Waco Special Counsel's FY 2000 Budget - Attachments
Office of Special Counsel Danforth (Waco Investigatlon) Independent Counsel (Permanenl Indefinite Appropriation) Program Performance Information (Dollars in Thousands)
ACTIVITY: SPECIAL COUNSEL
1999 Actual Expenditures $1,063
2000 Estimate $9,704
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: On September 9,1999 the Attorney General selected former United States Senator John C. Danforth as Special Counsel to head a review into events surrounding the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993. Senator Danforth's appointment was made by the Attorney General in order to discharge her responsibility to provide supervision and management of the Department of Justice, including 28 U.S.C. Sections 509 and 510. Senator Danforth was sworn in as Special Counsel on October 4, 1999. As more fully defined in Attorney General Order Number 2256-99, the Senator will have the authority to investigate whether any government employee or agent engaged in any of the following activities with respect to the fire at the Mt. Carmel compound on April 18, 1993: (1) made false or misleading statements, allowed others to make such statements, or withheld evidence or information concerning the events at the compound on that date; (2) destroyed, altered or suppressed evidence or information about the events at the compound on that date; (3) used any incendiary or pyrotechnic device at the compound on that date, (4) started, or contributed to the spread of the fire at the compound on that date; or, (5) engaged in gunfire at the compound on that date. The Special Counsel is also authorized to investigate whether there was any illegal use of the armed forces of the United States in connection with the events leading to the deaths that occurred at the compound. If the Special Counsel believes that it is necessary and appropriate, he is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from his investigation, or the obstruction thereof.
Title 26, Sections 600.4 through 600.10 of the Code of Federal Regulatlons are applicable to the Special Counsel. Section 600.8(a) of this title states that
The Office of Special Counsel will receive its funding from the Independent Counsel appropriation. In the 1988 Commerce, Justice, State and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, Congress established a permanent indefinite appropriation to fund the expenses of Independent Counsel investigations and prosecutions. Under this appropriation, all necessary costs and expenses incurred in the pursuit of these investigations were to be funded from amounts available in the Treasury. Independent Counsel Investigations were authorized by Congress in the 1976 Ethics In Government Act. The authorizatlon expired on December 15, 1992, five years after the enactment of the Independent Counsel Reauthorization Act of 1987. However, the provisions of the chapter remained in effect for ongoing investigations. In June 1994, the Independent Counsel Reauthorization Act of 1994 was signed into law. On June 30, 1999, the Reauthorization Act of 1994 expired and to date there has been no reauthorization. In spite of the sunset of the Independent Counsel Act, the Independent Counsel appropriation remains in effect to cover the costs of those Counsels whose work was ongoing at the time the Act expired. The House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees for the Commerce, Justice, State and Related Agencies appropriation were informed by the Department of Justice in September, 1999, of its intention to use the Independent Counsel appropriation as the source of funding for the Office of Special Counsel Danforth.