Merchants, retailers, and their trade associations have arrayed a team of former government officials turned lobbyists in one of 2011's biggest lobbying battles as banks and credit unions seek to overturn part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. According to data compiled from the Senate Office of Public Records and the Center for Responsive Politics, merchants and retailers lobbying in support of debit interchange fees rules employed 124 lobbyists with previous government experience.

The Federal Reserve has proposed rules to set limits on the amount that banks can charge retailers every time a customer uses a debit card for a purchase, known as debit interchange fees. These fees, set by electronic networks, including VISA and MasterCard, provide big profits to banks and diminish returns for retailers, often leading to rising prices for consumers.

Retailers lobbied hard to get a limit on interchange fees included in the Dodd-Frank bill and succeeded when retail ally Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., offered an amendment, which was adopted, to the bill requiring the Federal Reserve to write rules governing the fees. The Fed released their rule earlier this year. Much to the dismay of banks and electronic network operators the Fed rules capped interchange fees at 12 cents per swipe, or a more than 70 percent reduction in fees.

Banks and their allies--payment networks and credit unions--have swamped Capitol Hill with lobbyists and the retailers and merchants, including Wal-Mart, have done the same.

Major members of the Electronic Payments Coalition, the chief organizing vehicle for the banks opposed to the fee rules, have hired 118 former government officials to lobby and made at least $500,000 in political action committee (PAC) contributions to members of Congress.

Retailers and merchants have largely organized through the Merchant's Payments Coalition. Organizations listed as members of the Merchant's Payments Coalition, all of whom are trade associations, accounted for half of the 124 revolving door lobbyists hired by retailers and merchants. The other half come from supporting companies including Wal-Mart, Home Depot, 7-11, and Best Buy.

Below you'll find a table listing all the revolving door lobbyists affiliated with the retailers and merchants. These are all lobbyists who were specifically listed as lobbying on debit interchange fee rules on their lobbying disclosure forms for 2010 or 2011. Revolving door lobbyists affiliated with the Electronic Payments Coalition can be found here.

Earlier, I wrote about a "Dear Colleague" letter circulating in the Senate written by Sen. Jim DeMint asking for roll call votes to be put online in XML format. The signers of the letter, so far, include a bipartisan cast of senators. They include Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Sen. DeMint (R-SC).

If you aren't represented by any of these senators, you might want to check with your senators and see if they'll sign the letter to support the release of roll call votes in XML. This ought to be a no-brainer.

That title comes from the words of Sen. Dick Durbin describing the power of the bankers and financial sector over Congress. You would think that this might be an exaggeration, or just a rhetorical bit of anti-bank populism, but if you look at the numbers, Durbin isn't wrong. From 1997 to 2008, financial sector lobbying -- represented by the finance, insurance and real estate industries -- has amounted to fully 15% of all lobbying spending in Washington.

Lobbying Expenses by the Financial Sector (1997-2008)
2008	$459,312,006
2007	$419,754,990
2006	$375,133,174
2005	$371,666,173
2004	$338,123,874
2003	$324,385,802
2002	$267,586,799
2001	$235,049,868
2000	$230,368,026
1999	$213,801,725
1998	$209,659,907
1997	$177,374,000

Since 1997, the financial sector has spent a combined total of $3.6 billion on lobbying the federal government. The total lobbying expenses have increased by 260% since 1997. Over that same time financial sector corporate profits have gone through the roof, with the financial sector reporting up to 40% of corporate profits in recent years.

Over these eleven years, the industry has gotten pretty much whatever it desires. This is just a sampling of the things obtained by the financial sector: the deregulation of financial derivatives and credit default swaps, the elimination of the line between investment banks and commercial banks, the increased hardship for those filing for bankruptcy, and the total free hand for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to muddle their books and evade responsibility. And all of this has been fueled by the 3,000 or so finance sector lobbyists meeting with, calling up, and emailing congressional offices and executive branch agencies.

It is likely and that there have been tens of thousands, if not more, unreported contacts between financial sector lobbyists and government officials. These contacts have no doubt been aided by the high number of former officials who have taken the revolving door to lobby for the finance sector. According to a report by Essential Information and the Consumer Education Foundation, at least 142 former government officials lobbied on behalf of finance sector firms since 1998. These revolving door lobbyists include at least five former congressmen and dozens of top aides to congressmen, senators, and key congressional committees.

The Obama administration is taking a first step in requiring agency officials to report lobbying contacts as they relate to funds distributed from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Seeing as how the financial sector has been running wild through Washington over the past 11 years -- getting whatever it pleases and blocking whatever it doesn't -- Congress, and the administration, should consider requiring the disclosure of these unseen lobbying contacts to help provide the public and officials with better information about the nature of the Washington lobbies, particularly the financial sector lobby.

Both Congress and the people would do better without a single lobby owning the place. Disclosing their lobbying contacts would be a first step in that direction.

All data obtained through the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) site OpenSecrets.org.