Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Bush will join exclusive, costly club Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:13:22 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \SS (WS) \HD Bush will join exclusive, costly club \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS President Bush is about to join the nation's most elite group of pensioners - and the costliest to taxpayers. With the inauguration of Bill Clinton as his successor Jan. 20, Mr. Bush will bring to five the number of living former presidents, joining Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in comfortable, taxpayer-provided retirement. The cost, including Secret Service protection, totals $17.2 million this year for the first four. Congress will have to provide more money next year to cover Mr. Bush's retirement. "The budget did not contemplate him becoming a former president," said Bill Early, budget director for the General Services Administration. Even without the security, the taxpayers' bill for a generous, six-figure pension, office space, staff and travel expenses approaches half a million dollars for each of the former presidents, and more in the case of Mr. Reagan - $770,900 this fiscal year. But security is the most expensive item. Mr. Nixon waived Secret Service protection in 1985, but Congress has provided $15 million for protection of the three other former presidents this year. "It's 24 hours a day," Mr. Early said. "That's expensive - and it's forever." The cost of protecting former presidents drew notice when Mr. Reagan made a highly publicized trip to Japan in 1989. He collected $2 million in honorariums from a Japanese corporation while U.S. taxpayers paid for his traveling security agents. A provision added to an appropriations bill this year at the behest of Sen. Dennis DeConcini, Arizona Democrat, requires the director of the Secret Service to meet with each of the former presidents by next spring to discuss their protection and its cost. The idea is to find ways to cut or eliminate the security. "I am convinced that there are many viable alternatives to the current protection program which will ensure a commensurate level of security for former presidents and their families at a much lower cost to the taxpayer," Mr. DeConcini said. As chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the upkeep of former presidents, Mr. DeConcini proposed a provision that would eliminate Secret Service protection 10 years after a president leaves office, unless otherwise necessary. But that drew opposition from the former presidents and was eliminated in a House-Senate conference this fall, according to congressional aides. Mr. DeConcini said Mr. Bush showed no interest in trying to cut the costs. By law, former presidents are provided with a yearly pension equal to that of the current salary of a Cabinet secretary. This year, the amount is $143,800. In addition, the government provides for the rental of office space and staff salaries for the rest of a former president's life. The salaries can total $150,000 for the first 2 1/2 years, and $96,000 a year after that. Mr. Bush won't even be limited by that until July 1993. He will have $1.5 million to spend on the six-month transition from office. The cost of Mr. Bush's office space won't be known, Mr. Early said, until Mr. Bush decides where he wants to locate. If no government office building is available at the place he selects, the government will rent private space. The high cost of offices in downtown Los Angeles, where Mr. Reagan maintains his office, is the main reason his expenses are greater than the others'. Mr. Carter has his at the Carter Library in Atlanta; Mr. Ford's is in Palm Springs, Calif.; and Mr. Nixon's is outside New York City. The government also pays for travel, postage, printing, telephones and other expenses of the former presidents and their staffs. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM