federal bureaucrats, frequent fliers?

[Paul H. Merrill]

Oops, forgot to point out that "federal employees"
in general are still treated as sub-citizens,
Frequent Flier benefits are still limited to
military, Foreign Service, and their families.

PHM

Tim May wrote:
> 
> 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

-- 
Paul H. Merrill, MCNE, MCSE+I, CISSP
PaulMerrill at ACM.Org