As stated in the note from the Sunlight Foundation′s Board Chair, as of September 2020 the Sunlight Foundation is no longer active. This site is maintained as a static archive only.

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Companies pay to honor Clyburn, other Super Committee members, at charity events

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Lobbyists can not only attempt to influence members of the deficit-cutting super committee by donating to their campaign, but they also have another tool: giving to good causes that honor them.

Companies, advocacy groups and their lobbyists have spent at least $715,000 to honor and cover meetings costs for the 12 members of the super committee during the first half of the year, according to lobbying disclosures filed this month with the Senate Office of Public Records. In some cases, these payments were made in honor of many members of Congress—not only those on the Super Committee.

The ...

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Medicare and the Super Committee: Can doctors afford to lose two percent of their payments?

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Medicare and other health care services could see their funds drained in any number of ways as, over the next few months, the congressional Joint Committee on Debt Reduction--better known as the "super committee"--looks for ways to reduce the national debt.

Health care interests are well represented among the big donors to the committee's dozen members. Half those members--including Max Baucus, Fred Upton, Xavier Becerra and Chris Van Hollen--number health care concerns among their top ten career donors. Collectively, health care professionals ranked fourth among those career donors, giving $9.3 million, according to an analysis of ...

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Egypt’s transitional government lobbies on seeking funds, debt reduction

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While the Egyptian uprising earlier this year saw the ousting of long time leader Hosni Mubarak and ignited a mass movement across the Middle East, the regime change has not translated to a different approach to U.S. policy. Lobbying records filed by the hired guns of the Egyptian government show a seamless transition from promoting the Mubarak regime to the transitional military rule, seeking funds for Egypt and then asking for a reduction in Egypt’s debt burden.

Lobbying records filed by the Livingston Group show that they lobbied the U.S. federal government and military command on these ...

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Dodd Frank: How rating agencies contributed to the financial crisis

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The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed in response to the financial crisis of 2008, added new regulations and new regulators for some—but not all—of the institutions whose actions led to the crisis. Over the next several days, we’ll be taking a look at each of the major groups of contributors to the economic crisis, who the major players were, what political influence they brought to bear on Congress and regulators, how Dodd-Frank intends to regulate them, and, using our new Dodd-Frank Meeting Logs tool, what rules these groups are trying to influence as ...

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