answer Coalition, said he hates to see politically connected firms like URS win big defense contracts at a time when budgets for schools, health care, housing and other domestic programs are shrinking.
"We regular people don't have any say in all of this, whether the contracts are bid out or not," Hackwell said, adding that the "the whole military industrial complex is becoming enmeshed with the government."
Feinstein spokesman Howard Gantman ridiculed a reporter's question about whether it might be a conflict that the senator voted for a bill that urged federal departments to outsource civil service jobs to contract employees. He noted that the bill that set the outsourcing trend in motion had passed the Senate by unanimous consent and been signed by former President Bill Clinton.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/PROFILE-Richard-Blum-The-man-behind-URS-next-2617380.php#page-1
URS Corp., a San Francisco planning and engineering firm partially owned by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, landed an Army contract Monday worth up to $600 million.
The award to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism efforts is the latest in a string of plum defense jobs snared by URS. In February, the firm won an army engineering and logistics contract that could bring in $3.1 billion during the next eight years.
Government contracting has come under increasing scrutiny by Congress and citizen groups, with critics decrying the political connections of firms winning lucrative jobs. Richard Blum, Feinstein's husband, serves on the company's board of directors and controls about 24 percent of the firm's stock.
A Feinstein spokesman Monday declined to comment on the contract.
Blum and several URS representatives could not be reached for comment. A Pentagon spokesman said he was unfamiliar with the contract.
URS boasts some 25,000 employees working in more than 20 countries. Although the firm has a long history of government work, it has focused more on those activities since acquiring EG&G from the Carlyle Group investment firm.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Army-contract-for-Feinstein-s-husband-Blum-is-a-2621196.php
