As stated in the note from the Sunlight Foundation′s Board Chair, as of September 2020 the Sunlight Foundation is no longer active. This site is maintained as a static archive only.

Follow Us

Tag Archive: PMA Group

Muckety maps PMA Group giving

by

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 reading

Murtha’s pass through earmarks

by

Earmark disclosure isn't going to do any good if members can designate a middle man to take funds, then distribute them to private companies. But that's exactly what the Washington Post says Rep. John Murtha has been doing, and they've got documents to back them up:

A Pennsylvania defense research center regularly consulted with two "handlers" close to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) as it collected nearly $250 million in federal funding through the lawmaker, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and sources familiar with the funding requests. The center then channeled a significant portion ...

Continue reading

CRP: PMA Group, clients donated to 516 members of Congress

by

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

House kills PMA probe

by

Shocking:

The House on Thursday night turned back another call to investigate the PMA Group, a once-powerful lobbying firm whose offices were recently raided by the FBI and which has close ties to Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha (D).

Twenty-one Democrats, including nine freshmen, voted to proceed with debate on the measure offered by Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake (R) calling for an investigation of the lobbying firm. Most of the Democrats represent fiscally conservative districts.

Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska--the focus of an unrelated federal corruption probe--voted with the Democrats to table Flake's motion. He was joined by ...

Continue reading

Visclosky endorses some form of action on PMA Group

by

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 ...

Continue reading

Senate approves earmarks for PMA Group clients

by

Sen. Tom Coburn would like to do away with all earmarks; this evening the Senate voted on an amendment he proposed that would eliminate, from the Omnibus Appropriations bill, earmarks for 14 clients of the soon-to-be-defunct lobbying shop, the PMA Group. The purpose of the amendment read as follows:

To prohibit taxpayer dollars from being earmarked to 14 clients of a lobbying firm under Federal investigation for making campaign donations in exchange for political favors for the group's clients.

Like previous measures aimed at PMA Group, this one failed, 52-43. In essence, the House is on record as finding ...

Continue reading

PMA Investigation: Looking for More than Straw Men?

by

Congressional Quarterly looks in breadth and depth at the influence of the PMA Group, whose offices were raided by the FBI. (The story is co-written by my old colleague Alex Knott, who started delving into PMA back in 2004.) As good a story as it is ... here's an excerpt clipped from InstaPundit ...

More than 100 House members secured earmarks in a major spending bill for clients of a single lobbying firm " The PMA Group " known for its close ties to John P. Murtha , the congressman in charge of Pentagon appropriations.

It shows you how good they were, said Keith ...

Continue reading

CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) Today 59063

Charity Navigator