The Senate Indian Affairs Committee is expected to hold a hearing on high tribal lobbying fees this September, The Washington Post reports.

The committee also set a deadline of this week for lobbyists to respond to several subpoenas it issued last month. The lobbyists are being asked to testify or provide information as part of the investigation into the high fees paid to GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations executive Michael Scanlon.

According to The Post, Abramoff and Scanlon are the focus of a "criminal task force of investigators from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, the Justice Department's public integrity section, the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Interior Department inspector general." This inter-agency task force is the Indian Gaming Working Group that was announced earlier this month.

The task force is looking into payments Abramoff and Scanlon received from 11 tribes. Initially, it was reported that only four tribes were clients of the two.

Get the Story:
Ex-Lobbyist Is Focus of Widening Investigations (The Washington Post 7/16)
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