And Enron and Mr. Lay were also contributors to the Republican Majority Issues Committee, a group close to Mr. DeLay.
City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, who represents several Queens neighborhoods and is chairwoman of the women's issues committee, said the cuts were unavoidable.
The board also approved the formation of a Division I basketball issues committee, whose chairman will be the Syracuse University chancellor, Kenneth Shaw.
And Mr. Gallant, who once served as that committee's director, went on to run the Republican Majority Issues Committee, a group widely considered close to Mr. DeLay, whose allies once hoped that the issues committee would serve as a counterweight to unions by financing get-out-the-vote efforts for conservative candidates.
The Republican Majority Issues Committee, a conservative group that is supporting Mr. Schundler, unveiled a television commercial that harshly attacks Mr. McGreevey's record on taxes and government spending.
The Republican Majority Issues Committee, using mirror-image language, defended the nomination of John Ashcroft for attorney general with television advertisements that proclaimed, "Party partisan extremists won't give our new president a new chance".
Karl Gallant, a DeLay ally who runs the Republican Majority Issues Committee, said he intended to "continue on our core mission to give conservative voters a voice in the upcoming elections".
More than two-thirds said every company's board should have a formal Internet issues committee, and nearly as many said every board should include at least one technology expert.
Karl Gallant, chairman of the Republican Majority Issues Committee, said the lawsuit was a threat to the group's free-speech rights and an effort by Democratic "hacks" to stifle independent political groups.
The Republican Majority Issues Committee, a two-year-old group that had some impact on Congressional races in New York and Michigan last year, set up shop recently in New Jersey on behalf of Mr. Franks's rival, Bret D. Schundler.
The company also has a public issues committee in its board to review the progress of sustainability goals and a scheme that incentivises all staff to meet those goals.
