OFFICIALS' LIMOUSINES ENCOUNTER POTHOLES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505230006-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: March 27, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505230006-2
I. TICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE_ A WASHINGTON POST
27 i?1arch 1984
OFliciats' Ltmoastnes acoun ar
By Howard Kurtz and Pete Earley
Washington Pon Staff Writers
Attorney General William French
Smith's repayment of $11,000 for his
wife's use of a government limousine
puts him at the top of a growing list
of senior Reagan administration of-
ficials who have run into problems
with one of the government's favor.
ite perks.
Defense Secretary Caspar W.
Weinberger and Treasury Secretary
Donald T. Regan are among those
who have allowed their spouses to
use government cars for such person-
al reasons as trips to restaurants,
museums, luncheons, art galleries
and social events.
Cabinet officers are among the
190 federal officials who received
door-to-door chauffeur service to
their homes in 1982 at a cost of $3.4
million, according to a survey by
Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), a
frequent critic of the practice. Hun-
dreds of other officials can call - on
their agency's carpool for official.
trips, but not for commuting.
"It's a real status symbol when an
official comes into his neighborhood
with a chauffeur and gets out of his
car," Proxmire has said. "When we
try to take the limousine away, they
just buck like steers. I think they'd
rather lose a billion-dollar program
than a limousine."
In addition to Smith, whose re-
payment was disclosed yesterday, '
these officials have been criticized
for questionable 'use of government
cars:
? Regan's wife, Ann, has used a
government car on 75 occasions over
a 20-month period, mostly for per-
sonal reasons.
According to government records,
Ann Regan's regular driver, James
Tippett, has picked her up at her
Virginia home or the Treasury
Building and taken her to such
places as the F Street Club, Ken-
nedy Center, Smithsonian Ins'titu-
Potholes
Lion, Corcoran Gallery, Woodrow
Wilson House, Dumbarton House,
Sulgrave Club, National Airport and
the Washington Hilton, Shoreham
and Mayflower hotels. On one after-
noon, the records show, the driver
was instructed to wait while Ann
Regan finished lunch at Maison
Blanche.
A Treasury Department spokes-
man said yesterday he did not know
whether Regan had repaid the'gov-
ernment for his wife's use of the car.
? Weinberger last year repaid
$205 after the Federal Times dis-
closed that his wife and other. family
members made 20 trips in Pentagon-
cars over a six-month period to visit
libraries, tourist attractions and, in
one case, a beauty : parlor. Eleven
other defense officials had to repay
$386, including one official who had
a government car dispatched to pick
up his babysitter.
? Donald L Hovde, while under-
secretary of the Housing and Urban
Development Department, repaid
$3,100 for improperly using a gov.
ernment car and driver to commute
from his McLean home and for per-
sonal errands.
Hovde's car and driver were used
to take his wife downtown, his neigh.
bors to the Kennedy Center, his
daughter to school and his parents
on a sightseeing trip to the Capitol.
Hovde, now a member of the Fed-
eral Home Loan Bank Board, also
used the Buick LeSabre to attend a
wedding, pick up a suit, visit his car
dealer, pick up laundry and dine at
private homes and restaurants.
? Nancy Harvey Steorts, chairman
of the Consumer Product Safety
Commission, used a government
driver to take her on at least five
trips_ to to the. hairdresser, deposit
money in her bank, pick tip dresses
and draperies at downtown stores
and drive her daughter to the White
House to visit friends, according to
the driver, Michael A. Hager, who no
longer works for Steorts Hager said
that friends also chipped in to buy
him a suit after Steort8 ordered him
to get a chauffeur's uniform and hat
or risk being fired. Steorta declined
to comment at the time.
? Former Veterans Administration
head Robert P. Nirnmo repaid
$6,441 for using his chauffeur to
drive him to and from his Virginia
home. He also.agreed to terminate a
$708-a-month lease for a 1982 Buick
Electra that he had requested in
place of the compact can provided
for most agency heads. The contro-
versy helped lead to Nimmo's res.
ignation in 1982.
The busiest car, according to
Proxmire's 1982 survey, was used by
Director William J. Casey,
whose driver got $26,000 in overtime
'pay on top of his $20,000 salarv.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505230006-2