"Congressional Hygene"
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2007 3:57 pm
I begin to see the argument for smaller government...The Washington Post
CONGRESSIONAL HYGIENE
Only the Strong (And Absorbent) Make It to Hill
Friday, April 6, 2007; Page A19
And you thought the choice between Bounty or Scott towels was complicated.
The office of the Architect of the Capitol, which is responsible for stocking paper towels in bathrooms throughout the Capitol complex, recently released its requirements for paper supplies to potential vendors. The office is seeking a vendor that can supply 640,000 paper towels every two weeks.
But not just any paper towels.
The specifications, written with the detail only your massive federal bureaucracy could provide, spell out eight requirements for towels fit for the Capitol. Among them:
· "C-fold paper towels provided shall have a minimum unfolded width of 10.25 inches, with a permissible variance of plus .25 or minus .50 inches, and maximum length of 14 inches.
"Each towel shall have a minimum area of 130 square inches. The folded width of each towel shall be 3 inches, with a permissible variance of plus .25 or minus .50 inches."
· "The rate of absorption of paper towel material provided shall not be greater than 20 seconds for the absorption of 0.1 milliliter of water on any representative sample of paper towel as submitted."
· "The color of the paper towel shall be white, with a minimum brightness rating of 70 when measured in accordance with the requirements of test method T-452 of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industries."
· "The minimum thickness of 12 single plies of the paper towel material provided shall be 0.070 inch when measured under an applied pressure of 0.5 psig."
And we won't even get into the "average bursting strength" requirement of the two-ply toilet paper.
-- Lyndsey Layton
