DOGE at work

[gcode]

SANews

I've never head of SAN, Straight Arrow News
It looks interesting

As for the news article, Family Endeavors is just another revolving door for ex-government officials
to ride an unearned gravy train at tax payer's expense.

The Department of Government Efficiency says it has ended a government contract with Family Endeavors that will save taxpayers $215 million annually. DOGE said the Department of Health and Human Services paid the group millions monthly to operate empty facilities.
Family Endeavors has faced congressional scrutiny and investigations due to questionable government contracts, leading to concerns over misuse of taxpayer funds.
The Trump administration is canceling some Family Endeavors' contracts while a U.S. Attorney investigates the issue.
Full Story
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recently highlighted the termination of a contract between the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Texas-based nonprofit Family Endeavors. DOGE claims that this cancellation will save taxpayers $215 million annually.


However, this contract cancellation is just the latest chapter in scrutiny surrounding Family Endeavors. A review of the partnership between HHS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the nonprofit reveals years of controversy, including investigations into the misuse of taxpayer funds.

Former Biden official working for nonprofit
A former Biden administration official joined Family Endeavors in early 2021. Months later, the organization secured hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts.

These contracts were awarded despite the nonprofit's lack of relevant experience in providing the contracted services, according to an Inspector General's findings.

Investigations and findings
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) inspector general concluded in 2022 that millions of dollars were wasted due to the government contracts awarded to Family Endeavors.

oig-22-37-apr22Download
The report specifically criticized ICE for granting a contract to the nonprofit despite its inexperience in handling such services. Additionally, the inspector general found that millions were spent on unused hotel space under the nonprofit's contract with ICE.

A closer look at the contracts
An investigation by The Free Press found that 99.6% of Family Endeavors' revenue comes from government contracts. Two contracts in particular, one worth $87 million and another valued at $529 million, were awarded as "sole source contracts." This means they were given to Family Endeavors without a competitive bidding process.

Congress raised concerns over the timing of these contracts. Further concerns were raised after a former Biden administration official, Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, joined the nonprofit months before major contracts were granted. According to the House Oversight Committee, this raised potential concerns of impropriety.

"It appears that Family Endeavors won these contracts just months after hiring Andrew Lorenzen-Strait as Senior Director for Migrant Services and Federal Affairs. The size of the contracts awarded to Family Endeavors, the manner in which they were awarded, that firm's lack of equivalent experience, the timing of Mr. Lorenzen-Strait's hiring, and his connections to the Biden administration combine to raise serious concerns of potential impropriety."

House Oversight Committee's letter to HHS

DHS Inspector General's findings
The DHS Inspector General's investigation into these contracts uncovered that ICE did not adequately justify the need for a sole-source contract to house migrant families. According to the IG report, in 2021, $17 million was spent on empty hotel rooms, and ICE failed to meet the competitive bidding requirements outlined in federal regulations.

ICE, however, defended the sole-source contract by citing an "unusual and compelling urgency" due to increased migrant activity at the southern border.

U.S. attorney investigating Family Endeavors following DOGE find
While past contracts under the Biden administration faced significant scrutiny by Republican lawmakers, the current Trump administration is now moving to cancel some Family Endeavors' contracts entirely, according to DOGE.

[CNCAppsJames]

Liberty is the power to do everything that does not interfere with the rights of others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of every individual has no limits save those that assure to other members of society the enjoyment of the same rights.

Thomas Paine

Just reading some Founding Father's stuff this past week.

 

[CNCAppsJames]

SANews

I've never head of SAN, Straight Arrow News
It looks interesting

For sure. It's pretty cool how for a given story they will show how many other news organizations are talking about that story, then breakdown the numbers of organizations by far left, left, center left, center, center right, right, and far right. 

🫡

[neurosis]

Thomas Paine

Just reading some Founding Father's stuff this past week.

I wish they could see what their great experiment has devolved in to.

[Smit]

I've never head of SAN, Straight Arrow News
It looks interesting

It does seem like a pretty unbiased news source.

[Incogneeto]

I wish they could see what their great experiment has devolved in to.

I would say 200+ years is a pretty good record.

[CNCAppsJames]

I wish they could see what their great experiment has devolved in to.

It's devolved into 80,000,000 crying "We want Democratic Socialism", and adults aren't really adults until they are 21, but before they are adult adults they can go to war and sign contracts. 

 

[Jeff]

Perhaps the MOST wasteful spending of all that DOGE has uncovered:


37,000 WinZip licenses

[SuperHoneyBadger]

Perhaps the MOST wasteful spending of all that DOGE has uncovered:


37,000 WinZip licenses

It's like a bad fanfic from 2010:

"So, Donald Trum-"
"From The Apprentice?"
"Yea, yea, so-"
"He's president?"
"Yea, yea AGAIN, and his sidekick is Elon Mus-"
"You said again"
"Trump's on a 2nd term. Ok, so-"
"Ok Elon Musk the commonwealth PayPal guy with the super expensive electric cars that nobody is going to keep buying and the rockets that blow up?"
"Keep up man, there's more. So Trump gave Elon the keys to an incel hacker army and they're gutting the federal gov-. You didn't interrupt me yet. I thought you would by now-"
"Naw, I'm on board."
"Ok, so they have been finding out how much extra money all the departments are spending and firing a bunch of civil servants, and all they're doing is looking at what they actually spend. You know what they found?"
"No, what? Trillions of wasted tax dollars, scandals and funding colour revolutions?"
"Worse. WinZip."
"What do you mean?"
"The gov't buys WinZip licenses by the thousands."
"Don't they ko-"
"Yea. They know."
"And they bought them anyways?"
"..."
"Monsters."

[Jeff]

The pricing goes from $35 to $90.

I bet you 50 microbucks they bought 37k of the $90 license.
Why you may ask?
Well because the gov't needed something from the person that money goes to.
You scratch our back, we'll scratch yours.
That's a $1.3 mill to $3.3 mill payment.

[neurosis]

 

Elon too much of a 🐱 to go on with Jon Stewart. 

[DUM1]

I wish they could see what their great experiment has devolved in to.

I think they're the one still on social security after 200+ years, so they are seeing it I guess.   

[Jeff]

USAID insider email ordered staff to shred and burn everything.

Looks like someone is worried over there.

[CNCAppsJames]

Yeah, they are burning the Arghanistan files for sure. 

Fuckin' cleptocrats.

 

[neurosis]

Here is a feel good story. 

This has to be pretty uncommon?

Here's a 'dead' person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/

Johnson is 82 and still kicking. Yet sometime last month, someone or something led Social Security to both tag him as dead and start clawing back his benefits.

Uh oh. It itemized how $5,201 had been stricken from their bank account, on the grounds that Ned wasn't justified to get those benefits — because he was dead. That was for payments he'd received in December and January.

Ned found that his February Social Security check hadn't been paid, and he's yet to receive his March check, either. His Medicare insurance had been canceled. He also learned that when you die, your credit score gets marked as "deceased, do not issue credit," which makes it tough to get a loan.