Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., Tuesday told Small Business Administration chief Aida Alvarez that an agency lawyer may be engaged in lobbying, and Torricelli asked the lawyer be relieved from work on an EPA initiative to expand reporting requirements under the Toxic Release Inventory.
"I am deeply concerned by the possibility that an SBA official is using taxpayer funds to conduct lobbying efforts on behalf of private lobbyists," Torricelli wrote.
Torricelli charged that Kevin Bromberg, an attorney in the office of the SBA's chief counsel for advocacy, appears to be working to exempt from the reporting requirements industries for whom he lobbied with regard to TRI.
"These actions at best appear improper and inappropriate, but may be unethical," Torricelli wrote. Torricelli also called for an inspector general's investigation into Bromberg.
Under the TRI rules, industries are required to report on myriad releases of toxic emissions into the environment. Vice President Gore last year proposed a 30 percent expansion of TRI reporting, adding several new industries.
Since then, the SBA has sought to exempt bulk petroleum sellers and chemical wholesalers from the reporting requirements. Before joining the SBA in 1994, Bromberg represented a group called the Small Business Coalition for a Responsible TRI Policy, which sought to lessen TRI reporting requirements.
The coalition represented by Bromberg did not include the bulk petroleum sellers and chemical wholesalers, according to a coalition roster.
Torricelli said exempting the two industries from the new reporting requirements would knock out more than 70 percent of the proposed TRI expansion.
"This decision must be based on scientific evidence regarding whether or not the toxic pollutants emitted by these industries are significant enough to merit requiring their inclusion in the TRI," he said.
Torricelli also charged that SBA staff made interagency correspondence between the SBA and the EPA available to private industry lobbyists one month before it was available to the public.
"I question the appropriateness of a government agency sharing intergovernmental correspondence with a private lobbying group long before the public has access to it," Torricelli said.
In addition, Torricelli said computer, facsimile and formatting identifiers point to a series of industry memos originating at the SBA chief counsel's office.
"The letter makes charges that are not factually correct," SBA Chief Counsel for Advocacy Jere Glover told CongressDaily. "Kevin has done nothing I know that is inappropriate."
Bromberg was unavailable for comment.
Meanwhile, in response to an earlier story about Bromberg in CongressDaily quoting criticisms by Carolyn Hartmann of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Todd McCracken, president of National Small Business United, wrote Hartmann late last week.
McCracken contended that the SBA chief counsel for advocacy's job is to be an independent voice for small business, and that the post is mandated by law to monitor the proposal and implementation of federal regulations.
The SBA office has no authority over the regulations, McCracken said, but has the obligation to offer comment.
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