Two years ago, House Republicans sought, unsuccessfully, to place restrictions on the lobbying carried out by non-profit groups that receive federal funds. But Republicans might want to set their sights on another target: the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, which allows federal employees to work for non-profit groups and have their salaries paid with taxpayer dollars.
Thank Douglas Holt of the Dallas Morning News for bringing this issue to light. He found, for example, that Belen Robles, the national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) -- a group that burned the Contract With America at its 1995 Texas convention is paid an annual salary of nearly $ 67,000 with federal money. Seems Robles took leave from the U.S. Customs Service to lead LULAC and then used the Intergovernmental Personnel Act to preserve her Customs paycheck.
This program might not be so objectionable if federal employees were engaged in charitable endeavors. Instead, it looks like just another way to politic on the public dime. Among the 711 groups the Office of Personnel Management has deemed acceptable for this federal subsidy are the Brookings Institution and the NAACP Conservative groups, needless to say, don't pass muster with OPM.