Here is a follow up on my post yesterday about the Floyd Landis/USADA hearing, and the reply to my letter to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. I received some excellent information from Daniel of rant-your-head-off.com. As I suspected, the info that I received from Zoe Lofgren’s staff was substantially incorrect. From Rant’s blog:

"USADA receives approximately two-thirds of its annual budget via a pass-through appropriation to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. What does this mean? Simple: Congress approves (or not, their choice) the appropriation that passes to USADA as a Federal grant. They have full power of the purse strings. They can fund USADA, or they can choose not to fund USADA. And if they do fund USADA, they can choose how much, and what strings are attached. And that means they can exercise oversight. Period. It’s taxpayers’ money. We, the taxpayers, should have a say in where it goes and how it’s spent."

Right On and, in addition, Daniel/Rant sent me contact info for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy:

Scott Burns
Deputy Director for State and Local Affairs
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Executive Office of the President
Washington, D.C. 20503

More info can be found at:
http://www.floydfairnessfund.org/get-involved.php

So, if enough of us write to Mr. Burns, maybe he might have a look at USADA’s practices, rather than their policies... But then again, I don’t think that Mr. Burns is an elected official, so what is his incentive to open a can of worms? How does he answer to us taxpayers? Who is he responsible to? The Prez? And so the bureaucracy rolls on...

Leaving us to a Congress, who apparently doesn’t know or care about appropriations to USADA... What’s in it for them, politically, to know or care - that’s the core question...

Thanks, Rant - you are always on top of it... Follow the link to read Rant's blog, it's a good one to bookmark.