The St. Peter Principle*

*Give someone a key, and he thinks he's St. Peter.

That's the principle apparently at work at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to an article at MSNBC.

With no public discussion or input from Congress, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has quietly obtained armed federal police status for a small office of investigators whose big cases typically involve people sleeping on the job, falsifying documents or misplacing equipment. ...

The police status was granted after the office claimed it needed powers it never or rarely uses, and raised the specter of clandestine and dangerous missions in letters and memos to other federal agencies. While police powers may be of questionable value in performing NRC investigations, they support a job classification that pays non-managerial agents an average of $130,000 a year and as much as $145,000.

he Office of Investigations was formed in 1982 to investigate violations by licensees and contractors of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the five-member panel appointed by the president to oversee non-military applications of nuclear technology. When agents suspect criminal violations, they’re supposed to notify the Justice Department, which then decides if a criminal investigation will be opened.

That’s because the NRC has no “statutory authority” to investigate crimes, a power that Congress has specifically granted to other agencies. The agency has recognized it does not have that power and rejected advice in a 2005 “peer review” that it consider seeking it from Congress.

But in 2005 and again last year, all 30 agents in the NRC's Office of Investigations were deputized as U.S. marshals. Known as “blanket deputation” and valid until Nov. 30, 2009, the act gives the NRC agents the power to make arrests, serve search warrants, protect confidential informants, conduct electronic eavesdropping and carry firearms. [Emphasis added]

One wonders just what Guy Caputo, Office of Investigations Director, told the 109th Congress to get that sweet deal for his staff. The increase in pay alone will cost tax payers millions of dollars. The troubling part, however, is the increase in powers given to the thirty investigators, especially the power to conduct electronic eavesdropping. Yet another government agency has entered the arena of snooping on people in the US.

Add this to the list of corrections the 110th Congress needs to make. That law needs to be rolled back.