Word: congressmen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...briefing for Congressmen last week, U.S. Attorney Henry Hudson disclosed that he is probing the awards of 75 to 100 contracts, worth "tens of billions" of dollars. That might even be an understatement. Just one of those contracts, calling for McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics to build the advanced tactical aircraft for the Navy, could be worth at least $45 billion...
...draws of prairie pastures, adding deceptive color. All through the Midwest are fields of wheat, corn and soybeans that took root much earlier on slight rains, then simply stopped developing. They hover now between life and death, still handsome to the casual observer. A delegation of Senators and Congressmen whirled across the area in helicopters, minced around in their city shoes looking at the drought wreckage, but sometimes were not impressed. When one of them spied a wheat field he thought looked pretty good, the farmers pulled up the plants to show the withering roots, the stunted buds...
...observation attributed to Winston Churchill about the second oldest profession is increasingly true of too many Congressmen: we have established what they are; now we are just haggling over price. The jumping-off point is $1,000, the maximum an influence peddler can give to any one candidate. But that is barely enough to be put on hold by a congressional aide. Says a weary lobbyist: "Imagine a maitre d' at a pretentious restaurant who thinks you stiffed him with a $20 bill. That's how a Congressman treats a lobbyist who can't do better than the legal limit...
...Congressmen often mutter that the best way to remove the temptation to make money on the side is to raise their salaries. Perhaps, but their pay has been raised in the past with no noticeable improvement in ethics. Serving in Congress is a choice freely made, an honor partly its own reward. What has not been tried is sound rules with stiff penalties, but that is because Congress sets its own standards...
...predicted that at least 100 people will be indicted within the next 90 days. Among the suspects are past and present Pentagon officials, as well as industry employees and consultants who allegedly paid bribes for inside information that gave companies an unfair advantage in bidding for contracts. Two Democratic Congressmen or their staffs are also under scrutiny. Eventually, Operation Ill Wind may rank as one of the biggest federal white-collar crime cases ever prosecuted...