Last week, President Obama released an Executive Memorandum providing suggested rules for transparency and accountability surrounding the distribution of funds... View Article
Continue readingThe Details on Recovery Lobbying Rules
Last week, the White House released Executive Memorandum instituting new rules for lobbyist disclosure for those seeking funds from the... View Article
Continue readingApply New Lobby Rules Across the Board
After posting about President Obama’s announced new lobbying disclosure rules for the recovery funds, Ellen Miller, Sunlight Executive Director and... View Article
Continue readingObama Promises Much Tighter Lobbying Disclosure for Recovery Funds
There are many, many problems with lobbying disclosure, but one of the greatest would have to be that lobbyists are... View Article
Continue readingMuckety maps PMA Group giving
There have been lots of different ways of slicing PMA Group contributions from Congressional Quarterly and the Center for Responsive Politics (see here too). Now Muckety looks at the web of connections of top PMA Group lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti. From CQ's analysis, Muckety begins by noting:
In addition to Magliocchetti, nine of his relatives - two children, his daughter-in-law, his current wife, his ex-wife and his ex-wife's parents, sister and brother-in-law - donated a total of $1.5 million to political campaigns in that nine-year period, according to the analysis.
The map is interactive; click the names to navigate it ...
Continue readingForeign Lobbying Around Bailout?
Recent news stories have shown that the U.S. is increasingly in the business of providing loans and bailout money to... View Article
Continue readingGrassley seeks lobbyist disclosure for tariff bills
It's been a while since I've looked at tariffs, but, as CongressDaily notes, they're back in the news (well, at least inside the beltway):
fter a high-profile fight over earmarks in the omnibus appropriations bill, another front in that battle is shaping up to be a huge package of tariff breaks on imported goods being cobbled together by the House Ways and Means Committee.Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassley wants to add the name of each lobbyist or individual proponent to the hundreds of individual tariff and duty suspensions Congress might consider, often of benefit to ...
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CRP: PMA Group, clients donated to 516 members of Congress
Lindsay Renick Mayer of the Center for Responsive Politics writes on OpenSecrets.org about PMA Group, the lobbying firm that specialized in defense appropriations and that is reportedly under investigation for campaign finance irregularities:
No matter how we slice and dice the data related to contributions from embattled lobbying firm PMA Group and its clients, Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.), chair of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, remains at or near the top of the recipient list, along with Reps. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.). This week, though, we took yet another look at the contributions from the firm ...Continue reading
Another guilty plea in Abramoff case
Roll Call's Jennifer Yachnin reports:
Former Senate aide Ann Copland pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud, acknowledging she accepted more than $25,000 in gifts including tickets to sporting events and concerts from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates.Copland, a longtime aide to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) who left in 2008 to join Mississippi Public Broadcasting, has agreed to cooperate with Justice Department attorneys in their long-running investigation into lobbying activities on Capitol Hill. Copland is among the 18 individuals, including the incarcerated Abramoff, to be charged with wrongdoing ...
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Visclosky endorses some form of action on PMA Group
A friend passes on this story:
U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st, was expecting the House to take some sort of action later today with respect to an inquiry into The PMA Group, the Washington, D.C., lobbying firm reportedly under investigation by the FBI.PMA has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Visclosky's campaign committee, as have many of its clients, for some of whom Visclosky has secured millions of dollars in federal contracts.
I have been urging the House leadership to open an inquiry into PMA, Visclosky told the Chesterton Tribune today. I am encouraged that ...
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