Inside Politics

Going to Disney

A three-day, expense-paid trip to Walt Disney World Resorts — sound like a dream vacation? No, it’s “research,” according to four federal agencies sponsoring a June 3-5 conference in Orlando, Fla.

The 2007 AcademyHealth Research Meeting is slated for Disney’s posh Swan and Dolphin resort, which boasts “an environment of elegance and opulence” featuring “the beauty and tranquility of waterways and tropical landscaping.”

Federal sponsors include the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Health Services Research and Development Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Web site — www.academyhealth.org/arm — for the taxpayer-funded conference features a palm tree logo that one congressional staffer says perfectly “conveys that ‘bureaucrats on the beach’ atmosphere.”

The Web site lists corporate sponsors for the event (including the pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly) and such speakers as AHRQ’s Philip Cooper and Lyle Nelson of the Congressional Budget Office.

The next bill

The Democrats may give President Bush a supplemental Iraq spending bill that does not include a timeline for troop withdrawal, but they do plan to tack on an increase to the federal minimum wage.

Tucked in the $124 billion bill that Mr. Bush vetoed Tuesday was a provision to raise the wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour.

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who has made this one of his signature fights, said Democrats will attach the increase to the next supplemental spending bill they send to the president, The Washington Times’ blog Fishwrap reported yesterday.

“My expectation is we’ll include that in any bill we pass,” Mr. Hoyer said.

The wage has languished at the current rate for a decade, and was one of the first items on the agenda when Democrats took over Congress in January.

A bill to increase the minimum wage passed both chambers, but stalled when Senate Republicans pushed for small-business tax breaks to offset its cost.

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