2 Lawmakers To Return Questionable Donations

Two members of Congress said yesterday that they will give back campaign donations listed as coming from employees of a major lobbying firm amid suspicions that the donors may not have worked there.

Staff members for Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said that the lawmakers learned from articles in The Washington Post and Roll Call over the weekend that the donations listed as coming from the PMA Group may not have been properly recorded, and they both plan to return several thousand dollars.

PMA, whose offices in Arlington were raided in November by FBI and Defense Criminal Investigative Service agents, is under investigation for improper campaign contributions to key lawmakers in charge of appropriations, according to two sources familiar with the probe. The lobbying firm specialized in winning lucrative earmarks for defense contractors and was led by former aides to key members of congressional appropriations committees.

Visclosky, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and chairman of its energy and water subcommittee, said in a statement that his campaign will return $16,000 in donations. The money was from two men who have no lobbying connections but live in the Florida resort community of Amelia Island, where PMA's founder has a beachfront property. Both are also listed on PMA's board of directors.

Visclosky also received a $2,000 donation in 2006 from Marvin Hoffman, who was listed in Visclosky's campaign reports as a PMA Group lobbyist. Hoffman, an information technology manager in California, said in an interview that he never gave money to Visclosky and has never heard of the PMA Group.

Visclosky's former chief of staff was a senior member of the PMA Group, until many of the lobbyists split off last week to form their own company.

Lofgren, who chairs the House ethics committee, said yesterday that she will return all $7,000 she received from PMA's political action committee. She said that her action is not a comment on the propriety of the donations but that she wants to avoid even the appearance of a conflict if the PMA matter comes before her committee.