Part Of The Job: Cabinet's Cupboard Is Full Of Perks

WASHINGTON - James Baker can use a government jet for personal travel without asking permission. William Barr can get a hot lunch in a private dining room near his office for $3.75. Lynn Martin can have a cook at the office whip up her favorite chocolate-chip cookies.

These three did not arrange for these privileges and comforts. They got them automatically when they entered President Bush's Cabinet.

The men and women who head the 14 big federal departments are among the most pampered of public servants. Rush-hour traffic is their drivers' problem. They ride in Lincolns and Cadillacs - navy blue, black or silver - with small gooseneck reading lamps over their shoulders.

They have access to private dining rooms and cut-rate food and the opportunity to get away to modestly priced government vacation lodges from which the public is barred.

They don't have to keep track of their vacation days and they never have to share a bathroom at work.

They are paid $138,900 a year.

Whatever their other roles, perks help determine the pecking order in government. For example, John Sununu, Bush's chief of staff, has gotten into hot water for using such perks. But he is not a Cabinet member and the privileges don't come with his job.

The ultimate perk is the authority to use a government jet for personal or business travel without advance permission. Only three Cabinet members have that right - Secretary of State Baker, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and acting Attorney General Barr.

Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher can use a government jet on a presidentially ordered trip.

When government planes are used for personal trips, the user is supposed to reimburse the taxpayers, but repayment policies vary.

For years, attorneys general paid full-fare coach plus $1 for government jets that cost much more to operate, but Barr's predecessor, Dick Thornburgh, paid the lowest supersaver rate available.

Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner has a fleet of Federal Aviation Administration and Coast Guard jets at his command, but still flies half the time commercially, mostly first class, because the airlines come under his purview.

Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan gets low-cost government-rate coach tickets but most airlines move him to first class for free if a seat is available.

Cabinet members can take as many vacation days as they dare or want - so long as they are always at the president's beck and call.

And like members of Congress, federal judges and other presidential appointees, they are eligible to vacation at four VIP lodges run by the National Park Service.

Last year, Cheney spent a week at the Brinkerhoff Lodge in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. It costs $85 a day for two people.

The other VIP resorts are the old lighthouse keeper's cottage at Bodie Island, N.C.; Camp Hoover in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, and a house at Little Cinnamon Bay on St. John's in the Virgin Islands. The most expensive is $109 a day for two.

All Cabinet members are entitled to use a government car and driver to go between home and work.

Barr and some others - even some outside the Cabinet like the CIA director - have Jeep wagons or chase cars full of security agents. Most do not. Some have a security officer riding along.

In the past, misuse of this security has proved embarrassing - as when Life magazine snapped an FBI agent ironing Martha Mitchell's dress in a St. Louis hotel during John Mitchell's tenure as attorney general.

Some have resisted the lure of security. Benjamin Civiletti, President Carter's second attorney general, rejected an FBI security detail, sometimes shopped alone at downtown stores, and even took an occasional bus home.

Virtually all have private or executive dining rooms in their office suites. Some have cooks; others just cooking equipment.

A dining room and a kitchen operate steps from the attorney general's office. Although he hasn't moved upstairs from the deputy attorney general's office, Barr and his top assistants can order hot breakfasts for $2.75 or lunches for $3.75.

Labor Secretary Martin's private dining room is available to about 100 key aides. It charges $5 for lunch. The "customers" bus their own tables.