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Eleanor Acheson: Lobbyist

By Robert Stacy McCain on 6.25.09 @ 9:54AM

Responding to the question, "Who is Eleanor Acheson?" last night, blogger Dan Riehl discovered an interesting tidbit:

According to an official looking page, Eleanor Acheson was, or is a paid lobbyist for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. (NRPC) She's listed from 2007 to the current calender year. Maybe I'm missing something, or there's another explanation for this, but why would a lobbyist be Amtrak's VP and legal counsel? . . .

Good question. Dan and I spoke by phone about this last night. NRPC is the actual corporate name for Amtrak. It appears that Acheson was being paid a few thousand a year to lobby the municipal government of New York City on behalf of Amtrak, in addition to her executive salary. Not necessarily a big scandal, just another fact that might raise questions, considering that Amtrak -- whose board of directors includes Hunter Biden, son of the vice president -- got $1.3 billion of "stimulus" money.

After I filed my special report about the Obama administration's evident purge of inspectors general, I learned a little more about the circumstances that led Amtrak IG Fred Wiederhold to resign suddenly last week. The professional staff of the Amtrak IG office is reportedly now "terrified" about their job security, because Amtrak put their human resources director in charge of the IG staff.

As I emphasized in the special report, there are now multiple investigations going on surrounding the administration's treatment of inspectors general -- at Amtrak, at AmeriCorps, at the International Trade Commission and also the special inspector general for the Troubled Assert Relief Program -- so please read the whole thing.