The Nation reports. … Continue reading
Category Archives: lobbying
Political MoneyLine reports. … Continue reading
Ezra Klein: “Under Obama, today’s Democratic Party is not the party of campaign-finance reform in any serious way. They favor it abstractly, but with the exception of relatively modest laws meant to roll back the effects of Citizens United and its related … Continue reading
WaPo: President Obama’s once-broad ambitions to clamp down on the influence of special interests have been largely abandoned since his reelection, dismaying longtime allies in the campaign-finance reform movement…. Reformers of both parties describe the president’s campaign finance record in … Continue reading
Timothy LaPira and Herschel F. Thomas III have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s choice not to register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) for his “historical advice” to Freddie Mac was a … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
Free Beacon reports (via Eric Brown). … Continue reading
NYT: “As one of the country’s largest and oldest conservative advocacy groups, the American Conservative Union has long fought to rein in federal spending and limit the size of government. But behind the scenes, the group has formed a partnership … Continue reading
Must-read NYT: To make their case as Congress prepares to debate a rewrite of the nation’s tax code, this diverse set of businesses has at least one strategy in common: they have retained firms that employ lobbyists who are former … Continue reading
New position paper from the American League of Lobbyists which punts on the issue of campaign finance regulation. … Continue reading
Roll Call reports. … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: “A federal appeals court has reiterated a previous ruling that two conservative groups had no legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of Washington state’s grass-roots lobbying law, but the appeals court also vacated a lower court decision that … Continue reading
New GAO report. … Continue reading
Fascinating exchange from yesterday’s DOMA argument, relevant to the question whether gays and lesbians are discrete and insular minorities who may be entitled to have laws passed which discriminate against them subject to a heightened standard of review: CHIEF JUSTICE … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
USA Today reports. … Continue reading
Interesting post at WonkBlog by Dan Hopkins. … Continue reading
BuzzFeed: The European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, an obscure nonprofit based in Belgium, was founded by a former top official in Ukraine’s governing party and appears to be a proxy for the country’s pro-Russian government. In 2012, the group … Continue reading
Politico reports. … Continue reading
Roll Call: Nearly half of the lobbyists who were registered with Congress in 2011 and then went “inactive” in 2012 remained with the same employer, and many continued to influence public policy, according to a study released Wednesday. The finding … Continue reading
Roll Call: “K Street shops, many in revenue decline for the past couple of years, can no longer afford the luxury of a high-priced former member. Senators usually don’t entertain offers worth less than $1 million, and House members’ threshold … Continue reading
Mother Jones report, with the subhead: “How did the chair of the House ethics committee end up on a corporate-backed African safari? Meet the shadowy nonprofit that throws some of DC’s finest junkets.” … Continue reading
See here. … Continue reading
NYT: “On a Monday evening in early February, two months into a national debate over gun violence after the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school, representatives of the firearms industry were wining and dining lawmakers in Washington.” … Continue reading
The Baldy Center at SUNY Buffalo is sponsoring a conference this Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9, 2013 on the interaction between lobbying and campaign finance. Michael Halberstam of SUNY Buffalo Law School is the lead organizer of the … Continue reading
Free speech or an inappropriate threat from a lobbyist? This is one to watch (via Steve Klein). … Continue reading
The Hill reports. … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Byron Tau for Politico: A congressman gets an earful from his neighbor after church about a tax bill. A senator suddenly finds old high school classmates calling her about an upcoming vote on a small business bill. Those meetings may … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Major case on the meaning of Skilling. … Continue reading
Roll Call: “The tepid recovery and a dysfunctional Congress do bear blame [for the K Street business downturn], but a third, much overlooked factor exists: A lot of the work influencing government takes place in the shadows, outside of the … Continue reading
CPI reports. See also RGA, DGA reap riches from corporate donors. … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA says Ring may try to take the case o the DC Circuit en banc or the Supreme Court. … Continue reading
Open Secrets reports. … Continue reading
Interesting column: The problem is not, as the president implied, the opposition of an implacable few to the manifest general interest. Rather, it is that Washington is besieged by mutually offsetting lobbies representing almost every conceivable segment of society. Some … Continue reading
Front page NYT report. … Continue reading
Over a year ago, I wrote a CNN opinion piece which concluded: “But I am concerned that Super PAC spending will influence the outcome of close Senate and congressional races. And I am greatly concerned that when Election Day is … Continue reading
With all the focus on today’s DC Circuit recess appointment decision, it is easy to miss its other decision today in the Abramoff-related U.S. v Kevin Ring case. As BLT reports, it raises interesting questions about campaign contributions a bribes, … Continue reading
Richard Painter blogs. … Continue reading
Ben Nelson earns $1 million (plus!) payday. … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
Politico: “K Street is living through lean times. The majority of big D.C. lobby shops have seen their revenues flat-line or decline during the last year of President Barack Obama’s first term — buffeted by a lingering global financial crisis, … Continue reading
Must read NYT on a big favor to AmGen buried in Congress’s “fiscal cliff” bill. … Continue reading
Controversial post by Richard Painter. … Continue reading
The Hill: “Freedom Watch, founded by attorney Larry Klayman, argues that the task force held illegal meetings with lobbyists and did not give proper public notice. The group filed a lawsuit in a Florida federal court, seeking to shut down … Continue reading
and finds some interesting connections. … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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. … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading