US Senate Dining Room Goes Private - At Last!!

H/T Stephanie at Bottom Line Radio: Better late than never, I suppose. The “world’s greatest deliberative body” has taken a radical step towards the efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

Year after year, decade upon decade, the U.S. Senate's network of restaurants has lost staggering amounts of money -- more than $18 million since 1993, according to one report, and an estimated $2 million this year alone, according to another. The financial condition of the world's most exclusive dining hall and its affiliated Capitol Hill restaurants, cafeterias and coffee shops has become so dire that, without a $250,000 subsidy from taxpayers, the Senate won't make payroll next month.

The House is expected to agree -- its food service operation has been in private hands since the 1980s -- and President Bush's signature on the bill would officially end a seven-month Democratic feud and more than four decades of taxpayer bailouts. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chairman of the Rules and Administrations Committee, which oversees the operation of the Senate, said she had no choice. "It's cratering," she said of the restaurant system. "Candidly, I don't think the taxpayers should be subsidizing something that doesn't need to be. There are parts of government that can be run like a business and should be run like businesses."

In reading this article, one wonders why it took decades upon decades to make such a basic and common sense change. Kudos to Senator Dianne Feinstein for speaking up on behalf of US taxpayers. Undoubtedly there are other warrens of taxpayer waste to be uncovered!

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