While the middle class is facing a tax hike because of yet another congressional stalemate, Wall Street hedge funds and their investors are increasing their worth by employing a strategy of secret meetings with Capitol Hill lawmakers to glean insider information that impacts stock prices and guides investment strategy.

As I noted here,the legal yet secretive political intelligence industry uses connections to lawmakers to find out whether stocks are likely to rise or fall in the face of upcoming congressional action. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported on the practice, documenting dozens of meetings between political intelligence firms and Members of Congress that helped hedge funds make investment decisions yielding hefty profits.

It is outrageous that political intelligence firms acquire market-moving information before anyone else, and can do so without any transparency. Unlike lobbyists, who at least have to disclose who their clients are and what issues they are working on, political intelligence operatives are subject to no disclosure mandates.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) would require anyone collecting information for the purpose of investment decisions to register and report their activities. The bill would also explicitly ban insider trading by Members of Congress and their staff.

Unfortunately, despite 241 cosponsors in the House and companion legislation in the Senate, some in Congress are attempting to derail the bill, or at the very least weaken its provisions. According to the Journal story, Sen. Joe Lieberman is pushing to require a government study of the issue, rather than immediately impose disclosure requirements.

In response, Rep. Slaughter, a lead sponsor of the bill said in a press release, “Let me tell you, we don’t need a study to understand this industry; we need transparency and regulation so that the public, Members, staff, and regulators know who is speaking to Congress to gain an advantage on the financial markets.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Four longtime senators recently announced their retirements from the Senate effective at the end of 2012. This could send ripples through K Street as a number of lobbyists will lose the chief contact they had to Capitol Hill, their former boss. Sens. Jon Kyl, Joe Lieberman, Kent Conrad, and Kay Bailey Hutchison have a combined 51 former staffers turned lobbyists who may see their bottom line suffer when their former boss steps down.

A recent study from the Centre for Economic Performance showed that a lobbyist who previously worked for a senior senator takes an average revenue loss of 24 percent when their former boss leaves office. Those who worked for junior senators saw negligible revenue loss when their former boss left office. The study also found that former staffers who worked for senators with positions on the most powerful committees, Appropriations and Finance, suffered even bigger losses in revenue with the departure of their former boss.

Three of the four departing senators, Conrad, Lieberman, and Hutchison, were the senior senators for their state. Three also held seats on the key committees, Conrad and Kyl on Finance and Hutchison on Appropriations. Additional important posts include Kyl’s post as Republican Minority Whip and Lieberman’s chairmanship of Homeland Security & Government Reform.

Some of the former staffers turned lobbyists for these departing senators may avoid this expected loss in revenue due to previous work in other government jobs or due to their departure from the soon-to-be former senators occurring decades ago. Others who left Congress for K Street more recently are likely to take a hit.

One lobbyist exemplifying the imminent loss in revenue would be Alberto Cardenas of the firm Vinson & Elkins. Cardenas worked for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison from 2005 to 2009. Most of Cardenas’ clients are local Texas entities, the Greater Houston Partnership or the Texas Public Hospital Coalition, seeking government contracts that Sen. Hutchison could provide from her perch on the Appropriations Committee.

Former staffers for Sen. Kent Conrad have a number of clients with interests directly related to the senator’s position on the Finance Committee. Robert Van Heuvelen runs his own lobbying firm and boasts a series of clients from the health and energy sectors, both of which sought to influence the Finance Committee’s work on health care reform and climate change legislation. Van Heuvelen also employs former Conrad staffer Anissa Rogness. Another former Conrad staffer, Lindsey Toohey, held a cross-section of important health care organizations as clients in 2010. With Conrad’s departure from the Senate, these lobbyists could see their stature fall in the coming years.

Sen. Joe Lieberman has long been known as a friend to the defense industry and a few of his former staffers turned lobbyists may suffer because of it. Both Steve Sutton and Fred Downey work in the aerospace industry with Sutton representing Northrop Grumman and Downey representing the Aerospace Industries Association of America.

These lobbyists may be looking at a break-up season with some of their clients in the near future. Lobbying clients are always looking for the relevant connections in the resume of their hired guns. Those with used-up connections are free to leave on the sidelines.

Six senators called for a seventy day hold on voting on health care reform legislation today, according to the Huffington Post. The senators involved include three Democrats, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Ron Wyden, two Republicans, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and one Independent, Joe Lieberman. Each these senators has raised at least $1 million from the health and insurance sectors combined over the course of their respective careers. What could seventy days do for their campaign coffers?

(Some of these senators are not in cycle right now and are not raising much money right now, but, hypothetically, this is the money they could be raising considering the amounts they have raised over the course of their career.)

Sen. Susan Collins raised $1,559,446 from the health and insurance sectors over the course of her career. Her first day in office was January 7, 1997. In total, she has served 4,574 days as a United States Senator. This calculates out to her raising $341 every day from the health and insurance sectors. Seventy more days would yield $23,870.

Sen. Mary Landrieu raised $1,676,353 from the health and insurance sectors over the course of her career. Her first day in office was January 7, 1997. In total, she has served 4,574 days as a United States Senator. This calculates out to her raising $366.50 every day from the health and insurance sectors. Seventy more days would yield $25,655.

Sen. Joe Lieberman raised $3,593,771 from the health and insurance sectors over the course of his career. His first day in office, as a senator, was January 3, 1989. In total, he has served 7,136 days as a United States Senator. This works out to him raising $504 a day from the health and insurance sectors. Seventy more days would yield $35,280.

Sen. Ben Nelson raised $2,257,165 from the health and insurance sectors over the course of his career. His first day in office, as a senator, was January 3, 2001. In total, he has served 3,118 days as a United States Senator. This works out to him raising $724 a day from the health and insurance sectors. Seventy more days would yield $50,680.

Sen. Olympia Snowe raised $1,147,630 from the health and insurance sectors over the course of her career. Her first day in office was January 4, 1995. In total, she has served 5,309 days as a United States Senator. This calculates out to her raising $216 every day from the health and insurance sectors. Seventy more days would yield $15,120.

Sen. Ron Wyden raised $1,414,911 from the health and insurance sectors over the course of his career. His first day in office, as a senator, was February 6, 1996. In total, he has served 4,911 days as a United States Senator. This works out to $288 every day from the health and insurance sectors. Seventy more days would yield $20,160.

Factor in lobbying into these seventy days and the amount of spending around this bill could skyrocket. If we go by the numbers presented by the Washington Post, that the health sector is spending $1.4 million a day on lobbying, then we'll find another seventy days would allow the industry to spend another $98 million.

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.

Yesterday, Sen. Joe Lieberman introduced a resolution (S. Res. 118), with a bipartisan cast of cosponsors, to allow for the public release of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports. CRS reports are some of the best research documents in the nation and are currently used by lawmakers and their staff to inform their decisions and help in crafting legislation. Currently, CRS reports are not supposed to be released to the public, however, some web sites collect them from lawmaker offices distributing them anonymously. Many of these sites are pay sites, save for Open CRS, which is operated by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).

CDT lauds the new Lieberman resolution in a blog post:

The public can also purchase copies of the reports from CRS report resellers, but obtaining copies of all the reports that are relevant would cost a great deal of money for reports that are entirely taxpayer funded in the first place.

Senate Resolution 118 would change that by allowing lawmakers to provide access to CRS services to the public on official website. Rather than creating a new tool for public access, the resolution would let Members and Committees share reports with the public using the same online services that are available on Congress’ internal CRS website.

Critically, the new resolution also requires that an index of CRS issue briefs and reports to be made public. Currently, Open CRS receives updates on reports as they are published from an anonymous lawmaker, but a public index of reports would simplify this process. It would be simple to provide this index, and to let the public know what their lawmakers are reading- and for them to read it too. It is high time for an officially sanctioned, free way to distribute the reports to the people.

This is a resolution that deserves strong support. The free release of CRS reports has always been a top priority of The Open House Project.

Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Chair Joe Lieberman just sent out a release announcing the creation of a new subcommittee to provide oversight of government contracting. The Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight will be headed by Sen. Claire McCaskill, long a proponent of exposing fraud and waste in contracting.

“Management of federal contracts is one of the greatest operational challenges facing the federal government,” Lieberman said. “Spending on federal contracts rose to an astounding $532 billion last year. And for years the Government Accountability Office has listed government contracting on its list of programs at high risk of waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, or in need of comprehensive reform. This is a problem area that needs as much oversight as we can possibly muster.

“So, to more fully address the array of problems with federal contracting, I am establishing this new subcommittee with pride and great expectations. With her background as a prosecutor and state auditor, Senator McCaskill has unique investigative experience that will be crucial for this new subcommittee. I am certain that she will approach her new responsibilities with unmatched vigor to improve the value of all the taxpayer dollars devoted to federal contracting.”

McCaskill said: “Last year we made major strides in contracting accountability by establishing the Wartime Contracting Commission, and while I look forward to those investigations, we all know that outrageous contracting abuses occur in every facet of government. I can't wait to get to work saving huge money for taxpayers. They deserve it.”

Over the past few years various senators have attempted to create a committee or a commission both in the form of the famous Truman Committee, which investigated fraud and waste in World War II defense contracting. Sen. Byron Dorgan was in favor of the creation of a committee with full subpoena power, while Sen. Jim Webb and McCaskill sought the creation of commission with more limited powers. The Webb-McCaskill commission, named the Wartime Contracting Commission, was eventually established last year, but has yet to hold hearings.

The establishment of this new subcommittee, with oversight over more than just defense contracts, marks a huge step forward in the efforts by many to maintain a government contracting system that is free of waste, fraud, and corruption.