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Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), issued a statement yesterday in response to the controversy swirling around the awarding of 23 scholarships by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) to relatives and associates. The statement read, in part:

Neither the Foundation nor the CBC will allow unethical behavior in the awarding of scholarships or any programs that are designed to benefit the community.

Also:

I will not allow the absence of integrity to invade the Foundation nor the scholarship program…

Payne had nothing to say about his participation in a 2008 Caribbean junket that he knew was funded by big companies like Citigroup in violation of House Rules.

Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) has admitted to steering 23 scholarships worth over $25,000 to two grandchildren, two great nephews and the children of a top aide over the past four years.

The scholarships came from a non-profit affiliate of the CBC called the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which Rep. Johnson sat on the board of from 2005 to 2008. The Texas congresswoman’s family members and aides’ children were considered ineligible for the scholarships under the foundation’s anti-nepotism rules.

On May 10, Gary Day, former field representative of Laborers International Union of North America Local 1180, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania to three years probation for embezzling funds from the Harrisburg union. He also was ordered to pay $10,518 in restitution and a $100 special assessment. Day pled guilty in January. The guilty plea and sentencing follow a probe by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

On May 10, Curtis Iwatsubo, former financial secretary-treasurer of Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union Local 52, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to one count of embezzling funds from the Santa Clara local in the amount of $48,434.50. He had been charged in March after having made more than 80 unauthorized withdrawals with his union ATM card and subsequently concealing the thefts on union financial statements. The guilty plea follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

On May 20, Crystal Lynn Croston, former office secretary for Local 1015 of the Laborers International Union of North America, was charged in the Municipal Court of Stark County, Ohio with theft in the amount of $1,344.08 from the Canton local. The charge follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

On May 20, Joseph Kerwan, business manager/treasurer of Sheet Metal Workers Local 112, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York to falsifying records of the Elmira-based union. He also will have to make restitution in the amount of $6,927.55. The guilty plea follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

On May 19, Lisa Wright, former treasurer of the Transit Employees Union, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to three years probation for embezzling $71,470.50 in funds from the Bedford (suburban Cleveland) union. She also will have to make full restitution. Wright pleaded guilty in February. The sentencing and guilty plea follow an investigation by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

On May 18, Richard James, former president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1402, was charged in General District Court for Arlington County, Virginia with embezzling $1,550 in union funds. The charge follows a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

It's been a week since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation swept away ShoreBank's bad assets (cost: $367.7 million), changed its name to Urban Partnership Bank, and left it largely in the hands of the same people (and investors) who ran it before. Since then there have been several articles that called the process and new arrangement "unusual." I guess institutions loved by two presidents call for special treatment.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is a case of "too big to fail." At least a number of members of Congress see it that way. And they are planning a push for legislation designed to shore up underfunded multiemployer private-sector pension funds whose result could put taxpayers on the hook for billions, if not tens of billions, of dollars. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., and Reps. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., and Patrick Tiberi, R-Ohio, the driving forces behind this measure, seek to shift the primary responsibility of keeping pensions adequately funded from unions and unionized employers onto the general public. It's another example of the bailout culture in action.