American Notes: Aug 26, 1985

PENTAGON "Nothing Improper"

The new consulting firm was to be called Procurement Strategy Corp. In a solicitation of 29 prospective clients, P.S.C. claimed it would provide military contractors with "timely information of imminent policy changes being considered by the Federal government," enabling them to "compete for government business with confidence and success." There was only one thing wrong: the head of the proposed firm, Mary Ann Gilleece, had been Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Management since 1983, a job that made her Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's principal adviser on procuring weapons from defense contractors. Gilleece knew that her job was being phased out, but before leaving the Pentagon, she was attempting to line up clients among the companies she had dealt with as a public official.

The Pentagon was initially unperturbed. "Nothing improper or illegal," said Spokesman Fred Hoffman. Indeed, Pentagon Counsel Chapman Cox had approved Gilleece's move, requiring only that she stop handling Government business with the 29 firms she was soliciting. Faced with criticism inside and outside the Pentagon, Gilleece finally decided not to set up the firm. And late last week she submitted her resignation.

Election Day is still more than a year away, but campaign chests are already hefty. The 31 U.S. Senators who will be running next year raised $20 million the first half of 1985, $5.8 million of it through political-action committees. That is an increase of 77% overall (95% for PACs) since 1979, according to a report by Common Cause, a Washington-based citizens' lobbying group.

The interest in congressional campaigns is directly linked to one of Ronald Reagan's pet projects, tax reform. The largest PAC contributors are usually the energy, real estate, banking and insurance industries, all of which benefit from tax breaks threatened by some of the tax plans under consideration. Not surprisingly, Oregon's Bob Packwood, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has received the most enthusiastic support: $2.6 million so far, $691,000 of it PAC money. Common Cause President Fred Wertheimer notes that PACS have donated $3.7 million to the 56 members of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, more than triple the amount contributed by PACs in 1983, the last congressional nonelection year. "We are seeing a classic example of how PACs operate," Wertheimer says. "It is a bald and blatant effort to buy political advantage."

Seldom has a 99-year-old lady enjoyed such persistent suitors. Ever since the Statue of Liberty's centennial began to loom on the national calendar, New Jersey has reignited an old claim to the woman who has long been considered New York's leading citizen. After all, New Jerseyans argue, she is less than 600 yds. from their shore, but a good 1½ miles from Manhattan.