Congress: A Family Business.

NEPOTISM; UNITED States legislators; UNITED States. Congress; UNITED States. Congress. Senate; LEGISLATIVE bills; LAW

The U.S. Congress reluctantly passed four years ago a law banning nepotism on the part of its members. The Senate went along with the measure and President Johnson signed it into law, but that has hardly ended the nepotism problem on Capitol Hill. Today, three Senators and twenty-one Congressmen still employ their wives, sisters, brothers, children and in-laws. And another Senator and eight additional Congressmen have prevailed on colleagues to employ their kin. It's all perfectly legal because the nepotism bill contained a grandfather clause that allowed lawmakers, with enough foresight to hire relatives before the law was passed, to keep them on the payroll. And the bill does not forbid farming out the family to other Congressmen.