The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has requested documents and communications from McNeely, Pigott & Fox PR and client the U.S. Dept. of Labor related as it questions the effectiveness of a multimillion-dollar PR contract supporting a jobs program funded under the federal stimulus law.
The move follows reports in the Washington Times and Fox News last month noting one aspect of the PR effort purchased advertising space on outlets that included MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
“[W]e have found that DOL, since 2009, spent almost $2 million on public relations services from MP&F, resulting in the creation of one job in the last reported quarter,” Committee chair Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) wrote to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, after claiming the MSNBC ads “created no jobs.”
In addition to Solis, the committee sent the records request to Nashville-based MP&F founding partner Mike Pigott. He has not answered an inquiry from O’Dwyer’s.
MP&F in 2009 won a pact capped at $10M over four years after a competitive RFP process involving 13 firms to guide PR for Job Corps, the 45-year-old Labor Dept. career skills and technical training program for disadvantaged youth. The firm has worked with the federal agency since 1995.
In his Aug. 27 letter to MP&F’s Pigott (PDF), Kline and other committee leaders demand all documents related to the PR firm’s contracts, PR strategy for the Job Corps program, meetings and conversations with Labor officials, and compensation.