GOPers seek review of alleged Forest Service lobbying

Republican lawmakers last week asked congressional investigators to review whether the U.S. Forest Service conducted an illegal lobbying campaign related to forest management.

Senate Energy and Resources Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, and House Resources Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, wrote a letter last week to the General Accounting Office requesting the review.

They said that Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck violated the Federal Agency Anti-Lobbying Act last March by issuing a communications plan to agency officials encouraging them to use phone calls, speeches, meetings, the media and interest groups to gain support for legislative proposals.

Murkowski and Young say the alleged evidence of the lobbying is contained in 1,500 pages of documents they requested from the agency in April.

Dombeck "denied the allegations and has argued that distributing information about forest management is part of his agency's job and doesn't constitute lobbying" (John Hughes, AP/Portland Oregonian/others, 11/27).