FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
June 21, 2007
CONTACT:
Jessica Rhoades 406.442.9520
Unanswered Questions About Inland Northwest Space Alliance May Plague Rehberg in Election Year
(Helena, MT) – It’s been awhile,
but the Inland Northwest Space Alliance [INSA] and its Washington patron, Rep. Dennis Rehberg, still owe Montanans some answers to lingering
questions. Recently the Washington Post carried an article referencing Rehberg’s help for Robert Bigelow of
Bigelow Aerospace, implicated in the INSA scandal last year. That scandal was an important factor in bringing down Sen. Conrad
Burns in the November election. Some disturbing questions about Rehberg’s involvement with INSA remain unanswered.
1. Return of
Funds: While the State of Montana’s legislative audit of the organization is now completed, the FBI and the NASA Inspector General
are still investigating INSA’s misuse of millions of federal tax dollars earmarked by Rehberg and Burns.
Will NASA demand that INSA return the millions of squandered funds?
2. Conflicts of
Interest: New West has reported that the wife of Rehberg’s chief of staff, Erik Iverson, was employed by
INSA until February of 2006 – when the trouble started. Isn’t it a little suspicious when a Congressman is directing
federal tax dollars to a shadowy organization that employs his chief of staff’s wife, and other Republican campaign operatives, in high-paying
jobs? Was there a competitive search for Ms. Iverson’s position at INSA? How much was she paid and what
was expected of her at the INSA position? [New West, 3/16/06]
3. What Happens
in Vegas: Rehberg took a three-day trip to Las Vegas in February 2004, financed by Robert Bigelow.
Rehberg’s chief of staff Erik Iverson claimed afterwards that the trip resulted in Bigelow hiring Missoula-based INSA.
But INSA listed no income from corporate contracts in its 2004 tax filing. If no contract with INSA resulted from
Rehberg’s trip, why did Congressman Rehberg go to Las Vegas on the dime of Robert Bigelow?
"Iverson said
Rehberg had helped obtain $500,000 in federal aid for Montana's budding aerospace industry and that Bigelow hoped the three-term lawmaker could get
more funding." [Billings Gazette,
6/2/05]
Since INSA’s inception in 2003, the
organization spent about $8 million. More than $5 million of that amount came directly from federal earmarks procured by Rehberg
and Burns. Taxpayers received no visible benefit or product from those dollars, other than a small “Space Camp” at a
few Montana grade schools featuring an “Imagine Yourself in Space” photo booth. The organization’s offices
appear to now be shuttered.
According to an April 12, 2007 Washington
Post story:
“Bigelow was briefly in the news last
year because of his earlier association with former senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), who won
numerous earmarks designed to create a space industry in Montana. According to published reports, Bigelow and his chief counsel were generous
contributors to Burns and to Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), who both worked to bring government funds to a Montana collaboration that
included Bigelow for a short time.”
Iverson, who lives in Missoula in the Mansion
Heights, is set to be elected Chair of the Montana Republican Party on Saturday.
Reporter Betsy Cohen of the Missoulian
was named this month a finalist for the IRE Medal give by Investigative Reporters and Editors for her series of stories unearthing the INSA scandal
in 2006.
“It’s high time for Congressman
Rehberg to answer these simple questions,” said Jim Farrell, of the Montana Democratic Party. “People lose faith in
their government and their democracy over such things, and that is wrong.”
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