Jeffrey Birnbaum’s column in today’s Washington Post is a must-read for anyone who wants to see the level to which serious money has invaded the world of Washington lobbying. It’s also a reminder of the enduring importance of the revolving door that shuttles people back and forth between Capitol Hill and K Street, ground zero for Washington’s lobbyist community.
Normally the windfall for Hill staffers comes when they move from the Capitol to K Street. In this case, the windfall – amounting to nearly $2 million – was a severance package given to an ex-lobbyist moving in the opposite direction.
Continue readingSmall Business Shafted Again
The New York Times today broke a story that I first learned about nearly two years ago – that the federal government’s annual accounting of federal contracts going to “small businesses” is routinely overstated, with much of that money actually going to large corporations.
I stumbled onto the story while analyzing six years of Pentagon contracts for the Center for Public Integrity. I’d been tipped off to the practice by a Defense Department analyst who’d been working with the contract data for years. He told me – and I subsequently documented it in the records – that under the contracting rules, if a small business is bought by a larger one, the contract is still counted as going to small business.
Continue readingSeeking Independence
Every year around the 4th of July an old, uncomfortable question always comes to mind for me: exactly how independent are our representatives in Washington?
For years I thought a good way to measure this would be to establish some kind of Independence Quotient (IQ) for members of Congress – a formula that would take into consideration all those elements that tend to divide, not reinforce, their responsibilities to their constituents.
Elements like the following:
What proportion of their campaign funds – the mother’s milk that every politician has to raise to keep their seat – comes from outside their home state?
Continue readingRedistricting Decision May Trigger New Fundraising
Look for new infusions of federal money into state politics following the Supreme Court’s decision this week on the Texas redistricting case. Though the justices did roll back the borders of one district that unfairly diluted the power of Hispanic voters, they upheld – by a decisive 7-2 vote – the right of states to redraw their congressional district boundaries any time they want, rather than only once after each new census.
If I were a party chairman in one of the states that has a close balance of power in the state legislature, I’d have been on the phone to Washington within minutes after the decision, noodling with federal party officials over how to turn this decision into a serious fundraising opportunity.
Continue reading50 Years of Interstates
As you’ve no doubt already heard from news stories this week, Thursday is the 50th anniversary of America’s interstate highway system. Like most things 50 years old it’s got its good points and its bad ones. But life without interstates is as unimaginable today as life without telephones.
At first, Congress balked at spending all that money, until someone came up with the nifty idea of repackaging the interstate system as a means of mass evacuation in case of nuclear attack. Now highways became a defense issue and Congress finally agreed to let the idea roll.
Continue readingPressure Cooling for Reform?
A story in Monday's Washington Post by Jeffrey Birnbaum and Jim VandeHei says in newsprint what a lot of Congress-watchers have been whispering in corridors: the pressure for reform of lobbyist and ethical rules in Congress may be slipping out of season.
This despite the fact that there’s been no real letup in stories about disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff – in fact there was yet another one on page one of Sunday’s Post. But the perception among members of Congress, say Birnbaum and VandeHei, is that ethics reform is an issue of little interest beyond the Beltway. John McCain (R-Ariz) put it this way:
Continue readingRethinking Journalism
Forgive the diversion from my normal comments on money in politics, but a couple of recent stories in the Washington Post – and the reaction so far to the Dennis Hastert story that Bill Allison dug up – are worthy of comment.
The story that really got me thinking was Jay Rosen’s op-ed in Monday’s Post, Web Users Open the Gates. Rosen teaches journalism at NYU and runs a blog called PressThink. His piece points out many ways that the web – and especially the emergence of bloggers – has revolutionized the way mainstream media does its job. Uncomfortable as this has been for many journalists, Rosen concludes the shakeup will do them good.
Sweet Deal for Asa Hutchinson
Dennis Hastert is not the only government official running into trouble with less-than-revealing personal financial disclosure reports – though don’t miss Bill Allison’s report if you haven’t already seen it. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported last week that former Congressman and Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson – running these days for Governor of Arkansas – has come under fire for failing to report a million-dollar investment windfall.
Continue readingThe Logic of Cold, Hard Cash
A couple of weeks ago the puns were flying everywhere around Capitol Hill as Members expressed outrage – and no shortage of pluckish humor – when the FBI turned up $90,000 in cash in Congressman William Jefferson’s freezer. Comments about the power of cold, hard cash abounded everywhere – including this blog. Others talked about frozen assets and the like. Everyone got a good yuk except Jefferson, who gamely suggested there was a more benign explanation for those freeze-wrapped stacks of cash, though he was not at liberty to talk about it just yet.
Continue readingSafety Underground
There’s an unwritten rule in the world of money and politics: the smaller the audience, the bigger the role of money in determining the outcome. This works both in elections and in legislation. Not many people pay attention to a humdrum House reelection contest, so the challenger can’t get traction and the incumbent’s war chest is usually sufficient to stave off anything but a renegade millionaire.
In legislation, the more attention a bill gathers, the more opponents it tends to pick up and the more expensive its passage is likely to be. Earmarks are the perfect example of stealth legislation – the items are buried in bigger bills and hardly anyone knows about them.
Continue reading
59063
