Three lawmakers closely linked to the PMA Group lobbying and earmarks investigation have seen their collective campaign fundraising drop by... View Article
Continue readingAgencies Begin to Post Recovery Lobbying Contacts
Some executive branch agencies are beginning to post lobbyist communications as required by the March 20th White House memorandum on... View Article
Continue readingStimulus Lobbying Disclosure Order: No legal problems
The last month has brought major changes in lobbyists’ interactions with the government and the American people’s ability to learn... View Article
Continue readingCountering the Reward Method of Corruption
David Sirota posted on OpenLeft yesterday on what he called “the reward method of corruption.” Sirota writes, “As opposed to... View Article
Continue reading$4.5 billion-dollar tariff break back
Among the tariff suspension bills considered by the 110th Congress, which went out of business before passing any of the them, one stood out: the Affordable Footwear Act. Most tariff suspension bills--which temporarily reduce taxes on imported goods--have only one sponsor. This one drew 157 co-sponsors. Most tariff bills benefit one firm, or at most a handful of firms; this one was accompanied by 111 pages of letters, all but three of which were from supporters. Most tariff bills cost the Treasury at most a couple of million while they're in effect; this one had at 2009 price tag ...
Continue readingRevolving Door Bailout Army
Mother Jones adds more fuel to the lobbying disclosure fire by showing over 100 former congressional staffers, lawmakers, and government... View Article
Continue readingReturn on Lobbying Investment: 22,000%
There’s a reason why lobbying has boomed so much over the last decade. The potential return on investment is just... View Article
Continue readingFormer PMA Group Clients Get Defense Earmarks from Murtha for 2010
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., has requested defense related funding for five companies that hired the PMA Group last year, according to a review of the earmark requests released on the Congressman's website. Murtha has requested a total of $23.8 million to be directed to these companies.
You can search for the clients here (links to the search pages don't work).
And here's a breakdown for each of the five companies.
Advanced Acoustic Concepts - $5,000,000
Argon ST - $8,000,000
MTS Technologies - $5,000,000
Planning Systems Inc. - $2,300,000
QTL Bio Defense Systems ...
Continue readingNothing yet from Norm Dicks, C.W. “Bill” Young
As noted here, Rep. Norm Dicks is one of the more prolific PMA Group earmarks, and is number four on the list of top recipients of PMA Group & client campaign cash. Searching Dicks' site, I was unable to find a list of appropriations requests.
Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young is number five on that list. As of this writing, his Web site says the "List being prepared."
Continue readingVisclosky shuts out former PMA Group clients
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 ...
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