Checks and Balances Project Calls Upon FIU and American Hotel & Lodging Assn. to Release Grant Application Records for $68K Study

ARLINGTON, Va., July 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Checks and Balances Project (C&BP), a national investigative watchdog blog, today called upon Florida International University (FIU) to immediately release both the initial and final research grant applications that the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) decided to fund.

This disclosure is necessary to erase any question about the integrity of the University's hotel lobby-funded research.

C&BP's public records request asks for all communications and documents relating to FIU's grant proposal, awarded $68,210 from AHLA.

A similar request was made via email to AHLA Senior Vice President of Communications and Public Relations Rosanna Maietta.

"The hotel lobby has a secretive, pay-to-play academic research program," said C&BP Executive Director Scott Peterson. "The question is: Will FIU be a willing party to it?"

According to records already provided by FIU, the University submitted an initial grant application, which AHLA rejected because they sought a proposal with a "scope of work." This suggests a robust back-and-forth between the University and the hotel lobby. The FIU professor commissioned to do the research said that it will be "a challenge" to remain independent in the face of this funding.

FIU has refused to release records of the grant, thus far, claiming the application is "exempt and confidential."

"We think this response shouldn't be allowed to stand, which is why we are escalating our efforts to get to the bottom of how and why this grant was funded and how much AHLA shared with FIU officials," Peterson said.

In a records request emailed to FIU this morning, C&BP declared that we "are not seeking to review parts of the proposal that contain proprietary or confidential information. Nor do we seek to review the proposal's methodology. Rather, we request to review sections of the proposal that pertain to aims and objectives, dissemination of results, budget and literature review, and correspondence related to any kind of coordination around the study, including discussions of conclusions, framing, results, edits and feedback."

AHLA board books obtained by The New York Times show the hotel lobby has extensive plans to develop or grow financial relationships with key universities. In this aggressive pay-to-play academics campaign, universities such as FIU, Penn State and, potentially, University of North Carolina, have often taken substantial amounts of money from the hotel lobby in exchange for producing research that reinforces the hotel lobby's talking points.

About Checks and Balances Project

Checks and Balances Project holds lobbyists and others who block the growth of a sustainable economy accountable to the public. Through hundreds of stories and dozens of diverse investigations since 2009, we have achieved real results. Funding for C&BP comes from sustainable economy philanthropies and donors.

To learn more, visit us at https://checksandbalancesproject.org/.

SOURCE Checks and Balances Project