This morning the Sunlight Foundation will be covering President Obama’s address to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce using Sunlight Live, our award-winning, real-time, investigative reporting platform.
Virginia Thomas’ paperless, pixel-less trail
We'd love to look closer at Liberty Consulting, the new firm started by Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that Politico reported on today. But as of now (as Politico notes), the consultancy has not registered as a lobbying firm or disclosed any clients, though the firm says it "gives voice to principled citizens and the tea party movement in the halls of Congress through governmental affairs efforts," and whose founder claims, according to Politico, that she "has met with nearly half of the 99 GOP freshmen in the House and Senate." Whether those meetings were ...
Continue readingFed says mortgage disclosure rules up to new consumer agency
Improving mortgage disclosures for consumers will have to wait until July when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) comes into business, the Federal Reserve Board announced yesterday.
In the face of criticism that homeowners didn't always understand the terms of mortgages they took out during the housing boom, last fall the Fed proposed enhancing disclosures to consumers under the Truth in Lending Act. The new rules would have changed disclosures for reverse mortgages, as well as restricted certain advertising and sales practices for them, as well as proposing new disclosure rules for loan modifications. The agency received more than ...
Continue readingNew lobbying tracker makes it easier to follow the revolving door
In 13 days, Kyle Simmons, former chief of staff to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and currently a member of the FIRST Group--a Washington consulting firm he launched with three other former congressional aides--will be eligible to lobby his old colleagues.
In 11 days, Robert McCreary, former chief of staff to Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., and currently a registered lobbyist for NEK Advanced Security Group, will legally be able to lobby his former colleagues on behalf of his new employer.
In 10 days, Andy Weis, a former general counsel of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ...
Financial interests hiring lobbyists
Even as the new House GOP majority is taking aim at the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act by pulling at the agencies’ purse strings, financial interests continue to jockey for favor, hiring key lobbying firms.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been 35 new registrations for entities expecting to lobby on financial institutions/investments/securities—more than one per day. This is in addition to the clients who have ongoing contracts with lobbying firms--last year alone the financial sector reported spending a whopping $359 million on lobbying.
Among the firms grabbing new contracts is the ...
Continue readingEgypt’s Washington lobby helped country’s military and U.S. defense firms
At the Atlantic, Chris Good identifies some of the U.S. lobbyists who have registered to work for the Egyptian government. Filings required by the Foreign Agent Registration Act, and digitized and made searchable by Sunlight's joint project with ProPublica, the Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker, show that among foreign governments, Egypt has been one of the most prolific spenders. FARA filings show that the U.S.-Egyptian bilateral relation benefits American military contractors. The United States ships aid dollars to the Egyptian government, which in turn buys pricey items from American contractors, with deals often arranged with the help ...
Continue readingSen. Scott Brown’s campaign requests FEC approval to buy his book
Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachussetts wants to thank his campaign donors with a signed copy of his yet to be released autobiography. And in order to do so, he's asked the Federal Election Commission to allow him to buy several thousand of copies of his own book using his campaign committee's funds.
But Brown says he doesn't plan to profit from this. According to the advisory opinion request he'll either not receive royalties from this purchase or he will donate all the proceeds he receives from this purchase to charity.
Brown also plans to mix ...
Continue readingWall Street Journal sues for access to Medicare records
The Wall Street Journal announced today that it's suing for access to data on payments that doctors receive from Medicare, which has been exempt from public disclosure thanks to a 1979 court case won by the American Medical Association. The Journal argues that absent data on the payments, it's impossible for journalists or members of the public to tell which doctors are billing the system improperly. "It's time to overturn an injunction that, for decades, has allowed some doctors to defraud Medicare free from public scrutiny," Mark Jackson, the counsel for Dow Jones, the Journal's immediate ...
Continue readingFollow the State of the Union with Sunlight Live
When President Barack Obama makes his second State of the Union address tonight at 9 p.m. ET, tune into sunlightlive.com to watch the speech with real-time reporting and context. Using our award-winning Sunlight Live platform, we'll be live blogging the president's speech and the responses by Reps. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn.
In addition to Sunlight reporters, our live blog will feature reporters from CQ Roll Call, the National Journal, the Center for Public Integrity and the Huffington Post.
Alongside the live video stream and blog, Sunlight Live features what we like to call ...
Continue readingLast Super PAC of 2010 started by wife of congressional challenger
We missed it between Christmas and New Years, but Heartland Revolution registered as an independent expenditure only committee with the Federal Election Commission. Such committees, also known as Super PACs, can take contributions in any amount from any source, and spend that money influencing federal elections.
Heartland Revolution shares a Post Office box with John Waltz for Congress, the eponymous campaign committee for the Democratic challenger to Rep. Geoffrey Davis, R-Ky. In filings with the FEC, the committee discloses just one official--Janie Waltz, which is the name of Waltz's wife.
Super PACs are bared from coordinating with federal candidates.
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