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This Week's Updates:
Following the Money in the Tennessee State Legislature
Three weeks ago, Tennessee state Rep. Scotty Campbell resigned from office after the legislature’s bipartisan ethics subcommittee found that he had sexually harassed interns, one of whom needed to be moved to a hotel for her own protection. By the end of the internship session, taxpayer-funded expenses for her lodging and the shipping of her belongings reached nearly $9,000—the intern later telling NewsChannel5, “it feels as if they are trying to buy my silence.”
While House Speaker Cameron Sexton initially tried to blame an ethics subcommittee for the blatant misuse of funds, on Tuesday, Sexton’s claim was called into question by an anonymous member of that subcommittee, who said they weren’t aware that the subcommittee had spending authority. Sexton claims to know very little about the case, but told The Tennessee Lookout that funds for the intern’s relocation came from the Office of Legislative Administration, which is run by Director Connie Ridley. In her emails, the intern said that she had been “implored” by Director Ridley “not to communicate about the instances with anyone.” Both The Lookoutand other lawmakers point out that the legislature’s sexual harassment policy makes no mention of spending on behalf of victims. Without transparency into this process, it is impossible to know whether previous incidents have resulted in large expenditures – or if those incidents were ever reported to the public.
This isn’t the only potential misuse of taxpayer funds that has taken place under Sexton’s speakership. In April, CfA filed a complaint calling for an investigation into per-diem requests made by the Speaker to compensate himself for lodging in Nashville – despite already appearing to maintain his primary residence in that city.
FTC Cracks Down on Student Loan Fraudsters
This week, the FTC shut down several student loan repayment schemes which stole approximately $12 million from debtors, many of whom were low-income. The companies in question promised to provide borrowers with loan forgiveness and claimed that they were affiliated with the Department of Education or other government programs. Instead of helping students pay back their loans, the companies illegally collected advance fees and pocketed the payments.
While these particular companies appear to have reached their victims over the phone, CfA’s Tech Transparency Project found that Google allowed similar student loan scams to place ads in search results for phrases like “student loan repayment” and “Biden loan forgiveness.” While the FTC’s enforcement actions are encouraging, it’s important that scammers be prevented from running advertisements in the first place. Just in the past month, Google has been accused of running search ads for crypto scams, fake trademark websites, and “free credit report” pages designed to mislead people into paying for additional services. At the end of the day, bad actors will keep taking advantage of Google’s ad platform until the company is forced to strengthen its screening process.
