Rep. Jo Bonner joined Sen. Richard Shelby in securing a $9,089,000 earmark for the University of Alabama "for construction, renovation, and equipment" in the Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill, according to our good friends at Taxpayers for Common Sense. The earmark originated with Sen. Shelby--employees and family members of the University of Alabama collectively are his 11th most generous career patron, having contributed $$62,769 to his campaign committee. In the course of his House career, Bonner has taken in roughly a third of that -- $21,150 -- from University of Alabama employees, making them the 19th most ...
Continue readingBonner earmark #s 11 & 12
The next two earmarks are went to the same recipient. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., secured a $352,500 earmark for Team Focus, a Mobile, Ala.-based nonprofit which aims to "provide young men that do have a father figure in their life, ages 10 18 with leadership skills, guidance, Godly values, and a continual relationship with a mentor," according to its Web site. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., joined Bonner in sponsoring the earmark in the Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill. Team Focus got another earmark in the same bill for $517,000--this one sponsored by Sens. Shelby and Jeff ...
Continue readingCoal Industry Spending Freely to Influece Congress
The coal industry is in the middle of a massive $40 million campaign to make sure that Congress, the presidential candidates, and the American people get to know that black rock in their stockings a little better - and to keep politicians from doing anything to threaten the burning of said unwelcome stocking guest in coal-fired power plants. If you've paid attention to the presidential race you probably noticed that a number of the debates were sponsored by a coal front group called Americans for Balanced Energy Choices and that those debates did not dare to feature a single question about global warming. CNN received $5 million dollars from the group. I'd say they got a good bang for their buck.
Facing a bruising fight over climate change, the coal industry is on the political offensive this election year to ensure that no matter who wins in November, so does coal.
Billions of dollars in corporate profits are at stake for the companies that mine, ship and burn the nation's most abundant domestic fuel.
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Bonner earmark #10
Rep. Jo Bonner and Sen. Richard Shelby joined President George W. Bush in requesting an earmark for the Mobile Tensaw Delta; the final value of the earmark, in the Interior, Environment, and related agencies appropriations bill, was $1,969,000.
It doesn't appear that the State of Alabama or the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources lobbied for the earmark.
Continue readingBonner earmark #9
In the Transportation and Housing & Urban Development appropriations bill, Rep. Jo Bonner joined Sen. Jeff Sessions in securing a $735,000 earmark for the Mobile Downtown Airport for ramp rehabilitation and drain repair.
The Mobile Regional Airport Authority employed Van Scoyoc Associates to lobby Congress; according to page two of their 2007 mid-year report, Van Scoyoc lobbied on the "Transportation, Treasury, Housing & Urban Development..." appropriations, including "airport infrastructure and service issues."
As noted in this post, the employees and the PAC of Van Scoyoc Associates have contributed $18,736 to Bonner's campaigns since 2002.
Continue readingBonner earmark #8
Rep. Jo Bonner joined Sen. Richard Shelby in securing $470,000 in the Commerce, Justice & Science appropriations bill for the Mobile County Commission to acquire interoperable communications systems.
The Mobile County Commission had Washington representation -- the lobbying firm Van Scoyoc Associates. They lobbied on the "Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, FY 2008," according to page 3 of this disclosure report.
Van Scoyoc employees have contributed $16,250 to Rep. Bonner's campaigns between April 2002 and November 2007, according to Open Secrets. Van Scoyoc also has a PAC, which contributed an additional $1,472 in 2006 and ...
Continue readingBonner Earmark #6
Rep. Jo Bonner attached his name to an earmark originally requested by Sen. Richard Shelby for $1,372,000 for the City of Mobile's Transit System, known as the Wave Transit System.
The City of Mobile employed the firm Miller, Hamilton, Snider & Odom who lobbied on "appropriations issues." Their employees have contributed $6,500 to Bonner between 2002 and 2006. Nothing from 2007, when the earmark was included in the Transportation and Housing & Urban Development bill.
Continue readingBonner earmark #3
I thought this one would be harder.
Rep. Jo Bonner, the newest member of the Appropriations Committee, secured $245,000 for "Atmore road improvement" in the Transportation and Housing & Urban Development Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2008. (Sen. Richard Shelby requested the same in the Senate.)
The City of Atmore spent $80,000 on a pair of lobbying firms in 2007, the Bloom Group Inc. and Bradley, Arant, Rose & White LP. The Bloom Group's year-end report says, on page 2, that the firm was lobbying on, among other things, "Transportation HUD Appropriations bill, seeking federal funding for city projects ...
Continue readingAnother Bonner Earmark, another lobbying link
Going for the low hanging fruit first (earmarks in EarmarkWatch.org). So let's look at the $141,000 that the Alabama School of Math and Science in Mobile, Ala., got in the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Act.
The school--a public, residential school for sophomores through seniors who are gifted in science and math--employed Capitol Link, a lobbying firm, from 2004 through 2007. During that time, there was no six-month period in which the school paid the firm more than $10,000, so it's impossible to tell from the disclosures how much the school spent ...
Continue readingInspector General launches probe of Traffic.com contracts
Transportation's Inspector General has launched an investigation of the Transportation Technology Innovation and Demonstration program--at the request of a pair of members of Congress, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.--to determine whether the program, as administered by the Federal Highway Administration, fulfilled the goals set for it by Congress and whether FHWA met competitive procurement requirements that "intended to expand the number of firms providing surveillance services."
A brief announcement is here and the full release is here.
Congress launched TTID (the original alphabet soup name for the program was ITIP -- the Intelligent Transportation ...
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