The Washington Post - 31.07.2019

A10 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 , 2019

BY ASHLEY HALSEY III

AND JOHN WAGNER

The first transportation bill to

acknowledge climate change

won unanimous support Tuesday

from the Senate Committee on

Environment and Public Works.

“This is the most substantial

highway infrastructure legisla-

tion in history,” said panel chair-

man John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).

“Ninety percent of that money

will go directly to our roads and

bridges.”

How to pay for the $287 bil-

lion, five-year reauthorization

bill lands in the hands of the

Senate Finance Committee,

where the challenge is greater

than simply coming up with a

27 percent boost in funding to

shore up U.S. roads and transit

systems.

“Our nation’s Highway Trust

Fund is operating on the brink of

bankruptcy,” said Sen. Thomas R.

Carper (Del.), the top Democrat

on the public works committee.

“The last five-year reauthoriza-

tion bill... was largely paid for

by a series of largely irresponsi-

ble budget gimmicks.”

He said the legislation would

channel $10 billion to reducing

emissions and increasing the re-

silience of infrastructure so that

it will better stand up to the

impact of climate change.

“We know that the cars, trucks

and vans that we drive have now

become our nation’s largest

source of global warming pollu-

tion,” Carper said. “These emis-

sions accelerate and exacerbate

the effect of climate change, con-

tributing to the increasingly ex-

treme weather events that con-

tribute significantly to the degra-

dation of our roadways and our

bridges.”

“We have to be able to deal

with the realities of more severe

weather,” added Sen. Ben Cardin

(D-Md.), who said that many

consumers prefer electric to gas-

powered cars. “This bill recogniz-

es that transportation is the lead-

ing source of greenhouse gas

emissions.”

President Trump tweeted his

support for the bill Tuesday, say-

ing the “Senate is working hard

on America’s Transportation In-

frastructure Act. Will have BIG

IMPACT on our highways and

roads all across our Nation... Do

I hear the beautiful word, BIPAR-

TISAN?”

Of Tuesday’s 21-to-0 vote,

Carper said: “The fact that a bill

this significant happens to be

bipartisan should not come as a

great surprise to anyone. Our

roads, our highways, our bridges

connect us to one another.”

Trump’s embrace of the Senate

plan marked a pivot from his

efforts to negotiate a $2 trillion

deal that included a broader ar-

ray of infrastructure projects

with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

(D-Calif.) and Senate Minority

Leader Charles E. Schumer

(D-N.Y.).

After Trump and leading Dem-

ocrats agreed to a broad frame-

work for such a deal in April,

negotiations collapsed in May as

Trump angrily walked out of a

meeting at the White House. He

said he was unable to work with

Democrats because Pelosi that

morning had said he was ducking

congressional subpoenas as a

“coverup” for his own misbehav-

ior.

Early last year, the Trump ad-

ministration formally unveiled

its own plan to stimulate spend-

ing on the country’s ailing infra-

structure. But that received a

cold reception from members of

both parties and included no

clear way to pay for the plan.

That proposal, a year in the

making, sought to fulfill a mar-

quee Trump campaign promise

by relying heavily on states, local-

ities and the private sector to

cover the costs of new roads,

bridges, waterways and other

public-works projects.

The plan called for investing

$200 billion in federal money

over the coming decade to entice

other levels of government and

the private sector to raise their

spending on infrastructure by

more than $1 trillion. That would

have allowed the administration

to hit its goal of $1.5 trillion in

new funding over 10 years. It also

sought to dramatically reduce

the time required to obtain envi-

ronmental permits for such proj-

ects.

Barrasso promised that the

transportation bill would “speed

up project delivery, cut Washing-

ton red tape, so that projects can

be done faster and better and

cheaper and smarter.”

On the opposite side of the

Capitol, House Transportation

Committee Chairman Peter A.

DeFazio (D-Ore.) saluted the Sen-

ate’s bipartisan effort, saying that

“the need for resilient infrastruc-

ture, alternative fuel corridors,

and serious efforts to reduce

congestion” are a must before

any bill goes to the White House.

DeFazio, who has favored an

increase in the gas tax until a

vehicle-miles-traveled plan un-

folds, acknowledged that “there

is still a big question about how

we pay for these investments.”

Jim Tymon, executive director

of the American Association of

State Highway and Transporta-

tion Officials, said finding the

money was the “big question.”

He said that a five-year bill

provided the stability that states

need to plan multiyear projects.

And he welcomed the funding for

climate change issues.

“Something needs to be done

to make sure that we’re not re-

building the same pieces of infra-

structure every five, 10 years

when we have a major weather

event,” Tymon said. “We’re seeing

it in some of our coastal commu-

nities, also along the Gulf Coast

when we have a major weather

event. You’re also seeing it in the

interior part of the country in the

flooding you saw, the river flood-

ing in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri.”

The bill got pushback from

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), whose

state is a major producer of

ethanol, the corn-based product

that is added to about 98 percent

of gasoline. She objected to a

provision to promote electric

charging stations.

“If all emission-reducing fuels

aren’t going to be treated equally

by this program, then my prefer-

ence is to do away with the

program entirely,” Ernst said.

“We’re going to have the federal

government subsidize charging

infrastructure for electric vehi-

cles, which are owned in large

part by high-earners in coastal

states. While at the same time

leaving our corn and soybean

farmers and biofuel producers on

the sideline.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

Road bill notes role of climate change

BY AARON GREGG

AND JAY GREENE

The Pentagon issued an unusu-
ally strong rebuke of Oracle over
the weekend, accusing the com-
pany of employing “poorly-in-
formed and often manipulative
speculation” in its efforts to un-
dermine the military’s process of
awarding a massive 10-year con-
tract for cloud-computing tech-
nology.
The remarks were the latest
flash point in the long-running
dispute over the bidding process
for the Joint Enterprise Defense
Infrastructure (JEDI), a $10 bil-
lion contract that would be one of
the federal government’s most ex-
pensive information technology
procurements ever.
Oracle alleged in a lawsuit that
the Defense Department’s bid-
ding process has been plagued
with potential conflicts of interest
and rigged in favor of Amazon’s
cloud-computing business. Ora-
cle’s attempt to block the award
was rejected this month, with the
judge in charge of the case ex-
plaining his reasoning in a
lengthy document unsealed Fri-
day. But in his decision, the judge
posed new questions about the
Pentagon’s legal argument for
awarding one big contract.
Defense Department spokes-
woman Elissa Smith noted in a
statement that the judge also af-
firmed that the Pentagon was
“reasonably justified” in award-
ing a single contract. Despite the
“tension” in the judge’s ruling, the
department is planning to move
ahead and award the contract in
August, nearly a year and a half
after it was announced.
Smith’s statement, which was
emailed to reporters Sunday
night, contained the harsh words
for Oracle. Smith appeared to take
a second swipe at the company as
well: “DOD officials directly in-
volved in the work of this procure-
ment along with the senior lead-
ers charged with making the criti-
cal decisions related to JEDI have
always placed the interests of the
warfighter first and have acted
without bias, prejudice, or self-in-

terest. The same cannot be said of

all parties to the debate over

JEDI.”

Oracle declined to comment on

Smith’s remarks.

Oracle had argued that the

cloud-computing contract should

be spread out across several com-

panies. The Pentagon has said

that it wants to award JEDI to a

single provider and that only

Amazon and Microsoft qualify.

(Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief

executive of Amazon, owns The

Washington Post.)

The military’s position prompt-

ed Oracle to sue to halt the bid-

ding. In its lawsuit, the company

said the process had been “taint-

ed” by the involvement of Defense

Department officials who had

close business ties to Amazon.

Oracle also took its concerns to

a number of officials in Washing-

ton, including at the White

House, with co-chief executive Sa-

fra Catz bringing up the dispute at

an April 2018 dinner with Presi-

dent Trump.

In addition, Oracle Executive

Vice President Ken Glueck, who

runs the company’s policy shop in

Washington, said Monday that he

created a colorful one-page flow

chart that featured photographs

of Amazon executives as well as

Defense officials in charge of the

JEDI procurement, with the title

“A Conspiracy To Create A Ten

Year DoD Cloud Monopoly.” A

profile picture of Trump’s previ-

ous defense secretary, Jim Mattis,

was included. When sent to The

Washington Post, it was labeled

“Most Wanted.”

When asked whether he

emailed the document or physi-

cally handed it to lawmakers or

other Washington officials,

Glueck said no. But he said that he

shared it with his colleagues at

Oracle. He added that he hung a

large version of it in the window

of his second-story office and that

it was photographed by CNN. The

network posted that photo Friday

and reported that the graphic had

been viewed and discussed by

Trump.

In response to a reporter’s

question during a news confer-

ence, Trump this month called for

a fresh investigation into the JEDI

contract, saying he had received

complaints from “companies like

Microsoft, Oracle and IBM.”

While its request to block the

award was rejected, Oracle is hop-

ing that new leadership at the

Pentagon will prompt another re-

view of the JEDI procurement.

Glueck said he “may write a let-

ter” to newly confirmed Defense

Secretary Mark T. Esper, adding,

“There’s new leadership at the

DOD, which is an opportunity.”

“There’s very much a debate in

the DOD over whether [awarding

the $10 billion contract to just one

company] is the best approach,”

Glueck said. “It isn’t over until it’s

over.”

The company’s latest legal

challenge failed in the Court of

Federal Claims this month, when

Judge Eric G. Bruggink rejected

Oracle’s motion to block the

award.

In an extensive legal opinion

unsealed Friday afternoon, Brug-

gink wrote that Oracle had not

proved that it was materially

harmed by the bidding process, a

key requirement for successfully

protesting government contract

awards. But he also seemed to

take issue with the Pentagon’s

legal justification for its decision

to give the contract to a single

company, a concern that could be

cited in a future bid protest.

Bruggink rejected Oracle’s

claim that revolving-door hires on

the part of Amazon should dis-

qualify it from the competition.

His decision also revealed that

Deap Ubhi — an Amazon Web

Services executive who joined the

Pentagon and worked closely on

the JEDI procurement process

before returning to the Amazon

cloud business as a project man-

ager — had lied to Amazon and

the Defense Department.

Ubhi did not respond to phone

and email requests for comment

Monday. An Amazon spokesman

did not respond to a request for

comment for this story. Amazon

has said Ubhi has never worked

for the company’s division that

deals with federal contracts.

Ubhi worked as a business de-

velopment representative for

Amazon before joining the Penta-

gon’s Defense Digital Service in

August 2016. While working for

the military, he separately operat-

ed a Silicon Valley-based start-up

called TableHero, which used

cloud-based software to help res-

taurants build their business on-

line.

Ubhi publicly praised Amazon

while he worked at the Defense

Department, repeatedly referring

to himself as an “Amazonian.” For

about seven weeks, he worked on

early planning for the JEDI pro-

curement before recusing himself

from that work over “potential

conflicts” due to “further partner-

ship discussions” between Table-

Hero and Amazon.

In response to Oracle’s allega-

tions that Ubhi and other officials

had biased the procurement in

Amazon’s favor, the Defense De-

partment opened an investiga-

tion into Ubhi’s conduct. The

probe forced the Pentagon to de-

lay its award by several months.

Bruggink’s ruling revealed that

some of the information Ubhi had

provided to the military was false

— and that Amazon was not inter-

ested in partnering with TableHe-

ro. Bruggink also stated that Ama-

zon Web Services rehired Ubhi

“without knowing that he had lied

to DoD about his reason for re-

signing and lied to AWS about

complying with DoD ethics rules.”

“Mr. Ubhi in fact hid relevant

information and misdirected

both DoD and AWS,” Bruggink

wrote.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Pentagon scolds Oracle as fight over cloud contract boils

Defense Dept. takes

swipe after firm fails

to block Amazon’s bid

NICK KIRKPATRICK/THE WASHINGTON POST

Oracle used “manipulative speculation” in its effort to derail the $10 billion single-firm contract award, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

BY SUSAN SVRLUGA

The Education Department
said Tuesday it is recommending
steps to prevent attempted fraud
in college financial aid amid re-
ports of parents transferring cus-
tody of their children so they can
qualify for more help.
The Wall Street Journal and
ProPublica Illinois reported that
some wealthy parents in Illinois
have asked friends or relatives to
take legal guardianship of their
children to allow the teenagers to
claim financial aid. The revela-
tions, in the wake of the “Varsity
Blues” national college-admis-
sions scandal, provoked outrage.
“It was so brazen,” said Andy
Borst, undergraduate admissions
director at the University of Illi-
nois at Urbana-Champaign, who
worries that need-based aid is
being taken away from students
who can’t afford college other-
wise.
“The laws and regulations gov-
erning dependency status were
created to help students who
legitimately need assistance to
attend college,” Education De-
partment spokeswoman Eliza-
beth Hill said in a statement
Tuesday. “Those who break the
rules should be held accountable,
and the Department is commit-
ted to assessing what changes
can be made — either indepen-
dently or in concert with Con-
gress — to protect taxpayers from
those who seek to game the
system for their own financial
gain.”
Borst became concerned last
summer after getting questions
from high school counselors in
affluent areas about orientation
and grant programs for students
from low-income families.
When university officials

looked into it, they found three

cases in which a transfer of

guardianship had recently oc-

curred. The school contacted the

families to ask questions includ-

ing who was paying for the stu-

dent’s health insurance, cell-

phone and other expenses; they

wanted to determine if the stu-

dents still lived with their par-

ents or if they were truly finan-

cially independent of them.

Some families were not forth-

coming, Borst said, and some

parents said they no longer want-

ed to be considered for aid from

the university. The school has

identified 11 additional cases.

The Wall Street Journal report-

ed that a review of probate-court

cases in wealthy Lake County, Ill.,

revealed 38 cases in 2018 in

which guardianship of a high

school junior or senior was trans-

ferred, with nearly all using simi-

lar language in the application:

“The guardian can provide edu-

cational and financial support

and opportunities to the minor

that her parents could not other-

wise provide.”

Borst said he is aware of this

happening at five other colleges.

“It seems to be isolated to this

area outside of Chicago,” said Jill

Desjean, a policy analyst for the

National Association of Student

Financial Aid Administrators.

Without changes, Desjean said

she thought it would be difficult

to detect and stop the practice.

There is a detailed process for

verifying income, she said, but

financial-aid administrators do

not have discretion to question

whether the legal guardianship

was transferred for legitimate

reasons; a judge has made a

determination.

Borst said the University of

Illinois reported concerns to the

Education Department and to an

Illinois agency that oversees state

aid. Because the students have

paperwork showing guardian-

ship had been transferred, they

are eligible to receive federal and

state grants. But lawyers advised

Borst that the university could

use its discretion in deciding

whether to provide its own aid,

he said. Many of the students in

question qualified for “Illinois

Promise,” which can provide tens

of thousands of dollars in aid

annually. The university offers

the aid to ensure that high-

achieving students from even the

lowest-income families can af-

ford an education.

“Attorneys are saying it’s legal,

but at what point does it become

wrong?” Borst said. Because of

the way the state’s grant is struc-

tured, it is first-come, first-served

need-based aid, he said. “By giv-

ing these students money, that

was taking money from students

who are truly low- and middle-in-

come.”

The Education Department’s

Office of Inspector General does

not confirm or deny investiga-

tions, spokeswoman Catherine

Grant said in an email, but she

said the office is aware of the

issue. Grant said officials have

advised the Federal Student Aid

office to add clarifying language

to its handbook: “If a student

enters into a legal guardianship,

but continues to receive medical

and financial support from their

parents, they do not meet the

definition of a legal guardianship

and are still considered a depend-

ent student.”

[email protected]

Parents

reportedly

abuse aid

loophole

Wealthy Ill. families said

to be switching custody

to qualify for tuition help

Infrastructure plan clears

Senate panel but funding

source remains unclear

ISTOCK

An admissions official at the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign was the first to raise concerns about the issue.