Business

Senator: IRS to pay $70M in employee bonuses

UPDATED 7:42 AM EDT, June 19, 2013 | STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with the employees' union on Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.

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UPDATED 7:43 AM EDT, June 19, 2013

Study: Wiser medication use could cut health costs

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — If doctors and patients used prescription drugs more wisely, they could save the U.S. health care system at least $213 billion a year, a study concludes.

The savings would come by reducing medication overuse, underuse and other flaws in care that cause complications and longer, more expensive treatments, researchers conclude.

The new findings by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics improve on numerous prior efforts to quantify the dollars wasted on health care.

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UPDATED 18:04 PM EDT, June 18, 2013

Uncoordinated

Republicans controlling the House unveiled slashing cuts Tuesday to a program that helps localities build community development projects, while their rivals in the Democratic-led Senate proposed to restore GOP cuts to international food aid and nutrition help for pregnant women.

An Energy Department spending bill that would cut President Barack Obama's requests for renewable energy programs, meanwhile, began its advance through the House Appropriations Committee as the battling chambers continued to proceed down wildly divergent budget tracks.

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UPDATED 7:37 AM EDT, June 17, 2013

IRS supervisor in DC scrutinized tea party cases

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Internal Revenue Service supervisor in Washington says she was personally involved in scrutinizing some of the earliest applications from tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status, including some requests that languished for more than a year without action.

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UPDATED 7:31 AM EDT, June 14, 2013

Mangled facts, secrecy brew confusion about NSA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wondering what the U.S. government might know about your phone calls and online life? And whether all of this really helps find terrorists? Good luck finding solid answers.

Americans trying to wrap their minds around two giant surveillance programs are confronted with a mishmash of leaks, changing claims and secrecy. Members of Congress complain that their constituents are baffled — and many lawmakers admit they are, too.

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UPDATED 7:31 AM EDT, June 14, 2013

Arizona Gov. Brewer secures Medicaid expansion

PHOENIX (AP) — Ending a six-month legislative session, Arizona lawmakers endorsed a key element of President Barack Obama's health care law in a huge political victory for Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, after a lengthy fight over Medicaid expansion that divided the state's Republican leadership.

The expansion that will extend health care to 300,000 more low-income Arizonans came after months of stalled negotiations, tense debates and political maneuvering as Brewer pushed the Medicaid proposal through a hostile Legislature.

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UPDATED 6:54 AM EDT, June 13, 2013

Lawmaker accuses Google of dodging taxes

LONDON (AP) — An influential committee of British lawmakers accused search giant Google of dodging its taxes on Thursday, issuing a scathing report that said the U.S. Internet company took on highly contrived arrangements serving no purpose other than to avoid paying its fair share.

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UPDATED 6:57 AM EDT, June 12, 2013

Booz Allen says it's fired Snowden after NSA leak

NEW YORK (AP) — Government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton says it's fired Edward Snowden, the employee who leaked details of a secret National Security Agency surveillance program.

The McLean, Va.-based firm says in a statement that it fired Snowden "for violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy." It said he had earned a salary of $122,000 a year.

Snowden had identified himself as the person who leaked top-secret information. He fled to Hong Kong in hopes of escaping criminal charges.

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UPDATED 6:59 AM EDT, June 12, 2013

Undervalued coal leases cost US $62 million, watchdog reports

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Undervalued coal sales have cost the U.S. an estimated $62 million in potential lost revenues in recent years, according to a Tuesday report from federal investigators who recommended broad changes to the government's coal leasing program to stem further losses.

The report from the Department of Interior's Office of Inspector General comes amid rising pressure from Congress and environmentalists to make sure taxpayers are getting their fair share from coal sales on public lands.

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UPDATED 13:37 PM EDT, June 11, 2013

Obama administration reverses course, allows morning-after pills for all girls

NEW YORK (AP) — After setting off a storm of criticism from abortion rights groups upset that a Democratic president had sided with social conservatives, the Obama administration said it will comply with a judge's order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions.

But in doing so, at least one opponent of easy access to the contraception thinks the president is buckling to political pressure, rather than making the health of girls a priority.

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