"The States Should Agree and End Costly Litigation”

Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today applauded the settlement of the Microsoft case between the software company and the Department of Justice.  The group urged the 18 states and the District of Columbia involved in the matter to sign onto the agreement and bring an end to the lengthy and costly litigation.

"The settlement will benefit both consumers and taxpayers by bringing certainty to the marketplace and encouraging new investment in technology, as well as by avoiding continued use of tax dollars to prolong the case.  After spending more than $35 million to date at the federal and state level, taxpayers have had enough.  They have watched their portfolios nose-dive since the announcement of the decision at the district court level last June, and know that a settlement would be good for the economy.  It’s now up to the states, whose recalcitrance has prolonged this matter for more than a year,” CAGW President Thomas A. Schatz said.

The states will decide by Tuesday, November 6 whether they will sign on to the agreement.  “CAGW is encouraged by the conciliatory comments made by the state attorneys general from Connecticut, Iowa, and New York following the hearing at the federal district court this morning,” Schatz said.  “They said the agreement represented major progress, that a lot had been accomplished and that there was a lot of good in the settlement.  But make no mistake – if they do not sign on to the agreement, the attorneys general will hear from CAGW’s one million members and supporters that their failure to settle is not in the best interests of taxpayers, the economy, and the entire nation.”

The state attorneys general conceded that the September 11 attacks had helped them, DOJ and Microsoft focus on the need to settle the case.  Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly made that very point in requiring the parties to work with a mediator and settle prior to November 2.

“With states facing unprecedented expenditures to prevent future acts of terrorism and to protect their citizens as part of the homeland security now required in the United States, taxpayer resources must be focused on those immediate priorities.  In particular, California, which just last week hired a separate attorney for the states, and just yesterday announced a credible threat to its transportation system, would be ill-advised to carry this case forward past Tuesday.  That logic goes without saying for New York, whose attorney general, Elliot Spitzer, today agreed that new times demand new solutions and that it may be time to move forward,” Schatz added.

CAGW is the nation's largest taxpayer advocacy group with over one million members and supporters nationwide.  It is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.