What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander.
Meal ban added to Senate lobbying bill
I have in the past worked on government contracts and having worked in the private sector for a while I was surprised to learned that as a consultant you were NOT allowed to you buy your government clients dinner or lunch. In fact often times if you had a meeting at your office and you catered in food, your government clients were expected to pay you back for the food, this was far from standard practice in the private sector. This is to make it clear that the government decisions weren't influenced by you bribing them with nice meals to influence their purchasing decisions. I had assumed that the same rules would apply to our representatives as last I checked they work for the government and their law making abilities should not be influenced by fancy dinners, but instead by what is the will of their constituency and in accordance with the Constitution. The following quote is very telling about the disconnect that some in Senate feel from the rest of the civil service people.
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, chairman of the Rules Committee and one of the authors of the base bill along with Dodd, went along with the amendment but warned it could cause unintended problems every time a lawmaker or staff attended a reception where food was available.
"It's totally ludicrous that we are doing this," he said. "I'll be eating with my wife and so will a lot more senators after we pass this one."
Senator Lott, misses the point that this is what is expected of all other government employees. Why should he expect different treatment?
Also as member of the "Family Values Party" should be excited and happy to spend more time with his wife and be happy to dine with her more often.
I have in the past worked on government contracts and having worked in the private sector for a while I was surprised to learned that as a consultant you were NOT allowed to you buy your government clients dinner or lunch. In fact often times if you had a meeting at your office and you catered in food, your government clients were expected to pay you back for the food, this was far from standard practice in the private sector. This is to make it clear that the government decisions weren't influenced by you bribing them with nice meals to influence their purchasing decisions. I had assumed that the same rules would apply to our representatives as last I checked they work for the government and their law making abilities should not be influenced by fancy dinners, but instead by what is the will of their constituency and in accordance with the Constitution. The following quote is very telling about the disconnect that some in Senate feel from the rest of the civil service people.
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, chairman of the Rules Committee and one of the authors of the base bill along with Dodd, went along with the amendment but warned it could cause unintended problems every time a lawmaker or staff attended a reception where food was available.
"It's totally ludicrous that we are doing this," he said. "I'll be eating with my wife and so will a lot more senators after we pass this one."
Senator Lott, misses the point that this is what is expected of all other government employees. Why should he expect different treatment?
Also as member of the "Family Values Party" should be excited and happy to spend more time with his wife and be happy to dine with her more often.
posted by dan at Wednesday, March 08, 2006
by C.S. Walton
![](http://dcdan.com/images/dcbloggersbutton2.gif"/)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home