Local county commissioners in the district of Indiana Rep. Mike Pence passed a resolution requesting that the congressman end his... View Article
Continue readingEarmark My Words
What do top earmarkers talk about in Congress? Does our money go where their mouths are? In the case of... View Article
Continue readingWhat’s the Matter With New York?
Yesterday, two Democratic New York State Senators jumped ship to caucus with the Republicans, potentially shifting the majority from the... View Article
Continue readingCapitol Words: Pete Visclosky’s Home State
Last week, I posted about the relationship between PMA Group fanboy Rep. Pete Visclosky’s campaign contributions from clients of the... View Article
Continue readingRep. Flake: Campaign contributions are a financial interest in an earmark
Rep. Jeff Flake has released a letter asking the Ethics Committee asking it to "specifically prohibit members from being able to certify having no financial interest in an earmark when they have received campaign contributions from the entity that would benefit from the earmark or those affiliated with it."
Essentially, Flake is asking the committee to hold that, for earmarks, campaign contributions create a conflict of interest in the same way that, say, being part owner of a company would create a conflict of interest: The more flush the company is with federal contracts gotten through earmarks, the better off ...
Continue readingVis-a-Visclosky: Or How I Learned to Take Campaign Contributions and Turn Them Into Earmarks
It comes as no surprise that Indiana Democrat Pete Visclosky’s favorite word to say in Congress is “Indiana.” While staying... View Article
Continue readingHouse Ethics Committee: Investigating PMA Group or not?
Tory Newmyer reports in Roll Call:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) plans to offer as early as Wednesday afternoon a privileged resolution to force the ethics committee to disclose whether it is investigating senior Democratic appropriators' ties to the PMA Group, Democratic sources say.Hoyer's move follows eight attempts by Republican anti-earmark crusader Rep. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) to jump-start a probe and aims to pre-empt Flake's ninth stab at the issue, which was due for a vote on Thursday. It marks a sharp break from Democratic leaders' previous approach to the burgeoning controversy involving the now-defunct lobbying ...
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Murtha’s earmark recipients: How hands off (or on) is he?
Paul Singer reports in Roll Call on a tangled story that apparently involves the undisclosed hand of Rep. John Murtha but certainly involves his brother Kit (a retired lobbyist) and his former lobbying firm, five different companies doing business, directly or indirectly, with Defense (including one under federal indictment and one that allegedly wanted to outsource earmarked defense work to "China or someplace"), an earmark from the pre-disclosure era, some technical corrections added to the Tsunami relief bill that moved the funds for that earmark from one recipient to another (because the original recipient allegedly wanted to do the work ...
Continue readingVisclosky temporarily relinquishes reins of subcommittee
Rep. Peter Visclosky, whose office has been subpoenaed for documents related to clients of the defunct lobbying firm PMA Group, has temporarily stepped down as chair of the House Energy & Water Appropriations Subcommittee. Lindsay Renick Mayer reports on Visclosky's woes, his top donors, and those of his replacement, Ed Pastor, who has taken less than a tenth as much in contributions from PMA Group and its clients (of course, I'm referring to contributions from their employees, family members and political action committees).
Continue readingCREW visualizes Murtha web
Here's a picture worth well over a thousand words: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has assembled an interactive, "You Don't Know Jack" graphic showing the connections between Murtha, a trio of lobbying firms, relatives, staffers and the companies for whom he's gotten earmarks.
Well worth a look. Well worth remembering too that PMA Group isn't just a John Murtha scandal -- the firm was a top donor to 32 members of Congress in the 2008 election cycle.
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