Word: cabinets
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
George Bush seems to have found the position of Secretary of Energy the hardest to fill in the entire top rank of his Administration. Not until last week did he announce the last of his 14 Cabinet appointments, but then his choice drew much praise. His selection: retired Admiral James Watkins, 60, an expert on nuclear power, former Chief of Naval Operations and once a long-shot prospect to become father-in-law of Britain's Prince Charles (Watkins' daughter Laura Jo had a romance with the Prince before marrying an American actor). Watkins' last Government job was as head...
...last week was not the Bush transition, the budget deficit or the woes of Mayor Marion Barry, but one that is close to the heart of every bureaucrat -- and every American: pay raises. A salary-review board has proposed hefty pay hikes for 3,000 top Government officials, including Cabinet officers, federal judges and the 535 members of the House and Senate. The whole pay package -- including a 51% raise, to an annual $135,000, for members of Congress -- will cost $300 million in its first year. Even as the Bush Administration begins its uphill struggle to slash the deficit...
...December the commission suggested that top Government salaries be made more competitive. Accordingly, the President's pay would leap from $200,000 to $350,000 in 1993; Cabinet Secretaries' from $99,500 to $155,000; and most federal judges' from $89,500 to $135,000. President Reagan included those recommendations in the 1990-fiscal-year budget he submitted to Congress last week, thereby initiating a process by which the proposed pay hikes will become effective Feb. 8 -- unless they are rejected by both houses...
Apart from drying up a source of ethically questionable payments, the most convincing rationale for raising government pay is that better salaries will attract highly qualified people to government service. But while that logic may apply to the top-notch executives needed for senior posts in Cabinet departments and lawyers skilled enough to adorn the federal bench, it has little to do with Congress. Despite the alleged financial hardships of congressional service, vacant House and Senate seats never go begging. And few incumbents ever retire because of financial straits...
...plan calls for deep budget cuts, lower wages and sharply higher prices for food, education and health care. At the same time the shekel has been devalued by 13%. The measures, approved by the Cabinet last week, drew acrimonious opposition from the Histadrut labor federation and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. So vociferous was the army in protesting a proposed $193 million cut in the military budget that Peres ultimately agreed to trim only about $66 million...