Associated Press - Conservative law firm complains about union reporting

4/19/2002 - The Associated Press showcased Landmark's complaint to the Labor Department about the NEA in this wire service story.

Larry Margasak
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A conservative law firm complained Friday that the nation's largest teachers union failed to accurately disclose its political expenditures to the Labor Department as required by law.

Landmark Legal Foundation contended in a written brief that millions of dollars were spent by the National Education Association since 1994 but were not listed in the union's annual reports to the government.

Political spending included funds for candidate recruitment, fund-raising, screening candidates and political surveys, Landmark said. The foundation said the complaint would be filed Monday with the Labor Department.

NEA spokeswoman Kathleen Lyons responded, "I see no basis for any complaint. We filled out the forms properly as we do every year. We acted in good faith. We followed all laws and reporting requirements."

Labor Department officials said this month they planned to crack down on unions that delay or fail to file the reports and may revamp the forms to require more detail.

President Bush has requested an extra $3.4 million in next year's budget for the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards. That would pay 40 new full-time workers to help improve reporting compliance under the Landrum-Griffin Act, which requires financial disclosure by unions.

"The department is not proud of how the Landrum-Griffin Act has been enforced over the past decade," department deputy secretary Cameron Findlay testified at a House subcommittee hearing recently. "We intend to change that."

Landmark said NEA reports showed:

A Program Accomplishment Report following the 1994-95 budget year, where the union disclosed it spent $2.5 million on program assistance to state affiliates' political activities.

A 1996-1997 Strategic Plan and Budget that included $9.6 million to "build bipartisan constituencies among those running for and elected to public office to support public education."

Interim financial statements for 1998-99 reported an expenditure of more than $3 million for increased bipartisan political advocacy support.