From Boston Globe yesterday [registration required]:

For example, Students in Free Enterprise, a group headquartered in the southwest Missouri district of Roy Blunt, the acting House majority leader, paid $80,000 last year to the lobbying form of Cassidy and Associates to win federal support. One of the lobbyists listed on the case is Gregg L. Hartley, Blunt’s former chief of staff.
Last year, the group was rewarded with a total of $1 million in grants in two separate spending bills. Blunt, a leading candidate to be the permanent House majority leader, heralded one of the grants, and his staff said he supported the grant along with the state’s senior senator, Republican Christopher S. Bond.
The close connections between Blunt and Hartley are not illegal, and a Cassidy and Associates spokeswoman said ”it’s not inappropriate either.” Spokeswoman Aimee Steel, speaking on behalf of Hartley, said it was natural that lobbyists with connections to a particular member of Congress would be hired by a client whose interests are in that district.

Brian Doherty notes the irony of Students in Free Enterprise getting these dollars here.