National Association of Counties * Washington, D.C.            Vol. 32, No. 12 * June 26, 2000

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Whose line is it anyway?

By Jeff Arnold
deputy legislative director

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As the old saying goes, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” but sometimes it goes too far. NACo has learned that certain environmental groups have been using NACo’s toll-free legislative action phone number to call Capitol Hill to lobby against NACo’s legislative priorities, including S.1608 the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (forest safety net) and the FY2001 Interior appropriations bill that has a number of provisions supported by NACo policy.

The Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, and a group called American Lands Alliance have put the phone number in their action alerts asking their members to use the number (without identifying whose it is) to call their members of Congress to oppose provisions of legislation that NACo has been working hard to promote. Neither group has returned repeated e-mail and phone entreaties to cease using NACo’s number in their advocacy efforts.

NACo has provided the toll-free number to members to facilitate grassroots lobbying efforts by involving county officials from their homes and offices. Each time the line is used NACo incurs phone charges and neither group has offered to share in those costs.

Ed Rosado, NACo’s Legislative director, said he was “appalled” that these groups would use NACo’s toll-free number without permission or attribution. “It’s outrageous. They should know better than to use our resources without permission, particularly to oppose our positions! It’s just not right.”

NACo is exploring steps with its long distance provider to preclude misuse of the toll-free number in the future.