Officials say third columnist was paid to promote Bush policy

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday that a third conservative columnist was paid to help promote a Bush administration policy.

Columnist Mike McManus received $10,000 to train marriage counselors as part of the agency's initiative promoting marriage to build strong families, said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families.

The disclosure was made as the Government Accountability Office sent a letter to the Education Department yesterday asking for all materials related to its contract dealings with a prominent conservative media commentator.

That department, through a contract with the public relations firm Ketchum, hired commentator Armstrong Williams to produce ads that featured former Education Secretary Rod Paige and promoted President Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The contract also committed Williams, who is black, to provide media access for Paige and to persuade other black journalists to talk about the law.

Federal law bans the use of public money on propaganda.

The Education Department received the GAO letter and is reviewing it, department spokeswoman Susan Aspey said. ''Secretary Spelling has made it very clear she is getting to the bottom of this."

Margaret Spellings started this week, replacing Paige. In a letter to Senators Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, dated yesterday, Spellings wrote, ''At this point, what I can say is that at a minimum, there were errors of judgments at the Department, and I am diligently working to get to the bottom of it all."

The lawmakers are on a panel that oversees education spending, and their subcommittee is looking into the matter.

Spellings also said the department has directed Ketchum to stop all work under the contract.

Earlier this week, Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries not to hire columnists to promote administration agendas. The declaration was prompted by reports that Williams and another columnist, Maggie Gallagher, had been paid by the administration.

None of the columnists had disclosed in their columns their relationships with the administration.