Ensign on panel probing Enron

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2002 | 9:13 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who is among numerous lawmakers who took campaign money from Enron Corp., is also among those investigating the firm's collapse.

Ensign accepted $7,500 in campaign contributions from Enron since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign-money watchdog group.

Ensign is on the Senate Commerce Committee, and the panel's consumer affairs subcommittee, which began hearings on Enron's collapse last month. The subcommittee's next Enron hearing is scheduled for Feb. 4. It also has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.

Ensign said the contributions "absolutely" would not hinder his ability to rigorously investigate how Enron plummeted into bankruptcy and left investors, including company employees, clutching nearly worthless stock.

"I don't think there's any question about that," Ensign said.

Ensign stressed that the Justice Department was the lead Enron investigator.

"As it appears, fraud took place," Ensign said. "If that's the case, Justice needs to put some people in jail. It's very unfortunate that we had people perpetrate this sort of thing, especially when you are dealing with employees and the top people were trying to protect their own rear ends."

Ensign said the Bush administration should be lauded for not stepping in to help Enron, whose executives gave sizable donations to the president.

"It says a lot that they (Enron) went to the Bush administration for help, and they (the administration) said no," Ensign said.

As many as eight congressional committees plan to look into Enron, but Commerce was among the first to get started. Seventy-one senators and 188 House members -- more than half of Congress -- received money from Enron, according to the center.

One other Nevada lawmaker has taken money from Enron in recent years: Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., got $1,000 in 1998. Reid does not sit on any committee that intends to investigate it.