With so many vying for the attention of the 12 lawmakers charged with cutting up to $1.5 trillion from the nation's deficit, some groups have turned to plastering their messages to the "super committee" on billboards.
In New York City's Times Square and in Washington, D.C., the billboards tell the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that “Congress should cut spending like a Thanksgiving turkey” and “Before we cut turkeys, Congress must cut $1.5 trillion in spending,” referring to the deadline set for the super committee. The ads are part of a campaign called Bankrupting ...
Continue readingBank executives plead case to administration officials over Volcker rule
Top executives with major banks met regularly with federal agency officials who were writing a draft rule meant to curtail risky Wall Street trading — known popularly as the Volcker rule, named for the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker — federal agency meeting records show.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler were among the agency leaders who met with CEOs from companies including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase since June 2010. Big banks are strongly critical of a provision in the Dodd-Frank financial law that calls for restricting banks from trading for ...
Continue readingSuper committee related issues feature in hundreds of lobbying reports
K Street firms got little respite this past quarter, between lobbying on the debt ceiling early in the summer and then quickly shifting their focus to the "super committee," recently released lobbying reports show.
A little more than 200 registrants listed either "Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction" — the official name of the powerful budget cutting panel — or "super committee" on lobbying disclosures filed with the Senate Office of Public Records. The filings were released on Thursday, Oct. 20. The third quarter reports also show some overlap between the organizations that listed both the debt ceiling and the super committee ...
Van Hollen’s alternate fundraising vehicle wakes up
After being dormant for all of 2011, Congressman Chris Van Hollen's joint fundraising committee woke up in the third quarter, with most of the over $180,000 in funds coming after he was tapped for Congress’s powerful deficit-cutting committee in early August.
As a result, Van Hollen, D-Md., one of the most prominent Democrats on Capitol Hill, raised much more in the quarter than was previously reported. His campaign raised a total of about $254,000 in the period, more than tripling his bounty from the previous quarter. And he collected about 50 percent more than he did ...
Continue readingGaddafi’s long history of lobbying comes to an end
Libyan Dictator Moammar Gaddafi was killed today in his hometown of Sirte, a showman to the end, “brandishing a golden pistol.” Lobbying, in many ways, was part of his political arsenal that boosted Gaddafi’s international prowess, helped protect him from additional sanctions and promoted the business interests of the Libyan ruling elite and U.S. business. We’ve covered several of these instances in the past. Here’s a look at a few:
Paul Blumenthal reported, on the Monitor Group, an international firm that contracted with the Libyan dictator, which should have filled under the Foreign Agent Registrant Act ...
Continue readingSuper committee member Van Hollen doubles campaign cash intake over last quarter
The campaign of super committee member Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., took in more than twice as much money in the third quarter of 2011 as it did in the second, newly released Federal Election Commission records show. Overall, two of the six House members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--popularly known as the "super committee"--reported increased fundraising totals in the third quarter.
Van Hollen and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the other lawmaker whose campaign committee saw an uptick in money coming in, collected $153,278 and $471,259 respectively for the third quarter. Hensarling, the super ...
Continue readingLongtime lobbying campaign pays off for South Korea with recent trade deal
Trade agreements stem from long-winded talks, some heavy handed diplomacy and, as it turns out, a substantial amount of lobbying. The newest trade deal between South Korea and the U.S. was a massive operation which cost the Koreans $39.9 million in lobbying and PR fees in 2010 alone.
The Department of Justice shows nineteen international contracts currently operating with South Korean entities. Four of those contracts are primarily for lobbying. Four deal with public relations. Three promote trade. Another three offer policy consultation. Other firms provide tourism promotions and distribute broadcast material. In 2009, the Korea lobby spent ...
Continue readingOnline poker lobby gives timely donations to pair of congressmen pushing its cause
Congressman Joe Barton, who is now lobbying the special deficit panel to legalize Internet poker, got some not so subtle nudges from the Poker Players Alliance when he introduced his own online poker bill in June.
On June 20, just days before Barton, R-Texas, brought his bill to the floor, the PPA’s PAC gave Barton’s campaign committee $2,500, according to the group’s Federal Election Commission report. Four days later, Barton, the second-ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, introduced the measure. The PPA applauded the bill.
On June 28, the PPA’s PAC sent another ...
Continue readingBig PACs contribute $83,000 to super committee members
The political action committees of Lockheed Martin, the National Association of Realtors, Pfizer and Chevron all reported making contributions to members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--better known as the super committee--in the roughly 20 days of August after House and Senate leadership appointed them to the panel.
PACs for 19 of the biggest political donors in the country, as determined by Center for Responsive Politics, have reported contributing more than $83,000 to 10 of the 12 members of the super committee or their leadership PACs, Federal Eelection Commission filings show. It's the first glimpse available ...
Continue readingKoch Industries had inside man at the EPA
Koch Industries, the closely held firm led by conservative and libertarian political donors Charles and David Koch, has a long... View Article
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