April 2000: Bureaucratic Blunders
Saturday, April 1, 2000
By: Shawn McBurney

Bureaucratic Blunders

Bureaucratic Blunders

By Shawn McBurney

The new year gives us time to reflect on things past. A never-ending source of (expensive) amusement continues to be our very own federal government. For example, the Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Corporation lost so much money that Congress has shut it down. The program was created in 1992 with the (quite dubious) intent of financing new industrial uses for crops. The Agriculture Department's inspector general (IG) reported that three-fourth of the $43 million in "investments" the corporation made during its short seven-year run will probably not be recovered. According to the IG, the corporation threw money at businesses that had "little or no chance of success" and then failed to monitor companies that received the money.

Despite the expert opinion of both the Social Security Administration and the Health Care Financing Administration, the Reverend James Kemp of Lexington, Ky. is not dead. The minister, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is paralyzed from the neck down, found that bureaucrats had decided that he was no longer of this Earth and cut off his health insurance and other benefits. After being informed of the government's findings, he suggested to his physical therapist that his stiff muscles could be a result of rigor mortis. The two agencies are investigating the situation.

The U.S. Forest Service has provided a shining example of why government is held in such esteem. On a remote peak in New Hampshire, almost five miles from the nearest access road and 3,800 feet above sea level, the Appalachian Mountain Club was going to replace a 67-year-old building with a new hut. Accessible after a 4.6 mile hike on a trail with an elevation gain of 2,200 feet, the shelter on Garfield Ridge is considered the club's most remote. The Forest Service approved the original hut plan when it renewed the club's permit to operate in the national forest. However, the club was forced to halt construction after the service changed its mind and decided that the hut must be in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Janet Zeller, a civil rights program manager with the Forest Service's eastern regional office noted that "if someone wants to carry his child and a wheelchair to [the hut], he expects that the child will be able to push around there." After a redesign that added up to $50,000 to the cost of the new building, the club anticipates that the hut will be completely wheelchair accessible.