The Nation: To Bee or Not to Bee

Over the years Congressmen have risen up to denounce a myriad of evils: vice, extravagance and, occasionally, one another. Now it is "honey money." That is how Massachusetts Republican Silvio O. Conte waspishly described payments made by the Department of Agriculture to beekeepers who are compensated $15 a hive for bees inadvertently killed by Government pesticide programs. Conte allowed that $15 did not seem like much, but he pleaded with his colleagues to "look at the size of the claims submitted under the program, and you will get a taste of what a...

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