Rep. Pete Visclosky was one of the top recipients of contributions from PMA Group. He endorsed some form of investigation of the lobbying firm that was raided by the FBI -- "What form that action takes, who offers it, how it will turn out, I don't know," he said last month. In his fiscal year 2010 earmark requests, just posted online, he requested no earmarks for former clients of PMA Group.
I noticed that he requested an earmark for Duneland School Corporation of Chesterton, Ind. for $500,000 that will "include the installation of solar panels to demonstrate photovoltaic technology ...
Continue readingMoran requests nine defense earmarks for former PMA Group clients
Rep. James Moran released his list of appropriations requests today. A quick review shows he's asking for nine earmarks for former clients of PMA Group, worth a total of $17.5 million.
Here's the list of 2008 PMA Group clients from Open Secrets, and below are links to earmarks requests and dollar amounts.
General Dynamics $2,000,000; DDL Omni Engineering LLC $3,000,000; ITT Corp $2,000,000; Dynamis $2,000,000; Mobilvox $2,000,000; Rockwell Collins $1,000,000; Argon ST $3,000,000; Artis $1,000,000; Planning Systems Inc. $1,500,000;
Continue readingEarmark requests due online today
I was just forwarded a press release from the office of Rep. Jeff Flake, reminding us that members have to post their earmark requests online today:
Washington, D.C. " Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona's Sixth District, today highlighted the House of Representatives' earmark request deadline for fiscal year 2010. Today is the deadline.In February, the House Appropriations Committee issued a new rule concerning FY10 earmark requests: To offer more opportunity for public scrutiny of Member requests, Members must post information on the requests they have submitted to the Appropriations Committee on their official House website at ...
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Top secret Appropriations earmark database crashes
So reports Politico's Anne Schroeder Mullins.
Question: Why isn't this data public:
Earmarks. If you don't think the Appropriations Committees have a database of earmarks, you're naive. Of course they do - it's valuable information. Now, about sharing it in anything but an image PDF format well, let's just say that Keith Ashdown and the folks at Continue reading
Prairie Parkway dead?
So says Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet:
In 2005, former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) stuffed a $207 million earmark in a federal highway bill to help pay for the road, estimated to cost $1 billion to build. The 37-mile highway would roll through Kane and Kendall Counties, linking I-80 and I-88, the Reagan Memorial Tollway.Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.), who replaced Hastert, said Wednesday there is "a near consensus in the area," that "the first priority for money being spent on roads is probably not in that (Prairie Parkway) corridor but rather beefing up the existing north south ...
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The Appropriate Culture of Corruption
The New York Times reports today on what could be the next great lobbying scandal. After his house and offices... View Article
Continue readingThe Next Abramoff: PMA Group?
The New York Times reports:
...many on Capitol Hill, recalling the scandal that mushroomed around the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, are wondering who else will be ensnared in the investigation as prosecutors pore over the financial records and computer files of one of K Street's most influential lobbyists, known both for the billions of dollars in earmarks he obtained for his clients and for his open hand toward those he sought to influence.Former PMA staff members familiar with the inquiry say prosecutors' initial questions have focused on the possibility that Mr. Magliocchetti used straw campaign contributors " a Florida sommelier ...
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Must everything be earmarked?
Columnist George Will argues that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 -- the bailout bill that set up TARP, is unconstitutional because it delegates legislative power to the executive branch:
Congress did not in any meaningful sense make a law. Rather, it made executive branch officials into legislators. Congress said to the executive branch, in effect: "Here is $700 billion. You say you will use some of it to buy up banks' 'troubled assets.' But if you prefer to do anything else with the money -- even, say, subsidize automobile companies -- well, whatever."FreedomWorks, a Washington-based libertarian advocacy organization, argues that ...
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Muckety maps PMA Group giving
There have been lots of different ways of slicing PMA Group contributions from Congressional Quarterly and the Center for Responsive Politics (see here too). Now Muckety looks at the web of connections of top PMA Group lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti. From CQ's analysis, Muckety begins by noting:
In addition to Magliocchetti, nine of his relatives - two children, his daughter-in-law, his current wife, his ex-wife and his ex-wife's parents, sister and brother-in-law - donated a total of $1.5 million to political campaigns in that nine-year period, according to the analysis.
The map is interactive; click the names to navigate it ...
Continue readingMurtha’s pass through earmarks
Earmark disclosure isn't going to do any good if members can designate a middle man to take funds, then distribute them to private companies. But that's exactly what the Washington Post says Rep. John Murtha has been doing, and they've got documents to back them up:
A Pennsylvania defense research center regularly consulted with two "handlers" close to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) as it collected nearly $250 million in federal funding through the lawmaker, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and sources familiar with the funding requests. The center then channeled a significant portion ...Continue reading
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