Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.law From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: law Thu, Jul 30 1992 Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 04:32:02 EDT Message-ID: 07-30 0000 DECISIONLINE: Business Law USA TODAY Update July 30, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network BUSH WANTS MORE CLEANUP MONEY: President Bush renewed his request Wednesday to Congress for more savings and loan cleanup money, saying taxpayers "should not be burdened with the costs of delay." But a fractious House Banking Committee showed that the prospect of swift congressional action remains far from certain. Aides said they saw little chance of the House approving more money for at least several months. RTC HAS ALREADY SPENT $87B: The Resolution Trust Corp. has spent $87 billion since 1989 closing 652 of 718 seized thrifts. The Senate passed legislation in March giving the RTC an extra $43 billion to finish the job, but House members defeated even a scaled-down version of $18 billion. HOMEFED WILL COST $2B: The failure of San Diego-based HomeFed Bank likely will cost taxpayers more than $2 billion, says Timothy Ryan, head of the Office of Thrift Supervision. Ryan's statement, reported in the Los Angeles Times Wednesday, suggests HomeFed's bailout cost could top the most expensive failure to date: the $2.6 billion collapse of Lincoln Savings. SEC HELPING SMALL BUSINESS: The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rules Wednesday to make it cheaper and easier for small businesses to raise money in the stock and bond markets. The plan lets small businesses use simpler forms to register securities offerings and disclosing information to investors, and will apply to companies with up to $25 million in annual revenue and outstanding public stock. CLIFFORD, ALTMAN CHARGED: Washington insider Clark Clifford, 85, and his law partner Robert Altman, 45, were charged Wednesday with making millions in illegal profits from the BCCI international banking scandal. The charges in separate federal and New York indictments ranged from criminal conspiracy to accepting bribes. The two men denied all the charges brought against them. MINORITY BUSINESS SUFFOCATING: A report by the U.S. Commission on Minority Business Development says the Small Business Administration's 8a program is strangling minority business. The report recommends transferring parts of the program, which awards $3.8 billion a year in contracts, to a new Commerce Department agency. A government subcommittee reviewed the report Wednesday and President Bush should receive it in two weeks. CAREY WARNS OF A FIGHT: Teamsters President Ron Carey said Wednesday he will fight a federal government bid to expand control over the union, once accused of making a "devil's pact" with organized crime. Carey said the Justice Department petitioned a federal court in New York to amend the decree to give the government unilateral authority to trigger investigations and spend union funds on staff and expenses. SEVEN OIL FIRMS INVESTIGATED: A bitterly divided House Interior Committee voted Wednesday to recommend the Justice Department investigate whether seven oil firms and their security company broke the law in a cross-country sting operation designed to silence Alaska oil industry whistle-blowers. Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., denied that the yearlong probe was a personal crusade with a fixed outcome. N.J. GETS FUNDING: A Senate appropriations panel approved legislation Wednesday that would pump $300 million into New Jersey for transportation projects and freeze salary increases at the Federal Aviation Administration, pending action by that agency on aircraft noise. The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee unanimously approved the 1993 transportation spending bill. `SUPER TRAIN' GETS OK: A Senate appropriations panel Wednesday approved a spending bill that restores funding for an experimental magnetically levitated "super train." The legislation provides $45 million for fiscal 1993 that would begin an ambitious six-year competition to build an American "maglev" train that could haul passengers and freight at speeds approaching 300 miles per hour. DINGELL TO CONTINUE PROBE: Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of a House investigative panel, promised Wednesday to continue a wide-ranging probe that involves Israel, major defense contractors and the Defense Department itself. Dingell claimed that Pentagon oversight "stinks" and American taxpayers are being "swindled," following the indictment of General Electric Co. on fraud charges last week. GE MAKES APOLOGY: The head of General Electric Wednesday apologized to Congress for a $40 million defense-procurement scandal involving jet engine sales and diversion of funds to Israel. Lt. Gen. Teddy Allen, in charge of the military assistance program that was bilked, said there are signs Israel's new government will reverse Israeli refusal to cooperate with a probe of the case. INDEPENDENTS GET TAX BREAKS: The Senate voted 63-32 to give independent oil and gas producers $1 billion in new tax breaks as it considered a wide-ranging energy bill aimed at reducing the USA's dependence on foreign oil. A plan to cut the oil and gas benefits from the package, which also provides new tax incentives for conservation, bus and commuter train tickets and cars powered by alternative fuels, was defeated. IRS DROPS DEFERMENT CHALLENGE: Pacific Gateway Properties Inc. Wednesday announced that an IRS challenge has been dropped. The challenge concerned tax-deferred reporting of property exchanges conducted by its Golden Gateway Building Company partnership in 1988. The company said it has been advised that the IRS won't propose any adjustments. The property in question is the Alco Building in downtown San Francisco. BRADY WANTS CFTC DECISION: U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady again Wednesday urged Congress to pass a bill reauthorizing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Bloomberg Business News reports. The Securities and Exchange Commission and CFTC have argued for nearly three years about who should have jurisdiction and margin-setting authority over stock index futures. Business Law Editor: Kate Coughlin. (919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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