The Chicago Politician, the Discredited Non-Profit and a Mystery Earmark

by Capitol Confidential

In last year’s federal budget, Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky introduced and then withdrew what appears to have been a multi-million dollar earmark for the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a now-defunct nonprofit that claims to have provided first aid training for nearly two million students, many of them in the Chicago Public Schools.

Problem #1: Three years earlier, SALF had been the subject of a series of hard-hitting ABC7 Chicago investigative reports that raised serious questions about every aspect of the organization: its founder, its operations, and its funding.

Problem #2: The Chicago Public Schools can’t or won’t produce records that support SALF’s claims.

Problem #3: Rep. Schakowsky won’t answer easy questions like these:  What was the dollar amount of her intended earmark for SALF? Why was she funding a non-profit that years before had been the subject of four scorching ABC7 exposes? What’s her relationship with the charity’s founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri, a convicted shoplifter who obtained millions in federal and state funds over the years? Does Rep. Schakowsky think SALF should be investigated in order to determine if those millions were properly spend?

The Progressive Politician

Jan Schakowsky’s district is north of Chicago and includes Evanston, Skokie, and west to Des Plaines. She’s the Democrat’s Chief Deputy Whip in the House and serves on the Steering and Policy Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, and chairs the House Select Committee on Intelligence’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. A member of the Democratic Progressive Caucus, she’s considered one of the most liberal members in Congress.

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The Discredited Foundation

A recent American Thinker article provided an overview of the Save-A-Life Foundation and asked why SALF employee turned whistleblower Annabel Melongo is now in Cook County Jail with a $300,000 bond for a minor felony charge of “eavesdropping.” From 1993 until it folded September 17, 2009, SALF received “at least $8.6 million in federal and state grants” as well as funding from the Ronald McDonald House, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and other foundations.

SALF also enjoyed support from a host of powerful public officials on both sides of the aisle including, but not limited to: IL Sen. Dick Durbin; IL Attorney General Lisa Madigan; Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael Madigan (Lisa’s father); U.S. Secretary of Education and former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Arne Duncan: and current Republican senatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk.

SALF began unraveling in November 2006 when Chicago’s ABC7 aired the first of a series of investigative reports that exposed dubious claims about the numbers of students trained and that Spizzirri was not a Registered Nurse with a four-year college degree as she claimed. Most shocking, Spizzirri and her organization altered the facts surrounding her 18-year-old daughter’s death in a Labor Day 1992 car crash, presumably to enhance fundraising. When ABC7 Chicago reporter Chuck Goudie confronted Spizzirri about it, she stormed out of the interview.

On May 31, 2007, ABC7 broadcast the fourth Goudie story. It began with the statement that “Save-A-Life’s main government funding may be drying up.” In an interview with now-retired Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., he acted as if he’d never even heard of Spizzirri’s organization, let alone helped fund it. But two years later, blogger Doug Ross uploaded tax documents that identified Sen. Jones, Barack Obama’s political mentor, as one of their corporate officers.

The Mystery Earmark

But, as Ross first reported, SALF’s government funding didn’t dry up in 2007. According to her press secretary Sarah Baldauf, Rep. Schakowsky submitted an earmark for SALF in February 2008 for the 2009 federal budget. Later, Schakowsky withdrew the earmark when the organization began having “troubles,” according to Baldauf, a former health writer for U.S. News & World Report. So Big Government submitted these questions to Baldauf in hopes of getting answers from her boss:

(1) ABC News Chicago investigative reporter Chuck Goudie’s four reports on SALF aired from Nov 2006 – May 2007. The Congresswoman pulled support for the SALF earmarks sometime after she originally proposed them in Feb 2008, 9-10 months after Goudie’s reports.

(a) What prompted the delay in withdrawing her support for the earmarks, particularly since the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) had ceased doing business with SALF as was communicated by DPS CEO Arne Duncan in a letter to SALF founder and director Carol Spizzirri in December 2005?

(b) Was Congresswoman Schakowsky unaware of the turmoil surrounding SALF? Or, was she misled as to the seriousness of the allegations against SALF by Spizzirri, ex-Palatine Mayor Rita Mullins [Spizzirri’s partner running SALF], or someone related to SALF in an official or unofficial capacity?

(2) SALF received, over the years of its operation, $2,633,000 in grants from the CDC. Has Congresswoman Schakowsky ever called for an investigation concerning whether those federal grant monies, and any other federal grant monies, were properly expended by SALF? If not, why not?

(3) What was the amount of the SALF earmarks Congresswoman Schakowsky originally proposed for the FY 2009 budget?

Despite multiple follow-up queries, here’s the only response Baldauf would provide:

As I’ve said, the Congresswoman withdrew her support for SALF when she learned of the group’s troubles. She never helped secure any money for the foundation.

Since Schakowsky’s husband went to prison for financial fraud involving another nonprofit of which she was a board member, you’d think she’d be more sensitive about such things. Instead, she gives the brush-off to those asking questions.


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Posted Jun 25th 2010 at 7:37 am in Congress, Culture, Earmarks, Federal Spending, News, Politics, State Politics | 73 Comments