Agency for Legal Help to Poor Lobbies for Cuts in Own Budget

Stirring an immediate furor in Congress, the Legal Services Corp. disclosed Thursday that it had hired three high-powered law firms to lobby for the 18% cut proposed by President Reagan in the corporation’s fiscal 1989 budget.

Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), member of a key Senate Appropriations subcommittee, blasted the move--apparently unprecedented--as “bizarre” and “not an appropriate use of taxpayers’ money.”

Rep. Robert W. Kastenmeier (D-Wis.), chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee with jurisdiction over the agency, called it “incomprehensible to think that the organization responsible for providing the poor with legal representation would spend its money to lobby Congress for reduced funding.”

Legal Services Corp. President John H. E. Bayly Jr., in a letter to congressional committees, revealed that the corporation had decided “to secure the services of private law firms to provide counsel and representation during the important appropriations process.”

The cost of the effort will depend on the amount of lobbying time provided by the three firms. The firms charge in the neighborhood of $175 an hour for their services.

San Francisco attorney Tom Snegal, a dissenting Republican appointee on the Legal Services Corp. board, charged that the extraordinary hiring of outside legal help clearly violates the agency’s charter as well as a federal law against using appropriated funds for lobbying.

Bayly denied the charge, arguing that the private lawyers technically are agency employees. He said in an interview that private lawyers became necessary because of the recent departure of three in-house congressional liaison officials.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), predicting that the agency’s effort to cut its own budget would backfire, said it was “the most vivid example of the Reagan Administration’s attitude toward the poor. . ..

“One irony is that the Legal Services Corp. has gotten Congress in the past to impose restrictions on the ability of local programs to lobby against laws that are unfair to poor tenants or recipients of public assistance. But now the corporation itself is hiring outside lobbyists to cut funding for programs that remain. It is quite incredible.”

Reagan, who for the first six years of his presidency sought to abolish the legal services program, requested $250 million for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, down from current spending of $305 million.