Post Office Was Disaster Area, Papers Say Employees Claim Office Was Productive Only When Members Needed Special Favors

Employees at the House Post Office described their workplace as a cesspool of sloth and disorganization that showed efficiency only when called on to do special favors for members of Congress.

And prominent among those who tapped the post office for help was Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the former Ways and Means Committee chairman now under federal indictment on corruption charges, according to several thousand pages of transcripts released Thursday.

The transcripts, from interviews conducted two years ago as part of an internal House probe of its own postal system, portrayed an operation where tens of thousands of dollars lay loose in drawers and even on the floor, where recordkeeping was sloppy or nonexistent, and where some of the highest-paid employees read newspapers all day.

“Any time a member (of Congress) wanted anything, I mean … just jump to it, especially if it might have been a powerful member like Dan Rostenkowski,” said Inga Lawson, a mail clerk.

Former postmaster Robert Rota “pretty much would do anything for Dan Rostenkowski,” Lawson told investigators for the Committee on House Administration.

While other House members and former members were mentioned as taking advantage of post office favors, Rostenkowski was singled out by several witnesses as particularly well connected.

“Whenever he’d call or wanted something, in

fact everybody had to jump to it, you know, regardless of what it was,” she said.

Rostenkowski’s office referred a request for comment to Dan Webb, his lawyer in the corruption case, who did not immediately return telephone calls.

After the interviews were conducted in the spring of 1992, the House ended the political patronage hiring system at the post office and placed the operation under the control of a nonpartisan administrator, Michael J. Shinay.

The problems at the post office were central to the investigation that led to Rostenkowski’s indictment.

The two volumes of transcripts, totaling 3,293 pages, also provide glimpses into the partisan bickering that accompanied the panel’s probe, cozy arrangements with lobbyists, rides to the airport or other destinations provided to certain lawmakers and special pickups of campaign contributions.

One witness, former postal secretary Margaret Hatcher, told of a secret set of 66 postal boxes maintained by Rota which he used to collect “dear colleague” letters sent by House members to each other and forward them to favored lobbyists.

Hatcher said one office where cash was kept was “Totally horrible. There was money on the floor. Sometimes you would walk in, and you would see money on the floor, under the desk.”

Rota also handed out large quantities of congressional calendars to lobbyists as favors, Hatcher said. “Anything that came in the mail room that he thought would be of interest he would always put away several cases for himself,” including “boxes and boxes” of M&Ms candy that came in each year, she said.

Rota pleaded guilty a year ago to conspiracy and embezzlement charges for helping one former and one current member of Congress obtain cash illegally for personal use by submitting vouchers. Sources have identified the lawmakers as Rostenkowski and former Rep. Joseph Kolter, D-Pa.