Reply #5: Congressman’s Foundation Has Money for Golf Outings, but Not for Scholarships [View All]

[maddezmom]

Congressman’s Foundation Has Money for Golf Outings, but Not for Scholarships
Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Rep. Steve Buyer Frontier Foundation, established seven years ago by Congressman Steve Buyer (R-Indiana) to award scholarships, has yet to help any students, but it has financed Buyer’s golf game. Buyer’s foundation has collected more than $800,000, while not giving out a single scholarship, and prompting a government watchdog group to ask for an investigation of the congressman’s operation.


Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has written to the IRS to see if it will investigate whether the foundation violated federal tax law by “failing to operate for its stated public purpose of helping needy students and by doing little more than paying for the congressman to play golf with donors with interests before his committee.”

Buyer, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has been the beneficiary of donations from pharmaceutical and tobacco businesses. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), the drug industry’s main lobby, donated $200,000 to Buyer’s foundation.

CREW also is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics to delve into the matter and determine if Buyer violated ethics rules “by abusing a charity for private purposes and by trading legislative assistance for donations to the charity and a job for his son.”

PhRMA hired Buyer’s son, Ryan, to be its “federal affairs manager.”

more:http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Congressmans_Foundation_Has_Money_for_Golf_Outings_but_Not_for_Scholarships_100127