Feds Spent Billions to Resolve Suits in 2012
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The federal government spent more than $4 billion to resolve lawsuits last year, a $1.3 billion increase from spending in 2011, an analysis of government records shows.
The 7,000 payments, which are detailed in an obscure database overseen by the Treasury Department known as the Judgment Fund, tell a story of the federal government’s inner workings. They highlight often devastating mistakes made by government workers — such as the air-traffic controller who was allegedly making a personal phone call when a small plane and a helicopter collided — and reveal how much the government paid in recompense — in that case, $18.7 million to a woman whose husband and son were among the dead.
Other payments reflect profound policy failures, notably $1 billion authorized by the Department of Energy for breaching its contracts with multiple utilities to store spent nuclear fuel. The government was supposed to begin storing the fuel in 1998, but has no prospect now of doing so after the Obama administration terminated a proposed site in Nevada in 2010.
Read original articleTags: federal government, government records, government workers, Treasury Department
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