Norm Coleman has decided to join the cadre of former senators now employed as “senior advisers” for Washington lobby shops.... View Article
Continue readingMonitor Group Admits Violating FARA Law
The Monitor Group, a business consulting firm run by Harvard professors, has admitted that they broke the Foreign Agents Registration... View Article
Continue readingEight lawmakers signed a letter for Renco
Eight members of Congress signed on to a January letter asking the heads of the Treasury and State Departments to take measures to intervene on behalf of a U.S.-owned company in the middle of a controversial dispute with Peru. Until now, Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., was the only known signatory of the letter sent to Secretaries Tim Geithner and Hlllary Clinton.
The missive, along with another from Rep. Spencer Bachus, came after the Renco Group, owned by billionaire mining magnate Ira Rennert, began a lobbying campaign spending more than $300,000 since November 2010 to influence Washington ...
Continue readingPrincess and the policy
There is a special role for princesses in international diplomacy and some like Princess Diana and Queen Noor of Jordan captivated the imagination of the world with their charm and humanitarian work, but others play a more formal diplomatic and public relations role and appear in foreign lobbying records.
Princess of Qatar, Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, hired Fenton Communications in September of 2009 to assist her with a website and media outreach promoting her public education campaign, Foreign Agents Registration Act filings show. The contract with Fenton was terminated but the website is still up and running, describing her ...
Continue readingAs dispute heats up, Renco continues lobbying for its Peruvian smelter
The U.S. mining conglomerate Renco Group spent over $80,000 in the first quarter and retained five lobbying firms in a push to convince Washington to help its embattled smelting company in Peru, according to lobbying filings. This comes after the company spent $245,000 on fees to outside lobbyists to work on the issue of Doe Run Peru in the final two months of last year.
Meanwhile, this month Renco initiated arbitration against Peru, and in its notice to commence proceedings in December, it asked for no less than $800 million in damages for what it alleges are ...
Continue readingMerchants, Retailers Employ Revolving Door Lobbyists In Regulatory Fight
Merchants, retailers, and their trade associations have arrayed a team of former government officials turned lobbyists in one of 2011’s... View Article
Continue readingRevolving Door Lobbyists Populate Coalition Fighting Debit Fee Rules
A coalition of banks, credit unions, and electronic payment networks have hired a vast team of lobbyists that includes 118... View Article
Continue readingGroups Opposing Debit Card Rule Have PAC, Lobby Support
In the first two months of 2011 groups associated with a coalition opposing the implementation of new rules for debit... View Article
Continue readingPoised to make decision on regulating foreign swaps, Geithner meets with banks wanting exemption
In February, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met with the CEO and two top-level executives from the London-based bank HSBC to discuss the issue of foreign exchange swaps.
The bank, which has a thriving foreign exchange business, wants Geithner to exempt such swaps from new rules designed to bring transparency to the derivatives market. Under the Dodd-Frank financial law, Geithner was given authority to make this decision, which he is expected to announce any day.
Amounting in the trillions of dollars per day, foreign exchange swaps are used in business to hedge bets on transactions involving different currencies. Typically, two parties ...
Continue readingSunlight Weekly Round-up: Maine grapples with transparency
The recent outpouring of revulsion over Maine’s state of transparency including criticism from governor LePage’s own and our call for... View Article
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