Lobbying Group Blames It on the Temp

A coal group and its two contractors knew that forged lobbying letters had been sent to three members of Congress before they voted on climate legislation – but the lawmakers themselves didn’t know, according to the Associated Press.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity has acknowledged that the letter-sending company, Bonner & Associates, was hired by one of their subcontractors. And Bonner says a temporary employee wrote the fake letters and has been fired.

The ACCCE disclosed new details on the scandal in a letter, writing that on June 25 it contacted its primary lobbying contractor, the Hawthorn Group, and "demanded that Bonner promptly make contact with the affected member offices and organizations." In a separate letter, Hawthorn said it instructed Bonner to notify lawmakers that same day about the forgeries, but Bonner didn't do that until after the June 26 vote (when the House approved the climate bill).

This isn’t the first time the Bonner company has been caught in a fraud – nor the first time for blaming rogue employees, according to ThinkProgress.org. In 1986, the firm was caught fraudulently submitting names from phone books, yearbooks and other sources in order to keep a contract with the U.S. government. The company said later, “We fired the people we determined were involved in it…what they did was in direct violation of the written policy of the firm.”

Bonner's lawyer wrote that the firm is instituting measures to avoid a repeat of the forgeries, such as 100 percent callback verification to groups that have signed letters and ethics training for temps.

A hearing before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming about the letters was scheduled for last week, but postponed until this week because all the testimony wasn’t received in time.

-- Suzanne Bopp