08-10-2002
INSIDE WASHINGTON: Inside Washington for August 10, 2002
Is Norman Barnstormin' for Airports or for GOP?
When he became Transportation secretary-and the sole Democrat in the Bush
Cabinet-Norman Mineta made one thing clear: He would do no campaigning for
GOP candidates. But as the November elections near, Mineta may be fudging
a bit on that promise. On Friday, August 9, Mineta was expected to be in
Spartanburg, S.C., announcing a grant for its airport. And guess who'll be
in attendance-Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who is in a battle with
Democrat Alex Sanders for a U.S. Senate seat. And on Thursday, August 8,
Mineta was headed for Orlando to announce an airport grant with Rep. Ric
Keller, R-Fla. But DOT spokesman Chet Lunner points out that nothing
political will be going on at these events; they are just routine visits
that a Transportation secretary makes. Moreover, Lunner says, Mineta has
been visiting as many airports as possible to check on new airport
security measures taken after 9/11.
Options Are Narrowing for Silicon Valley
The high-tech industry may find itself increasingly isolated in its bid to
resist rules requiring companies to treat stock-option grants to employees
as an expense. The reason: More and more blue-chip companies are
voluntarily accepting the accounting change, and they are pushing for a
uniform standard on how to do it. If companies all use different methods
to put a dollar value on the options, that could lead to new obfuscation
of their bottom lines. The influential International Accounting Standards
Board recently backed the expensing of stock options, and that prompted
the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board to consider reviving its own
dormant call for expensing-shelved in 1994, under pressure from Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle pledges to revisit the issue this
fall.
The Late-Summer Heat Can Be a Real Pill
It won't be just the bayou steaminess that makes House Energy and Commerce
Chairman W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., sweat a little during the
August recess. The Business for Affordable Medicine group, a coalition of
15 big corporations and 12 governors who want lower-price pills, is going
to turn the heat up on Tauzin. Its goal-get Tauzin to back a bill in the
House that would correspond to one that passed the Senate in July, much to
the dismay of the brand-name drug companies. The Senate bill, sponsored by
Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz., would largely close
the loophole that now allows big drug companies, at the end of a drug's
patent period, to gain another 30 months of patent life at the expense of
lower-cost generic drugs. Because Tauzin chairs the committee of
jurisdiction, BAM wants the Cajun to hear the correct buzz (not the pesky
mosquito kind) about the House bill from a few governors, including
Louisiana's Republican governor, Mike Foster.
Dingell Beats Not One, but Three Rivals
Rep. John D. Dingell scored a hat trick against fellow House Democrats in
his larger-than-expected win over his opponent, Rep. Lynn Rivers, in
Michigan's Democratic primary this week. Not only did he defeat Rivers, a
four-termer, but he also scored one against California's Henry A. Waxman,
his longtime foe on environmental issues, who has been waiting not so
patiently for a decade to replace Dingell as the senior Democrat-and
chairman-in-waiting-at the Energy and Commerce Committee. And then there's
Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, also of California, who had the temerity-or
bad judgment-to contribute $10,000 to the Rivers campaign. It's a safe bet
that the 76-year-old Dingell, who seems to have lost none of his political
agility, will find a way to collect on what he called his "minor
annoyance" with Pelosi.
National Journal
