TSA Spends Nearly $500,000 On Party

The 3 hour awards banquet , followed by a reception for the award winners, cost the tax payers approximately $461,475.00.

AOL news reported...

Awards were presented to 543 Transportation Security Administration employees and 30 organizations, including a ''lifetime achievement award'' for one worker with the 2-year-old agency.


Some of the costs for the event were...

$64 for a gallon of coffee.
$3.75 for each soft drink.
$1,850 for seven sheet cakes.
$1,500 for three cheese displays.
$81,000+ for awards plaques.

I realize that employees need to have these sort of morale boosters, but this seems excessive by any standard. Besides the party and plaques (wouldn't a nice certifiacte have been a bit more cost conscious), 76 percent of all eligible managers received monetary bonuses. Fewer than three percent of the 50,878 non-executive employees received monetary bonuses; just like the private sector.

Maybe I'm wrong to think this is outrageously excessive... afterall, they did save us from Cat Stevens.