As stated in the note from the Sunlight Foundation′s Board Chair, as of September 2020 the Sunlight Foundation is no longer active.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.

Sunlight Foundation

Follow Us

Tag Archive: Lobbying

Despite ‘unlikes’ over Facebook, Morgan Stanley still has friends in high places

by

Morgan Stanley on Times Square

The disappointing debut of Facebook’s IPO and Morgan Stanley’s seemingly  unequal treatment of its customers in providing inside last-minute cautions about the social network giant has investors and regulators upset, and lawyers readying for business. But when the nation's lawmakers start making the inevitable inquiries (key House and Senate committees already are making noises) about the deal and its chief underwriter, Morgan Stanley will not be defenseless. The financial services giant has plenty of political capital from campaign contributions and a veteran lobbying team.

Morgan Stanley has heavily invested in lobbyists. In the last three quarters of ...

Continue reading

SpaceX blasts off literally and politically

by

Space X's Falcon 9 at the Cape

The private rocket that made history early this morning when it blasted the first commercially-launched payload for the international space station into orbit also was fuelled by a decade-long, multi-million-dollar political effort to pry funding from a sometimes skeptical Congress.

Since its inception in 2002, SpaceX, the company behind Tuesday's successful launch, has spent more than $4 million lobbying Congress and given more than $800,000 in political contributions, according to data compiled from Sunlight's Influence Explorer. Many of the company's campaign donations went  to key members of Congress in charge of the budget for NASA, which ...

Continue reading

Dangerous medical device ‘loophole’ still wide open

by

Consumer groups are crying foul over bipartisan legislation to extend user fees for pharmaceuticals and medical devices. They say that the bill, which the Senate hopes to pass this week, is missing a provision that would close a dangerous loophole in medical device safety.

Right now, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not have the power to require medical device manufacturers to prove they've fixed  known safety flaws before they put a new device on the market. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., both introduced bills earlier this year that would give the FDA this ...

Continue reading

Facebook in Washington: Baby steps of a giant

by

Facebook, which has set off a frenzy of market speculation with its plans go public as early as Friday,  isn't just raising its profile on Wall Street. As the social networking giant prepares for its initial stock offering, Sunlight decided to take a look at how Facebook is doing when it comes to political networking. Our finding: The company with the famously hoodied CEO is beginning to grow up, at least in the ways of Washington.

In the first quarter of this year, Facebook spent $650,000 lobbying Congress, according to a report filed with the Senate Office of ...

Continue reading

JPMorgan not alone

by

With the news focused on JPMorgan Chase & Company's $2 billion "mistake" and company's lobbying campaign at financial agencies to permit the sort of trades that led to the loss, it's worth reviewing some other examples where industry have pushed hard to limit the reach of the Dodd-Frank financial law, arguing as JPMorgan did against a heavy hand because they could handle the risk.

The emphasis is on "some:" the list really is much longer. The law famously set in motion more than 220 rulemakings of which just under a third have been completed. Dominating the dockets of ...

Continue reading

Happy Mothers Day! Policymakers stalled on breastfeeding in the workplace guidance

by

Many a working mother who nurses her baby faces a major challenge upon returning to her job: exactly where will she find the space and how will she find the time to pump milk so she can continue to breastfeed?

As the nation prepares to celebrate Mother's Day, policy makers are stalled about issuing final guidance for employers on how to comply with a new law that requires them to supply hourly workers with "reasonable break time" to express milk for one year after a child's birth, as well as provide a place, other than a bathroom, that ...

Continue reading

With merger, expect airline lobbying to take off

by

RPA Embraer E170 N120HQ

American Airlines and US Airways, the fourth and fifth biggest domestic airlines that took another step towards merger Friday, are also high fliers when it comes to political influence.

Any marriage of the two carriers would require government approval, and both airlines have been active lobbying Congress -- which controls the budgets of the federal agencies that would review the merger's impact on the market, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.

American Airlines has spent $3.8 million on lobbying in the first three quarters of 2011 and has hired 10 lobbying firms during that period.

Although US ...

Continue reading

As Renco’s lobbying drive fades, so does congressional support in its dispute with Peru

by

A group of lawmakers is urging Obama administration officials to oppose a multinational U.S. company's efforts to sue Peru in a mining dispute, citing the company's environmental and health record.

Mine in La Oroya, Peru

The request, made in a letter last month to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, pits the lawmakers against a secretive billionaire and big U.S. political donor—and, in some cases, against themselves.

Four of the letter-signers—Reps. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., Ed Towns, D-N.Y., and Danny K. Davis, D-Ill.—have switched sides in a controversy involving Doe Run ...

Continue reading

CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) Today 59063

Charity Navigator