Where is Patrick Leahy on this? He has made no public statement on the HSBC case, despite being the co-author of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, which was supposed to deliver funds toward prosecuting fraudulent big bank activity (it never actually did). Grassley, a co-author, has spoken out. Why not Leahy?

Dissenters’ Digest takes a look back at news stories covering whistleblowers, watchdogs, and government accountability.

The FDA reportedly has developed an “enemies list” to push back against negative coverage of its oft-criticized review of drugs and medical devices. The list includes not only scientists employed within the FDA, but also congressmen, journalists, and outside medical researchers. These efforts have resulted in the collection of some 80,000 pages of documents that include private emails to Congress, draft whistleblower retaliation complaints, and communications with journalists and attorneys.

Dissenters’ Digest takes a look back at news stories covering whistleblowers, watchdogs, and government accountability.

Is there a way to rescue Medicaid in Red States? After all, if Republican governors value their positions, they’ll fall in line with the prevailing opinion of their hardcore base, which clearly falls on the side of rejecting government-run health care and opting out. So what are the options here?

Dissenters’ Digest takes a look back at news stories covering whistleblowers, watchdogs, and government accountability.

The Senate leadership has given up on trying to pass their version of the STOCK Act, instead planning a vote on the House bill. The two big Senate amendments that lose out here are the Leahy-Cornyn amendment responding to a Supreme Court ruling that weakened prosecutorial use of the “honest services fraud” statute against public officials and businessmen, and one from Chuck Grassley, on “political intelligence.”

When the Senate passed the STOCK Act, the bill that bans insider trading on non-public information picked up in Congress (yes, that’s not against the law right now) along with some other ethics reforms, I thought that could be a vehicle that would move expeditiously through the House. However, even though Majority Leader Eric Cantor made promises that the STOCK Act would get a vote this week, instead what has happened is a free-for-all, with lobbyists gutting the bill at Cantor’s behest.

I think this could lead to the belief that the bill has become a Christmas tree. Harry Reid’s push to legalize online poker in the bill adds to that as well. And nothing will take down this bill faster than cries of “pork” and “the cornhusker kickback” (in this case, actually having to do with corn).

Ethanol subsidies are up for renewal at the end of the year. And some prominent conservatives have pitched letting them expire, to the chagrin of farm-state Senators and establishment Republicans.