Category Archives: ethics investigations

Politico:

A company controlled by the Democratic donor in the middle of the Robert Menendez controversy this week revealed that it spent as much as $60,000 on previously undisclosed lobbying.

Salomon Melgen, a wealthy South Florida ophthalmologist and investor, has been fighting the federal government’s 2008 finding that his eye care company – Vitreo-Retinal Consultants – over-billed Medicare by $8.9 million. And he’s gotten help in that effort from his close friend Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey.

WaPo:

More and more foreign governments are sponsoring such excursions for lawmakers and their staffs, though an overhaul of ethics rules adopted by Congress five years ago banned them from going on most other types of free trips. This overseas travel is often arranged by lobbyists for foreign governments, though lobbyists were barred from organizing other types of congressional trips out of concern that the trips could be used to buy favor.

The overseas travel is covered by an exemption Congress granted itself for trips deemed to be cultural exchanges.

A Washington Post examination of congressional disclosures revealed the extent of this congressional travel for the first time, finding that Hill staffers had reported taking 803 such trips in the six years ending in 2011. Lawmakers themselves are increasingly participating, disclosing 21 trips in 2011, more than double the figure in prior years.

Roll Call:

The House Ethics Committee announced on Thursday that it has adopted new regulations for accepting privately financed congressional travel, including heightened disclosure requirements and earlier approval deadlines.

The changes were the result of a working group convened by the committee in the 111th and 112th Congresses and “provide a greater level of clarity into the requirements and conditions for receiving the committee’s approval to accept privately sponsored travel,” according to a joint statement from Ethics Chairman Jo Bonner, R-Ala., and ranking member Linda T. Sanchez, D-Calif.

As Roll Call has reported extensively in the past, numerous groups linked so closely to lobbying interests they are all but indistinguishable are increasingly funding congressional travel in order to promote their agendas. The activity comes less than five years after Congress placed heightened restrictions on lobbyist-funded travel in the wake of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Open Secrets and CBS News reports.

Meanwhile Sen. Bob Bennett is angry he had to wait two years after leaving office before being able to cash in as a lobbyist.

WaPo: “In 2007, in the wake of the biggest lobbying scandal in decades, Congress limited the ability of family members to lobby their relatives in the House or Senate. But it declined to ban the practice entirely. Since then, 56 relatives of lawmakers have been paid to influence Congress. More than 500 firms have spent more than $400 million on lobbying teams that include the relatives of members, according to a Washington Post analysis of disclosure forms.”

WaPo reports.