Slush funds dig- it's way worse than we thought…
This started while digging into The Asia Foundation. I read about it being created in 1951 as the Committee for Asia, a proprietary CIA undertaking for cultural/educational activities that lie outside of official US channels. CIA funding was under Project DTPILLAR.
It was renamed to The Asia Foundation in 1954 and became a "quasi-nongovernmental organization" so it would appear private but have its core budget funded by we the taxpayers.
The Asia Foundation isn't the only entity set up like this, but good luck finding them all- there is no list and only a very few admitted to in the CRS Report: The Quasi Government: Hybrid Organizations with Both Government and Private Sector Legal Characteristics (2011).
These entities have ties to the executive branch but are not "agencies" of the United States. They are
1) quasi official agencies;
2) government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs);
3) federally funded research and development corporations (FFRDCs);
4) agency-related non-profit organizations; (like The Asia Foundation)
5) venture capital funds; (Loop capital?)
6) congressionally chartered nonprofit organizations; and
7) instrumentalities of indeterminate character.
GSEs have no established criteria defining standards to be met prior to establishment. Basically, GSEs are defined by Congress in its enabling legislation.
GSEs that are listed in the report are: National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), Legal Services Corporation, Smithsonian Institute, State Justice Institute, United States Institute of Peace, National Consumer Cooperative Bank, National Acadamy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Farmer Mac, Federal Home Loan Bank System, Farm Credit System, National Park Foundation, In-Q-Tel, Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT), Corporation for Public Broadcasting
FFRDCs listed in the report (much more interesting)
RAND (created by the Air Force in 1947), Mitre Corporation, Aerospace, Institute for Defense Analyses, National laboratories at Oak Ridge and Los Alamos (government-owned, contractor operated -GOCO- facilities) and the Federal Aviation Administration
The IRS established an FFRDC as well as the Dept. of Homeland Security but it is not listed what they were.
GSEs and FFRDCs can be located within the Omnibus by their label of "Government sponsored enterprise."
In FY2009, FFRDC annual federal obligations were roughly $9.5 billion and were ballooning rapidly with accelerated creation of more (GSEs and) FFRDCs.
The slush fund aspect comes into government officials naming themselves a board member of one or more of these entities and drawing whatever paycheck they think they can get away with.
There's much more in this report and could really use some more eyes as well as digging into the Omnibus to try and uncover all these entities.