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Politico...
The art of the policy
rider vendetta
By Darren Goode
7/18/11
Congress doesn’t want Ken Salazar to have a personal chef or Eric
Holder to buy first-class airline tickets. Those two Cabinet members
have it easy — an angry appropriations cardinal once saw to it that a
Reagan-era Health and Human Services secretary had a smaller car than
everyone else.
Earmarks may have gone away, but picayune policy riders are still
peppering appropriations bills in the new Republican Congress.
Some of the riders would save money and make sense in the abstract: Why
does the Interior Department secretary need a personal chef, chauffeur
or servant on the taxpayers’ dime? Certainly, he’s not asking for one.
But other Cabinet secretaries don’t have the same prohibition.
Similarly, there’s no specific prohibition in the fiscal 2012 House
spending bill blocking Salazar from buying first-class airline tickets,
while Holder, who serves as attorney general, would be barred under a
measure that passed committee last week.
The Commerce, Justice, Science spending bill bans the use of funds for
the “purchase of first-class or premium air travel.” That will cover
John Bryson, if he’s confirmed as commerce secretary, as well as others
like National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane
Lubchenco.
Earlier this month, the House Appropriations Committee passed the
fiscal 2012 spending bill for Interior and the Environmental Protection
Agency, extending the ban on personal cooks, chauffeurs and servants.
That ban dates back to an early 1980s tiff between House appropriators
and Reagan administration Interior Secretary James Watt.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Jim Moran (D-Va.), chairman and ranking
member of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations
Subcommittee, were initially unaware of the rider’s origins.
“Watt had a contentious relationship with everybody,” Simpson said with
a laugh.
The rider may have stood the test of time not only because it is
inconspicuous but also because taking it out may send the wrong signal.
“I guess some people would be afraid if you take it out, that means we
want you, it’s OK, to go get private chefs and stuff or whatever,”
Simpson said.
“Once it’s in there, a different lobby has to work hard to get the damn
thing out again, so it’s easier to just leave it, and some of them do
simply last for a long time,” said Rep. John Olver (D-Mass.), a
longtime member of the Appropriations Committee. “But they are for only
one year, so you can always go back and do it. But it’s just so tough,
and people are tired. There are different battles, major ones for them
this year, so why bother?”
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