Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990 TAG: 9005250313
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: DAN FESPERMAN THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Now say hello to the Coalition for Retirement Income Security. Its single goal: to get permission to take money out of pension funds to pay for health insurance.
Puzzled? Do not be. This is Washington, mecca of double talk and euphemisms, where tax increases become "revenue enhancements" and lobbying groups are not always what they seem.
Take the Clean Air Working Group, for example. Lately it has been fighting to weaken the Clean Air Act.
That is because its members, among thousands of trade associations and corporations, include the Chemical Manufacturers Association, the American Petroleum Institute, the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, the Edison Electric Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Hardly a bunch of wild-eyed environmentalists.
"The name was not designed as a gimmick, per se," says Susan Roth, a spokeswoman for the organization. "It sounds like a very clever disguise, so to speak, but indeed it was started as a working group of businesses that came together to work on clean air legislation."
Besides, she said, "Washington is so full of organizations with acronyms that this is not an unusual situation."
She is right. And the battle over the Clean Air Act bears her out, also attracting the opposition of groups called Citizens for Sensible Control of Acid Rain and the Alliance for Responsible CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) Policy.
The acid rain group is run and paid for by utility companies, coal companies and other industries blamed for causing acid rain. But that does not mean the organization's name is misleading, says spokesman Martha Miller. "Across the bottom of the letterhead [of the group's stationery] it says who funds the organization, so it's right up front," she said. "And that's not required by law."
The CFC group is a coalition of about 500 companies that make or use chlorofluorocarbons, which are industrial chemicals that react in the upper atmosphere, eating away at the Earth's protective layer of ozone.
Then there is the Coalition for Retirement Income Security. Its members are neither retired nor living in nursing homes. They are 20 or so large corporations - such as American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Dupont, Kodak and International Business Machine Corp. - that want to reduce the expense of providing health-care insurance for their retirees by paying the bill with money from pension funds.
Retiree groups oppose the idea, but coalition spokesman Greg Millert said, "No, I don't think it [the name] is misleading. There are different types of security, and this is a way of securing retiree health care benefits."
The Coalition for Auto Repair Choice had a single goal when it formed: to oppose federal legislation to extend the warranty on auto emission control equipment. What kind of car owners would oppose an extended chance for free auto repairs? And how does opposing that chance support greater "choice" in repairs?
The organization was formed by a group of associations representing auto-part manufacturers. Spokesman Pamela Kostmeyer explained that extended warranties "would force all cars back to the dealer for repairs," thus narrowing the owners' choice of mechanics.
Would that matter as long as the repairs were free? "Nothing is free," she said. "The price of the car would be inflated to cover the anticipated cost of the repairs." The group split up last year after members disagreed over the most effective approach.
There is also the Council for Solid Waste Solutions, made up of manufacturers and users of plastics products, the kind that can sit in a landfill for centuries without looking a day older.
David Malakoff, who edits a magazine for Friends of the Earth, which is an organization of environmentalists, said that the industry groups with non-industry names might anger him if he were not so busy laughing.
"I think they fool some of the people some of the time," he said, "but on the other hand, it amuses me that people would go to such lengths to disguise their real position. Generally you want people to know where you stand right up front. I think in the long run it hurts them."
by CNB