36 



Mr. Pallone. Did the port in any way contribute to that effort in 

 terms of — I know there was literature passed out. There was — I 

 mean, a certain amount of expenditures that were being made to 

 pass out materials and to promote the dredging permit. Was 



that 



Ms. Liburdi. The Port Authority did participate in producing the 

 materials that were distributed which I view as information that 

 everybody on that train had available to them. 



Mr. Pallone. And could you give us some idea perhaps of what 

 the cost of that might be? I mean, not today but in the future. 

 Ms. Liburdi. Sure. 



Mr. Pallone. OK. Are Port Authority members, either commis- 

 sioners or personnel, you know, staff, allowed to campaign or con- 

 tribute to campaigns? 



Ms. Liburdi. We are as individuals permitted to contribute what 

 would be common contributions. I don't think anything exceptional 

 to local or congressional campaigns as any other citizen is, but we 

 certainly are not permitted to hold public partisan office or to— I 

 don't know about the commissioners. I don't know if there is a dif- 

 ferent standard for our commissioners than there is for staff. 



Mr. Pallone. Well, I guess what I am asking is that they are in 

 no way HATCHED or under any kind of Federal or State law that 

 prohibits their participation in campaigns or contributing to cam- 

 paigns? 



Ms. Liburdi. Our commissioners? I don't 



Mr. Pallone. Either the commissioners or the staff. 

 Ms. Liburdi. We are permitted as individual citizens to contrib- 

 ute to individual campaigns, what would be a commonly accepted 

 level of contribution. 

 Mr. Pallone. OK. 

 Ms. Liburdi. But beyond that, no. 



Mr. Pallone. You are not HATCHED in any way, in other 

 words? 



Ms. Liburdi. No. It is not a Federal HATCH requirement, but we 

 are not — I am trying to distinguish — we are not permitted to do 

 something that is extraordinary in contribution or in working for 

 someone that wouldn't be appropriate. We wouldn't work to lobby 

 or campaign in someone's behalf. 



Mr. Pallone. OK. Are there any rules or any regulations in that 

 regard? 

 Ms. Liburdi. There are. 



Mr. Pallone. Could we also get some information on that too? 

 Ms. Liburdi. Sure. 



Mr. Pallone. All right. I wanted to ask — you mentioned about 

 the capping, and you said that the granting of the permit was very 

 much dependent, I believe, on the capping. Have you looked at this 

 SAIC report that we have made reference to today? 



Ms. Liburdi. Well, first of all, I think I indicated that our propos- 

 al is to dredge and dispose with a cap so, of course, if that is the 

 condition that is proposed by the Corps of Engineers, that would be 

 the solution that we would follow. We have only seen the summary 

 of the SAIC report since that was what was provided to us. We 

 have asked for the entire report so that we might examine it. As of 



