Since we've not had too many volunteers making phone calls to verify if the information collected as part of our distributed research project is accurate, I'm making calls this afternoon.
Here's reviewing a few:
Ric Molen went from working as a Legislative Director in Sen. Conrad Burns' (R-Mt.), office to work as a lobbyist with Lent, Scrivner & Roth in 2005 and his clients include major defense contractors such as Qualcomm and CH2M Hill. Since the time, Molen has made campaign contributions of a total of over $9,000, according to campaign finance records from the Center for ...
Continue readingNeed for Regulatory Transparency
The EPAhas been considering new national health standards on ozone and smog. With about six weeks before they announce their decision, the White House has been meeting with some of "the biggest and nastiest polluters," according to Frank O'Donnell, president of the environmental watchdog Clean Air Watch. More private meetings! I thought we'd have enough of this.
On its face, the decision on ozone and smog shouldn't be a tough one. The health evidence is overwhelming that tougher smog standards are needed to protect children with asthma and millions of other Americans. EPA's own independent scientific advisers are unanimous in support of tougher rules. But last Friday, OMB recorded that several oil industry consultants came to meet with administration figures on the new rules. Anne Smith of CRA International came representing the American Petroleum Institute and Teresa Gorman of LPI Consulting and Bingham McCutchen representing ExxonMobil on clean air regulatory issues. Wouldn't it be nice to have a little transparency about what was discussed?
Continue readingFull Frontal Scrutiny
Consumer Reports WebWatch and the Center for Media and Democracy (our partners on Congresspedia) joined forces to launch Full Frontal Scrutiny, a blog-driven, wiki-based site dedicated to exposing fake, corporate-funded front groups that are pushing agendas, while hiding their true identity or agenda. Full Frontal Scrutiny will give consumers, voters and citizens a resource for investigating organizations they run across in the media or elsewhere that have popped up to promote a particular opinion or bill in Congress. We love the banner on the site that include this quote from Jonathan Adelstein, commissioner at the FCC: "The American public deserves to know when someone is trying to persuade them." The organizers say it's this spirit that is their motivation for exposing "hidden persuaders." This is a new battle being waged in the spirit of transparency.
Continue readingLocal Sunlight
This week I have highlights from Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Washington.
An Empty Gesture on Earmarks from Bush?
In tonight's State of the Union address, President George W. Bush reportedly will announce that he will issue an executive order telling federal agencies to ignore earmarks unless they are part of future appropriations bills. Earmarks now are specified in the committee reports that accompany, but are distinct from, the legislation. Here's a bit from a White House flier (attached) announcing the new policy:
The Executive Order will provide that with regard to all future appropriations laws and other legislation enacted into law, executive agencies will not commit, obligate, or expend funds on the basis of earmarks from any non-statutory source, including requests included in congressional committee reports or other congressional documents, or communications from or on behalf of Members of Congress, or any other non-statutory source, except when required by law, or when an agency itself decides that a project or other transaction has merit under statutory criteria or other merit-based decision-making.That last "or when..." raises one question for federal agency heads: Does the decision to fund each and every earmark in a committee report in order to avoid the wraith of outraged Appropriations Committee members who control your budget fall under statutory criteria or other merit-based decision-making? Mark Tapscott calls the new policy a "Bush earmark cave-in," while Glenn Reynolds says "it's the right thing to do." Continue reading
So Much For the New FOIA Laws
When President Bush signed the Open Government Act of 2007 on New Years Eve, the first reform of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in a decade, one might have been tempted to believe the administration was reevaluating its embrace of hyper secrecy and warming to more openness and transparency. No such luck.
Over the weekend, Think Progress reported how the administration is now attempting to "neuter" the new law, which Congress wrote to open up government to more accountability. The law sets up the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), designed as an ombudsman to provide independent oversight and settle disputes over FOIA requests. The law authorized funds to address backlogs in the requests and resolve the requests in a timely manner.
Continue readingA Bump on the Road to Republican Reforms
This weekend, House Republicans held their annual three-day retreat to the historic Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Earmark reform was a hot topic at the retreat, with young Turks challenging the old bulls to take bold action for reform, as Dana Chasin wrote at OMB Watch's blog. Younger conservatives pushed for a moratorium on GOP earmarks through the rest of 2008 in hope of showing voters Republicans are serious about fiscal responsibility. Ultimately, the bulls won.
They did attempt to hang some window dressing on the decision by sending a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling on her to establish a bipartisan panel to work on reducing pork-barrel spending. And they took four other steps: pledging to not fund projects named after themselves (Ouch! That must hurt.), promising not to "airdrop" earmarks into bills, agreeing not to send funds to "front" organizations and pass-through groups, and requiring members to place rationales for earmarks in the Congressional Record.
Continue readingGovernment Secrets
Back in September, I blogged about a hold being put on a bill that would undo the damage done when President Bush issued an Executive Order allowing presidential records to remain secret indefinitely. The bill, Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, passed the House by a vote of 333 to 93. A bipartisan group of Senators cosponsored the bill which Senator Lieberman swiftly ushered through The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in June of 2007. Its momentum stalled when a Senator put a secret hold on the bill so it could not be voted on by Unanimous Consent in the Senate.
Continue readingMore Campaign Finance Data Due Next Week
The folks at the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) are eagerly awaiting the candidates' final campaign finance reports of 2007, which are due to the FEC by midnight on Thursday, Jan. 31.
Massie sez:
Check OpenSecrets.org for updated data beginning Friday, Feb. 1. We're aiming to have the presidential section fully updated by Monday, Feb. 4, in time for Super Duper Tuesday the following day.
And while you are there take their user survey.
Continue readingLet The Good Times (Continue to) Roll
In today's edition, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reports that the annual Washington Mardi Gras party kicks off tonight at the Washington Hilton, a weekend-long event billed as "one of the most sought-after tickets in any season in Washington." The event's parties, the paper says, "are arguably the most intimate gatherings of businesspeople, politicians and lobbyists left in Washington" after new congressional ethics rules were adopted. Writing that the parties are"a throwback to the days when politicians and lobbyists socialized regularly outside the glare of the public spotlight," the paper added that they are "largely immune to the new ethics standards."
A secretive, Louisiana-based group headed by a lobbyist and former aide to now lobbyist and former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) organizes the event. The organization declined to name this year's corporate sponsors, but in years past they included R.J. Reynolds, BellSouth, and Lockheed Martin, according to the paper.
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