03-02-2002

INSIDE WASHINGTON: Inside Washington for March 2, 2002

Hipp Tips on Mining Homeland Security Gold


There's so much money out there to throw at terrorism that entrepreneurs
from around the world are camped out in Washington hotels hoping for
pieces of the action. But they won't get any fat contracts unless they
learn to work the system, Van D. Hipp Jr., a former Bush I Pentagon
official who now heads American Defense International Inc., said at a
recent conference. Besides the usual suspects in the Pentagon, Hipp's list
of best agencies to approach also included Health and Human Services,
which is charged with biological defense, and the Agricultural Research
Service, which is looking to defend U.S. crops and livestock from
bio-sabotage. Other Hipp tips: Team up with a well-connected state
university and target House and Senate Appropriations staff
members.


Maybe Stretching for a 2002 Silver Lining


House Democrats may be widely viewed as not riding especially high in
Washington's pecking order these days, but their campaign strategists say
(straight-faced) that's maybe not such a bad thing. For the first time
since the 1950s, Democrats have the luxury of "running against
Washington" because they control neither the presidency nor the
House, a top adviser said. Republicans crow about President Bush's
record-setting popularity and how that will add luster to GOP candidates
everywhere this year. But Democrats expect gains, they say, because of the
continuing legislative deadlock; besides, they note, most voters don't
elect members of Congress based on how they might lead the nation during a
war.


A Plane Can Be Late,Well, Just Because


Terrorism expert Thomas Homer-Dixon, on his way to speak at a Washington
think tank, was unexpectedly grounded during a shutdown at the
Philadelphia airport. He, his hosts, and members of the media quickly
assumed-what else?-that a security breach was to blame. The New America
Foundation postponed Homer-Dixon's speech (on Western nations' special
vulnerabilities to terrorist attack), and it was forced to field a flurry
of press queries about the incident. But the delay was apparently
unrelated to a terrorism scare, and Homer-Dixon delivered his talk only a
couple of hours late. Still, the worries weren't wholly misplaced: A day
later, authorities had to evacuate two terminals at the airport after a
passenger sauntered through an unstaffed security post and onto a flight
bound for Puerto Rico.


Wexler's Next: An `Eat Thy Spinach Act'


On the face of it, you might think H.R. 3757 would fly through the House.
Who, after all, would vote against the "Honor Thy Parents Act of
2002"? Robert Wexler, D-Fla., the bill's sole sponsor, came up with
the measure's comparatively brief title himself, his staff brags. Amid the
chamber's partisan posturing, Wexler's helpers explain, your average
member might get confused by the bill's full title: "A bill to freeze
and repeal portions of the tax cut enacted in the Economic Growth and Tax
Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and to apply savings therefrom to a
comprehensive Medicare outpatient prescription drug benefit."




National Journal