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Grassley keeps pressing on government conference costs
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09/26/11 10:49 PM ET
Muffin-gate isn’t going anywhere.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is pressing the Obama administration for more answers on federal conference expenses, following last week’s audit that found the Justice Department paid $16 a muffin, as well as other exorbitant prices, at recent agency gatherings.
In a message sent Monday, Grassley specifically asks Jacob Lew, President Obama’s budget director, why Justice’s conference spending rose by more than 50 percent from 2008 to 2009, the first year of the Obama administration.
“As I have been saying, this kind of spending is unacceptable given the economic realities most Americans are facing right now,” wrote Grassley, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Grassley has been one of the leading critics of the government’s conference spending in recent days, saying on Thursday that heads needed to roll within the executive branch.
In the wake of last week’s report from the Justice Department’s inspector general, Lew notified agencies that they needed to do a thorough accounting for their conference costs in the week to come.
But the Justice Department – as well as Hilton Hotels, which served the muffins in question – have also pushed back against the report.
In a statement, Hilton said that, as if often the case, the receipt for the event discussed in the audit didn’t tell the whole story. In fact, the hotel chain said, it served muffins, fruit, coffee and juice, as well as tax and gratuity, for $16 a person.
A Justice spokeswoman seconded Hilton’s take on the event, saying in a statement last week that “the abbreviated banquet checks did not reflect all of the food and services provided.”
Still, Grassley noted in his release Monday that the Justice inspector general stands by its report. And he added that he believed the department overpaid at the Hilton event, even if it did get the other refreshments listed.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is pressing the Obama administration for more answers on federal conference expenses, following last week’s audit that found the Justice Department paid $16 a muffin, as well as other exorbitant prices, at recent agency gatherings.
In a message sent Monday, Grassley specifically asks Jacob Lew, President Obama’s budget director, why Justice’s conference spending rose by more than 50 percent from 2008 to 2009, the first year of the Obama administration.
“As I have been saying, this kind of spending is unacceptable given the economic realities most Americans are facing right now,” wrote Grassley, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Grassley has been one of the leading critics of the government’s conference spending in recent days, saying on Thursday that heads needed to roll within the executive branch.
In the wake of last week’s report from the Justice Department’s inspector general, Lew notified agencies that they needed to do a thorough accounting for their conference costs in the week to come.
But the Justice Department – as well as Hilton Hotels, which served the muffins in question – have also pushed back against the report.
In a statement, Hilton said that, as if often the case, the receipt for the event discussed in the audit didn’t tell the whole story. In fact, the hotel chain said, it served muffins, fruit, coffee and juice, as well as tax and gratuity, for $16 a person.
A Justice spokeswoman seconded Hilton’s take on the event, saying in a statement last week that “the abbreviated banquet checks did not reflect all of the food and services provided.”
Still, Grassley noted in his release Monday that the Justice inspector general stands by its report. And he added that he believed the department overpaid at the Hilton event, even if it did get the other refreshments listed.
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