Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Energy Employee Repays Living Costs

E. Shirley Thomas, the Energy Department ombudsman who received substantial living allowance payments to which she was not entitled, repaid the government $21,208, department spokeswoman Barbara Semedo said. Thomas, a friend of Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary, wrote a check for the entire amount that she had accrued through a $35 per diem payment for each day she was in Washington during the past two years. Thomas was eligible for the allowance only as long as she maintained a residence in New Jersey while on leave from her previous job as a Newark, N.J., school social worker. In fact, Thomas sold her New Jersey residence and moved to a Washington suburb in December 1993, shortly after her appointment to the newly created Energy Department position.