Posts Tagged ‘lobbyist’

December2

Money and Democracy Update: FEC acts in public interest, sort of; debate rages over whether Gingrich was lobbyist; Hightower at house parties

By: Angela Bradbery

Stunning Statistics of the Week:

  • $3 billion: What might be spent on television campaign ads in the 2012 election cycle
  • $2.1 billion: What was spent on television campaign ads in the last presidential election cycle

Hightower to be featured at Dec. 15 organizing parties
Jim Hightower, national radio commentator, writer, public speaker and author who “has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be – consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses and just-plain-folks” – will be a guest speaker at Dec. 15 house parties designed to organize actions nationwide on Jan. 21! It is not too late to sign up to host one. The January actions will be part of a push to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling.

Wow, this doesn’t happen every day: FEC rules against a new PAC, for public interest
Well, well. This doesn’t happen every day. The Federal Election Commission this week denied a U.S. senator’s request to create a Super PAC. That’s right – the agency that has been hopelessly deadlocked on all controversial campaign finance questions came together to tell U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) that elected officials with their own political action committees must abide by contribution limits.

But here comes the disappointment …
The Federal Election Commission deadlocked on an important question: How closely can Super PACs and candidates work together without breaking rules designed to limit coordination between campaigns and outside groups? The commission couldn’t muster a majority to rule that a Super PAC’s plan to air ads it admitted would be “fully coordinated” with a candidate would violate the rule against coordinated campaign expenditures.

Government getting an earful over proposed gift restriction
The Office of Government Ethics is getting an earful from business groups about an Obama administration proposal to prohibit lobbyists from giving gifts to federal employees, including paying for conferences and trade shows. “A slap in the face” and “anti-business” are some of the invectives being hurled by trade groups. Public Citizen? We like the idea! “It’s a move in the right direction,” Craig Holman of Public Citizen told USA Today.

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Posted in: Campaign Finance, Congress, Money & Democracy Update, Uncategorized0 comments

May5

GOP lawmakers nix automatic appointment of Elizabeth Warren to head consumer agency

By: Dorry Samuels

Elizabeth Warren speaks at Public Citizen at an event last fall

So, Republicans made it clear yesterday that they really don’t want Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she is helping to create and was her idea in the first place.

Along with other measures intended to weaken the not-yet-functioning agency, which was established thanks to the Dodd-Frank financial reform law passed last year, GOP lawmakers shot down a proposed amendment would have required Congress to name Warren the head of the bureau once she finishes the job of creating it and getting it running by July. Color us surprised.

“This debate is clearly about Elizabeth Warren, so let’s make it about her,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the top Democrat on the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee, who introduced the amendment.

That doesn’t mean we’re giving up. Public Citizen still continues to back the Harvard professor-turned Treasury Department special adviser because we know she’ll take Wall Street to task when it comes to protecting consumers. We’ve petitioned President Barack Obama to nominate her to the post, and have collected more than 26,000 signatures in support. (Add yours here.) While you’re at it, check out our other work on financial reform.

Additionally, Congress must not weaken this critical agency, which is the public’s defense against the abusive practices on Wall Street that crashed the economy.  Public Citizen continues to advocate for the people and take on those expensive, slick lobbyists that Wall Street sends to the halls of power.

Posted in: Activism, Congress, Financial Reform, Midmorning Refill0 comments

January28

Koch brothers hold conservative caucus, but can’t take a joke; Minn. senator can’t take a vote, and more

By: Angela Bradbery

Stunning Statistics of the Week:

  • $5.6 million: The amount House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) received in corporate-linked donations during the 2010 midterm campaign
  • 40 percent: The increase in corporate donations Cantor received between 2008 and 2010
  • $1.2 million: The amount Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the new head of the financial services committee, received from banking interests in the midterms. Bachus wants to undo financial reform.
  • $400,000: The amount Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), new chair of the energy and commerce committee, took from energy and mining industries
  • 50 percent: The increase in donations to Upton from energy and mining interests between 2008 and 2010

GOP leaders move to axe presidential public financing system
Saying that eliminating it is a no-brainer, the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives voted 239-160 this week to eliminate the public financing system for presidential campaigns. That’s the system put in place after Watergate to curb the influence of big corporations in elections. Because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a proponent of the system, there is little chance of the system being axed. Public Citizen and other groups roundly condemned the GOP’s effort.

Obama State of Union comments on lobbying disappoint all

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Posted in: Activism, Campaign Finance, Congress, Energy, Financial Reform, Health, Money & Democracy Update, Open Government0 comments

January5

The Midmorning Refill: Amid fancy galas, freshmen lawmakers do not send message of change in Washington

By: Dorry Samuels

Today’s Flickr photo:

Flickr photo by Anders Adermark

If you read one thing today…

Opening day for the 112th Congress. Newly elected lawmakers flood Capitol Hill with their sights set on changing Washington. For some, change comes in name only as a group of Republican congressmen, dubbed America’s New Majority, held a luxurious, “over the top” fundraiser last night at Washington’s W Hotel.

The guest list included lobbyists, wealthy donors and political action committees, but left out members of the media. The gala featured a private concert by country music star Leann Rimes. Tickets for the event went for $2,500 a head — or a group of eight tickets and a VIP suite rung up at $50,000, the Sunlight Foundation revealed.

ABC News’ Matthew Mosk reports that House Speaker John Boehner, though invited, was not in attendance. But how did California Rep. Jeff Denham justify the event?

“We run in tough elections. We have to raise money for tough elections,” a smiling Denham said.

Change (verb): To make different in some particular; alter.

Hmmm, sounds like politics as usual to us.

What do you have to say about the event and what it indicates for the new Congress?

Posted in: Congress, Ethics, Midmorning Refill0 comments

December1

The Midmorning Refill: From DeLay’s money laundering to rumored Bank of America leaks, what are they hiding?

By: Dorry Samuels

Today’s Flickr Photo:

Flickr photo by Sifu Renka

If you read one thing today . . .

The wining and dining that lobbyists imparted on lawmakers hardly surprise Washington insiders. But when a glimpse of the influence infiltrated outside the Beltway during the trial of former House majority leader Tom DeLay, Texas jurors didn’t like what they saw. They learned of DeLay’s flights on corporate jets, meetings at resorts and a flood of corporate cash fluffing his campaign coffers. In the end, they convicted him on felony charges of conspiracy and money-laundering. What does this mean on a larger scale?

“We tried to present the context,” Rosemary Lehmberg, the Travis, Texas, district attorney who oversaw the prosecution, told The Washington Post. This included DeLay’s role in founding the PAC and its solicitations of corporations, as well as the political rewards that he reaped. She said, however, that while it’s true “citizens are tired of the large amounts of money and particularly corporate money that are being put into the political arena,” the jury’s judgment was based on evidence that such funds were sent to Washington and then brought back to Texas in a deliberate effort to evade the state’s absolute prohibition on their use in elections.

Overheard:

Wikileaks again topped headlines this week when the group released a host of cables revealing insights into American diplomacy. What’s on tap next for the controversial nonprofit media organization? Rumor has it, Bank of America is on deck to be Wikileaks’ next target. Although BofA refutes the whispers, that didn’t stop its shares from tumbling 3 percent yesterday. As financial blogger Barry Ritholtz put it,

Here is the sad reality: Can you really embarrass any of these banks? They were incompetently run, with criminally inept risk management. They blew themselves up, and exist today only due to the largesse of the taxpayer. They gratefully took all they could grab and more.

What else can you release to embarrass them?

Posted in: Midmorning Refill0 comments

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