03 Jan 2007 Statement on Incorrect Reports Regarding the National Center for Public Policy Research and Congressional Travel

Washington, D.C. – The National Center for Public Policy Research has reviewed media reports stating that the House Ethics Committee has asked Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) to pay the U.S. Treasury a sum equal to the cost of a 2003 trip he apparently took to Scotland.  Rep. Feeney had incorrectly reported the National Center for Public Policy Research as the sponsor of the trip in his House travel disclosure forms.

A report in Roll Call January 3 quotes Rep. Feeney’s chief of staff saying “Roe added that no one is entirely sure who paid for the trip, whether it was Abramoff or if Abramoff routed money through the nonprofit group that was said to have paid for the trip on forms filed with the House, the National Center for Public Policy Research.”

The National Center for Public Policy Research correctly informed Rep. Feeney in 2005 that it did not pay for the trip and at that time formally requested that Rep. Feeney correct his travel disclosure forms.  If a correction of the forms has not happened or is not immediately pending, we renew this request.  The National Center for Public Policy Research played no role in this trip, and only learned of its existence from media inquiries two years after it was taken.

Contrary to a report in the Associated Press January 3 and elsewhere, the National Center for Public Policy Research sponsored no Congressional travel of any kind in 2003.  Furthermore, the National Center for Public Policy Research has sponsored no Congressional travel at all since 2000.  We ask the Associated Press to withdraw its report and issue a correction.