WASHINGTON (AP) The Energy Department's inspector general says former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson collected $450,000 in questionable payments from the nation's federally funded nuclear labs after she left office. A report released Tuesday says Wilson, a New Mexico Republican, failed to document what she did to earn $20,000 a month from New Mexico's Los Alamos and Sandia national labs from 2009 to 2011. The inspector general says private contractors that run the labs have reimbursed the government for the payments. An investigation continues.
The payments to Wilson included nearly $30,000 from the Nevada Test Site and the Oak Ridge lab in Tennessee. The report says Sandia apparently asked Wilson to lobby for more defense dollars, an apparent violation of her contract.
The Associated Press was trying to reach Wilson for comment.
