EXCLUSIVE: Barton's foundation not so charitable

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By Jerry Seper

EXCLUSIVE:

The top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee operates a tax-exempt foundation that has raised donations from the industries his committee oversees, while giving less than a quarter of the foundation's money to charitable causes, tax records show.

Rep. Joe L. Barton's foundation spent more on staff, fundraising and other overhead from 2005 to 2007 - nearly $130,000 in all - than it did on its single $90,000 contribution to a charitable cause, according to its most recent Internal Revenue Service filings. The congressman's daughter-in-law runs the foundation as an unpaid executive director.

The Texan generated positive headlines for himself in his congressional district when he promised to use his foundation to raise as much as $900,000 to help build a local Boys and Girls Club and fund a Meals-on-Wheels program. Mr. Barton was honored for his commitment to philanthropy at a ceremony in November.

But records show that at the time the lawmaker made such pledges, his charity had never raised that kind of money.

In recent months, Mr. Barton and his foundation have been trying to fulfill their charitable pledges by taking credit when companies give directly to community groups in the foundation's name - essentially bypassing a 2007 congressional requirement that donations from lobbying interests to lawmakers' charities be disclosed.

The tactic has allowed Mr. Barton to raise money for his pet charitable causes from special interests with business before his House committee without the public's knowledge.

"Members of Congress have redefined charitable giving as just another form of pay-to-play," said Naomi Seligman, deputy director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit ethics watchdog that has been examining the charities of political leaders like Mr. Barton.

"These charitable contributions allow those with special interests to both curry favor with lawmakers and look selfless, while pursuing a calculated, selfish agenda," Ms. Seligman said. "By pressuring companies with business before his committee to make charitable contributions, and then making sure those donations cannot be tracked - but are still credited to his foundation - Mr. Barton has found a way to a new low in Washington. And that is saying something."

Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog group that monitors political corruption and corporate abuses in Texas, called the Barton foundation solicitations "an absolute conflict of interest."