WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers are investigating a billing dispute of at least $750 million between the main supplier of food to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the Pentagon.

The Pentagon says Supreme Foodservice GmbH overcharged it, but the Netherlands-headquartered company said the rates were properly based on the complexities and dangers of supplying food in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

The Republican and Democratic leaders of a House of Representatives panel have written to the company as well as the Pentagon’s Defence Logistics Agency, demanding information and documents within ten days about the dispute on a contract dating to 2005 that so far has cost U.S. taxpayers $5.5 billion.

The lawmakers’ probe comes amid continuing concerns about waste and abuse of tax dollars in Afghanistan, with scrutiny intensifying as the Pentagon budget faces big cuts.

With such a large sum in dispute, lawmakers questioned the Pentagon’s oversight of the food contract, and also appear worried that Supreme could get the business again when an even larger follow-on contract is awarded this December.

The Pentagon has solicited bids for a follow-on contract estimated at $10 billion to $30 billion over five years, although U.S. combat troops are expected to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

“The American taxpayers refuse to accept a government contractor that bills more than $750 million in unsubstantiated charges, and they refuse to accept the Pentagon’s failure to manage this contract properly,” Representative John Tierney said in a statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The lawmakers are investigating a billing dispute of at least $750 million between the main supplier of food to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the Pentagon.

The Pentagon says Supreme Foodservice GmbH overcharged it, but the Netherlands-headquartered company said the rates were properly based on the complexities and dangers of supplying food in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

The Republican and Democratic leaders of a House of Representatives panel have written to the company as well as the Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency, demanding information and documents within ten days about the dispute on a contract dating to 2005 that so far has cost U.S. taxpayers $5.5 billion.

The lawmakers’ probe comes amid continuing concerns about waste and abuse of tax dollars in Afghanistan, with scrutiny intensifying as the Pentagon budget faces big cuts.

With such a large sum in dispute, lawmakers questioned the Pentagon’s oversight of the food contract, and also appear worried that Supreme could get the business again when an even larger follow-on contract is awarded this December.

The Pentagon has solicited bids for a follow-on contract estimated at $10 billion to $30 billion over five years, although U.S. combat troops are expected to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

“The American taxpayers refuse to accept a government contractor that bills more than $750 million in unsubstantiated charges, and they refuse to accept the Pentagon’s failure to manage this contract properly,” Representative John Tierney said in a statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the Secret Service, in his first public appearance since a scandal involving Colombian prostitutes and his employees, apologized for the misconduct on Wednesday but lawmakers expressed doubt that this was an isolated incident.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, gray-haired in a blue striped suit and tie, faced the Senate Homeland Security Committee and asserted that the behavior of a dozen employees in Cartagena last month did not reflect the culture of the agency.

“I am deeply disappointed and I apologize for the misconduct of these employees and the distraction that it has caused,” Sullivan said.

“Over the past several weeks, we have been under intense scrutiny as a result of this incident. To see the agency’s integrity called into question has not been easy,” he said.

In the biggest scandal to hit the agency that protects the president, a dozen Secret Service employees were accused of misconduct for bringing women, some of them prostitutes, back to their hotel rooms in Colombia, ahead of a presidential trip.

Senator Susan Collins, the senior Republican on the committee, said “the behavior is morally repugnant.” She and other senators said they found it difficult to believe the misconduct was an isolated incident.

Collins said there was no excuse for such “recklessness” and that the Secret Service employees had “willingly made themselves potential targets” and could easily have been drugged, kidnapped or blackmailed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A prostitution scandal in Colombia involving U.S. Secret Service employees did not result in any security breach and was not behaviour that reflected the high ethical standards of the agency, the director of the agency said.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan defended the culture of the agency in testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on Wednesday, saying its employees were among the most dedicated and “self-sacrificing” in the federal government. It will be his first public appearance before Congress since the scandal.

But in the wake of the scandal over events in the coastal city of Cartagena, Colombia, Sullivan said he has ordered a review that will produce an “action plan” to reinforce professional conduct standards at the agency. His testimony for the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing was obtained on Tuesday by Reuters.

Secret Service employees and military personnel have been linked to raucous behaviour in which they took as many as 21 women, at least some of them prostitutes, back to their hotel rooms ahead of a visit to Colombia by President Barack Obama for the April 13-15 Summit of the Americas.

Sullivan said that Secret Service personnel that had gone to Colombia ahead of the summit were scheduled to be briefed on their assignments on April 12, the day after the night of misconduct.

“Thus, at the time the misconduct occurred, none of the individuals involved in misconduct had received any specific protective information, sensitive security documents, firearms, radios or other security related equipment in their hotel rooms,” he said.

The security plan for the summit was not compromised and there were no negative security-related incidents at the summit, he said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A prostitution scandal in Colombia involving U.S. Secret Service employees did not result in any security breach and was not behavior that reflected the high ethical standards of the agency, the director of the agency said.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan defended the culture of the agency in testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on Wednesday, saying its employees were among the most dedicated and “self-sacrificing” in the federal government. It will be his first public appearance before Congress since the scandal.

But in the wake of the scandal over events in the coastal city of Cartagena, Colombia, Sullivan said he has ordered a review that will produce an “action plan” to reinforce professional conduct standards at the agency. His testimony for the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing was obtained on Tuesday by Reuters.

Secret Service employees and military personnel have been linked to raucous behavior in which they took as many as 21 women, at least some of them prostitutes, back to their hotel rooms ahead of a visit to Colombia by President Barack Obama for the April 13-15 Summit of the Americas.

Sullivan said that Secret Service personnel that had gone to Colombia ahead of the summit were scheduled to be briefed on their assignments on April 12, the day after the night of misconduct.

“Thus, at the time the misconduct occurred, none of the individuals involved in misconduct had received any specific protective information, sensitive security documents, firearms, radios or other security related equipment in their hotel rooms,” he said.

The security plan for the summit was not compromised and there were no negative security-related incidents at the summit, he said.

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) – A U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday voted to eliminate funding for a police training program for Iraq, saying the danger and expense were just too great after the American troop pullout last year.

“Why keep throwing good money after bad?” asked Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid.

The panel refused to provide $850 million that President Barack Obama’s administration requested for fiscal year 2013 for the program, in which U.S. security advisers are training Iraqi police. It has been seen as a key component of the U.S. civilian aid mission to Iraq now that U.S. troops are gone.

The subcommittee’s decision must still be ratified by the full Senate and the House of Representatives for it to become law.

The cut was part of an attempted re-ordering of U.S. aid priorities by the Senate appropriators in a time of budget austerity. The lawmakers opted to slash U.S. aid programs in battle-scarred countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to preserve some cash for foreign aid elsewhere.

The panel slashed the Obama administration’s request for spending on aid to Afghanistan by 28 percent, for Pakistan by 58 percent, and for Iraq by a whopping 78 percent, including the police program.

Aid to Pakistan and Iraq have been controversial for some time in Congress. But Leahy said: “There is less and less support for giving aid to Afghanistan.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate unanimously approved on Monday a package of new economic sanctions on Iran’s oil sector just days ahead of a meeting in Baghdad between major world powers and Tehran.

The sanctions add to a raft of punitive measures by the United States and the European Union aimed at shrinking Iran’s oil revenues to force it to halt a nuclear program the West suspects is being used to build an atomic bomb.

Iran has said its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.

The new package would extend sanctions to cover dealings with the National Iranian Oil Co and National Iranian Tanker Co, if they are deemed to be an agent or affiliate of the Revolutionary Guards. It aims to close a potential loophole that could have allowed Tehran to continue selling some of its oil using its own fleet.

The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill in December and now the Senate and House must work out their differences in the legislation before it is signed into law by President Barack Obama.

“This bill is another tool that will demonstrate to Iran that the United States is not backing down,” Robert Menendez, the Democratic senator who helped craft the legislation, said on the Senate floor.

“Today, the U.S. Senate put Iranian leaders on notice that they must halt all uranium enrichment activities or face another round of economic sanctions from the United States,” said Republican Senator Mark Kirk, a co-author of the bill, in a statement. The Senate bill was brought up on Thursday but was blocked by Republicans who wanted some parts toughened up.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate gave unanimous approval on Monday to a package of new economic sanctions on Iran’s oil sector just days ahead of a meeting in Baghdad between major world powers and Tehran.

The West suspects Iran is working to build a nuclear bomb and the sanctions are meant to strip Tehran of revenue by shutting down financial deals with Iran’s powerful state oil and tanker enterprises. Iran has said its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.

The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill in December and now the Senate and House must work out their differences in the legislation.

But by passing the bill ahead of the Baghdad meeting, the Senate has shown Iran that “buying time … is just not going to work,” Robert Menendez, the Democratic senator who helped craft the legislation, said on the Senate floor.

The new sanctions build on penalties signed into law by President Barack Obama in December against foreign institutions trading with Iran’s central bank. Those sanctions already have cut deeply into Iran’s oil trade.

The new package would extend sanctions to cover dealings with the National Iranian Oil Co and National Iranian Tanker Co, aiming to close a potential loophole that could have allowed Tehran, the world’s third-largest petroleum exporter, to continue selling some of its oil.

The Senate bill was brought up on Thursday but was blocked by Republicans who wanted some parts toughened up. Senator John McCain said the revised bill shows “we need a comprehensive policy” to include economic sanctions, diplomacy, military planning capabilities and options.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A House of Representatives committee voted on Thursday to cut off economic aid to any country that hosts Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes.

The provision is not yet law, and could change as foreign aid legislation moves through Congress this year. It was approved by the House Appropriations Committee as part of that legislation, which would slash spending on the U.S. State Department and foreign assistance by some 9 percent.

The legislation denies some aid the Obama administration sought for Pakistan, places conditions on some spending in Afghanistan and rejects a special fund that President Barack Obama wanted to set up for “Arab spring” countries.

It is likely to pass the Republican-majority House this summer, but the Democrat-run Senate has not yet weighed in with its foreign aid blueprint for fiscal 2013, which starts on October 1. The chambers must agree on the same version before the president, a Democrat, can sign it into law.

The House committee approved the amendment dealing with Bashir on a voice vote following an impassioned plea by Representative Frank Wolf, who declared that international isolation of Bashir would lead to his downfall.

“No one should allow this guy in – this is a moral issue,” declared Wolf, a Republican.

BASHIR IS WELL-TRAVELED

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – No one talks tougher against prostitution than the U.S. military.

Even in countries where prostitution is legal, military personnel violating a seven-year-old Department of Defense policy against paying for sex face up to a year in jail and dishonorable discharge if caught.

Officers and troops are taught about the links between human trafficking and prostitution. They also face country-specific instructions at bases like the U.S. installation in South Korea, where the policy describes prostitution as “cruel and demeaning.”

But the involvement of U.S. military personnel and Secret Service agents in a raucous April outing with prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, has underscored the gaps between the written policies and real-life experiences at military assignments around the world.

While the Secret Service has acted promptly and openly, even announcing Friday new ethics training and policies for traveling agents, the military has stayed mostly mum about how it is addressing possible violations of its prostitution rules.

After the Colombia scandal broke, initial attention focused on the dozen agents from the Secret Service, a civilian agency, for fear safety of the president or other officials might have been compromised. Eight agents have since left the service, one had his security clearance revoked and three were cleared.

“INCOMPATIBLE” WITH MILITARY VALUES