US Attorney Reviews Call for Probe into SEIU President Andy Stern’s Lobbying Activities

From Americans for Tax Reform on Monday, February 1, 2010 3:44 PM

Today, new reports confirm that the United States Attorney, Channing Phillips, is reviewing our Nov. 13 request for an investigation into the potential violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) by Service Employee International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern.

In a letter delivered on Nov. 13 ATR President Grover Norquist and AWF Executive Director Brian Johnson wrote:

By this letter, we urge you to investigate the activities of Mr. Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)…specifically, it is important to determine whether those and related activities could constitute unregistered “lobbying” by Mr. Stern in violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA), 2 U.S.C. 1601, et seq.

Nov. 16, SEIU spokesperson Michelle Ringuette acknowledged the validity of claim and, without offering evidence responded: “Andy Stern spends less than 20 percent of his time talking to elected representatives.”

Jan 5 Andy Stern told Carol Costello in a one-on-one interview on CNN: “We’re going to send them a letter and tell them the truth, which is we’ve complied with the law. And we assume whenever the investigation is done it will be fine.”

Jan 25, SEIU spokesperson Kawana Lloyd contradicted what Mr. Stern had said on CNN, saying: “SEIU had likely said all it would say on the matter.”

Feb 1, the US Attorney’s office confirmed to CNSNews.com that they are “reviewing the matter.” Ms. Ringuette retorted: “The charges were meritless; we have been informed by the Senate that the complaining parties were notified.”

“We have not received the letter Mr. Stern promised on CNN or any response from the U.S. Senate other than their confirmation that our complaint was received,” said Norquist.

Click here for a PDF of ATR and AWF's joint press release.

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