The Paddle Lobby

The Washington Canoe Club has turned to Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot to help steer away from politically treacherous waters.

The trouble started last year, when the Department of the Interior's inspector general fingered the canoe club as one of a handful of private institutions monopolizing prime parcels of public land. With a convenient location by the Key Bridge in Georgetown, a maximum enrollment of 200 and annual dues of $400, the club is a quite a deal for its members. But because the facility wasn’t serving the public at large, the Inspector General’s report recommended terminating its lease.

If a disgruntled IG weren’t bad enough, Congress piled on, reported the Washington City Paper’s Loose Lips in September. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), followed up on the IG report, questioning whether the club was being run for the benefit of a wealthy clique and demanding Park Service records about its leasing arrangements. The facility’s restricted use was all the more questionable, Dingel wrote in a letter, because Georgetown University had been trying to build its own boat house for years. (On that last front Dingell had a personal connection — he’s a Georgetown alumnus, though his office denies he was motivated by Hoya pride).

Little has surfaced about the story since the City Paper piece, but the Canoe Club must have decided it had cause to be worried: it hired Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot’s William Horn to tackle the problem in January. (Horn, a former assistant secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks at the Department of the Interior, normally represent groups lobbying for more access to federal lands, such as hunting and snowmobile interests). So far, the Canoe Club has run up a $10,000 tab.