Burns must uphold higher ethical standards - billingsgazette.com: "S. Sen. Conrad Burns has been on the defensive recently, explaining his involvement with a Michigan Indian tribe's school funding and his connections to a Washington, D.C., lobbyist who is being investigated by Congress and the FBI.

The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan owns a ritzy casino resort that boasts 4,700 slots - the most gambling machines between Las Vegas and Michigan, according to the tribe's Web site. The resort business has allowed the tribe to make $70,000 annual payments to each of its members and to hire Jack Abramoff as its lobbyist.

Earmarking funds for Michigan

Abramoff and the Michigan tribe and other Abramoff tribal casino clients contributed more than $130,000 to a political action committee formed by U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., according to news reports in the Washington Post and Rollcall Report.

One thing the tribe wanted was millions of federal tax dollars to build a new school. Despite lobbying by Michigan's two U.S. senators, the U.S. Department of the Interior said the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe's proposal didn't meet requirements for federal funding. That program apparently was for tribes that didn't have lavish casinos or $70,000 per capita payments.

But after Burns became chairman of the Senate appropriations committee that controls federal spending on Indian affairs, the tribe got a $3 million school appropriation. The Washington Post reported that Burns pressured the Interior Department to put the Saginaw Chippewa project in the school program, even though it didn't meet requirements. That effort was unsuccessful; Burns earmarked $3 million for the Saginaw Chippewa school anyway."

(Via Talking Points Memo.)