[Peace-discuss] NYTimes.com Article: Lobby Groups Find Congress in Giving Mood

[Barbara Dyskant]

Ah, if only "our" government gave to those truly in need.


Lobby Groups Find Congress in Giving Mood

December 18, 2001 

By ROBERT PEAR


 

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 - Congress is dispensing last-minute
legislative favors before it adjourns for the year, and
lobbyists for special interests have lined up with a long
list of requests, some of which raise major questions about
the proper role of government in a weak economy. 

Flight schools, skydiving companies, manufacturers of small
aircraft and operators of small airports are seeking a $7.5
billion package of grants and loans to compensate them for
business lost since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. A
House subcommittee approved the legislation, the General
Aviation Reparations Act, last week. 

Shipbuilders, having just won an increase in the federal
subsidies that President Bush tried to abolish, are now
asking Congress to defer income taxes they owe on payments
for the building of Navy ships. 

Not every proposal will become law, but some have been
enacted and others are well on their way. 

Boeing, for example, has persuaded the Senate to approve a
plan under which the Air Force would lease 100 new
wide-body Boeing jets for use as refueling tankers, at a
cost of $20 million a year for each plane - up to $20
billion over 10 years. House and Senate negotiators are
expected to endorse the plan this week. 

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is lobbying
Congress to limit the liability of health insurance
companies that review and pay claims for the federal
Medicare program. The House last week passed legislation
that grants some but not all of the insurers' request, and
they are pressing their case in the Senate. 

Southern growers of catfish have persuaded Congress to
restrict imports of similar fish from Vietnam. 

A cellphone company, NextWave Telecom Inc., is urging
Congress to authorize a cash payment of $5.8 billion to the
company to help settle litigation over cellular licenses
that it obtained in 1996 and 1997. NextWave, which filed
for bankruptcy protection in 1998, and its investors have
deployed a small army of lawyers and lobbyists to persuade
Congress to ratify the deal. Haley Barbour, former chairman
of the Republican National Committee, represents a large
group of investors. 

NextWave says Congress must act by Dec. 31 or the deal
could fall apart. The Bush administration says the
settlement is in the public interest because it would
transfer the NextWave licenses to other mobile phone
companies that could use them to improve wireless services.


But Senators Ernest F. Hollings, the South Carolina
Democrat who is chairman of the Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation, and John McCain of Arizona, the
senior Republican on the panel, denounced the proposal as
special-interest legislation. 

"This thing is an outrage," Mr. Hollings said. "They've put
a gun to our heads and said, `Do it by Dec. 31.' " Mr.
McCain said Congress was being asked to make "ransom
payments" to benefit NextWave and its investors, executives
and lobbyists. 

Several factors help explain the large number of proposals
for aid. Congress is in session later than it has been in
years and has become an inviting target for lobbyists. The
economy was soft before Sept. 11, but the events of that
day have galvanized industries into action. 

The travel industry is one of many seeking federal aid in
the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Representative John
Shadegg, a conservative Republican from Arizona, is pushing
the Travel America Now Act, which would allow a $500 tax
credit for personal travel expenses. Representative Patsy
T. Mink, a liberal Democrat from Hawaii, has introduced a
bill that would allow people to take tax deductions for
travel to destinations at least 500 miles from home. 

"People are not traveling," Ms. Mink said. "Congress needs
to give the public incentives to travel." 

The reparations bill, approved last week by a House Energy
and Commerce subcommittee, would provide $2.5 billion in
grants and $5 billion in loan guarantees for "general
aviation entities," including aircraft manufacturers,
flight schools and skydiving companies. 

Lobbyists for these companies cite a $15 billion aid
package for airlines, signed by Mr. Bush on Sept. 22, as a
precedent, and their message is being heard on Capitol
Hill. 

"Congress acted swiftly to provide the major airlines with
needed relief to keep that industry going," said
Representative John L. Mica, Republican of Florida, the
author of the bill approved last week. "Now it should do
the same for general aviation." 

Edward Scott, director of government relations for the
United States Parachute Association, said skydive operators
suffered financial losses because they were grounded for
more than a week in September. "They deserve eligibility
for federal financial assistance," Mr. Scott said. 

Insurance lobbyists helped write the legislation that
limits the liability of their employees, who review and pay
Medicare claims filed by doctors and hospitals. The House
Energy and Commerce Committee drafted the bill in September
but made changes to address concerns of the Blue Cross and
Blue Shield Association. 

The legislation authorizes the government to reimburse
insurance companies for damages, settlements and legal
expenses incurred in lawsuits related to their work as
Medicare contractors. The inspector general of the
Department of Health and Human Services, Janet Rehnquist,
objected to some of the language in the bill, saying it
"would not fully protect the Medicare trust fund from
misconduct" by contractors. 

At least eight Medicare contractors have paid more than
$275 million to the government to settle charges that they
made improper payments, altered documents, hid files and
backdated records. 

The new Air Force program to lease aircraft from Boeing is
included in the Defense Department appropriations bill. "In
this bill," Mr. McCain said, "we find a sweet deal for the
Boeing Company that I'm sure is the envy of corporate
lobbyists." 

But Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, where
Boeing has major production plants, said the arrangement
was entirely defensible. She said the deal would not only
help Boeing, which has laid off thousands since Sept. 11,
but also enable the Air Force to replace an aging fleet of
KC-135 tanker aircraft, used heavily in the war in
Afghanistan. 

The agriculture appropriations bill, signed by Mr. Bush on
Nov. 28, severely restricts the import of Vietnamese fish
that compete with American catfish. Lawmakers from
Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana say Vietnamese
basa fish are being dumped on the market. 

Senator Tim Hutchinson, Republican of Arkansas, said the
Food and Drug Administration had improperly let basa fish
be labeled and sold as catfish. "The American consumer is
being purposefully confused, and our domestic farm-raised
catfish industries are on the brink of bankruptcy due in
large part to the massive exports from Vietnam," he said. 

Mr. McCain said the import restrictions had been slipped
into the bill at the behest of "wealthy catfish growers" in
the United States and were "a troubling example of the
parochialism we have urged the Vietnamese government to
abandon" in its trade policy.