Students from 28 Schools Present Final Projects to Peers, Industry

CHICAGO - April 11, 2011. Governor Pat Quinn today recognized students from 28 Illinois high schools for their participation in the Illinois Innovation Talent Program. Through the program, students team up with private sector companies or public agencies to compete and collaborate on real world, problem-based learning challenges. The program is designed to improve student achievement and increase college and career readiness.

"Innovation is key to ensuring our state's long-term economic growth. This program is challenging Illinois businesses to be more innovative, while getting our future workforce ready for college and careers," said Governor Quinn. "Through the Innovation Talent Program, we're helping to enhance the learning environment in Illinois and preparing Illinois students to compete in today's global economy."

The state developed the Illinois Innovation Talent Program to help students be able to compete in the global marketplace. The initiative promotes innovation-centered education and increased student achievement in math, science and engineering. Under this unique program, Illinois high schools are paired with industry, government and community organizations to critically examine and solve complex problems. Students participate as members of diverse, interdisciplinary teams utilizing cutting-edge information technology tools.

Students compete and collaborate in a diverse set of fields, including: agriculture, healthcare, energy efficiency, renewable energy, finance and transportation. Illinois Innovation Talent also demonstrates one of the critical work-based learning functions of the proposed Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Learning Exchanges described in the State of Illinois' Race to the Top proposal.

Students from the 28 schools worked on 10 challenges through the duration of the program. Participating schools received $5,000 stipends to cover project related costs. Students met at the District 214 Forest View Education Center in Arlington Heights today to present their final projects in front of their peers and challenge sponsors. A list of participating schools is attached.

The Innovation Talent Program is administered jointly by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), with support from the state Department of Transportation and the Illinois Math and Science Academy. DCEO and ISBE contributed a combined $165,000 in federal Workforce Investment Act funds in support of the program.

Governor Quinn remains committed to fostering an environment of innovation in the state. As part of his fiscal year 2012 budget, Governor Quinn called for creation of the Illinois Innovation Council. The Council will help ensure Illinois remains on the cutting-edge in the global economy and is creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Illinois that promotes innovation and intelligent risk-taking.  The state is also helping promising entrepreneurs turn their innovative concepts and ideas into market successes while creating jobs through a wide range of programs and services supported by the Illinois Entrepreneurship Network.

The presentations will take place on Monday, April 11, at 7:00 p.m. during a school board meeting in the board room at the Pleasant Valley Community School District Office, 525 Belmont Road, Bettendorf, (563) 332-6176.

Sarah is being honored for co-founding a cheerleading squad at her high school that includes students with disabilities, and then forming a nonprofit corporation that encourages teens across the country to start similar squads at their schools.

Jori is being honored for founding her high school's Habitat for Humanity group helping to raise $5000 to sponsor a local Habitat house.

As a State Honoree, Sarah also will receive $1,000 and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where she will join more than 100 other top honorees from across the country for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America's top youth volunteers for 2011 at that time.

ABOUT THE AWARD: The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represent the United States' largest youth recognition program based exclusively on volunteer community service. All middle level and high schools in the U.S., along with all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and affiliates of HandsOn Network, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award last November. More than 5,000 Local Honorees were then reviewed by state-level judges, who selected State Honorees?one middle and one high school youth?plus a select number of Distinguished Finalists from each state and the District of Columbia, based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth.

For more information on this year's Prudential Spirit of Community Awards Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, visit spirit.prudential.com.

Right now in Washington, we are having an important debate on the federal budget, which involves how we fund priorities for the fiscal year.  Unfortunately, some are using this as an excuse to attack one of the bedrocks of the American middle class: Social Security.

Like many Iowans, I can personally attest to the critical role Social Security plays in the lives of Americans.  My father had nothing more than an 8th grade education and worked in the coal mines for much of his life.  He married a widow - my mother - and they bought a small farm in Iowa.  In the Great Depression, he lost his farm and his savings and when I was 10 years old, my mother passed away.  At that time, my father was 64, handicapped from black lung, with little savings to his name and three sons under the age of 18.  Fortunately, that next year at age 65, he started to receive his Social Security checks - money he earned from years of hard work.  This was our only income, and because of it, our family was able to stay together, my brothers and I were able to get an education and my father was able to keep his dignity.

This personal story is just one of the millions of examples of the important role Social Security continues to play for countless Americans. Social Security is the most successful domestic program in our nation's history.  It lifts over 13 million seniors out of poverty every year, and for almost half of our seniors, Social Security makes up around 80 percent of their retirement income.  It has provided millions of Americans with the chance to retire with dignity and will continue to be the foundation of a secure retirement as future generations enter their golden years.

Unfortunately, today the same people who wanted to leave Social Security to the whims of the stock market are now using the budget debate as an excuse to attack the hard earned benefits of working class families.  The fact is Social Security has never contributed one dime to the federal deficit, nor is Social Security a long-term contributor to our national debt.  In fact, Social Security will continue to pay every dollar promised for another 26 years.  It is not in crisis.

So during our debate on the federal budget our message is simple: back off Social Security!  

For more information on all that I am doing to protect Social Security, please visit my website at harkin.senate.gov.  To see a speech I recently gave on the subject you can visit my Youtube page at www.youtube.com/SenatorTomHarkin.

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Prepared Statement of Ranking Member Chuck Grassley

U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary

FBI Oversight Hearing

Wednesday, March 30, 2010

Chairman Leahy, thank you for calling this hearing today.  Before I get started, I wanted to take a moment to say a public thank you to Director Mueller for his service to the country.  This is likely to be the last time he comes before this Committee as the Director of the FBI.  While we have had our share of disagreements on a number of issues, I have always appreciated Director Mueller's candor and his willingness to work with us to get answers?even if we don't always agree with what those answers are.

That said, I look forward to raising a number of issues with the Director today.  First and foremost, I want to talk about the PATRIOT Act and the need to extend the provisions that are set to expire in May.  The three expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act are important tools used by federal law enforcement and the intelligence community to investigate national security threats.  They are vital to our ability to investigate, identify, track, and deter terrorist attacks.  For example, it was recently revealed that the FBI successfully utilized a section 215 order as part of the investigation that prevented a terrorist attack planned by a Saudi national in Texas.  In that case it was revealed that the individual in question purchased bomb making materials such as 3 gallons of sulfuric acid, clocks, chemistry sets, and a gas mask from online retailers Amazon.com and eBay.  This case is the latest of many examples of the successes of the PATRIOT Act provisions.  Given the dangerous threats we face and the fact that the three expiring provisions have not been found to have been abused, the Senate should work to reauthorize the expiring authorities without amendment.

Aside from the critical national security authorities we need to reauthorize, I want to ask Director Mueller about a recent report that was issued by our colleagues in the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.  That committee released a report in February entitled, "A Ticking Time Bomb" that examined the tragic shootings at Fort Hood that occurred in November 2009.  That report highlighted a number of problems at both the Department of Defense and the FBI and found "systematic failures in the Government's handling of the Hasan case."  I was troubled to hear some of the allegations contained in the report including that an analyst on a joint terrorism task force was not provided full access to a key FBI database simply because he was from a non-FBI agency.  I want to hear from the Director whether he agreed with some of these key findings, what is being done to correct any deficiencies in the way terrorism cases are reviewed, and whether information sharing has been improved

I also want to ask the Director some questions about FBI employee personnel matters.  I have long been concerned about the plight of whistleblowers at the FBI.  I appreciate that Director Mueller has made it a priority to instruct all employees of the FBI that retaliation against whistleblowers will not be tolerated.  I think this is an important message for employees to hear from the Director.  Unfortunately, that directive has not always been followed by agents in the field.  I find one case particularly troubling.

In 2007, the Department of Justice Inspector General issued a memorandum finding that a 30-year non-agent employee of the FBI, Robert Kobus, was retaliated against for protected whistleblowing.  The Inspector General found that "FBI Management in the New York Field Division improperly moved Kobus from the position of a senior administrative support manager to several non-supervisory positions."  One of those positions included being demoted to OSHA safety officer.  The retaliation was blatant and included moving his office to a cubicle on the vacant 24^th floor of the FBI office building.  The Inspector General ultimately concluded that the decision to move him was in retaliation for disclosing wrongdoing, to the Special Agent in Charge of the Field Office, in this case time and attendance fraud by FBI agents.  This is exactly the type of retaliation against whistleblowers that should never occur

Despite these findings by the Inspector General, the matter was appealed by the FBI to the Department of Justice where the case has now languished for four years.  Four years is entirely too long for an employee to wait for an appeal.  What makes matters worse is that the underlying allegations occurred in 2005.  It is often said that justice delayed is justice denied.  In this case that couldn't be any clearer.  I asked the Attorney General about this case a year ago and just received a reply in December that failed to answer why it has taken so long to review the IG's findings.  I want to hear from Director Mueller what he thinks about this sort of retaliation and why the agents who retaliated against Kobus were promoted.

The Kobus case raises a number of questions about the Department of Justice's process for investigating and adjudicating FBI whistleblower complaints.  So, I am working on a request that I have shared with Chairman Leahy, and I'm hoping we can work together on this, but I want the Government Accountability Office to conduct a top to bottom review of the Department of Justice's process for dealing with FBI Whistleblowers.  Delays like the one in the Kobus case send a clear signal to potential whistleblowers that reporting wrongdoing will only land you in an expensive bureaucratic mess.  Because the DOJ Inspector General is part of the FBI whistleblower process, I feel it is necessary for an impartial arbiter like GAO to look at things and see what is and isn't working.  Given the significant budget deficits we face and the need to cut waste and fraud wherever possible, we can't send signals to whistleblowers that coming forward isn't worth the hassle.  I would hope all my colleagues would join me in this request to make sure the process is working.

Another area of concern I have relates to FBI employee misconduct.  In January of this year, internal FBI Office of Professional Responsibility documents were leaked to the press.  Those documents contained a number of shocking allegations about misconduct committed by FBI employees.  For example, the documents detailed FBI agents who were dismissed because they: were arrested for drunk driving, engaged in improper relationships with FBI informants, leaked classified information to reporters, sought reimbursement for expenditures they never made, and in one instance, bringing foreign nationals back into FBI space after hours.  These are troubling allegations and I am glad that a number of them were accompanied by the summary dismissal of those employees.  However, a couple of the cases raised an old concern I have about whether punishments are handed out uniformly.  For example, two of the cases that were reported in the media involved inappropriate relations between FBI agents and sources.  One agent was dismissed while another was simply given a 40-day suspension.  It appears from the documents that the only difference in the cases was that in one case, the inappropriate relationship also involved improper use of a government vehicle, while the other did not.  I want to know more about how these penalties are determined.  I think this is especially important to know in light of the fact that the Inspector General found in a May 2009 report that there is a perception among FBI employees that there is a double standard for discipline between higher ranking and lower ranking employees.

Director Mueller, over the past eight months I have been investigating systemic problems at the Philadelphia Public Housing Authority.  Outlandish salaries, sexual harassment settlements, and excessive legal billings just to name a few of the problems.  I want to express my appreciation regarding the FBI's ongoing investigation and recent seizure of expensive luggage purchased as gifts by the Philadelphia Public Housing Authority.  I hope the FBI follows through vigorously on any criminal violations that may have occurred at the Philadelphia Public Housing Authority.

Finally, I want to ask the Director about the fiscal 2012 Budget request that was submitted to Congress.  I continue to have concerns with the FBI's agency-wide case management system known as Sentinel.  This project was originally supposed to cost $400 million and be complete no later than 2010.  As it stands today, the prime contractor Lockheed Martin has been removed from the job by the FBI, the project continues, and the projected cost is over $450 million.  I want to know when this is going to end, how much more taxpayer money will be necessary, and how the FBI plans to maintain the older case management database as part of the new system.  After a decade of upgrading the system, not another dime of taxpayer money should be awarded until the FBI can prove the system will work and will be done on time.

There is a lot to cover so I look forward to Director Mueller's testimony and his responses to these important matters.  Thank you.

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