On Monday, September 10, 2001, at 05:33 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:
Somehow this just seems really wrong...
3. Frequent flier legislation passes Senate committee By Tanya N. Ballard An amendment to the Defense authorization bill (S. 1155) allowing military personnel and federal workers to keep the frequent flier miles they earn while traveling on the government's dime, was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee Friday. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., sponsored the amendment along with Sen. John Warner, R-Va. In August Warner introduced S. 1369, a Senate bill that would have extended the benefit to federal employees. The Defense authorization amendment would allow military personnel, foreign service members, their families and others who travel on official government business to keep their frequent flier miles. "Soldiers, sailors, pilots, and Marines are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, prepared to go into harm's way," Lieberman explained. "Letting them take advantage of frequent flier programs--which cost the taxpayer absolutely nothing--is a small gesture, but one that can mean a lot for morale." The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-355) prohibits federal employees from accepting promotional items they receive while traveling at government expense. Those items included frequent flier miles, upgrades and access to carrier clubs or facilities. Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0901/091001t1.htm
Those same bureaucrats previously ruled (through the IRS tax code) that employees would be taxed at their normal tax rates on the putative market value of any "air miles" their employers allowed them to keep. Seem the various equal protection laws would forbid any special tax benefits for "military and federal" employees. However, since we are now an adhocracy, nothing more will be heard of this argument, least of all in the courts. --Tim May