WASHINGTON – Education Secretary Rod Paige directed his agency yesterday to begin a speedy investigation into its public relations contract with a prominent black news commentator after leaders of a Senate committee asked for records of the department’s publicity deals.

At the same time, a Federal Communications Commission member asked that his agency investigate whether the commentator, Armstrong Williams, broke the law by failing to disclose that the Bush administration paid him $240,000 to plug its education policies to minority audiences.

Mr. Williams has apologized for a mistake in judgment but says he has broken no law.

Mr. Paige, commenting on the flap for the first time, said he has ordered an inspector general’s investigation to “clear up any remaining aspects of this issue as soon as possible, so that it does not burden my successor or sully the fine people and good name of this department.”

Mr. Paige is leaving his post shortly, likely to be replaced by Margaret Spellings.

The department, through a contract with the public relations firm Ketchum, hired Mr. Williams to produce ads that featured Mr. Paige and promoted Mr. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law. The contract also called for Mr. Williams to provide broadcast access for Mr. Paige and to persuade other black journalists to talk about the law.

Federal law bans the use of public money on propaganda.

“Given our jurisdiction over the funds involved, we would appreciate your careful review of the contract with Ketchum and the payment made to Mr. Williams,” said Senators Arlen Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, and Tom Harkin, a Democrat of Iowa, in a letter to Mr. Paige.

The letter, dated Wednesday, was obtained by the Associated Press yesterday. The lawmakers are the chairman and the ranking member of the panel that oversees education spending.

They asked Mr. Paige for a list of any grant, contract, or arrangement of public money being used “for public relations or anything similar to the purpose of the Ketchum contract” from the 2002, 2003, and 2004 budget years.

Mr. Harkin also plans to introduce a bill requiring federal agencies to report their entire advertising budgets to Congress, and to make clear in their ads that public money was used.

Meanwhile, at an FCC meeting yesterday, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the agency had received about a dozen complaints concerning the Williams arrangement.

“I certainly hope the FCC will take action and fully investigate whether any laws have been broken,” Mr. Adelstein said.

Mr. Paige said the public money went solely for ads in which he described the law.

“All of this has been reviewed and is legal,” Mr. Paige said. “However, I am sorry that there are perceptions and allegations of ethical lapses.”