Clinton’s Office Rent Busts Budget

Former President Clinton’s pending move into a swank $700,000-a-year Midtown Manhattan office tower has drawn the ire of congressional Republicans, who say Clinton is busting his government-funded budget for a lavish “presidential penthouse.”

Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.), chairman of the House Treasury, Postal and General Appropriations Subcommittee, on Wednesday accused Clinton of trying to force the General Services Administration to come up with the extra cash to pay for the entire 56th floor of the Carnegie Towers.

“I’ve never known an ex-president to blow their budget,” Istook said. “They’re using a back-door approach, saying, ‘GSA, you make up the difference, you transfer the money from somewhere else.’ They’re asking people to go to extremes to pay for a presidential penthouse.”

Istook was crafting a letter Wednesday night urging the GSA not to sign the lease, which could be signed as early as Friday.

A Clinton spokesman Wednesday said the former president would indeed spend more than the $57,000 Congress appropriated for office space for July to September of this year.

But the spokesman, Jake Siewart, said the $1.8 million allocated to cover the cost of Clinton’s transition through June could be applied to the rent.

“Congress has to recognize that Bill Clinton is no longer president and that they have to find someone else to investigate,” Siewart said.

Clinton officials estimated the annual rent at $700,000.

Istook said that Clinton requested, and Congress allocated, only $57,000 to cover rent for the last three months of fiscal 2001. Based on that figure, Istook projected Clinton’s office rent at $228,000 a year.

Siewart said that the office cost estimates were made in late 1999 by the GSA, not Clinton, and that they did not factor in having the office in New York City.

“This is downtown Midtown Manhattan,” Siewart said. “It’s a pricey place to have an office.”

If the lease is signed, Clinton’s office will be the priciest among the living former presidents, according to congressional figures.

The government pays $285,000 a year for Ronald Reagan’s Los Angeles office, $147,000 for the elder George Bush’s Houston office, $99,000 for Gerald Ford’s office near Palm Springs and $93,000 annually for Jimmy Carter’s office in Plains, Ga.

“This would set a record at least twice the level of Ronald Reagan,” said Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union. “Why does he need 8,000 square feet in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world?”

Instead of assuming that the government is going to pay the rent, Istook said, Clinton should find cheaper office space, pay for some of the rent out of his own pocket or ask Congress for additional funding.

Siewart said Clinton will not ask Congress for more money. He conceded that once the first rent check is written, money could be tight for Clinton’s office for the rest of the year.

“There’s very little money for staff after July 19,” Siewart said, adding that that Clinton might use money from speaking fees to help pay for personnel.