Recently, the Pentagon released the list of its top 10 contractors for 2010, all which spent significant amounts of money... View Article
Continue readingThree countries lobby to minimize fallout of political tug-of-war
South Korea, Panama and Colombia are lobbying to cement U.S. trade agreements that have been embroiled in political jockeying between the White House and Congress, recently filed foreign lobbying disclosures show.
On May 16, the White House announced President Obama will not sign the three trade agreements without Congress passing a job training legislation for workers displaced by foreign competition. Senate Republicans retaliated by threatening not to confirm President Obama’s choice for Commerce Secretary nominee. Soon after this impasse, the three countries upped their lobbying presence in Washington pushing their agenda for their country's free trade agreements ...
Continue readingBankers critical of Dodd-Frank meet with Geithner
The same day Jamie Dimon, chief executive and president of JPMorgan Chase & Company, publicly bashed the new Dodd-Frank financial law he and the company's top lobbyist, Peter Scher, had a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
In his public statements reported on April 5, Dimon had harsh words for nearly every aspect of the new law, from derivatives oversight to regulation of interchange fees to the establishment of a new federal office, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to oversee the stability of the financial system.
Dimon was also part of a larger meeting the following day with the ...
Continue readingDisclosure by “Political Intelligence” Firms would Shine Light on Investment Decisions
On the intersection of K Street and Wall Street lies the burgeoning “political intelligence” industry, where lobbyists, advisors and other... View Article
Continue readingEgypt’s PR shop terminates their US operation
A few weeks after Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in response to the public outrage against his 30 year rule, the Egyptian government’s PR outfit in Washington terminated their operation, records show. Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter and Associates ended their representation of the Egyptian press office on February 28, 2011, shortly after Mubarak resigned on February 11.
From November 2010 to March 2011, the Egypt Press and Information Bureau paid the lobbying group $200,000 in fees and expenses. The lobby shop was hired in April 2009 and was paid a total of $985,000 during that period ...
Continue readingLobbyists for Morocco go on a meeting spree soon after political upheaval
A nonprofit established by the government of Morocco went on a lobbying frenzy earlier this year, coinciding with the time when pro-democracy demonstrations in the country took an ugly turn. The Moroccan-American Policy Council, which is the registered agent of the Moroccan government met with 130 congressional offices on February 23, 24 and 25 just days after the riots broke out, FARA records show.
Protests in the country started on February 1, when a protestor lit himself on fire, immitating the incident that sparked the Tunisian revolt and in a few weeks turned violent with riots on February 21. A ...
Continue readingMajor banks use one lobbyist to team up on Dodd-Frank
The international law firm, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton LLP, is lobbying Congress on behalf of three of the world’s biggest financial institutions regarding the derivatives market -- one of the major issues tackled by the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, according to disclosure forms filed this year.
A lawyer with the firm, Edward Rosen is lobbying Congress on behalf of Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas and Wells Fargo regarding the Commodity Futures Trade Commission’s (CFTC) proposal to regulate swaps dealers, increase transparency in the derivatives market and force standardized derivatives into a clearinghouse to ultimately lower the risk incurred from ...
Continue readingNew York Times Calls for an Expansion of the Definition of Lobbying
In the most recent, and possibly most repugnant, turn of the revolving door, FCC commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker will join... View Article
Continue readingDecision-Making on Capitol Hill Chilled by Threat of Dark Money
We’ve said it before: One result of the Citizens United case is that lobbyists will have new power. Whether real... View Article
Continue readingMassive Lobbying Operation For Telecom Merger
AT&T is already the second largest mobile phone operator in the country and is looking to get bigger through a... View Article
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