Tidbits ans Outrages
Tidbits ans Outrages Trunken Congressmen Washington reporters Carleton L. West and Jay Gourley have been looking into the perquisites of retiring congressmen. Their most fascinating finding is...
...According to James Gerstenzang of the Associated Press, a Government Accounting Office report says: Federal overtime regulations let some government inspectors at airports and other U.S...
...Several former Congressmen who were interviewed said they preferred to stay in Washington with their friends and familiar surroundings rather than return to their old districts and the voters who had turned them out of office...
...It found that CUstom Service work rules permitted ten inspectors to receive 16 hours' pay each when they were asked to return to their duties at Boston's Logan International Airport to inspect passengers arriving at 12:25 a.m...
...We’ve been here quite a period of time,” said a five-term former Representative from Wisconsin, Glenn R. Davis, Republican who has joined a consulting firm...
...All Things in Moderation Jake Jacobsen, in trying to recall for a federal jury just why he had chosen $5,000 as the amount to twice give John Connally in return for Connally’s help on milk prices, captured one of the great truths of the twilight world between honesty and crude bribery: “I didn’t want it to be too small because I didn’t want it to seem we were unappreciative,” Jacobsen said...
...The one-time Olympic champion is doing sports films and promotions...
...If You Can't Say Something Nice...
...one Sunday, a job that took one and three-quarters hours to perform...
...He keeps an apartment in Memphis and represents three local companies, Holiday Inns, Helena Chemical and Guardmark Protective Service...
...Former Representative Clem R. McSpadden, Democrat of Oklahoma, is a rodeo announcer in Oklahoma City...
...They also get an extra one per cent each time there is a cost-of-living increase...
...currency...
...Herb Today, leone Tomorrow In yet another demonstration of the insatiable reformist zeal of our state legislators,Herbert Denenberg, who as Pennsylvania's insurance commissioner was one of the really do something for the consumer, was recently rejected by a 28 to 22 vote of the Pennyslvania Senate as a member of the Public Utility Commission...
...And their former colleagues are sprinkled within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Agriculture and Transportation at salaries of up to $38,000 a year...
...While at least a dozen former members of the 93d Congress are actively lobbying, the number of their colleagues who are now working for other branches of the Government is even higher- 14...
...Watkins M. Abbitt of Virginia could have filled his trunks with $21900 in U.S...
...There have been eight increases since 1969 and the total cost to the taxpayer of simply that one per cent has been $2 billion...
...Five former members of the 93d Congress are practicing law here, although none would identify their clients...
...Money,” he said emphatically...
...Few admitted to having entered the murky world of lobbying...
...An immigration inspector at Bangor earned $16,848 in annual salary, but an additional $29,299 in overtime, the report said...
...entry points earn 16 hours' pay for one and three-quarters hours' work...
...Former Representative Robert B. Mathias of California [whose photograph was on the cover of our January issue], a Republican, put it simply: “My family loves it here...
...Having devoted most of our pages to describing organizations that don't work, we would like to tell the other side of the story-to write about organizations that deliver quality products or services at reasonable costs with fair compensation to their employees and decent regard for their sponsors" whe ther they be stockholders or taxpayers or charitable contributors...
...I didn’t want it to be too big...
...Last month, Richard D. Lyons of The New York Times did a follow-up story on the 103 losers and found that about half of them remained in Washington: Some of these former Congressmen who were interviewed were reluctant to discuss their activities, saying that they were “management consultants” or “representatives” for various clients they declined to name...
...There is an interesting inverse proportion to efficiency of mail delivery here that we commend to all who believe in tying wage increases to the cost of living...
...Why stay here...
...former Representative John Dellenback, Republican of Oregon, is head of the Peace Corps, and former Representative Earl B. Ruth, Republican of North Carolina, is Governor of American Samoa...
...Other lobbying groups that have been opened here this year by former members of Congress are Resources Development, Inc., by Roger H. Zion, a former Republican Representative from Indiana, and Ken Gray Associates, Inc., by former Representative Kenneth J. Gray, Republican of Illinois...
...Washington, D. C. 20036 Better Than Social Security One of the sadder facts of American life is our harsh treatment of the elderly...
...If you know of one, please write all about it to: Organizations That Work The Washington Monthly 1028 Connecticut Ave., N.W...
...We ask our readers' help in identifying such organizations...
...Luckily, They Don't Get Their Checks By Mail Another benefit of the Consumer Price Index to the taxpayer is that its increases are also the basis for raiSes for postal employees who are now about to receive their sixth increase in two years...
...The report also said that the rules allowed one inspector at Bangor Airport in Maine to claim $692 in overtime pay for Sunday and holiday pay in one month...
...Others have returned to their districts and the occupations they left before entering politics-an automobile dealership in Virginia, a trucking company in Indiana, a bank in Oklahoma, a ranch in Texas, a hospital in Kansas...
...A Dollar A Second If the one-percent bonus disturbs you, try this one...
...It would have made it look like we bought the decision...
...Our fears about just what the honorable gentlemen might be carrying in those trunks are exacerbated by the West-Gourley report that each congressman's annual stationery allowance is cumulative, so that, for example, Rep...
...Their pensions are tied to the consumer price index, which automatically triggers the kind of cost-of-living increases the rest of us yearn for...
...Among the exceptions is Dan H. Kuykendall, a former Republican Representative from Tennessee...
...Former Senator Peter H. Dominick, Republican of Colorado, is Ambassador to Switzerland...
...It is comforting, therefore, to know that civil service retirees ate an exception...
...I have no plans to run for office again and I enjoy lobbying...
...Their most fascinating finding is that for each year of service a congressman is entitled to a handsome hand-tooled and polished trunk-20 years, 20 trunks...
...Many of our good friends are here and it seemed a more realistic thing to stay,” he said...
...How Are You Going To Keep Them Down on the Farm . . . Readers may recall our January article on the congressmen who were defeated for re-election last fall...
Vol. 7 • June 1975 • No. 4
