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Conflicts of Interest: U.S. News columnist Brian Walsh on the NRSC payroll

U.S. News & World Report will start disclosing that columnist Brian Walsh, a former National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director, is still on the NRSC payroll, following an inquiry from POLITICO.

Since April, the NRSC has been giving Walsh $5,000 a month for communications, strategy and consulting, according to FEC filings. Walsh's bio at U.S. News refers to him as "a government relations and public affairs strategist in Washington DC," but does not mention that he is being paid by the Republican party.

In recent months, Walsh has used his column to target conservative hard-line groups, including the Senate Conservatives Fund and The Heritage Foundation, which have positioned themselves against establishment Republicans. Walsh is also frequently quoted in the press as a "former NRSC spokesperson" while speaking out against these groups.

Following an inquiry from POLITICO, U.S. News & World Report spokeswoman Lucy Lyons said the organization would amend Walsh's biography to include his relationship with the NRSC.

"Walsh’s affiliation with the NRSC and role as a Republican strategist are identified in his blurb, but he did not disclose his role with the NRSC to us," Lyons told POLITICO. "We would absolutely have disclosed this and are going back through and adding disclosures to the pieces he has written for us."

Lyons also said that U.S. News "recently solicited updated information from our freelancers, asking them to disclose potential conflicts of interest. These are due back in mid-November, at which point we will update bios as needed." She noted that the U.S. News opinion section "features columnists with a range of political beliefs, opinions, and affiliations."

Meanwhile, Walsh told POLITICO that his relationship with the NRSC is well known to those he works with, and suggested that the Senate Conservatives Fund was behind the effort to force the disclosure.

"As a longtime Republican strategist it's never been a secret that I try to help Republicans win and Democrats lose. So no one has ever questioned my motives but clearly purity for profit groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund are increasingly worried that more and more Republicans are exposing theirs," he said. (POLITICO did not correspond with anyone from the SCF for this report.)

Brad Dayspring, the current NRSC communications director, confirmed that Walsh did "comms, strategy and consulting for campaigns and operatives."

"He was here the last four years and was in the Senate for years prior to that. He provides institutional knowledge to the committee and knows the playbook of our Democratic opponents from cover to cover," Dayspring said.