Agency Used Tax Dollars To Pay
For "Proper" Answers On Survey

WASHINGTON — Someone at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used taxpayer money to reward respondents for answering a "survey" the way the Corps wanted it answered, but officials are playing dumb.

Now, under fire from several U.S. senators, the Corps says it is "investigating" who authorized the survey that paid Northwesterners to answer questions slanted to favor removal of dams on the Snake River.

Lt. Gen. Joe Ballard, the Corps' chief of engineers, told members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water last week that he hoped to answer their questions about the survey by this week.

"I've launched an investigation to find out who authorized it, who launched it and who paid for it," Ballard said Thursday.

"It wasn't headquarters," he insisted.

Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., attacked the "crazy idea" of spending Corps money to pay up to $12 for survey responses, and Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Robert Byrd, D-Va., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., joined in raising concerns about the practice.

Two-dollar bills were included in the envelopes with questionnaires and another $10 was to be sent to respondents who agreed to follow-up interviews.

Ballard attempted to downplay the matter, saying his preliminary understanding was that only about $800 had been sent out to respondents. He admitted that a private group may have come up with the idea, but he refused to reveal who that was.

"I'm not justifying the survey. I don't know enough about it," Ballard said.

However, he noted, "This method, I am told, is a rather normal procedure."

Gorton said a friend who received the survey told him he once got a similar offer from the luxury car maker, Lexus.

"But they only offered $1," Gorton said. Lexus, of course, was using its own money.

The Washington Republican, a longtime critic of government efforts to restrict productive water uses, said the surveys were slanted to elicit responses favorable to removal of dams from the Snake River. That is a position favored by environmental activist groups and the Clinton administration.

Gorton said Thursday that he would wait for results of the probe before offering additional criticism.

Corps officials earlier acknowledged they were spending $300,000 on a larger survey of 10,000 residents in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Most of that money is being spent preparing, mailing and analyzing information requested by Congress. The $2 bills and other money was part of a pilot project to "better frame questions" in the future, they said.

Critics have long objected to government-by-polling because survey responses can be easily manipulated by the way questions are worded — "framing," in poll jargon.

Only about 60 people participated in the follow-up phone interviews, which the company used to improve unclear or ambiguous questions, said Bill Spencer of Ag Enterprises Inc., a Fort Collins, Colo., firm.