Sen. Stevens Gets Delay On Financial Disclosure

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has asked the Senate ethics committee to review his finances from last year, allowing him to delay filing his official disclosure forms and making him one of four lawmakers receiving such extensions amid investigations involving their personal dealings.

Federal investigators have asked Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, to preserve records related to a widening corruption inquiry in Alaska that has brought four indictments of current and former state legislators and plea agreements from two energy company executives. The executives, one of whom is a close friend of Stevens, pleaded guilty to paying more than $400,000 in bribes to the state lawmakers, including an unindicted "state Senator B." The latter's consulting payments, according to court records, match those reported by Ben Stevens, the son of Ted Stevens and a former state senator.

"At Senator Stevens's request, the Senate ethics committee is reviewing his 2006 financial disclosure. That process is still ongoing, therefore it was necessary for Senator Stevens to file an extension," said Aaron Saunders, spokesman for Stevens. He declined to specify why the senator had asked for the ethics review.

A federal grand jury last year subpoenaed billing records from contractors who performed more than $100,000 worth of remodeling on the senator's home in Anchorage in 2000. That home project, at least two contractors have said, was overseen by officials from Veco Corp., whose chief executive, Bill J. Allen, pleaded guilty to bribing the state officials in an effort to win favorable legislation for a natural gas pipeline.

Nearly 80 lawmakers received extensions for their financial disclosures, which are required by federal law. Knowingly filing false disclosure forms is a federal crime. Prosecutors have aggressively pursued apparent violations in recent corruption investigations on Capitol Hill, including those of former congressmen Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), both of whom are now in prison.

Other lawmakers who have faced financial scrutiny and received extensions include Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who is under federal investigation for renting property to a nonprofit organization while also pushing for federal grants for the nonprofit, and Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), who is under investigation for his wife's firm doing unspecified work for imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff while her husband performed legislative favors for him.

Also, Rep. Rick Renzi's suburban Phoenix home was raided by the FBI as part of a probe examining connections to a $200,000 payment the Arizona Republican received from a business partner who would have benefited from federal land-swap legislation sponsored by Renzi.