The U.S. Senate has learned what everyone else already knew about food: it's tough to eat cheaply.
After decades of losing money, the Senate has decided to privatize its network of
restaurants which offers a range of dining experiences from jacket and tie to coffee and a donut.
Collectively, the restaurants earn over $10 million a year in food sales,
but have only been profitable in seven of 44 years, according to the Government Accountability Office. In that time period, the Senate food service, subsidized with taxpayer dollars, has lost more than $18
million since 1993, according to one report, and an estimated $2
million this year alone, according to another.
Naturally, not everyone in the Senate supports the move to outsource food services. Senator Sen. Sherrod Brown
(D-Ohio) worries about the outcome of the approximately 100 Senate food service workers.
"I know what happens with privatization. Workers lose jobs, and the
next generation of workers make less in wages. These are some of the
lowest-paid workers in our country, and I want to help them, Brown told the Washington Post."
The average Senate food service worker makes $37,000 annually. Ironically, this is considerably more than Sen. Brown pays the Congressional Staff Assistants, Legislative Aides, Scheduler, and interns working for her! (Thanks Legistorm.)
Despite Brown's reluctance, the House is likely to approve the no-brainer move to bring in professional food services. Let's just hope the contractor selected to serve food to the Senate offers up healthy choices. Otherwise Senators might start resembling the pork they like to dole out.
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