Monday, January 5, 2009 4:19 PM

Stimulus Lobbying Frenzy

Here's a round-up of interesting lobbying stories while we were away.

• With $700 billion or more in potential government spending and tax cuts, the economic stimulus package is causing a lobbying frenzy in Washington, and a number of lobbyists told National Journal they ended up working during the holiday because congressional staffers were working on the stimulus package. U.S. News and World Report took a look at what groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and the National Governors Association, among others, are lobbying on.
• Former Rep. Ronnie Shows, D-Miss. is working hard to convince retiring Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss., to join him in creating a bipartisan K Street team, according to the Clarion-Ledger. Shows currently lobbies on behalf of Blackwater Worldwide and NRG Energy.
• USA Today looks at the large salary levels some lobbyists can earn after working on Capitol Hill. The paper found that 32 of the 193 top staffers who left government this past year registered as lobbyists and another 42 went to work for consulting firms, law offices, interest groups and trade associations,
• Good government groups, like Democracy 21 and the Project on Government Oversight, plan to push Congress for more transparency and tighter rules on the revolving door. USA Today has a story on what reforms ethics groups will push for in 2009.
• Burson-Marsteller, the public affairs firm run by former Sen. Hillary Clinton strategist Mark Penn, dropped the Pakistan People's Party, the ruling party in Pakistan, as a client, Politico reported. Pakistan seems to have a hard time keeping its lobbying firms. In November 2007, lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates dropped the embassy of Pakistan as a client.
• The list of inauguration events grows longer. I am receiving a stream of e-mail invitations, one of the latest of which is to the "Dream Makers" ball at Bobby Van's Grill to honor Rev. Martin Luther King on the evening of Jan. 19. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Rev. Al Sharpton are to be the honored guests. Proceeds will benefit the John Lewis Scholarship Fund, the National Action Network and Rainbow Push Coalition.That same evening, the National Foundation of Women Legislators is hosting a "Hollywood on the Potomac" party at D.C.'s City Tavern Club. Entertainment Industries Caucus chair Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif. is the "special guest of honor."

                                                                                                                     --Bara Vaida