Never one to miss a trick

WASHINGTON -- Never one to miss a trick when it comes to putting in a word for the home folk, Rep. Shelley Berkley took to the House floor this afternoon to seek assurances Las Vegas won't get hurt by newest effort to restrict corporate spending.

She didn't get a guarantee, but at least a response from House leaders that it was not their intent.

The House was debating a new bill that would bar companies that receive federal bailout money from paying "unreasonable or excessive" compensation, or from paying bonuses until the government has been repaid.

It was a fallback bill, as it has become clear that a strong measure the House passed two weeks ago to impose a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to executives at the AIG insurance giant and other bailout recipients was not going anywhere.

Mindful that Las Vegas lost millions of dollars in business bookings the last time politicians in Washington, including President Barack Obama, criticized luxury retreats by companies getting taxpayer funding, this time around Berkley got cooperation from Rep. Barney Frank, the Financial Services Committee chairman, to engage in some pre-emptive damage control.

In a short speech, Berkley noted business travel has dropped dramatically to Las Vegas and other destinations.

"The decline is due to the state of our economy, but also to a perception that Washington is seeking to limit these legitimate business practices," she said. "This negative perception has created an environment where every business in the United States is questioning whether or not they should hold meetings, events or incentive travel programs.

"I would like to clarify .... that nothing in this bill or the amendments to be offered today would discourage or limit the use of meetings, events and incentive travel organized by a company to serve legitimate business purposes."

"Yes, this bill deals only with compensation, not with travel," Frank responded. He said, for instance, it would be allowable for companies to reward their high achievers with a trip to Vegas as long as it was clearly job-performance related. Such "incentive travel" has dropped precipitously.

The Nevada Democrat declared herself pleased. But the travel industry and its supporters in Congress continue trying to dig hometown travel-related businesses out of holes created by the recession and the public backlash to corporate junkets by bailout recipients.

Berkley has become increasingly zealous in defending recession-blasted Las Vegas. One evening last week she reserved an hour of House floor time, gathered like-minded lawmakers and they all held court on the benefits of vacation travel -- to Las Vegas, especially.