Word: waxman
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...letter Wednesday to the Office of Management and Budget, Rep. Henry Waxman, the senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, claims that Bush Administration cabinet officers have "routinely flaunted" the rules governing the use of private planes. Traveling on private planes and helicopters, he complains, always seems to spike around election time. During the 2004 campaign, travel on private aircraft to cities in battleground states "was over four times higher than in non-election years," says Waxman. In October 2004, for example, then Education Secretary Rodney Paige spent $50,290 on private jet travel in three key states - Pennsylvania...
...Federal regulations require that top officials use commercial airlines unless the trip can't be accommodated by a commercial carrier. Travel for speeches, to attend conferences or for routine field inspections doesn't justify a private plane, according to Waxman's reading of the regulations. The $1.5 million spent over five years may not sound like much, but "there's no reason for somebody in the cabinet to use private jets unless it's urgent," says Alex Knott, political editor for the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington watchdog group. "A lot of people would look...
...agency." Davis also pointed out that the documents received from the Bush Administration showed that the cost of private aircraft travel for top officials averaged $12,000 per trip, compared with just over $13,000 per trip for the departments that produced records from the Clinton Administration. "Mr. Waxman instead should be commending the Bush Administration," says Davis, "for reducing the cost per trip of chartered travel by almost...
...Democrats aren't persuaded. The entire program "is a multibillion-dollar giveaway to the drug companies," complains Rep. Henry Waxman, the Government Reform Committee's top Democrat. Ultimately, seniors will decide which party has made the best case when they go to the polls in November...
...Meanwhile congressional Democrats, who've long complained that the prescription drug benefit is a disaster, were quick to pounce on these findings as more evidence of flaws in the program. "The poor quality of information is inexcusable," says Rep. Henry Waxman, senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee. "Seniors with basic questions about Medicare drug benefits are being left in the dark...