I was reading this blog post that the Advocacy Director of End the Occupation, a pro-Palestinian organization, sent Sunlight over... 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 ...
Continue reading
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 readingInvestment Ratings Tank for Home Loan Banks
They hold $1.3 trillion in assets and, chances are, you've never heard of them.
The Federal Home Loan Banks, or FHLBs, were created during the Depression, and are meant to ensure that if the economy were to tank, commercial banks would still have the money to issue home loans. A cooperative of 12 regional banks, the system works like this: banks, thrifts, credit unions and insurers (more than 8,100 across the country) become members and put up collateral; the FHLBs borrow money and lend it to th
em at a discount.
So where does the subsidy come ...
Continue readingNew Lobbying Rules Round-Up
By now, you may have seen that the White House has updated the stimulus lobbying rules to expand the communications... View Article
Continue readingPreview of New White House Lobbying Policy
The White House today announced significant changes being crafted in how the administration will regulate stimulus lobbying, in a new... View Article
Continue readingWhy there’s so little spending data on Recovery.gov
Because apparently, there's not all that much spending yet:
Only a small part of the spending authorized by ARRA has occurred so far. It appears that about 5 percent, or about $19 billion, of the approximately $380 billion in budget authority for 2009 granted under the law was spent through the end of April. (Reported expenditures of $29 billion include $11 billion in federal transfers into the unemployment insurance fund, most of which has not yet been distributed to recipients.)
That's a Congressional Budget Office estimate, via a report by David Lightman of McClatchy.
I'm going to ...
Continue readingWashington savvy firm gets stimulus bucks
Number two of the 100:
2. Advanced Technology: Reveal Imaging Technologies of Massachusetts recently received a $47.5 million contract to develop, build, and install 123 reduced-size explosive-detection system units and their ancillary equipment at approximately 50 airports across the country, as part of the Electronic Baggage Screening Program.
The name seemed familiar. Here's a bit from the Washington Post on Rep. Hal Rogers:
Rogers has been accused of promoting government contracts for homeland-security firms that have donated to his campaigns. In 2001, The Washington Post reported explosive-detection machine makers Reveal Imaging Technologies Inc. received a TSA contract worth ...Continue reading
After FEC Eviscerates Bundling Disclosure Law, Only One Bundler Discloses
According to The Hill, only one political action committee (PAC) reported bundling campaign contributions for a political candidate during the... View Article
Continue reading
59063
