Posted on 09/19/2009 12:38:29 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Hundreds of federal health officials are earning more than cabinet secretaries because of a program intended to recruit and retain a handful of top-level scientists.
The program is known as Title 42, after a provision in federal salary regulations. It was set up for "rare" cases to attract and keep "extraordinary individuals" in the health sciences who might otherwise defect to private-sector jobs, according to an October 2000 memo from a Department of Health and Human Services unit that sought permission to pay these individuals outside normal civil-service rules.
An HHS memo from late 1999 promised to "ensure that these salaries are offered only to the most critical investigators and that we have a solid basis for determining each salary."
Instead, the program has grown beyond its original parameters, said Rep. Joe Barton of Texas. He and fellow Republican Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon wrote letters to HHS and the Environmental Protection Agency this week asking them to justify the extended use of Title 42.
About 2,000 officials are considered "special consultants" under Title 42, according to federal salary data. Of these, 378 earned 2008 salaries of more than $191,000, the salary of a cabinet secretary at the time.
The "consultants" include division directors at the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public-health agencies under the HHS umbrella, according to federal data. They also include many FDA middle managers with science degrees.
Mr. Barton said he doesn't mind paying some officials more to compete for talent with the private sector, but he has two main objections to the program: Its wide use suggests the extra pay is going to some less-than-critical officials who don't need special incentives to stay in government.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Michelle My Belle was paid $350K by a public university hospital on a no show, no work job.
First, the salaries will be ridiculously high AND you won’t be able to fire anyone.
Second, once you open the door to public sector paying private sector salaries, the level of corruption will be staggering and uncontrollable (Obama’s plan).
Third, taxing private healthcare is Pandora’s box. Soon, they will “discover” they can’t pay for this plan and the public option (MANDATORY) will be forced on us.
Our country has gone to hell under Obama and the Democratic Party and once we let 30-70 million illegals vote, the game is over.
Move somewhere else.
That’s a lot of belts...
I dunno, she had to sleep with 0bama. She ought to receive some serious compensation for that.
It’s not hard to see where this is going, is it? The best jobs will be with the government. One way or another (like taking over big companies) the government will own everybody.
It surely is moving fast now.
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