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Show Weekly Speciall 17esEerBO" Capitol crawling with controversy Washington For one group of small-business men, there are two kinds of problems on Capitol Hill: congressmen and cockroaches. The sad truth is that congressional offices are overrun with roaches. They're more numerous than lobbyistsand lobby-istsand almost as nervy. Yet the exterminators hired to fight the wily critters often find their hands tied by the very lawmakers and aides who should be supporting their efforts. The result is that the Capitol and the Senate and House office buildings make up a luxurious, marble-clad roach motel. The insects slither across senators' desks and secretaries' file cabinets with an' insouciance bordering on arrogance. " It's almost as if they know the budget for congressional cockroach control is a pitiful $24,000 a year. Our reporter Scott Barrett talked with Gene Budowski of Entech Inc. , the exterminator that currently holds the unenviable contract to keep the buildings and grounds of the congressional complex free of vermin. It is, he said, an impossible task for a number of reasons. The big problem, not surprisingly, is the $24,000 budget. Budowski said a more realistic figure would be anywhere from $60,000 to $75,000 a year. But the lawmakers who approve trillion-dollar federal budgets bud-gets insist on pinching pennies when it comes to pest control. Another thing that bugs Budowski is the uncooperative attitude of congressional staffers. They balk at letting his crew move books and papers so the rooms and furniture can be sprayed properly. "It's very frustrating, because it's so simple," he said. Then and this may come as a surprise to readers beyond the Washington Beltway there's the problem of staffers who eat lunch at their desks, instead of at fancy gin mills, as legend dictates. Leftovers from tunafish sandwiches, plus opened bags of munchies stashed away in desk drawers, provide more than adequate nourishment for the armies of little six-legged guerrillas deployed on Capitol Hill. Although regular spraying is the only effective way to deal with roaches, Budowski said, the contract calls for spraying only in response to complaints of infestation. Also, he said, another contractor handles the .restaurants and cafeterias, and there's no coordination between the two assault teams,""",,.''".''','.','"'" 8 As f 6r tHe ' great outdoors,1 "where ' Budowski's firm is responsible for rat control, there are other problems just as touchy, Entech must use environmentally safe rat poisons, and take care that, for example, no tourist's pet dog drops dead behind some TV correspondent doing a standup report on the Capitol lawn. Budowski said the congressional extermination contract is a "prestige account" but he won't do it again, thanks. HELLO-GOODBYE: Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Manage-ment Agency obviously believe that planning for natural and manmade disasters is a sensitive business. They recently installed a new telephone system that will monitor all outgoing calls automatically. An internal memo explains the effect this will have on employees: "The system will impact personal calls from government phones. Each local and long distance number called will be recorded on a printout and sent to office managers, who will be required to certify each call was official government business . "Calling to say you will be home late could result in a fine or separation from the job." WHO'S NEWS?: Lew Lehrman, self-made millionare and unsuccessful un-successful New York gubernatorial candidate, is in the running for a seat on the Council of Economic Advisers. He is one of President Reagan's favorite conservatives, but he apparently stokes the competitive fires within another Empire State supply sider, Republican Rep. Jack Kemp. During the Republican convention last summer, a Kemp aid advised Lehrman and several of his aides to remove their fire-engine-red sus-" sus-" pendens because if made ' Lehrrnan appear to" be setting hiinseif up'as a cult figure. Rep. Tony Coelho, D-Calif., according to our sources, wants to become the financial czar for the Democratic Party. He is making his bid from strength: During the 1984 campaign, he raised millions for the party's House candidates and is given much credit for minimizing Democratic losses. But not everyone is in Coelho's corner. One party official complained to us that the 42-year-old legislator is an "empire builder." Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, is privately lobbying for a seat on the Armed Services Committee. He is already a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and, according to the rules, he cannot be a member of both. But Glenn wants his colleagues in the Senate to make an exception for him on the grounds that he would make an ideal "liason" between the two panels on arms sales matters. Copyright, 1984, United Feature Syndicate, Inc. |