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Drop cheney halliburton check Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=152-10142003http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=152-10142003
The Hill: Democrats Mount Effort to Strip Cheney of Corporate Salary and Stock Options
10/14/03 7:52:00 PM
To: National Desk, Media Reporter
Contact: Alexander Bolton, 202-489-6323, Mary Lynn F. Jones, 703-244-2368, both of The Hill
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Three Senate Democrats are leading an effort to strip Vice President Dick Cheney of almost $500,000 in deferred compensation from his former employer, Halliburton, Alexander Bolton reports in the Oct. 15 issue of The Hill. And, Bolton writes, on the House side, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee will send a letter to the Bush administration this week alerting it that Halliburton has manipulated the price of exported Iraqi oil, Democratic sources said.
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Democrats mount effort to strip Cheney of corporate salary and stock options
By Alexander Bolton
Senate Democrats want to deprive Vice President Dick Cheney of close to $500,000 in deferred compensation he is scheduled to receive from Halliburton, the energy company he once headed, and to divest himself of over 400,000 stock options he holds in the firm.
The group, led by Sens. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Russ Feingold (Wis.) and Joe Biden (Del.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, will try to amend the $87 billion reconstruction supplemental bill that is currently before the Senate.
Lautenberg is likely to file the amendment tomorrow.
A Lautenberg aide projected that nearly the entire Democratic Caucus, with one or two possible exceptions, will support the effort to force Cheney to relinquish his financial stake in Halliburton. Cheney served as the energy giant's CEO from 1995 to 2000.
On the House side, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee will send a letter to the Bush administration this week alerting it that Halliburton has manipulated the price of exported Iraqi oil, Democratic sources said.
The dual efforts by in the Senate and House indicate that Democrats now view Bush as vulnerable to criticism that corporations with close ties to the administration will reap a windfall from the Iraqi occupation from U.S. taxpayers.
Democrats campaigning for president also have made Halliburton's large government contracts in Iraq an issue on the trail.
The Senate Democrats amendment would also bar companies with current financial ties to the president, the vice president, or cabinet secretaries from receiving government contracts in Iraq.
Officials holding stock options or due to receive deferred compensation from a company with an Iraq contract would have 90 days to exercise them or forfeit them.
The amendment could also affect Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who holds stock options in several companies from which he also receives deferred compensation. However, none of those companies have government contracts in Iraq.
Earlier this year, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton a no-bid contract to extinguish potential oil fires in Iraq.
However, the open nature of the contract has expanded to include digging ditches for telecommunications lines and managing military bases, Senate Democrats charge.
So far, the contract has earned Halliburton $1.25 billion. It was one of several Iraqi reconstruction contracts awarded to Kellogg, Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary.
As Congress considers a bill to spend close to $20 billion to reconstruct Iraq, with additional payments in the future likely, Iraq has become a huge emerging market for some U.S. firms.
For Halliburton, which has seen its stock lose about half its value since 2000, Iraq presents an opportunity to win back lost value for shareholders.
Cheney, who earned $192,600 last year from the government last year, also received over $200,000 in deferred compensation in 2001, and over $160,000 in 2002. Cheney is due to receive similar payments this year and in 2004 and 2005.
If the Democrats prevail, Cheney would have to forego his future compensation because Halliburton already has a contract in Iraq.
Earlier this year, Cheney reported assets worth between $19 million and $87 million in a filing with the Office of Government Ethics.
The vice president also holds 433,333 in unexercised Halliburton stock options. He has the option to buy 100,000 shares at $54.50 by the end of 2007, 33,333 shares at $28.13 by the end of 2007, and 100,000 shares at $39.50 by the end of 2009, data compiled by Lautenberg shows.
Halliburton stock closed on the Big Board yesterday at $24.38 a share.
For Cheney to cash in on his options, Halliburton's stock would have to climb to above those strike prices.
During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" last month, Cheney emphatically denied that he had any financial interest in Halliburton.
"Since I left Halliburton to become George Bush' vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest."
He argues that he plans to donate his stock options to charity if they become valuable. He has also taken out an insurance policy that guarantees that he will receive his deferred compensation even if the company goes out of business.
However, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report requested by Senate Democrats contradicted the vice president.
CRS concluded that unexercised stock option in a private corporation, as well as deferred salary received from a private corporation were "retained ties" or "linkages" to a former employer and should be reported as "financial interests."
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