And the pendulum swings [1] on:Â
The Senate on Friday voted 87-0 to strip away the pensions of members of Congress convicted of white-collar crimes such as bribery, perjury and fraud. That could result in benefit losses of more than $100,000 a year.Â
"With this vote, we are preventing members of Congress who steal or cheat from receiving a lifelong pension that is paid for by the taxpayers," said Sen. John Kerry [2], D-Mass., sponsor of the measure with Sen. Ken Salazar (news [3], bio [4], voting record [5]), D-Colo.Â
The pension measure was attached to a comprehensive ethics and lobbying bill that the Democratic-controlled Senate, trying to improve the image of Congress after the scandals of last year, took up as its first legislative act of the year.
[6]
Links:
[1] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070112/ap_on_go_co/senate_ethics
[2] http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=John+Kerry
[3] http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/politics/news/ap/ap_on_go_co/senate_ethics/21557344/*http:/news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22Ken%20Salazar%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw
[4] http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/capadv/bio/ap/ap_on_go_co/senate_ethics/21557344/SIG=119vnvsdd/*http:/yahoo.capwiz.com/y/bio/?id=31624
[5] http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/capadv/vote/ap/ap_on_go_co/senate_ethics/21557344/SIG=11iki05cs/*http:/yahoo.capwiz.com/y/bio/keyvotes/?id=31624
[6] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fthehindsightfactor.com%2Fcutting_pensions_for_congressional_convicts&linkname=Cutting%20Pensions%20for%20Congressional%20Convicts