Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the inspector general for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, resigned last night amid questions from Texas Monthly about his role in getting Iraq removed from President Trumps ban on travel from Middle Eastern nations. Since April 27, I have had an open records request pending with HHSC for information relating to Bowens work with a lobby firm representing Iraqs prime minister.
Before Bowen was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott in 2015 to monitor $40 billion a year in state health and welfare spending, he was the U.S. inspector general for the reconstruction of Iraq. I recently found out that he had been hired as a senior advisor to a Washington lobby firm that had registered as a foreign agent for the government of Iraq in late 2016. The lobby firm repeatedly invoked Bowens name in letters to senior Trump administration officials seeking meetings between them and a senior Iraqi aide to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (Bowen said that he did not authorize the firm to use his name). On April 6, al-Abadi posted a photograph of himself standing next to Bowen at a United Nations conference on corruption in Iraq.
Bowens connection to the law firm only became public through the firms foreign agent registrations. Even though Bowen was tasked with looking for fraud in one of Texass largest government agencies, he apparently was not required to file a personal financial disclosure form. Though Bowen is cited in the letters, he had not personally registered as an agent of a foreign government. An unsigned copy of his contract with the firm shows he is to be paid $300 an hour up to 33 percent of the firms total payments from Iraq.
