CREW today filed two complaints against Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for using his “charity”, The Frontier Foundation, to attend exclusive golf outings and funnel money from corporate donors to his campaign committee and leadership PAC.

Rep. Buyer helped found Frontier in 2003 as a way to provide Indiana students with scholarships to attend college, staffing the organization with his family members and political friends. To date, the foundation has provided not a single scholarship to the public, instead focusing on golf fundraisers where corporate clients are given direct access to the congressman. Rep. Buyer, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, appears to be trading legislative support for issues supported by these corporate players in exchange for donations to his campaign committee, PAC and foundation.

In one example out of many, the pharmaceutical group PhRMA has donated $200,000 to Frontier and hired Rep. Buyer’s son, Ryan, straight out of college. The congressman, in turn, has taken positions beneficial to the pharmaceutical industry, helping in 2007 to defeat a proposed three-year ban on advertising new drugs.

CREW asked the IRS to investigate whether Frontier’s actions have violated the tax laws governing charities and asked the OCE to determine whether Rep. Buyer violated any ethics laws.

CREW’s executive director, Melanie Sloan, said today:

Apparently, Rep. Buyer did not pay very close attention to the Jack Abramoff scandal. He seems to have missed the lesson that charities are not created to allow congressmen to play golf with their cronies. It is not quite stealing from orphans, but it is hard to imagine something much more callous than playing golf on the backs of poor students – at least one of whom surely could have gone to college on the money Frontier spent on Rep. Buyer’s golf trips. The IRS, at least, frowns on such behavior. There is always hope Congress will too.

Click here to review CREW's two complaints and the accompanying exhibits for each.