Rep. Pete Visclosky was one of the top recipients of contributions from PMA Group. He endorsed some form of investigation of the lobbying firm that was raided by the FBI -- "What form that action takes, who offers it, how it will turn out, I don't know," he said last month. In his fiscal year 2010 earmark requests, just posted online, he requested no earmarks for former clients of PMA Group.
I noticed that he requested an earmark for Duneland School Corporation of Chesterton, Ind. for $500,000 that will "include the installation of solar panels to demonstrate photovoltaic technology ...
Continue readingMoran requests nine defense earmarks for former PMA Group clients
Rep. James Moran released his list of appropriations requests today. A quick review shows he's asking for nine earmarks for former clients of PMA Group, worth a total of $17.5 million.
Here's the list of 2008 PMA Group clients from Open Secrets, and below are links to earmarks requests and dollar amounts.
General Dynamics $2,000,000; DDL Omni Engineering LLC $3,000,000; ITT Corp $2,000,000; Dynamis $2,000,000; Mobilvox $2,000,000; Rockwell Collins $1,000,000; Argon ST $3,000,000; Artis $1,000,000; Planning Systems Inc. $1,500,000;
Continue readingEarmark requests due online today
I was just forwarded a press release from the office of Rep. Jeff Flake, reminding us that members have to post their earmark requests online today:
Washington, D.C. " Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona's Sixth District, today highlighted the House of Representatives' earmark request deadline for fiscal year 2010. Today is the deadline.In February, the House Appropriations Committee issued a new rule concerning FY10 earmark requests: To offer more opportunity for public scrutiny of Member requests, Members must post information on the requests they have submitted to the Appropriations Committee on their official House website at ...
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Top secret Appropriations earmark database crashes
So reports Politico's Anne Schroeder Mullins.
Question: Why isn't this data public:
Earmarks. If you don't think the Appropriations Committees have a database of earmarks, you're naive. Of course they do - it's valuable information. Now, about sharing it in anything but an image PDF format well, let's just say that Keith Ashdown and the folks at Continue reading
Prairie Parkway dead?
So says Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet:
In 2005, former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) stuffed a $207 million earmark in a federal highway bill to help pay for the road, estimated to cost $1 billion to build. The 37-mile highway would roll through Kane and Kendall Counties, linking I-80 and I-88, the Reagan Memorial Tollway.Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.), who replaced Hastert, said Wednesday there is "a near consensus in the area," that "the first priority for money being spent on roads is probably not in that (Prairie Parkway) corridor but rather beefing up the existing north south ...
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K Street Boom: At least 1,699 new clients in 2009
Lobbying firms and special interests have filed nearly 1,700 new registration forms so far in the first quarter of 2009, according to a review of lobbying disclosure forms available online at the Senate Office of Public Records. As the federal government pumps up spending and intervenes in the troubled financial markets, K Street firms appear to have had no shortage of new business.
Our first pass at a database of the registrations shows that some of the financial firms that have received funding under the Troubled Asset Relief Program including Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs and Fifth ...
Continue readingBloomberg: Dodd faces campaign cash shortage
Kristin Jensen and Jonathan D. Salant report that Sen. Christopher Dodd is facing a cash crunch as he gears up for his reelection bid:
The Democrat has less than half the campaign cash he had at a comparable point in his last re-election bid, when he faced far fewer hurdles. Last year, he emptied an account built up largely through financial-company employees' donations to pay for a presidential run; now, he has to replenish his coffers even as the firms his panel regulates struggle with losses and back away from their one-time champion turned critic....Dodd began the year with ...
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Timely disclosure fail
I'll be posting some info on where we are with new lobbying clients in the first quarter of 2009, but in the meantime (and with apologies to the sometimes work unsafe Fail Blog), thought I'd post one of the search results I came across while going through the Senate Office of Public Records lobbying database (click the image to see it larger):
According to the disclosure form, the effective date of registration was Jan. 1, 2002. It showed up on the Senate site on March 29, 2009, a mere 87 months late. I'm not sure whether this ...
Continue readingNPR: Charges against Stevens dropped
Sen. Ted Stevens testified that he and his wife had "lots of things in our house that don't belong to us" in his trial on charges that he'd failed to report tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts from an Alaskan company that sought his favor; he was found guilty, but charged prosecutorial misconduct (claims that seemed to have merit). Now NPR reports that the Justice Department it will drop all charges against Stevens:
Holder's decision is said to be based on Stevens' age " he's 85 " and because Stevens is no longer in the Senate ...Continue reading
A trillion here, a trillion there…
"History teaches us that an outlay of so much money in such a short period of time will inevitably attract those seeking to profit criminally," the Hill quotes Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, saying.
It will also attract lobbyists, the members of Congress they enlist in their causes, special interests and others seeking to profit legally from the funds.
Via Instapundit.
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