October 26, 20000
THOMPSON PROBE
KEEPING TABS ON POLITICKING BY TOP APPOINTEES
Two Agencies Refusing to Provide Information on Political Travel
Washington, DC - Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson (R-TN)
said today that he is gathering information on political travel
and campaigning on the part of agency heads and high-ranking
political appointees in order to let taxpayers know whether or
not they are subsidizing time spent on politicking by high
ranking appointees.
"The taxpayers should know
how much time our high-ranking officials spend on the campaign
trail and know whether those activities are being conducted at
taxpayer expense," Thompson said. "Secondly, letting
these appointees know that their activities were being looked at
sends the message that they should keep their noses to the
grindstone and perform the job the taxpayers are paying them to
do."
Earlier this year, Thompson asked
agency Inspectors General (IGs) to gather information on agency
head and high-ranking political appointee political travel and
activities. This request followed the incident last winter where
federal employees were left in limbo because the federal
personnel chief was on the campaign trail in Iowa, rather than
in Washington, to make the call to close federal offices due to
a blizzard. Thompson’s request to report on political travel
went to the IGs in February and asked them to review political
travel and activities on the part of high-ranking officials in
18 departments and agencies.
Thompson said that following his
request, the time spent on travel reported as political declined
significantly during the summer months. For instance, Secretary
of Transportation Rodney Slater reported spending more than 400
hours on political activities and travel during the period of
March 1998 through May 2000. However, upon an updated report for
the next 2 months, Secretary Slater reported spending 12 hours
on political activities. The glaring exception for the period
covered appears to be Energy Secretary Richardson who spent 56
hours on political activities from March 1998 to February 2000,
and 89 hours from March to September 2000. "Despite all the
well known problems confronting the Energy Department, Secretary
Richardson apparently chose to step up his activities on the
campaign trail," said Thompson.
However, Thompson noted that
recent news reports appear to indicate increased politicking --
which is not being reported as political activity -- by
Administration officials as election day approaches. He said
that the IGs will continue to provide updates on appointees’
political activities through election day to ensure that these
officials are performing the jobs that the taxpayers expect them
to do.
Thompson noted that Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development Andrew Cuomo and Secretary of
Labor Alexis Hermann have refused to report the time spent on
the campaign trail. Also, Small Business Administrator Aida
Alvarez did not comply with the congressional request other than
to respond that she was in conformance with the Hatch Act (the
law governing political activities on the part of federal
employees.)
"This failure to comply with
our request is disturbing," said Thompson. "They were
put on notice to compile the time spent on their political
activities and evading our inquiry raises more questions about
the extent of their campaign activities. We intend to press this
matter with them."
Thompson noted that top-ranking
political appointees are considered to be on duty 24 hours a
day, seven days a week and the law permits them to engage in
partisan political activities. However, time spent on the
hustings should not detract from the people’s business.
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