Big 3 dilemma? Check Congress's garage
Posted: Friday, December 12, 2008 4:34 PM by Carrie Dann
From NBC's Carrie Dann
The
bailout of the American auto industry, now stalled after a flurry of
brinksmanship last night in the Senate, has people in Washington
looking high and low for a snapshot of what ails the Big Three.
One place to start looking could be the garages of United States Representatives.
About
100 members of Congress who lease vehicles through their
taxpayer-funded House allowance have been driving American cars, many
of them gas-guzzlers like the Chevy Tahoe, the GMC Yukon, and even a
handful of pricey Cadillacs.
That is starting to change,
thanks to new rules that require taxpayer-funded Congressional wheels
to get greener. But in the midst of its failed attempt to save an
industry that many lawmakers condemn for sluggish innovation, members
of Congress may be choosing their new cars from a list of EPA-approved
vehicles that's light on Big Three models and heavy on foreign
competitors.
Rules in the House allow Congressional
representatives to use taxpayer funds from an annual allowance (called
their Member Representational Allowance, or MRA) to take out leases on
vehicles for use in their home districts. The same practice is not
allowed in the U.S. Senate.
As of September 2008, almost 30% of members -- 126 representatives, according to an NBC review of congressional documents -- were taking advantage of the perk, which costs almost $1 million a year in taxpayer cash.
The cars they have been driving are almost all made in the U.S.A. Fewer than 20 of the MRA-funded vehicles are manufactured by foreign automakers. Of the congressional cars leased by members as of September, 19 were Chryslers, 38 were Ford models, and 52 were manufactured by GM. But some of the most popular Big Three cars in the Congress' fleet -- like the Tahoe, the Yukon and the Ford Explorer -- also have fuel efficiency ratings that are hardly eco-friendly.
Many of the cars are also not cheap. Members face no restrictions on the monthly costs of the leases, which range from less than $200 a month to more than $1,100. Rep. Jim Clyburn, for example, drives a Lincoln Town Car for $726 a month; Rep. Charlie Rangel rides in a 2004 Cadillac DeVille for $777 a month; Maurice Hinchey of New York leases a 2007 BMW 530i and a Nissan Altima; and even Puerto Rico's Luis Fortuno, who will leave the Hill to serve as the island nation's governor next year, drove a Ford Expedition with a price tag of more than $1,000 a month. That's just to name a few.
Steve Ellis of watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense says that the use of MRA funds for leases offers a window into how legislators treat the nation’s finances. “If members of Congress are allotting their own office budgets this way,” he asks, “what does that say about how they’re looking at the federal budget?”
Regardless of the price tag, though, members with eco-unfriendly cars are finding themselves forced to switch gears. Last summer, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri successfully tacked onto a House-passed energy bill an amendment mandating that all vehicles leased on the taxpayers' dime meet EPA's qualifications for low greenhouse gas emissions.
Since the law's implementation, members renewing their leases – usually made in two-year increments – have been subject to review by the Office of the House's Chief Administration Officer, which reviews Congressional disbursements of MRA funds.
Although the exact environmental standard has not been finalized, a preliminary working list was circulated to House members earlier this year for guidance. The list outlined a total of 622 acceptable vehicles -- characterized by make, model, number of cylinders, and transmission type -- that earn the EPA's top greenhouse gas emissions grade.
Less than half of the cars being leased by House members in September made the cut.
What's more, less than one in three of the EPA-approved cars on the list are made in the United States. Of the 622 low-emissions vehicles suggested, only 175 are made in the U.S. by the Big Three American automakers. That's compared to 234 Japanese-made options and 143 German autos.
Members who hope to continue driving SUVs are faced with a particularly limited array of American-made models. The Chevrolet HHR, the Chrysler PT Cruiser and the hybrid Ford Escape are among the group of SUVs characterized as low greenhouse gas-emitting "SmartWay" vehicles. More modest options, like the Ford Focus and the Chevy Malibu, are also available. Only one GMC model – the Canyon pickup truck -- made the tentative approval list; not a single type of Cadillac passed the test.
The particulars of Cleaver’s resolution are still being hammered out. EPA officials will meet next week with members of the Missouri lawmaker's staff and the CAO to discuss the new regulations in advance of the 111th Congress. It’s unclear if that meeting will produce more formal guidance on which vehicle models will be acceptable for incoming freshmen.
But if you spot your newly-elected Congressman or -woman behind the wheel of a seven-seater luxury SUV, it's probably a good bet that they're not riding on your dime.
