PR Contract Remains Under Scrutiny

The fallout from the Department of Education’s public relations arrangement with the commentator Armstrong Williams briefly threatened last week to derail the confirmation of Margaret Spellings as secretary of education, as a senator placed a hold on the process. But the senator then lifted it—and Ms. Spellings was confirmed—after assurances the matter was being taken seriously.

The issue of a payment of some $240,000 to Mr. Williams for various efforts to promote the No Child Left Behind Act had prompted Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., to block action on Ms. Spellings’ nomination. Senators can obstruct a confirmation vote by placing what is usually an anonymous “hold” on the nominee.

On Jan. 19, Sen. Lautenberg removed the hold, but only after Ms. Spellings had called and promised that she would sit down with him in his office to “discuss with him their plans to make sure nothing like this happens again,” said Alex Formuzis, a...