It's S.O.P. to Hold Two Permanent Jobs in DOJ?

by: Matt Singer

Thu May 03, 2007 at 10:59:06 AM MST

Here's what a DOJ flack has to say:

"Assistant U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Attorneys have been asked to assume significant roles in Iraq, DOJ headquarters, and elsewhere away from their official duty stations. This amendment clarifies that the statutory residency requirement does not preclude department personnel from working in two places if authorized by an order from the attorney general."

Patrick Fitzgerald ended up acting as a special prosecutor, a temporary position overseeing a certain investigation and prosecution.

Bill Mercer is theoretically doing two full-time jobs, overseeing Montana federal law enforcement and serving as number 3 for the entire U.S. law enforcement. Meanwhile, he's in Montana three days a month.

Is this really historically a standard operating procedure? And, if so, why would Mercer leave the U.S. Attorney position if he got Senate confirmation for the D.C. position? Is it because it would be better to have two people handling these jobs?

Paul Kiel at TPMMuckraker also tracked down some interesting insight from a reader:

Of course they're not getting two salaries -- they're each working a single full-time job, just with a wide array of distinct responsibilities that regularly require travel. The question is whether they're getting their housing and other expenses subsidized. DOJ has two different set-ups for employees on "detail" from one position to another: some have their housing, etc., paid for in the secondary location on the condition that they continue to maintain a primary residence ( i.e., they pay for a house/apartment as usual in their home city, and the government pays for housing in Washington, along with a generous per diem allowance for food that assumes the person is eating every meal in a restaurant); others don't get that treatment, on the assumption that they spend such a large majority of time in one city or the other that they don't need to maintain two residences. The first is a much sweeter deal, for obvious reasons -- it would be interesting to know which kind Mercer and the others are getting. Saying that they're not getting double salary may be a dodge to hide the fact that their total compensation is in fact much higher than it would be if they were staying at home and attending to their duties as US Attorneys on a full-time basis.