General Electric is a diversified technology, manufacturing and
services company, which produces transportation equipment, aircraft
engines, consumer and industrial appliances, lighting, nuclear
reactors, medical equipment and plastics. It owns the NBC television
network, a global media powerhouse with significant holdings in
broadcast and cable television and the Internet. GE's financial and
insurance divisions account for nearly half of the company's sales,
making the company one of the largest financial services companies in
the United States. The company has operations in more than 100
countries, a workforce of more than 315,000, and 2002 revenue of over
$131 billion. GE ranks fifth in the Fortune 500.

Not surprising given its size, GE spends considerably to advocate its
interests. In 2001 and 2002, the company spent more than $31 million
lobbying Congress, federal agencies and the Executive Office of the
President on issues touching on virtually all aspects of its
operations: defense appropriations, environmental cleanup, energy,
science and technology, aviation, banking and finance,
telecommunications, domestic and foreign trade, foreign relations and
taxation. GE spread its lobbying business among many individual
lobbyists and lobbying firms, both in-house and outside. It spent $16
million on overall lobbying in 2000, twice what it spent in 1999.

GE was established in New York in 1892 when Thomson-Houston Electric
Company merged with Edison General Electric. Inventor Thomas Edison
was one of the company's first directors. Early products included
light bulbs, elevators, motors and kitchen appliances. By 1980, GE had
reached $25 billion in revenue. In the 1980s, under the stewardship of
CEO Jack Welch, GE acquired NBC, Employers Reinsurance and CGR medical
equipment. In the 1990s, GE began selling mutual funds, formed the
MSNBC cable news channel with Microsoft, bought aircraft engine
maintenance firms Greenwich Air Services and UNC, and acquired
Lockheed Martin's medical imaging unit.
Iraq contracts

GE's reconstruction activities in Iraq were not disclosed in documents
the Defense Department provided to the Center for Public Integrity in
response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Media sources,
however, indicate that GE has or had post-war business dealings in
Iraq. For instance, it was reported in April 2003 that GE Energy
Rentals Inc., a division of GE Power Systems, was supplying temporary
electrical generators to the U.S. military in Iraq. GE Energy Rentals,
based in Atlanta, rents power generators, heating and cooling
equipment and light towers. It was launched as a separate division in
June 1999. The company refused to divulge the value of the contract.
Afghanistan contracts

The documents the Center received from the Defense Department revealed
that GE was awarded a contract worth $5,927,870 from the U.S. Army
Engineer District, Philadelphia, for "gas services." News releases
available on the Defense Department's Web site, however, go into
greater detail. For example, the contract is a firm-fixed-price
contract awarded in February 2003 to GE Energy Rentals Inc. to provide
prime power services at Bagram and Kandahar airbases. The contract is
to be completed by Nov. 30, 2004. Seven bids were solicited for the
contract in December 2002, and two bids were received.
Government ties

Before joining GE in 1993, Kenneth V. Meyer, a vice president of GE
Aircraft Engines, was a major general in the U.S. Air Force and served
as director of Air Force contracting at the Pentagon and chief of
staff for Air Force Systems Command.

Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Benjamin W.
Heineman Jr. served at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare
from 1977 to 1980, completing his tenure there as assistant secretary
for planning and evaluation.

Sam Nunn, a GE director since 1997, was a Democratic U.S. senator from
Georgia from 1973 until his retirement in 1997. He served as the
chairman and ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee and
the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Francis S. Blake, a former senior vice president at GE, served as
deputy secretary of energy from May 2001 until he resigned in April
2002. He played a key role in the formation of President Bush's
controversial national energy plan, but resigned after less than a
year on the job. He attracted criticism for holding a series of policy
meetings that were dominated by energy industry representatives. Prior
to joining GE in 1991, Blake had been general counsel at the
Environmental Protection Agency during the final three years of the
Reagan administration and, prior to that, deputy counsel to former
Vice President George Bush and deputy counsel to the Presidential Task
Force on Regulatory Relief.

Former CEO Jack Welch was a George W. Bush supporter and a major
Republican contributor. Two weeks before his inauguration, Bush
invited Welch and other CEO's (including Enron's Ken Lay) to Texas for
a summit. Bush reportedly considered Welch for a Cabinet position and,
in the summer of 2001, sent members of his administration to lobby the
European Union in support of GE's proposed merger with Honeywell,
which the EU ultimately rejected.

Throughout 2001, California Congressman Henry Waxman accused Welch of
intervening in NBC's 2000 election night coverage and pressuring the
network to prematurely declare Bush the winner. Welch admitted he
attended an election night party at NBC's headquarters and that he
cheered for Bush but denied interfering with coverage decisions. When
the major network and cable news division heads were called before
Congress in January 2001 to account for the election night debacle,
the president of NBC News offered Waxman access to internal videotapes
made of Welch on election night, only to withdraw the offer just days
later.

Around the time of the 2000 election, when the Environmental
Protection Agency was deciding whether to order GE to clean a section
of New York's Hudson River allegedly despoiled by waste products
expelled from the company's industrial plants, GE spent millions on
lobbyists, campaign contributions and advertising. GE's cadre of
lobbyists included several former members of Congress, including
George Mitchell and Robert Livingston.
Legal Action/Investigations

In 2002, the Project on Government Oversight released a study of
misconduct by the top 43 government contractors. According to the
study, GE ranked at the top of the list of "repeat offenders," with 63
instances of actual or alleged misconduct since 1990 resulting in more
than $982 million in fines, judgments and out-of-court settlements.
GE's reported acts included environmental violations, fraud in
dealings with the government and consumers, workplace safety
violations and employment discrimination.

In December 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered GE to
clean up a large section of the Hudson River in New York. The EPA
ordered the company to dredge the river for suspected cancer-causing
substances called polychlorinated biphenyls, which GE plants
discharged in or near the river for nearly 30 years. The cleanup is
projected to cost $460 million. In all, GE bears at least partial
cleanup responsibility for 87 active "Superfund" toxic waste sites
around the country.

In 1998, GE Capital agreed to a $97 million settlement for allegedly
inducing consumers who filed for bankruptcy protection to pay debts
they did not legally owe. In 1992, GE agreed to pay $165,000 to settle
a suit alleging the company engaged in deceptive advertising with
regard to its light bulbs. The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration cited GE for at least 858 workplace violations from
1990 to 2001, including at least 98 that posed a substantial
probability of death or serious physical harm.

In 1992, GE was forced to pay a $69 million fine-one of the largest
ever for a defense contractor-after pleading guilty to defrauding the
government in the sale of F-16 jet engines and support equipment to
Israel. For this transgression, GE's Aircraft Division was suspended
from doing business with the government for five days. In the late
1980s, the Inspector General of the Defense Department established a
special office to handle the workload generated from GE defense
contract violations. In three years, this office handled almost 400
cases and recovered more than $221 million from GE.
Updates

As of March 31, 2004
Per the Center for Public Integrity's FOIA request, dated June 30,
2003, the Center has recently received the Army Corps of Engineers
contract awarded to GE Energy Rentals Inc., of Atlanta, for work in
Afghanistan. The documents confirm that the GE's contract was awarded
on February 4, 2003, at a value of $5.9 million and is to provide
prime power services to U.S. airbases in Bagram and Kandahar,
including the mobilization, installation and maintenance of
generators, breakers and transformers. However, according to the
contract, the completion date differs from that originally reported by
the Defense Department. In fact, the contract stipulates a one-year
period of work in Bagram from March 31, 2003, with four one-year
option periods through 2007. The work in Kandahar was to begin
simultaneously, but run only through May 31, 2003, with three three-
month option periods. Due to "extreme weather delays," the start date
of the contract was changed to no later than March 25, 2003.

On May 21, 2003, the completion date for work in Kandahar was extended
through the first three-month option period, and the total value was
increased by $605,043 to $6,532,913. On July 31, the monthly energy
charge was adjusted for a net contract increase of $74,919, raising
the total to $6,607,832. On August 28, energy charges were further
increased and options extended for work in Kandahar. The fifth and
most recent amendment to this contract, as indicated by documents
provided to the Center, is dated September 12, 2003, and provides
another increase of $193,661 for equipment requested by the
government. At that date, the contract had reached a value of
$6,801,493-a net increase of $873,623 from the original estimated
contract value, six months after its initial award.

-Neil Gordon

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