With President Obama’s signature on the bill to raise the debt ceiling, congressional leaders now have 14 days to select the lawmakers who will quickly become the most lobbied politicians in town: the “Super Congress” of twelve lawmakers, six Democrats and six Republicans from both chambers who will be charged with the task of finding $1.5 trillion in cuts or revenue to lower the deficit. Nobody knows yet who will take on this task, but it’s a sure bet that whoever it is will already be in debt themselves -- to the lobbyists and industries who fund their ...
Continue readingSpecial interests lobby on the debt ceiling
As Congress and the White House continue to search for a mechanism to raise the debt ceiling (the Senate "gang of six" have offered a new plan to end the deadlock), some of the biggest spending-special interests in the country are weighing in on the issue, according to a search of new lobbying disclosure records that are being released today.
So far, at least 141 lobbying entities have cited the term "debt ceiling" in lobbying disclosure forms filed, a search of filings from the House and Senate websites show, compared to just three in the first quarter of the year ...
Lobbyists swarm agencies as Dodd-Frank is implemented
Throughout the last Congress, which adopted far-reaching reforms of the financial sector through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, there were an average of 577 clients lobbying on issues related to the act. Eventually some 1,172 clients—including banks, ratings agencies, investment banks, securities firms and a host of other interests with a stake in the legislation—listed Dodd-Frank or related issues on their lobbying disclosure forms. And in 2011, lobbyists for some 488 clients are still lobbying on the bill, according to the most recent data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
The number of ...
Upstate New York race sees the first of the outside spending this cycle
The May 24 special House election in upstate New York is attracting the first slew of outside spending in the current election cycle. Party committees and other nonprofit groups have spent more than $1.88 million on this race so far.
The three-way race between Democrat Kathleen Hochul, Republican Jane Corwin and self-described Tea Party candidate Jack Davis has attracted spending from both national party committees and some outside groups that were the most prolific spenders in the 2010 elections. The National Republican Congressional Committee that has spent more than $424,000 opposing both Hochul and Davis, which is less ...
Mexican government hires lobbyists, lawyer to help nationals facing capital punishment
The Mexican consulate in Tuscon hired Arizona-based lawyer Gregory Kuykendall for legal service and advice for Mexican nationals charged with crimes that could lead to a death sentence and for those already sentenced, recently filed disclosures under the Foreign Agents Registration Act filing show.
Kuykendall is the director of the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance program, established by the Mexican government in September 1999 to provide guidance and assistance for the legal defense of their nationals in capital cases. The Mexican government has paid $3.5 million for this program for a period between June 2010 and May 2011.
According to ...
Update on House disbursements: A few notes on how to use the data
We've received a few calls about the House disbursements data we published, questioning the total amount spent by various offices. The House Committee on Administration provides two sets of numbers: summary numbers for each office's spending by quarter, including a grand total and a breakdown by category, and detailed files listing every disbursement reported for that quarter. There is a discrepancy between the totals reported in the summary section and the totals arrived at by adding all of the individual disbursements reported in the detail view of our downloadable data. Despite the discrepancy, a review of the data ...
Continue readingHouse Members, Committees and Offices Spend $1.36 Billion in 2010
In 2010, members, committees and other offices of the U.S. House of Representatives spent more than $1.36 billion on salaries, benefits, office equipment, travel, consultants and other expenses. Of that, the largest expense--about $1 billion--was for salaries and benefits, followed by spending on rent and communication costs, technology and related maintenance costs.
Nine of the ten biggest spenders were Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former members Dana Titus, D-Nev., Scott Murphy, D-N.Y., and Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Ohio. Half of the top ten spenders were from California.
Lawmakers do not pay out of their member ...
Business community has its guns aimed at the environment, financial reforms
In a bid to roll back laws and regulations, some passed and some proposed, in the last two years, business conglomerates have targeted a handful of federal agencies -- with the Environmental Protection Agency receiving the bulk of the attention -- in reply to a request by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., calling for industry feedback on which rules the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee should investigate.
Issa, the Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee released close to 2000 pages of letters, research studies, expert testimonials and comments addressed to the executive bodies in charge of the rule making. The documents ...
OCE report on financial reform shows nexus between fundraising and legislating
On Nov. 24, 2009, Sara Conrad, the fundraising consultant for Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., sent an email to Michael Stein, head of government relations for financial services giant Morgan Stanley, inviting him to attend a Dec. 10 fundraising reception for Crowley’s campaign. The email was a follow-up to a prior conversation he had with Crowley’s chief of staff, Kate Winkler, about the Ways and Means Committee member's upcoming campaign events.
Around the same time, Conrad, who worked for Crowley's campaign and not his congressional office, sent several other emails, including similar notes to lobbyists for ...
Continue readingEgypt and US Lobbying History
With the military called in to control the demonstrations now underway on the streets of cities in Egypt, here’s a... View Article
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