Enron lobbying correction:
$2.5 million for six months of pressing its agenda on
Bush administration and Congress

PETE YOST / AP 8mar02

WASHINGTON -- Enron Corp. says it spent nearly $2.5 million on lobbying in President Bush's first six months in office, three times the incorrect figure that Enron gave Congress last summer.

Enron's revised 17-page report now states that it lobbied regarding "nomination to the Securities Exchange Commission" and "nomination to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission." The old report omitted any mention of lobbying on nominees for the two regulatory agencies.

The revised report contains eight references to White House lobbying; the earlier version just two.

The company is so uncertain of the accuracy of even the revised report that no Enron executive would step forward to sign the document.

White House spokeswoman Anne Womack was unable to confirm that Enron had lobbied the Bush administration regarding nominees to the SEC and CFTC. But she said Thursday night that "we've indicated before that countless corporations, unions and individuals have provided suggestions to the administration on appointments. Enron may have offered suggestions on these particular appointments."

Securities and Exchange Commission spokeswoman Christi Harlan said chairman Harvey Pitt, nominated by Bush last May, "has said he knows of no efforts by Enron or its executives on his behalf" for the chairman's post. Pitt was confirmed by the Senate in August.

It has been disclosed previously that Enron lobbied the White House on other regulatory appointments.

Then-Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay gave the White House recommendations for appointments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last spring and Bush eventually appointed two of the people on Enron's list. Lay gave the list of names to Clay Johnson, Bush's personnel director. Among the eight or so names were Pat Wood, now FERC chairman, and Nora Brownell, a member of the commission.

Enron was among Bush's biggest campaign contributors, and Lay made a series of telephone calls to members of the Bush Cabinet as Enron spiraled toward bankruptcy last fall.

The Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a dozen congressional committees are investigating Enron and its longtime auditor, the Arthur Andersen accounting firm.

Enron revealed that it spent as much on lobbying in the first six months of Bush's presidency as it did in all of the previous year when lobbying expenditures were $2.1 million. The figure for all of 1999 was just under $2 million.

"We are advised that the amended report reflects a good faith effort to disclose the lobbying activities undertaken during the reporting period," Enron's outside legal counsel wrote in a letter filed March 2 with the House and Senate.

"Unfortunately, virtually all the Enron employees who worked in the Washington, D.C., office are no longer with the company," and "there is no current employee who has personal knowledge of much of the activity," continued the outside lawyer, Kenneth Gross.

With the company in bankruptcy, "once issues regarding indemnity and director and officer liability coverage are resolved, then a company official will be in a position to submit a signed copy," Gross wrote.

A Washington group that tracks political money, the Center for Responsive Politics, uncovered a discrepancy a month ago that led to the revised filing. Enron earlier reported spending only $825,000 on lobbying, but outside lobbying firms reported income from Enron totaled $1.8 million during the same period. Enron's own report is required by law to include payments to outside lobbyists as well as what it spends on its in-house lobbying team.

In other developments on Enron:

* A newly released letter shows that just before taking office, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers promised Lay he would keep an eye on energy deregulation, an issue pushed by the Houston-based energy-trading company. Summers' note to Lay on May 25, 1999, responded to Lay's earlier letter congratulating Summers on succeeding Robert Rubin as President Clinton's treasury secretary.

* According to a document released by congressional investigators, Enron's chief accounting officer, Richard Causey, told company investigators that he and Enron's lead outside auditor, David Duncan, often informed directors that the company was "in gray areas" on some of its complex accounting.