July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury was trying to bring a little levity to the workplace. Senator Byron Dorgan didn’t find that funny.

The department’s Bureau of Public Debt today scrapped plans to hire a consultant to teach management a class on using humor in the office after objections by Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota. The agency issued a statement apologizing.

“A recent procurement request for information seeking a training consultant to aid managers has been canceled,” the agency said the e-mail statement, entitled “Humor at Treasury.”

In a posting on the Web site of Federal Business Opportunities, the bureau sought proposals for a contractor to give two, three-hour courses on “humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life.”

The classes were to be conducted at Treasury offices in Washington and in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the advertisement said. Applicants were asked to have the ability to draw cartoons about bureau jobs “on the spot” and refrain from using “foul language,” it said.

The bureau’s statement said the request “did not represent an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars, and we regret the early steps taken on this effort.”

In an e-mail statement entitled “Not a Laughing Matter,” Dorgan said, “Of all the agencies, the Bureau of Public Debt should know that there is very little that is funny about today’s economic conditions.”

Plans called for the class to be led by a cartoonist, Mckayla Braden, a senior adviser at the bureau, said in an interview. The class was intended to teach managers to “look at things on the bright side,” she said.

Given the weak state of the economy and soaring budget deficits, Dorgan said “I think we have a greater motivation to save the taxpayers some money.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Vincent Del Giudice in Washington vdelgiudice@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 17, 2009 18:00 EDT