UPDATE (March 31 4:17 pm) In response to the letter, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said:
"The
goal is full transparency. That's entirely consistent with the First
Amendment. Lobbyists can communicate about specific projects in writing and
about policy issues orally. That fully respects freedom of speech - while at
the same time ending closed-door lobbyist dealmaking in favor of sunlight. We
welcome everyone's comments and will consider them."
President Obama's March 20 directive limiting lobbyists' communication with executive branch officials "won't get rid of undue influence" and will result in less disclosure and transparancy, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in a Tuesday press briefing.
Sloan has joined with Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union and Dave Wenhold, president of the American League of Lobbyists, in writing a letter requesting the administration rescind a portion of the directive aimed at reducing lobbyists' influence on how the $787 billion stimulus package is spent.
"CREW whole-heartedly supports Obama's goals, but demonizing lobbyists isn't the solution," said Sloan, whose group has been one of the loudest voices against the influence of "special interests" in Washington.
Here's the letter that the American Civil Liberties Union, the American League of Lobbyists and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent to White House Counsel Greg Craig, challenging the administration's memo limiting lobbyists' communication with executive branch officials on the stimulus package.
• "Republicans are still trying to kill it," Roll Call(subscription) reports. "Democrats are still hoping to revive it. And forces on both sides of the debate over controversial union organizing legislation are still pressing ahead with multimillion dollar lobbying campaigns."
• "When Democrats acted last month to give the District of Columbia long-denied voting rights in Congress, the powerful gun lobby saw a target too good not to take a shot at," AP reports. "The result showed the strong sway the NRA has even over a Congress dominated by liberal Democrats who mostly disagree with the organization's positions. The Senate voted overwhelmingly to add the gun-rights proposal. House Democratic leaders, fearing a tough vote on the issue, swiftly scrapped plans to consider the D.C. voting legislation."
• "After two years of campaign rhetoric and months of hearings, Congress is set this week to begin testing whether it can turn the push for renewable energy sought by President Obama into reality," the Washington Times reports. "But the result is likely to fall short of Mr. Obama's goals and, ironically, preserve the primacy of the most abundant and dirtiest fossil fuel: coal."
Large numbers of people are expected to descend upon Capitol Hill this week to push for billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens' energy plan. But don't worry about overcrowding on the Metro.
Supporters will stage a "virtual march" Wednesday through Friday, contacting lawmakers by phone, fax and e-mail in support of legislation that coincides with Pickens' plan to less U.S. dependency on foreign oil. Pickens claimed about 1.5 million members of his "New Energy Army" this week, plus more affiliated with the two-dozen-plus organizations and companies that have endorsed the march and encouraged their employeers and members to participate.
Not surprisingly, many of those groups have an explicit stake in energy, such as American Electric Power, insulation company Owens Corning, the American Wind Energy Association and the National Propane Gas Association. Others have more oblique connections, such as the National Conference of Black Mayors and the American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance.
Pickens launched his plan, which focuses on natural gas, solar and wind energy, last July. The founder and chairman of BP Capital Management has invested $60 million of his own money, and major energy companies, notably AEP and Owens Corning, have pledged support as well. Spokespeople for both companies would not disclose the amount they've contributed.
The march is planned to coincide with the crucial early days of Obama's presidency, said Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Pickens. "The most critical period is the first 100 days of the new administration," he said. "If things don't get done in the first 100 days, they just don't get done or are exponentially harder to achieve."
The oilman himself will also be on Capitol Hill lobbying his plan. Rosser said Pickens will be making media appearances, testifying at congressional hearings and meeting with lawmakers one-on-one.
The Merchants Payment Coalition targeted eight members of the House Financial Services Committee in an effort to persuade them to endorse an effort to curb the fees that banks charge merchants for using a credit or debit card, CongressDailyPM reported. (Subscription)
The coalition is running a six-figure ad campaign using television, radio and newspapers. Merchants have been in a long running lobbying dispute over the fees that they pay for using Visa and MasterCard networks to process credit card and debit card transactions.
Two more groups, the American Society for Association Executives and the Center for Competitive Politics, have penned letters to President Obama in opposition of the administration's memo on lobbyist communication with the executive branch regarding the stimulus package.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and the American League of Lobbyists will challenge President Obama on his new policy severely limiting lobbyists' communication with all executive branch departments and agencies.
The three groups are drafting a letter that is to be delivered to the White House on Tuesday raising First Amendment questions about Obama's March 20 memo directing the entire executive branch not to talk with lobbyists about specific projects in the economic stimulus package. A lobbyist may send a letter explaining their client's viewpoint on a specific project, but they may not have a conversation about it with administration officials. They can, however, discuss "general policy" related to the stimulus with administration staff.
Lobbyists have a good chance if they do legally challenge the memo, says Ken Gross, who leads the politics practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
"If a lobbyist is excluded from a meeting as a result of a presidential directive or agency policy or ruling, the lobbyist would likely have a cause of action under the First Amendment and possibly equal protection," Gross says. "The chances of succeeding of winning such a challenge are reasonably good."
A White House spokesman wasn't available for comment. What is interesting about these three groups working together is that CREW was co-founded by Norm Eisen, Obama's ethics advisor. We'll have more on this story as it unfolds online and in this week's magazine.
News of the three groups working together on the letter was first reported by the Associated Press.
• "Main Street's gloom has been K Street's boon," the Washington Post reports. "The $787 billion stimulus package -- along with an ambitious new federal budget, bank bailouts and the beginning of a regulatory overhaul -- has succeeded in stimulating the economy along Washington's avenue of influence."
• "The National Republican Congressional Committee -- the entity charged with pushing the House GOP back into the majority -- is reaching out to former Capitol Hill staffers and veteran campaign consultants to craft its 2010 political strategy and rally the Republican troops on K Street," Roll Call(subscription) reports.
• "For most of the last three decades, the lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti might have been mistaken for an owner of the Alpine, a wood-paneled Italian restaurant across the Potomac River from Washington where he routinely presided over boisterous tables of lawmakers and their staff members," the New York Times reports. "Now, however, Mr. Magliocchetti's generosity is coming to an abrupt halt: his firm, the PMA Group, is closing its doors next week, after reports that federal prosecutors had recently raided his office and his home."
Devoid of stock options, corporate perks, and bonuses, association leaders' compensation is in stark contrast to the paychecks of Wall Street and private-sector executives, writesCEO Update'sTavia Evans Gilchrist for National Journal. According to CEO Update's 2009 executive compensation survey, most heads of trade associations and professional groups take home paychecks well below the $1 million mark.
In the Capitol, anger over the American International Group bonuses
whipped past all legislative speed limits in the House and then braked
hard for Senate pedestrians this week, writesAlexis Simendinger. Even in the chamber where
inaction is considered an institutional virtue, the suddenness with
which AIG-targeted legislation roared in and then halted was
neck-wrenching. George Washington would have been proud.
Lauryl Dodson Jackson is now working as director of
federal government affairs in the Washington office of Johnson &
Johnson, reports Gregg Sangillo. Jackson is a new mom, and she says that her employer's
family-friendly policies were a definite selling point.
"President Obama says lobbyists pushing for projects in the stimulus package can't utter a word about them to administration officials," the AP reports. "Lobbyists are hardly staying mum about this latest affront and are looking for ways to cope with the extraordinary speaking ban."
Democrats have seen a dropoff in campaign contributions from the frenetic small-dollar online donors who fueled President Obama's campaign, while Republicans have seen a dramatic decline in activity from the kind of big-ticket donors who were loyal contributors to the Bush White House and its pro-business agenda, the Washington Postreports. Combined donations from individuals to the six major party campaign committees have fallen by more than 26 percent from a similar period two years ago, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Lawmakers are still taking cash from bailout recipients. A Newsweek review of recent filings with the Federal Election
Commission found that the political action committees of five big Troubled Asset Relief Program
recipients doled out $85,300 to members in the first two months of this
year--with most of the cash going to those who serves on committees who
oversee the TARP program.
"Outlining a far-reaching proposal on Thursday to rebuild the nation's broken system of financial regulation, the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, fired the opening salvo in what is likely to be a marathon battle," the New York Timesreports. "On the surface, both the lawmakers... and the financial industry's lobbying groups made it sound as if they completely agreed with Mr. Geithner's call.... But in fact industry groups are already mobilizing to block restrictions they oppose and win new protections they have wanted for years.
"A wide-ranging coalition of special interest groups that have met in secret for months to reach a consensus on overhauling the nation's healthcare system have come to agreement on broad principles while avoiding some of the dicey questions Congress will grapple with," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports. "The Healthcare Reform Dialogue, as the group of 18 stakeholders calls itself, identified five specific areas for change, according to a source who shared an overview of the group's agreement, which is set for official release Monday."
Microsoft has hired David Pryor Jr. as director of government affairs, where he will lobby the Senate.
The company's newest lobbyist has family ties to the Senate. His father, is former Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark. and his younger brother is Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark. who was elected in 2002.
Previously, Pryor was senior federal affairs representative for FedEx, where he worked on transportation and aviation issues. Pryor says Microsoft and FedEx share policy interests such as free trade and innovation in the workplace.
Before FedEx, Pryor was deputy chief of protocol at the State Department between 1997 and 2000. Pryor has also served as principal of Pryor and Associates, a boutique consulting firm, and as a senior account executive with Hill & Knowlton Public Affairs. He earned his undergraduate degree in speech communications from George Washington University.
Pryor says he has never lobbied his father or brother, nor will he in the future.
In an update to Peter Stone's story from this past Tuesday, the Mortgage Bankers Association has officially laid off 20 of their staff. The group also will require remaining employees to take one week of unpaid vacation and will suspend matching contributions for employees' 401K plans.
• "Organized labor and trade groups are promising that it will be business as usual after Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-Pa.) surprise announcement this week that he will not cast the deciding vote to cut off debate on controversial 'card check" legislation,'" Roll Call(subscription) reports.
• "A new business trade group, Business Forward, run by Democrats close to President Obama may offer K Street an avenue into a White House extremely wary of lobbyists," The Hill reports. "Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to and close friend of Obama; Michael Strautmanis, Jarrett's chief of staff; and Tina Tchen, the White House public liaison director, met with more than 40 executives and lobbyists from several Fortune 500 companies at a reception last Friday at the Hay-Adams Hotel."
• "Two months have passed since the Treasury Department said it would unveil lobbying rules for firms receiving federal bailout money, yet the department has not issued actual regulations," The Hill reports. "Washington lobbyists and campaign finance watchdogs say they continue to ask the department for clarification but haven't heard anything specific."
• "As President Obama pitched his budget plans to Senate Democrats Wednesday, progressive groups, including a Democratic National Committee affiliate linked to the president, stepped up pressure on moderate Democrats to back the plan," CongressDailyAM(subscription) reports. "Organizing for America, a DNC project that aims to drum up grassroots support for Obama's policies by tapping the campaign's extensive grassroots network, sent e-mails to supporters around the country asking them to contact lawmakers and ask where they stand on Obama's plan."
• "After months of meetings, a diverse collection of health care groups plans to issue recommendations on Monday for Congress as lawmakers work on legislation revamping the U.S. health care system," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The proposal is consistent with plans outlined by" Obama "and key congressional Democrats, said three people familiar with the report, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report isn't yet public."
Many lobbyists have grumbled to me about the number of fundraising solicitations they get from lawmakers, and a few of them are putting their money where their mouth is.
Congressmen-turned-lobbyists Butler Derrick, D-S.C., Toby Moffett, D-Conn., and Marty Russo, D-Ill., along with Cassidy & Associates founder Gerry Cassidy and Ed Gabriel, president of the Gabriel Co., are joining with campaign reform advocates like Common Cause and Public Citizen to support public financing of campaigns. The aim is to reduce the amount of money that lawmakers rely on from "special interest" donors.
Lawmakers are "only dealing with the edges when they say a lobbyist can't pay for a dinner, or can't give gifts," said Russo, who is now CEO and vice chairman of Cassidy & Associates. "That is all a distraction from the big issue, which is money. Money is the problem."
The five are supporting the Fair Elections Now Act, which is scheduled to be introduced in the next week. The measure, co-sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and in the House by Reps. John Larson, D-Conn., and Walter Jones, R-N.C., would combine private funding from small donors with public matching grants up to a fixed amount as a way to boost the power of small donors in congressional races and reduce lawmakers' reliance on campaign bundlers, political action committees and lobbyists.
The word on K Street is that former Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Christopher Padilla will soon be heading up IBM's government affairs office in Washington. Padilla spent three years at the U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush.
Padilla has previously lobbied for AT&T. He has also served as vice president for international affairs at Lucent Technologies and director of international trade at Eastman Kodak.
Padilla is expected to replace Christopher Caine, who we previously reported would be stepping down to start his own company, Mercator XXI. Caine spent 25 years working for IBM.
IBM spokesman Chris Andrews said the company does not comment on rumor or speculation about executive hiring decisions. Andrews said no announcement has been made regarding the company's government relations executive position in Washington.
Buzz around town is building as Business Forward readies its launch with the goal of promoting President Obama's economic competitiveness agenda.
The organization is trying to woo big high-tech firms like Cisco Systems, Google, IBM, and Microsoft to join as members, a source involved in the effort said Tuesday. "There are very few platforms for the administration and Congress to engage the business community," he said. So far, founding member companies of the group include AT&T, Pfizer and Time Warner, a source said.
Rather than lobbying, Business Forward's initial aim will be hosting events around the country to focus on maximizing funds in the $787 billion economic stimulus package. It will be led by political operative Jim Doyle; former Viacom lobbyist David Sutphen, whose sister is Obama's deputy chief of staff; former Obama media consultant Erik Smith; former Obama campaign staffer Julie Andreeff Jensen; and Hilary Rosen, former head of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Business Forward's founding members will pay up to $75,000 per year for a membership, while smaller firms will pay $1,500 in annual dues. One organizer rejected the notion that the group is the Democrats' answer to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business. It won't compete with progressive think tanks like the Center for American Progress or MoveOn.org, the organizer said.
"You know what you get with all the existing organizations around town," the organizer said. "They all have a role to play. This isn't an 'either-or' endeavor. It's an 'and.' "
• "Representatives from the insurance industry drew a line in the sand Tuesday on the Obama administration's proposed healthcare plan, after months of meetings and saying all the right things about finding common ground on reform," The Hill reports. "The two trade associations that represent health insurance companies declared in no uncertain terms their opposition to creating a new, government-run health benefits program, in a letter delivered to the top Democratic and Republican senators on the Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committees Tuesday."
• "Consumer groups want the Commerce Department to put open-access conditions on the $7 billion in economic stimulus funds for building new broadband networks," Federal Computer Week reports. "The consumer groups want the department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to require that any broadband networks funded by the stimulus law be open to all traffic. However, carriers say such provisions are counterproductive and hurt the goal of building networks quickly."
• "Union and business group officials on Tuesday warned a House panel against approving a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gases that could further undermine the international competitiveness of the recession-damaged manufacturing sector in the U.S.," CongressDailyAM(subscription) reports.
• "Beer, wine and distilled spirits wholesalers are planning a counteroffensive to a White House budget proposal they claim may retroactively tax their businesses $100 billion or more," Roll Call(subscription) reports. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America "and other foes of the administration's budget are dusting off the LIFO Coalition to help beat back "Obama's "proposed repeal of 'last in, first out' accounting."
• "Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act is a major blow to unions but a gift for President Barack Obama and centrist Democrats, who get a reprieve from having to take sides in a death match between Big Labor and Big Business," Politico reports. "Specter announced Tuesday that he would oppose cloture and oppose passage of EFCA, or "card check," as its opponents call it."
• "Efforts by President Obama and Democratic lawmakers to end tax breaks for 'corporations that ship jobs overseas' are being squeezed by major U.S. multinationals, and a senior Democratic tax-writer said the issue might have to wait for a broader tax reform discussion," CongressDailyAM(subscription) reports. "About 200 companies and trade associations wrote to congressional leaders Tuesday urging them to oppose a move to end the current tax regime where companies are able to indefinitely defer tax on foreign earnings until the money is brought back to the United States."
Fundraising is such a huge part of this city, and lawmakers are constantly bombarding lobbyists with fundraising invitations. So why are so many of them reluctant to talk about the fundraisers held in their honor? Are they embarassed?
Take a look at this video produced by the American News Project, a public interest news gathering site that sent reporter Harry Hanbury out to film a day at Washington D.C.'s fundraisers. While almost everyone either declined to talk to Hanbury or tried to shoo him off the premises, at least one lawmaker, Rep. Lynne Woolsey, D-Calif. was willing to have her staff talk to Hanbury with honesty. Kudos to Woolsey.
Yet another round of pink slips hit the Mortgage Bankers Association on Monday.
According to two lobbyists close to the group, the MBA announced about 20 layoffs--including some vice presidents-- in areas such as marketing, education, membership and government affairs. The latest cost cutting move is the third in the last year by the group which has been hit hard by the subprime mortgage debacle. We reported back in December on some of the layoffs last year.
The MBA's financial woes are partly due to the loss of several big members such as Countrywide and Wachovia-- which have been forced to merge due to the recession-- and a number of smaller member companies, which have gone bankrupt.
--Peter Stone
UPDATE @ 4:15 PM: Mortgage Bankers put out a statement.
"The real estate finance industry and MBA
member firms have been facing tough economic challenges. Over the course of the
past year, MBA has aggressively implemented rigorous cost cutting measures, from
streamlining program expenses to eliminating lower priority product offerings.
The goal has been, and continues to be, ensuring that MBA is properly structured
to deliver value to our member firms. We deeply regret the need for today's
reduction in force and the resulting departure of so many of our talented and
dedicated employees."
With fundraising lagging expectations, government watchdog group Common Cause has just let go 19 staffers and cut $2 million in spending. The cuts leave the group's Florida and New Jersey chapters without paid staff, and trimmed the national office payroll by 12.
The group realized several months ago that it was unlikely to meet the $13 million budget it had for the fiscal year that ends in June, said the group's spokeswoman, Mary Boyle. The budget woes reflect both the competition for funds during an election year and a more severe than expected economic downturn.
The shortfall is the latest setback for the group, begun in 1970 by former Health Education and Welfare Secretary John Gardner to be a citizens lobby to counter the power of special interests. Two years ago, the group hired former Rep. Bob Edgar, D-Pa., to help restore some of the funding and prestige lost as new groups took up similar issues.
Ironically, the money woes arise even as the group's signature issue - government ethics and campaign finance reform - have been making something of a comeback, with President Obama issuing new rules for lobbyists dealings with his administration and new campaign finance reform being introduced in the Congress. Boyle said the group intended to be an active participant in these issues at the national and state levels.
The group's national office still has a staff of 54, she said, and the cuts were made "to allow us to keep working on key issues important to us," including public financing measures in Maryland and Wisconsin. The group has also added staff recently in Hawaii and Michigan, and plans to add staff in Ohio and Illinois.
Congress Dailybreaks the news that Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. won't support the Employee Free Choice Act, otherwise known as "card-check" legislation. (subscription)
Specter was a potential swing vote for the measure, so his opposition is a blow to organized labor which has spent millions on garnering support in Congress for the measure which would make it easier for employees to form a union.
It is a win for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which has also spent millions to oppose the bill.
"The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will continue to use every tool at its disposal to fight this legislation until it is taken off the table altogether," said Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the chamber.
As Eliza Newlin Carney reported in our State of Lobbying issue this week, the advocacy industry is increasingly using social networking tools to promote their issue of the day.
The Sunlight Foundation is using Twitter to directly lobby senators to co-sponsor the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act that we blogged about yesterday. Sunlight courted bill supporters to lobby senators' blackberrys directly via a 'Tweet Lobby'.
"[We] believe this will be the first organized direct lobbying of members of Congress over Twitter," Sunlight Communication's Director Gabriela Schneider told National Journal. Two senators, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., tweeted about their support of the bill. Both of these lawmakers supported the bill in previous sessions of Congress so their position is not necessarily a reflection of the Twitter lobby.
It will be interesting and telling if the Twitter lobby generates a response from a greater portion of the 17 senators on Twitter, especially those who haven't voiced support of the bill in the past. We'll be paying attention.
Liberal groups today announced a campaign pressuring moderate congressional Democrats to support PresidentObama's policy agenda.
The heads of Campaign for America's Future and USAction argued on a press call this morning that moderate Blue Dogs in the House and a moderate Senate group led by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., are listening too much to business lobbyists.
"It's important they hear from their constituents, not just their contributors," Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage said.
William McNary, president of USAction, said the group's members will urge lawmakers to "stand up to the special interests."
Conservative and moderate Democrats argue they are representing their moderate and conservative states and districts in pushing for changes to Obama's proposals, but the effort shows Democrats in the middle will be taking fire from both sides in the coming years.
• "Irate over the demonization of their profession, lobbyists say they will push back against a new White House directive aimed at limiting lobbyists' influence on how the government doles out $787 billion in stimulus funds," Roll Call(subscription) reports. "The Obama administration memo released Friday says lobbyists cannot meet or speak with executive branch officials regarding specific stimulus projects or applications."
• "The eight largest banks receiving government bailout funds cut back on their campaign contributions in February amid a public backlash toward Wall Street, but Bank of America doled out more than $150,000 to federal politicians," The Hill reports. "The bank's political action committee (PAC) gave the most money of the eight firm PACs in February, contributing to a range of campaign committees as well as to lawmakers' and other corporate PACs, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Bank of America has received $45 billion in federal bailout money."
• "The companies that announced an alternative to the union-backed Employee Free Choice Act over the weekend stepped into the middle of a firefight and became targets of both sides," CongressDailyAM(subscription) reports. "Starbucks, Whole Foods and Costco announced last weekend they were forming the Committee for a Level Playing Field and, with the backing of Democratic operative Lanny Davis, would set out to promulgate six principles for labor-law reform that provided an alternative to EFCA."
Is the Senate finally ready to start filing campaign finance reports electronically?
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., hopes so. Often a pioneer of government accountability initiatives, Feingold has re-introduced the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act to require senatorial candidates to file their campaign finance reports electronically with the Secretary of the Senate. After unsuccessful attempts to pass this legislation in the past three sessions of Congress, Feingold and primary co-sponsors Sens. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., hope to push the Senate into modern technological practices.
"This commonsense bill to make our electoral system more transparent is long overdue," Feingold said in a statement after re-introducing the bill. "The Senate should catch up with the House, the President, and the many Senators who already voluntarily file electronically by passing this reform which has broad bipartisan support." Introduced on Feb. 26, the bill already has 31 co-sponsors.
Under the current system of paper filing, the final disclosure reports of senatorial candidates are not available to the public until after the election due to the time it takes the Federal Election Commission to process the paperwork. Filing on paper not only delays making the information available to the public, but it's also costly. The FEC told Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, that $250,000 goes out to vendors to keystroke the information into a computer. That figure doesn't include the paper cost of printing out hundreds of reports to be transported to the FEC.
During the last session of Congress, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., killed the e-filing legislation by insisting on an unrelated and controversial amendment to require groups that file ethics complaints to disclose their donors. The Center for Responsive Politics reported that Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., might float the same amendment to stymie the bill once again.
"I think the amendment [if introduced by Roberts] is a non sequitur," said Malbin. "If it is adopted, the purpose would be to bring down the Senate electronic filing requirement."
Although many Jewish nonprofits and charities have faced cutbacks because of the recession and the collapse of Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme, the Washington lobbying and advocacy operations of such groups are, in some cases, either expanding or holding steady, reports The Jewish Daily Forward in its March 27 issue.
A relative newcomer, the left-leaning J Street Project, is planning to double its staff by the end of next year and is poised to hire four new staff members; fundraising is going strong at Stand With Us, a more traditional pro-Israel group on American college campuses; and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is holding steady. Another article and an editorial in the publication examine the controversy over the role of the "Jewish lobby" in forcing the withdrawal of Charles Freeman as Obama's pick to head the National Intelligence Council.
Meanwhile, the Republican Jewish Coaltion just announced that new members to its board of directors include two prominent Washingtonians: Josh Bolten, former OMB director and chief of staff to President George W. Bush, and Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, managing partner at the law firm Heideman Nudelman & Kalik.
I was on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" Sunday morning to talk about our lobbying package published in the March 21 issue, and it was clear from the callers' questions that most people don't understand the role that lobbyists play. The questions generally were, "Why are lobbyists allowed to bribe lawmakers?" It's not a surprise to me, but because C-SPAN viewers tend to be people who are politically engaged I hope that my answers might have helped some to better understand what lobbying is about.
Also, James Warren, the former DC bureau chief of the Chicago Tribune wrote a spot-on analysis of our lobbying package. See here.
• "A potential compromise for the labor movement's No. 1 legislative priority this Congress is earning harsh reviews from a number of industry-affiliated groups that have lobbied against the bill," The Hill reports. "The compromise would allow workers to bypass secret ballot elections to form a union if 70 percent of them sign authorization cards stating their intention to organize. In the current version of the bill, workers could organize into a union if 50 percent of them sign cards."
• "Despite the fact that the firm will be closing its doors shortly, the PMA Group has filed several lawsuits against its clients in recent weeks for failure to pay a combined $150,000 in fees the firm believes it is owed, and more suits are apparently in the works," Roll Call(subscription) reports. "The FBI raided the PMA Group offices in November and is reportedly investigating whether some of the firm's campaign contributions were improper."
• "The business community is facing a tough choice: cozy up to a new coalition close to President Barack Obama that some fear could wind up working against their own interests or risk alienating the new White House," Politico reports. "It's a Sophie's Choice being forced by the creation of Business Forward, a new advocacy association backed by the White House and populated by Obama campaign veterans who are pushing issues that closely reflect the president's broad economic competitiveness agenda, including health care reform, school improvements and environmental protection."
UPDATE to correct. I called this an executive order, but it is not. It is an executive directive. The president is instructing his staff how to behave but this isn't a legal order.
UPDATE @ 5:11 PM: Here is the executive order memo. The relevant part for lobbyists is Section 3 on page 4. It is VERY specific about communications between lobbyists and the administration. Executive Memo.pdf
It's President Obama versus "the lobbyists." Round Two.
Obama's ongoing battle with K Street continued today. In a speech to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Obama said any lobbyist who wants to talk to a member of his administration must put their viewpoints in writing, to be posted on the Internet. He said these restrictions on lobbyists will help ensure that "lobbyists don't stand in the way of our recovery."
Here's the relevant graph:
"Decisions about how Recovery Act dollars are spent will be based on the merits. They will not be made as a way of doing favors for lobbyists. Any lobbyists who want to talk with a member of my administration about a particular Recovery Act project will have to submit their thoughts in writing, and we will post it on the internet for all to see. If any member of my administration does meet with a lobbyist about a Recovery Act project, every American will be able to go online and see what that meeting was all about. These are unprecedented restrictions that will help ensure that lobbyists do not stand in the way of our recovery."
The speech makes clearer what the "rules of the road" of engagement with the Obama administration will be for lobbyists. Readers, shoot me an email here, and tell me what you think? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
This has been a topic of much confusion on K Street, as we discuss in our annual State of Lobbying series of stories in this week's issue of National Journal.
(Photo courtesy of Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) --Bara Vaida
• "After a tumultuous year that included a short war with Russia, the small Caucasus nation of Georgia is spending big on lobbyists and public-relations consultants to shore up support in Washington," The Hill reports. "The country's roster of advocates includes top officials with Democratic and Republican connections. The firm, which was signed to a six-month, $300,000 contract, will provide media and public-relations consulting to enhance 'the reputation of the Republic of Georgia government,' according to the agreement."
Our annual State of Lobbying package can be found in this week's National Journal:
Free to readers:
National Journal's analysis found that of 267 Obama political appointees and nominees, 30 individuals in senior jobs throughout the executive branch, or 11 percent, were registered to lobby at some point in the past five years. Writes Julie Kosterlitz: "Ever since Barack Obama began issuing his broadsides on the presidential campaign trail against lobbyists and the 'culture of Washington,' Washington has debated whether he was being cynical or merely naive." Obama is finding that keeping lobbyists out of his administration is a more complicated business than he might have imagined.
See a chart of the 30 individuals on Team Obama and where they lobbied (according to our review of lobbying disclosure records filed with Congress.) Here.
There may be a new sheriff in Washington, but National Journal Political Insiders from both parties believe by substantial majorities that when it comes to wielding influence, some of the old rules still apply, writes James Barnes. Our Insiders also weigh in on which interest groups they believe will be the winners and losers under the Obama presidency.
Subscription required:
"Bring 'em on." Those were the fighting words PresidentBush once used to challenge terrorists who might be tempted to attack U.S. troops in Iraq. Now the nation's new leader, Barack Obama, is throwing down a gauntlet of his own. But this time the challenge isn't to America's enemies abroad -- it's to Washington's army of lobbyists, writeEliza Newlin Carney and Bara Vaida. The story also looks at the top 25 lobbying firms and the top 25 lobbying spenders.
President Obama's special counsel for ethics and government reform, Norm Eisen, talks with National Journal's Carney, Vaida and managing editor Robert Gettlin about how Obama defines "special interests." See the Q&A here.
A decade ago, financial services companies and their lobbyists were riding high in Washington and, with deregulation all the rage, their prospects seemed rosy. Today the market meltdown that began last fall -- causing some storied Wall Street firms to fail and others to merge in order to survive -- has sent political shock waves through Washington's financial lobbying sector, writesPeter Stone.
The American corporate, professional, and ideological interests that pour billions of dollars into K Street make headlines almost every day. Yet the media seldom cover the foreign governments and overseas special interests that hire Washington's influence industry to affect government policies in the United States, reportsEliza Krigman.
When a housing industry lobbyist asked Washington consultant Pat Cleary to help him set up a Twitter feed during the economic stimulus debate earlier this year, Cleary was dubious. But it didn't take long for Cleary, a senior vice president at Fleishman-Hillard, to become a convert, writesEliza Newlin Carney. Now twittering is all the rage in the advocacy world.
As members of Congress beat up on AIG and other financial firms, many lawmakers on the financial services and banking committees are happy to keep taking campaign contributions from the sector.
The Sunlight Foundation's Party Time blog today listed four high-dollar fundraisers for lawmakers on the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees this month.
Financial services, insurance and real estate political action committees donated a total of $62.6 million to federal candidates in the 2008 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
• "Financial services lobbyists have moved into hyperdrive, engaging in a behind-the-scenes counterattack after lawmakers trained their eyes on all bonuses paid out by struggling banks," Roll Call(subscription) reports.
• "The Obama administration's threatened cuts in weapons systems and military hardware have defense contractors chugging Maalox and adjusting their business plans for a new era of slow-growing budgets," Politico reports. "But as they watch for exactly where" President Obama's "budget ax will fall, they also are exploring new areas of opportunity, guided by Defense Secretary Robert Gates' goal to shift spending away from massive weapons systems and toward the sorts of materials needed for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
• There was lots of chatter yesterday over which lobbyists got language added to the federal stimulus bill to make sure that already-existing contracts for bonuses at companies receiving federal bailout money were honored. Turns out it wasn't a lobbyist. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., "told CNN
Wednesday that he was responsible for the language. Dodd said
that "administration officials pushed for the language to an amendment
designed to limit bonuses and 'golden parachutes' at those companies."
• "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Wednesday got drawn further into the drama over Sen. Roland Burris'
(D-Ill.) controversial appointment, as they found themselves in the
uncomfortable position of giving information to the Senate Ethics
Committee about the embattled Senator's questionable push to join the
world's most exclusive club," Roll Call (subscription) reports.
• "A proposal to boost auto sales by offering government-funded
discounts to consumers who trade in old cars for new, more efficient
models got a boost Wednesday from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi," D-Calif., the Wall Street Journal
reports. "But the proposal, which also is supported by Detroit auto
makers and the United Auto Workers, is coming under fire from some
foreign auto makers critical of a provision limiting the vouchers to
vehicles built in North America. That limitation would exclude some of
the most fuel-efficient cars and trucks sold in the U.S., including the
Prius from Toyota Motor Corp."
Over the past decade, lobbyists have reported to Congress that they collected more than a half billion in fees, but appeared to have done no actual lobbying for that money, according to a new report by the Center for Responsive Politics, criticizing firms' lack of disclosure.
The non-partisan Center found 19,000 reports filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act where firms reported receiving $565 million in fees, but listed no lobbyist name, no issue and no government contact information. The forms were essentially blank, except for the name of the registrant and the fees they collected. For more on what the Center calls "stealth" lobbying, read the report.
--Bara Vaida
Update @3:30 PM: here's a comment from a campaign finance lawyer, who is also a reader:
"Lawyers who lobby are still bound by
the rules of legal ethics, which, among other things, prevent a lawyer from
representing two different clients on opposing sides of the same
issue.
So if Lawyer A was hired by Company
1 to lobby in favor of H.R. 100, Lawyer A would be ethically precluded from
lobbying against H.R. 100 if Company 2 approached Lawyer A to do
so.
Sometimes lobbyists - especially
very well connected lobbyists - get hired just so no one else can hire them to
work on the same issue. "
It's almost the end of the first quarter of 2009 and lobbyists are complaining to me about the stepped-up pressure they are getting from fundraisers working for lawmakers and the political parties. Though the 2010 election is a long way off, fundraising numbers are seen as an early sign of a candidate's re-electability and no lawmaker wants to look weak.
The Sunlight Foundation's Party Time blog has a calendar of the dizzying number of fundraising events this month.
Meanwhile, I thought our readers would be amused by one complaint a lobbyist sent me with regard to an invitation to a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser co-hosted by DCCC vice-chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Frontline co-chair Chris Murphy, D-Ct., to be held in Wasserman's conference room at the Democratic National Committee headquarters on March 24.
"Bara:
Where might I find 50K to have a bottle of cheap wine and a box of chez-bits in
the Stalin-bland DNC Wasserman Room?
That's
twice the medium income in 48 states.
It's
a bit un-nerving that we are in a deep recession, the economy is tanking and the
Speaker and freshmen members are hammering on lobbyist like there is no
tomorrow.
Why
don't they hammer on the home boys who brought them here?
Are
they afraid to go back to their districts and ask for this kind of $?
My colleagues at TheAtlantic and TheHotline are underwhelmed by the new "Organizing for America" grassroots lobbying tool created by the Democratic National Committee. See Marc Ambinder's comment here and Jennifer Skalka's comment here.
Many lobbyists around town have been worried about how the Obama administration might use the grassroots tool to push their agenda and make it harder for those on K Street to advocate. Perhaps they need not worry, at least at this point in time. One never knows what the Organizing for America 2.0 tool might look like.
As memories of the long lines and registration snafus of the 2008 election fade for most Americans, election reform advocates are desperately trying to build support for legislation that would automatically and permanently register all eligible voters.
Voting experts testified before the Senate Rules Committee on March 11, making the case to a very receptive Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that the nation's voter registration system is antiquated and puts too much burden on citizens to ensure they're on the rolls, leaving millions disenfranchised.
That same day, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law released a report [PDF] targeting dysfunctional voter registration systems. "Unprocessed applications, mistakes on the voter rolls and confusion at the polling place left thousands of voters frustrated, slowed long lines on Election Day and prevented eligible citizens from voting across the country," the report said.
Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, a joint effort of the Lawyers' Committee and the Voting Rights Project, argues that changing voter registration from an opt-in to opt-out system will have direct and indirect benefits: shorter lines on Election Day, millions in administrative savings for cities and states and the end of controversial groups like ACORN that help register voters but are susceptible to low-level fraud.
"While there are no silver bullets, this maybe is a bronze bullet," says Goldman, who testified at the March 11 hearing.
Congress is moving toward action. The House Subcommittee on Elections will convene the first of several hearings on registration reform on March 26, and passing legislation this session is said to be a top priority for Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.
Goldman and other voting rights advocates are pushing for other reforms too, including federal laws against voter suppression. Four percent of calls to an Election Day hotline set up in part by the Lawyers' Committee related to voter intimidation, and there was plenty of anecdotal evidence of voter suppression tactics before Election Day and on Nov. 4 itself. Reformers also want to expand early voting, which saw an explosion of interest in 2008.
• "Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday filed yet another resolution aimed at triggering a House ethics probe of the PMA Group, the defense lobbying firm under criminal investigation for allegedly providing improper campaign contributions," Roll Call(subscription) reports. "Flake's resolution, the fourth of its kind, is more narrowly focused than the previous three: It asks the ethics committee to examine the relationship between fiscal 2009 earmarks for PMA clients and campaign contributions from PMA CEO Paul Magliochetti and his relatives."
• "The battle over a bill that would ease union organizing is zeroing in on lawmakers in three states -- Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Colorado," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Business and labor are pressuring three key senators who are up for re-election in 2010, sparing little expense as they ratchet up television and radio ads, and recruit well-connected lobbyists."
• "Alliant Techsystems, a defense company with a relatively low profile, is preparing for growth even as the Pentagon works to cut what it spends on weapons systems," The Hill reports. "The Minnesota-based company, known as ATK, has increased its political giving and reached out to a number of offices on Capitol Hill to raise its profile in Congress and the administration."
The Obama administration has reversed yet another Bush-era doctrine, this one governing the judicial nominee vetting process.
Back in 2001, then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales informed the American Bar Association that it would no longer be asked to vet federal judiciary candidates before a nomination, ending a 50-year practice of bringing the association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary in to conduct a peer review prior to official nomination.
After Gonzales' announcement, the committee still reviewed nominees and assigned them ratings of "well-qualified," "qualified," or "not qualified." But they started the process after nominations were officially announced. Now the committee will get the candidates' names earlier.
"The Standing Committee makes a unique contribution to the process by conducting an extensive peer review of each potential nominee's integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament," ABA President Thomas Wells said in a statement released today.
Many GOPers objected to the ABA's role after unfavorable ratings for Republican Supreme Court nominees Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas two decades ago.
But the Obama administration and the ABA got their new relationship off to an early start: White House Counsel Greg Craig met with Wells at the association's DC offices just a few days after the inauguration.
Lobbying and public affairs firm the Raben Group is bringing in Michael J. Torra, an ex-chief of staff to Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif. Torra will serve as a principal at the D.C. firm. Torra has also worked at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and in addition to Sanchez, he was an aide to two other Caucus members, Texas Democratic Reps. Silvestre Reyes and Charles Gonzalez.
Robert Raben, who founded the Raben Group, is a former counsel to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. and he also served as Democratic counsel on the House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee. The firm represents a number of traditional liberal interest groups like the Human Rights Campaign and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, but it also has corporate clients such as Microsoft and Pfizer.
The leadership board of the National Association of Home Builders has decided to keep Jerry Howard on as president and CEO.
Yesterday, there were news reports that Howard's job may be in jeopardy over a long-bubbling internal association dispute over the handling of legislative tax issues.
"Leadership from both the NAHB and the NAHB's [High Production Home Builders Council] met yesterday for a candid discussion about issues of concern to the HPHBC," the group said in a statement. "At our meeting, we had constructive dialogue about the framework needed for working cooperatively on issues critical to the industry. We face many issues in common and now more than ever, it is important for all homebuilders to be united. In addition Jerry Howard continues as president and CEO."
"Business and labor's battle royal over the Employee Free Choice Act was joined last week and both sides insist they are David to the opposition's Goliath," CongressDailyAM(subscription) reports. "But whether it is big business versus the middle class or big labor against scrappy entrepreneurs, each side says the fight has already cost millions -- and it's hard to know where all the money's gone."
"Wal-Mart is ramping up its Washington activity to push for comprehensive health care reform, and the world's largest retailer says it is ready to use its economic muscle to get out in front and influence the discussion," Politico reports.
"Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry, has doubled its lobbying team to press for a patent reform bill that would impose limits on patent lawsuits," The Hill reports. "The move comes three years after the maker of the BlackBerry paid about $612 million to settle a patent lawsuit that threatened to put the company out of business."
"The PMA Group, the lobbying firm with close ties to key House Democrats that was raided by the FBI last fall, has deep financial ties with many of the firms that it was lobbying for," Roll Call(subscription) reports. "Ethics experts say there is no prohibition on a lobby shop having a direct financial interest in its client firms, but the relationships underscore PMA's ability to bundle tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for favored lawmakers." The Washington Post also takes a look at the ties between PMA Group, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. and a Pennsylvania university research center.
Public relations is as big a business as lobbying in Washington, so we thought this story would be of interest to our readers.
Edelman was the largest independent public relations firm in 2008, reporting $449.2 million in billings, according to O'Dwyer's Public Relations annual survey of independent public relations companies. The firm's fees were up 13.1 percent over the year earlier.
The survey (subscription required) shows that the top ten PR firms all posted an increase in billings during the year, despite the souring economy. Number two on the list is Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, with $119.7 million in billings, followed by APCO Worldwide with $112.4 million in billings. The well-known DC firm Qorvis Communications came in sixth on the survey, reporting $34.9 million in billings.
PR firms that belong to publicly-traded parent companies, like Weber Shandwick, Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton, Fleishman-Hillard and Ketchum, declined to participate in the survey.
The National Football League Players Association chose Patton Boggs lawyer DeMaurice Smith as its new executive director, replacing Eugene Upshaw, who died in August 2008.
Smith beat out three others, including former NFL Players Association presidents Trace Armstrong and Troy Vincent and sports attorney David Cornwell for the job, according to the group's press release.The Washington Post had an interesting profile of Smith on March 4.
The NFL Players Association job is one of the top paying positions in Washington. Upshaw received total compensation of $1.86 million, according to National Journal's 2008 annual salary survey.
A former aide to then-President George W. Bush used money he stole from a government-funded nonprofit to pay student loans and credit card debt and to purchase a car, a truck, a piano and artwork, according to documents filed this month at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Felipe E. Sixto, 29, who was an associate director at the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, also spent $50,000 on groceries and restaurants, paid $142,000 to family members, and used $82,000 for a mortgage payment and another $19,000 for medical bills, the documents show. The detailed spending was listed in a 26-page memorandum seeking leniency filed by Kathleen E. Voelker, a Washington lawyer representing Sixto. She said that Sixto had made restitution to the Center for a Free Cuba, or CFC, a nonprofit that promotes democracy in Cuba.
In December, Sixto pleaded guilty to stealing $579,247 in U.S. Agency for International Development funds from the CFC. He is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday. Prosecutors, in a court filing, said that Sixto engaged in the theft while serving as CFC's chief of staff and continued carrying out his scheme after he joined the White House in July 2007. As part of his scheme, the government said, Sixto set up a bank account, incorporated a company in Maryland, and used the alias, "Walter Lee.''
Sixto, the government said, used the stolen funds "to live a lifestyle that was beyond his means.'' His conduct, prosecutors said, "had a tremendous and lasting impact on CFC.'' Shortly after CFC reported the loss of money to AID, the nonprofit's government funding was suspended. Some CFC employees were forced to work without pay while others were terminated, the government said. AID reinstated the nonprofit, which has filed a new application for funding.
A coalition of good-government groups as well as some unlikely players, including lobbyists and business leaders, are preparing an aggressive campaign to force public financing to the front burner, writes Eliza Newlin Carney in today's column "Rules of the Game."
Here's an excerpt:
Common Cause has been meeting with lobbyists on K Street, including Martin A. Russo, chief executive officer and senior vice chairman of the lobbying powerhouse Cassidy & Associates, to round up support. The idea is to show lawmakers that lobbyists are tired of the constant fundraising and that they take reform proposals seriously, says [Arne] Pearson [vice president of programs for Common Cause.]
Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, is facing an internal association battle regarding the group's position over a tax break which could cost Howard his job, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Executives from the group's largest members are meeting in Chicago today with the NAHB's leadership to discuss potentially ousting Howard, the story says.
An association official wasn't immediately available to comment to National Journal.
-- Bara Vaida
UPDATE @ 11:06 AM. A spokeswoman said she has no comment "on this issue."
Lobbying related stories of interest from the Earlybird:
President Obama will kick off an all-out grass-roots effort today urging Congress to pass his $3.55 trillion budget, activating the extensive campaign apparatus he built during his successful 2008 candidacy for the first time since taking office," the Washington Post reports. "The campaign, which will be run under the aegis of the Democratic National Committee, will rely heavily on the 13 million-strong e-mail list put together during the campaign and now under the control of Organizing for America (OFA), a group overseen by the DNC."
A broad coalition of left-leaning groups is quietly closing ranks into a new coalition, 'Unity '09,' aimed at helping" Obama "push his agenda through Congress," Politicoreports. "Conceived at a New York meeting before the November election, two Democrats familiar with the planning said, Unity '09 will draw together money and grassroots organizations to pressure lawmakers in their home states to back White House legislation and other progressive causes."
"Some of the special-interest groups opposed to tax increases or spending cuts in" Obama's "proposed 2010 budget plan are facing a more immediate pocketbook problem: The recession has sapped their ability to fight back," USA Todayreports.
Angling for a critical Senate swing vote to pass the 'card check' bill that would make it easier to form unions, Pennsylvania labor leaders promised Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. that they will switch union members from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party to help him win a tough 2010 primary election," the Washington Times reports. "Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President William M. George said he pledged Mr. Specter 'all kinds of help from the union' in a series of meetings to woo the Republican senator's support for the bill, which would ease rules favoring secret-ballot elections to unionize workplaces."
There have been a number of excellent stories about PMA Group campaign donations and connections to lawmakers this week, which we thought worth noting given the controversy over earmarks has once again reared its head in Washington.
Paul Magliocchetti, founder of the PMA Group, and nine of his relatives -- two children, his daughter-in-law, his current wife, his ex-wife and his ex-wife's parents, sister and brother-in-law -- steered $1.5 million in campaign contributions to lawmakers from 2000 to 2008, CQ Politics reported.
In a story titled "Inside Murtha's Earmark Factory" Politico takes a look at the ties between a PMA Group client and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.
From 1998 through the 2008 election cycle, PMA Group and clients gave $40.4 million to federal candidates and leadership political action committees of 516 lawmakers, with Democrats getting 58 percent of those dollars, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of campaign donations. Rep. Murtha is among the top recipients of those dollars. See here for more.
ProPublica, the non-profit investigative news site has created a backgrounder on the PMA Group and Murtha story. See here.
From this week's National Journal (subscription required)
Note to readers:Don't miss our annual lobbying package in next week's National Journal. We take a comprehensive look at the impact the
economy and President Obama are having on K Street. Our Insider's Poll
also provides insight on who the big winners and losers
will be in the lobby sector over the next four years.
Will Englund reports on the return of the term "class-warfare" to the debate on tax policy.
Betsy Flores is getting ready for a new job with the National Milk Producers Federation, where she will start as director of regulatory affairs on March 30. The Arlington, Va.-based guild represents 40,000 dairy producers. Flores is currently manager of food and agriculture with the Biotechnology Industry Organization, writes Gregg Sangillo.
Jim Gottlieb is opening his own government-affairs shop, Gottlieb Strategic Consulting. He served as chief of staff to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., from 2000 to 2003, says Winter Casey.
• "Having campaigned on a promise that lobbyists won't run his White House, President Barack Obama is discovering that what may make for a good sound bite on the campaign trail can complicate governing," Politico reports. "As he strives to build an administration beyond his top Cabinet officers, Obama is finding that he has limited his pool of potential appointees because of a ban on individuals from agencies that they have lobbied within the past two years."
• Obama's "endorsement of climate legislation to clamp down on greenhouse gases has set off a lobbying rush in Congress and made the air thick with rival proposals," the Washington Post reports. "Coal companies, utilities, economists and environmentalists are vying to shape legislation that could rechannel hundreds of billions of dollars from one part of the economy to others."
• "Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said pro-Israel lobby groups did not spur their opposition to Charles Freeman," The Hill reports. "Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), a senior member of the House intelligence panel, also denied that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was involved in derailing Freeman's appointment to head the National Intelligence Council."
• "The new administration has rapidly changed the focus of technology lobbying in Washington, much to the advantage of Google and other Silicon Valley power-houses," National Journal(subscription) reports.
A. Barry Rand was named as the new CEO of AARP, the nation's largest lobbying group for senior citizens. Rand will replace Bill Novelli on April 6. Novelli has been CEO of AARP since 2001.
Rand is currently chairman of the Board of Trustees of Howard University. Prior to Howard, he was executive vice president for worldwide operations at Xerox, where, according to AARP, Xerox became "the most diverse company in the Fortune 500." Rand left Xerox in 1999 to become chairman and CEO of Avis. Here's Howard University's bio of Rand.
AARP began looking for a new leader more than year ago, according to a January 8, 2008 National Journal item. See story here. Heidrick & Struggles conducted the search for Rand, according to news reports.
"The withdrawal of" Charles W. Freeman Jr. as the
pick to chair the National Intelligence Council "after an online
campaign to prevent him from taking office has ignited a debate over
whether powerful pro-Israel lobbying interests are exercising outsize
influence over who serves in the Obama administration," the Washington Post reports. Who is responsible for Freeman's withdrawal? And why did the administration pick him in the first
place? Earlybird's Pundits & Editorials section has opinion on these questions and more.
"With Democrats in charge of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, this really ought to be a no-brainer: Should GlaxoSmithKline put a Democrat or a Republican in charge of its Washington lobbying shop?" Politico asks. "But, as obvious as the answer may be, the drug maker is wrestling with the choice -- and it sheds light on what seems to be an industry-wide partisan disconnect."
"As the House LGBT Equality Caucus readies itself for an aggressive legislative agenda, a group of lobbyists has organized Q Street, an association devoted to establishing a network of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender lobbyists and those working for LGBT equality," Roll Call reports.
"Obama's call to rein in the use of earmarks was met with derision"
Wednesday, "even from some of his past reformer allies," the Washington Post reports. "A bipartisan collection of lawmakers said the proposals he
offered... would do little to curb the practice and would do nothing to
address the appearance of a connection between campaign contributions
and spending programs ordered up by lawmakers."
Politico reports on moderate Democrats' unease with the Employee Free Choice Act: "Caught between Big Business and Big Labor in the midst of a deepening recession," they're doing "anything they can do to buy some time while hoping that EFCA somehow goes away. Eleven Democratic senators and 22 Democratic House members who cosponsored the 2007 version of EFCA -- or 'card check,' as its opponents call it -- have steered clear of the version unveiled this week."
With Obama "in the White House, tech companies have more hope they'll win this year's fight over patent reform," The Hill
reports. "Tech companies have been pushing for a revamp of the nation's
patent laws for several years. Lobbyists for Silicon Valley argue that
their companies have seen their innovations bogged down in expensive,
frivolous lawsuits that take their scientists and engineers away from
the lab too often."
President Obama today nominated Richard Verma for the post of assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the State Department. Verma has a lengthy lobbying pedigree at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson, which he rejoined in 2007 after serving for more than five years as a senior policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., according to the firm.
While at Steptoe, Verma was a member of the government relations and public policy practice. He registered to lobby on behalf of a variety of clients including: Williamsport Wirerope Works; U.S.-India Business Council; The Humane Society Legislative Fund; TD Bank Financial Group; Sterling International Consultants; Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America; MyRichUncle; National Association of Convenience Stores; Manufactured Housing Institute; Liberty Media Corporation; InterAction; EchoStar Corporation; Dish Network; and CIGNA Corporation.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in his fifth term in the Senate, has established a new leadership political action committee called, appropriately enough, the Mountaineer PAC. In January, Rockefeller became chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. PACs and individuals associated with industries overseen by that committee--telecommunications, media and technology, among others--traditionally have been generous donors to the panel's leaders.
The Mountaineer PAC is based out of the law offices of Perkins Coie, home of Robert Bauer, the heavyweight Democratic lawyer and the chief legal advisor to Barack Obama during the presidential campaign. A few days ago, Rockefeller filed papers with the Federal Election Commission establishing his new PAC.
When Texas financier R. Allen Stanford came to Washington in February 2006 to be feted at a celebratory dinner by a group called the Inter-American Economic Council, a few of his friends were in the crowd. They included lobbyists and such members of Congress as then-Reps. Bob Ney and Michael Oxley, both Ohio Republicans.
At the affair, Stanford received a special leadership award from the council, a business-backed group whose activities included underwriting trips for lawmakers to such countries as Antigua, where the Texan ran the Stanford International Bank.
The award was a way for the council to thank Stanford for his largess the prior year. In 2005, 85 percent of the council's budget of $472,000 came from Stanford and his companies, Barry Featherman, the group's president, told National Journal.
Further, Stanford had provided some of his own private planes to the council, enabling about two dozen congressional Republicans, Democrats and staffers to fly to Antigua on educational and pleasure trips.
But until last month, when the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Stanford's bank with misleading investors in an ongoing $8 billion fraud involving certificates of deposit, the Texan had spent years wooing lawmakers and other influential politicos around the world to help expand his businesses, fend off government regulators and seek tax breaks.
Former Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz. and president of high-tech trade association COMPTEL announced Wednesday has resigned and will join lobbying firm Policy Impact Communications, Congress Daily'sAndrew Noyes reports in Tech Daily Dose.
COMPTEL CEO Jerry James will continue to provide leadership over the group's public policy initiatives and will assume the day-to-day responsibilities.
President Obama on Wednesday urged Congress to pass earmark reform that makes the process more accountable and transparent. Earmarks are targeted spending projects in appropriations bills that do not go through the formal authorization process.
He proposed legislation that encompasses three principles: First, earmarks should have a "legitimate and worthy" public purpose; second, earmarks ought be posted on lawmakers' websites in advance; and third, each earmark should be subject to public hearings, where members "will have to justify their expense."
"The future demands that we operate in a different way than we have in the past," Obama said. "Let there be no doubt: The piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business."
UPDATE @ 3:00 PM: UPDATE: Sen. John Warner speaks about new job at old firm with National Journal'sJeannette Lee:
Warner said he will draw on his expertise on national security and international trade and "put a good deal of time into environmental issues related to global climate change." In 2007, he co-sponsored a bipartisan bill with Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., that would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
He said he has started "quietly working" with Hogan & Hartson, however, his official start date isn't until April.
Warner will not be allowed to lobby his former colleagues, and said he intends to "adhere strictly" to the relevant ethics laws and Senate rules. "I do not foresee my activities, which will be unrestricted with respect to the executive branch, will constitute lobbying," he said.
Since leaving Congress, Warner has been working with archivists at the University of Virginia, where he earned his J.D., to organize personal documents spanning his 40 years in government service. The photos and papers will be made publicly accessible "as soon as they are collated," Warner said.
He said the knighthood recently bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth II had "no connection" with Hogan's decision to recruit him.
--- (Original posted this morning)
Former Senator John Warner, R-Va., is rejoining his old law firm, Hogan & Hartson as a partner.
Former congressional candidate Siobhan "Sam" Bennett has a new job. Bennett has been named president of the the Women's Campaign Forum, a non-partisan group that aims to elect pro-choice women to office. In 2008 Bennett unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Charles Dent, R-Pa. for Allentown, Pa.'s congressional seat.
Prior to her candidacy, Bennett was a small business owner, founded a statewide non-profit community and economic revitalization organization, and served as a successful telecommunications corporate executive, according to the forum.
President Obama "has issued waivers allowing two appointees who were formally registered lobbyists to work for his administration," The Hill
reports. "The waivers ensure the two appointees can work for the
administration under his executive order on ethics, which was intended
to reform the revolving door between K Street and the government."
"Over the course of the past decade, Rep. John P. Murtha has earmarked millions of dollars for the Electro-Optics Center at Penn State University -- money that has, in turn, gone to clients of the PMA Group, the Murtha-linked lobbying shop that was raided in November as part of a federal criminal probe," Politico reports.
"Business and organized labor unleashed what each called its biggest lobbying effort in history on Tuesday as Democrats in the House and Senate introduced legislation that would make it far easier for workers to unionize," the New York Times reports. "Their target: a handful of moderate Democrats and Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania."
Some people are still landing jobs in the beleaguered auto industry.
Toyota Motor North America, which has not had quite as many problems as American counterparts like General Motors, has hired Thomas J. Lehner in its Washington office, CongressDaily AM reports. In a statement, Toyota's Lehner didn't dance around the topic: "The current economic crisis has severely impacted Toyota's operations in the U.S. market and we are responsible for protecting the interests of our employees, customers, dealers and suppliers."
From 1993 through early 2001, Lehner was chief of staff to then-Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va. Lehner, a graduate of San Francisco State University, is also a former treasurer of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He most recently served as director of public policy at the Business Roundtable. Lehner will serve as vice president of government and industry affairs for Toyota.
Ann Copland, a longtime former aide for Senate Appropriations ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., has pleaded guilty today to swapping legislative favors for event tickets and other gifts from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's firm, the Associated Press reported.
Copland wiped tears from her eyes as she admitted taking the gifts in exchange for helping one of Abramoff's top clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. A series of e-mails Copland sent to Abramoff's firm show she was particularly demanding in what she wanted from the lobbyist.
At one point she sent a long list of ticket requests that included several concerts, hockey, ice skating and the circus. At other times she sent e-mails from inside the firm's luxury box seats complaining about the food and drinks.
McBee Strategic Consulting just announced it's bringing in Alisa Ferguson, currently legislative director for Democrats on the House Science and Technology Committee.
Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn. chairs the committee, and Ferguson had previously worked in his personal office as a legislative assistant dealing with Energy and Commerce issues. She's also a former aide to Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash. Ferguson, who starts in late March, is expected to be involved in McBee's clean energy technology practice. McBee's clients with energy interests include the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, American Airlines, and SolarCity Inc. McBee also recently snagged Mike Sheehy, former national security adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
So, we were wondering whether BGR Group Chairman Ed Rogers had contacted his old buddy, Mississippi GOP Gov. Haley Barbour before Rogers and the BGR firm--which Barbour helped found--decided to host a fundraiser for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe. (See item directly below.)
Rogers cheerfully got back to us. "I didn't know that Terry was a Democrat," Rogers initially joked. He continued, "I did not check with Haley, but I think I can speak for Haley: He will be against Terry [in this year's race], but if Terry gets elected, he will be Haley's favorite Democratic governor."
Rogers, an Alabamian and Republican strategist, said that he and McAuliffe have long been friends who used to spend time together in cable TV "green rooms" before joint interviews. "But that friendship will be suspended if Terry ever runs for governor of Alabama or president of the United States," added Rogers playfully. (Both Rogers and McAuliffe currently reside in McLean, Virginia.)
"Terry is good, he remembers my kids' birthdays," noted Rogers. Indeed, McAuliffe's personal "touch" made him a legendary fund raiser for the Democratic Party, and especially for Bill and Hillary Clinton.
On a more mundane note, Rogers said that his lobby shop does not prowl the halls of the state capitol in Richmond. "There is not a business interest that I am aware of in the governor of Virginia," he said. And yes, the firm has already held a fundraiser for Bob McDonnell, the prospective Republican nominee for governor in the Old Dominion. But no, Rogers' own name was not attached to that event.
Bipartisanship has reached a new level in Washington, and this time it's coming from one of the most prominent lobby shops in town with a long GOP pedigree.
On Thursday, March 24, the BGR Group plans to host a fundraiser for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe. That "B" in BGR, by the way, stands for Barbour, as in Haley, the Republican governor of Mississippi who also happens to be the vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association, which is aiming to take back the statehouse in the Old Dominion this year. The "R" in BGR stands for Bush 41 White House aide Ed Rogers, who is listed as one of several co-chairs of the
Sure, BGR now includes Democrats, and Barbour is no longer with the firm. And, yes, BGR bills itself as a "premier bipartisan" shop. Still, we've put in a call to Rogers seeking comment. We're curious if he checked with Barbour before signing on for the fundraiser.
American corporations have the responsibility to step up and try to do what they can to turn the economy around, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is expected to tell a Washington audience Wednesday morning. Stephenson will be the featured speaker at the March meeting of the Economic Club. The event will be held at The Newseum.
Stephenson is also expected to make a significant announcement related to the company's fleet of passenger vehicles in the United States that are used by employees for a variety of business purposes.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini told the Economic Club in February that it is American businesses, and not the government, that need to invest in technologies to support innovation and growth. He also announced that his company will be spending $7 billion over the next two years to build manufacturing facilities in the U.S. to produce advanced computing technology. For more on Otellini's presentation see the Tech Daily Dose entry here.
• "What's it like to be at Washington's political ground zero? Ask Dave Wenhold, who trudges to work with two bull's-eyes pinned to his back," AP reports. "He's a lobbyist and he earns part of his living fighting for special-interest earmarks, those prized pots of money that lobbyists vie for and critics decry."
• "Organized labor will ramp up its involvement in a recording industry-led effort to end the royalty exemption granted to AM and FM radio as stakeholders debate the issue today before the House Judiciary Committee," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports. "The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the American Federation of Musicians have been on the front lines of the fight for some time, but groups representing service employees, teachers and others plan to back artists."
• "A coalition of 30 high-profile organizations, including the
insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies, unions and business, patient and
physician groups, tried to persuade House and Senate budget leaders
Monday to buck pay/go rules in the upcoming budget resolution when it
comes to universal health care," Congress DailyAM(subscription)reports.
• "Key Senate Democrats are wavering in their support of legislation
that would give more power to labor unions, dealing a setback to
labor's top priority as businesses warn of the damage the bill would
cause," the Wall Street Journalreports. The Employee Free Choice Act is expected to be introduced in the Senate today.
Fifteen years after the powerful insurance lobby helped kill the Clinton health reform plan, President Obama is trying again, writes Eliza Newlin Carney in this week's "Rules of the Game."
There are plenty of reasons why the president's far-reaching bid to reinvent the nation's health care system could run aground, just as Clinton's did. Influential labor and corporate players still disagree over how to cut costs and cover uninsured Americans at the same time. And partisan politics is alive and well inside the Beltway.
With climate change legislation heating up on the Hill, Edison Electric Institute certainly scored a coup with the hiring of Brian Wolff currently executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Wolff, who has also been a political director for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is joining EEI as senior vice president.
Jon Vogel will replace Wolff. Vogel most recently worked for Global Strategy Group. He led the DCCC's independent expenditure program in the 2008 election. Here's the release.
Business and labor groups have brought hundreds of people to D.C. this week to rally for and against the Employee Free Choice Act, slated to be introduced Tuesday by Democratic lawmakers in both houses of Congress.
The SEIU today hosted protests outside eight major corporate industry associations that oppose the legislation. More than 300 workers from around the country were expected to participate, according to spokesman Jeff Cappella. SEIU's targets include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, National Restaurant Association, Business Roundtable and Retail Industry Leaders Association. The union supporters plan to meet with lawmakers on Tuesday to push the legislation.
EFCA would allow unionization if a majority of workers sign authorization cards and would eliminate a company's right to demand a secret ballot election. Proponents maintain that it allows workers to unionize more easily and freely, while opponents counter that union organizers will coerce individual workers to join and hurt small business.
These efforts come on the heels of AFL-CIO's winter meeting last week in Miami Beach, Fla., where both President Obama (via video message) and Vice President Joe Biden (in person) explicitly embraced the legislation.
SEIU's biggest rally today was planned for Lafayette Park, which borders the Chamber of Commerce's offices and the White House. This suits the chamber just fine, according to Justin Hakes, external affairs manager for the group's anti-EFCA campaign, the Workforce Freedom Initiative. "We're glad they're here," Hakes said. "First of all, it's exhibit A as to the kinds of pressure that individual workers will face if card check passes."
The chamber launched its own campaign this week by helping fly in 180 business leaders from across the country to meet with lawmakers. The group plans to follow up with TV and print advertisements in the business leaders' home states, and Hakes said the chamber will likely host a second round of guest advocates in April. The business group vowed to spend at least $10 million this year to fight the legislation, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Longtime Democratic-leaning Time Warner bet big with its campaign money when it gave $544,601 to the Obama campaign in the 2008 election cycle, compared with only $29,676 to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. And now, the media conglomerate has at least five people with ties to the company in key administration positions, not counting former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, who served as an economic adviser for the transition, Winter Casey reports in today's Congress Daily. See story. (Subscription required)
In next week's National Journal, we will publish our annual state-of-lobbying feature which includes a look at how the economy is affecting K Street.
Because so many big issues are being debated these days in Washington, we are finding lobbying practices have been less impacted by layoffs than trade associations or law firms.
Case in point: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which is one of the city's top five lobbying shops in terms of fees, announced it is laying off 47 associates and 57 paralegals, but no one in the firm's 48-person public law and policy practice is affected, said a spokeswoman. She declined to say in which offices the layoffs are taking place.
The Legal Times has a wrap up today of law firms that have recently announced layoffs. In addition to Akin Gump, they include Arent Fox, Bingham McCutchen, Dewey & LeBoeuf, King & Spalding, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and O'Melveny & Myers. Here's the story. (Subscription required) --Bara Vaida
"As baby boomers across the country re-evaluate their retirements in the face of dwindling 401(k)s, the organization that represents 40 million of them in Washington, D.C., is planning for its own future as well," Roll Call(subscription) reports. "AARP is near the end of an 11-month search to replace Chief Executive Officer Bill Novelli, whose contract expires at the end of 2009."
"The push to reunify the nation's fractured labor movement has run into serious obstacles, labor leaders said, with several saying the effort has only a 50-50 chance of success," the New York Times reports. "The presidents of 12 large unions have held talks since January, when they announced an effort to reunify organized labor, which split in 2005 when seven unions quit the A.F.L.-C.I.O."
Obama "banned lobbyists from raising or giving money to his presidential campaign, but his Democratic colleagues in Congress aren't following suit," the Washington Times reports. "House leaders are set to dine Monday night inside the home of two lobbyists with donors who are paying $5,000 or more apiece to attend."
Obama "rode into office with a high-tech, open source campaign that digitized the book on campaigning," Wired
reports. "Now, with his selection of a celebrated open data advocate as
his Chief Information Officer, Obama appears serious about bringing
those same principles to the executive branch's treasure trove of data."
Al From, whose founding of the Democratic Leadership Council in 1985 helped push the Democratic Party toward the center and send Bill Clinton to the White House, is stepping down as the group's leader.
Although the DLC enjoyed considerable influence during Clinton's two terms, it has suffered a decline in recent years as new party activists have embraced more liberal viewpoints, internal politics have driven away key staff, and funders have questioned its raison d'etre.
From is succeeded by Bruce Reed, another longtime force at the DLC both before and after his stint as chief domestic policy adviser to Clinton. A press release from the group says it is "turning over a new leaf" and plans to refocus its mission on "the battle for reform and ideas."
See National Journal's report on the recent travails of the DLC here(subscription required).
Washington's largest technology trade group will soon launch a stakeholder lobbying blitz that emphasizes the importance of innovation in pulling the United States out of recession, Congress Daily reports.
Technology Association of America CEO Chris Hansen said today the effort is aimed at broader economic recovery and national prosperity. "Innovation Now" agenda items will include energy efficiency, health care, national security, trade and other topics. The campaign will involve industry groups and associations in and outside the high-tech arena. It comes on the heels of efforts by Hansen's sector to secure about $100 billion worth of IT-related economic stimulus funds in the package President Obama signed two weeks ago.
Obama "understands technology and understands how technology needs to pull us out of the economic situation we're in," Hansen said. He said TechAmerica's would be unveiled "very soon."
The National Association of Realtors has scored a major victory in the FY09 omnibus appropriations bill by securing a provision that would permanently prohibit banks from entering into real estate activities, Congress Daily's Bill Swindell reports. The language is a significant accomplishment for the group in its eight-year battle to keep the banks out of their business. Click here to read further. (Subscription required)
Manny Rossman, who served as a chief of staff to then-Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, has joined the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, the firm announced today. Prior to being chief of staff, he was finance counsel to Lott and legislative director to then-Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Phil Crane, R-Ill. "We are thrilled to welcome Manny to our practice," Lott said. "He is a professional of the highest caliber."
Financial lobbyists spent more than $5 billion over the past decade to push Washington toward deregulative policies, says a new study by two consumer advocacy groups. Those policies, they argue, brought about the current economic collapse.
The nearly 250-page report, called "Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America," was conducted by Essential Information, Ralph Nader's citizen activist group, and the Consumer Education Foundation, a nonprofit run by California lawyer Harvey Rosenfield.
Of that $5 billion-plus spent from 1998 to 2008, $1.7 billion went to campaign contributions and the rest -- some $3.4 billion -- went to lobbying. The study finds that in 2007 alone, there were nearly 3,000 registered federal lobbyists working in the financial sector.
The report also criticizes the industry's "revolving door" and singles out former Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson Jr., both of whom served as chair of Goldman Sachs before going to Washington. Focusing on 20 top financial firms (excluding the insurance and real estate industries), the study finds that 142 lobbyists during the 10-year period had been employed as covered officials, including high-level appointees, members of Congress and congressional staff.
No fun. D.C. staff at the National Restaurant Association will have to reapply for jobs under a restructuring announced on February 27. The good news: The total number of positions remains the same. The bad news: Not all employees will be qualified for the new posts. "There is optimism that a number of current staff will stay on," spokeswoman Sue Hensley said.
Click here for more from our Inside Washington section (subscription required).
With the government's stake in Citigroup poised to hit 36 percent after an infusion of $45 billion from the Treasury Department's bailout program -- and billions more possibly coming -- some of the financial firm's top lobbyists have been approached about job openings at other companies, Peter Stonereports.
It's not all gloom and doom in Washington's business sector. Sure, many trade groups and lobbying firms are feeling the pain of the dismal economy, but some groups and companies plan to spend more on advocacy in 2009, Bara Vaidawrites.
Stephanie Sutton has joined Quinn Gillespie & Associates, where she expects to lobby House Democrats, representing clients in the energy, financial services, and telecommunications sectors. Most recently, Sutton served as New York finance director for then-Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., now a senator, Gregg Sangilloreports.
Lobbying: Congressman Wants Inquiry Into PMA Group
• "Several former lobbyists are scattered throughout the Obama administration, despite the president's efforts to slow the revolving door," The Hillreports. The newspaper's review "of staff announcements for the White House and other departments in the administration found about two dozen people who have registered to lobby in the past, some as late as last year, according to lobbying disclosure records."
• "Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) called on Democratic leaders to open an ethics inquiry into the actions of PMA Group, a lobbying firm under federal investigation," The Hill reports.
• "The recent approval of a new device to treat knee injuries followed a lobbying campaign that overcame repeated rejections by scientists within the Food and Drug Administration, agency documents show," the Wall Street Journalreports.
• "Obama vowed Thursday to end a decades-long stalemate on overhauling the health care system, and he indicated for the first time that he was open to compromise on details of the proposal he put forth in the 2008 campaign," the New York Timesreports. "At a White House forum on health care... he bluntly warned lobbyists and 'special interests' not to stand in the way of efforts to rein in costs and guarantee coverage for all Americans."
• "The House on Thursday passed a broad housing bill that includes a controversial provision allowing bankruptcy judges to shrink home mortgages," The Hillreports. "Banks lobbied heavily against the bill, which passed 234-191.... Liberal Democrats, though, were insistent that banks hadn't been doing enough on their own to prevent foreclosures."
The economic downturn continues to bite industry associations.
The National Association of Manufacturers, which laid off staff at the end of 2008, has been forced to cancel its annual public affairs conference scheduled for April 19-21 at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans.
"Due to the current economic climate, a large number of our members are re-evaluating their budgets and many have implemented travel freezes," according to a NAM email. "In light of this unfortunate situation, we are unable to hold the annual public affairs conference as scheduled."
NAM is hopeful that its members will be able to attend next year's conference, planned for March 21-23, 2010 in Amelia Island, Fla.
NAM isn't alone. PhHRMA was also forced to cancel a planned state government affairs meeting this year.
"Significant budget cuts have made the meeting too difficult for us to conduct without causing problems in other areas of our budget," according to a PhRMA email circulating yesterday.
Christopher Jennings, founder of the healthcare consulting firm Jennings Policy Strategies, won the envy of many a healthcare lobbyist in town this week for scoring an invitation to today's White House Forum on Health Reform.
Jennings was the only lobbyist from a consulting firm listed as a stakeholder by the White House. All other attendees were from specific stakeholder groups, like America's Health Insurance Plans, Planned Parenthood and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Numerous members of Congress also attended. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that about 120 were expected at the forum.
"Lobbyists all over town were trying to figure out how to get an invitation to the White House and couldn't get one," said a K Street source who pointed out Jennings name on the roster of invitees to National Journal. See the list of attendees here.
Jennings has close ties to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton. Jennings was a senior healthcare advisor to Clinton for all eight years of his administration and was involved in all of Clinton's healthcare initiatives. He informally advised Hillary Clinton during her campaign for president.
He has since made money lobbying for the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, General Motors, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association and the Service Employees International Union, according to the Senate lobbying disclosure act database.
A person answering the phone at Jennings Policy Strategies said that Jennings only attended President Obama's opening remarks and didn't take part in any of the day's break-out discussion sessions.
Progressive organizations including MoveOn.org and the Center For American Progress are adamant about reforming health care -- and not letting insurance company lobbyists get in the way. That was the message conveyed this morning in a conference call with reporters conducted by the Health Care For America Now coalition ahead of President Obama's summit on health care.
Coalition representatives, along with Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, attended the summit today. "We're pleased that [Obama] is committed to an inclusive process and inclusive debate," Becerra said this morning. "We're happy that all stakeholders are being asked to participate and all options are on the table. That's the way it should be."
But one particular stakeholder is not so welcome in the eyes of this coalition. Judy Feder, senior fellow at the CAP Action Fund, recalled her time pushing for health care reform during Bill Clinton's presidency in the mid-1990s and the opposition she faced from insurance organizations, especially the Health Insurance Association of America -- now called America's Health Insurance Plans. The insurance industry initially "pretended" to be on board, Feder said, but then launched their own campaign -- including the legendary "Harry and Louise" TV spots -- arguing against Clinton's reform efforts.
So, what's different this time around? Richard Kirsch, national campaign director for Health Care For America Now, said that in the current political landscape, unlike during the Clinton administration, left-leaning groups and the administration are united on one position -- universal health care that gives Americans a choice between either a public or private insurance plan.
But while Kirsch said that having the choice of a public insurance plan "is an essential part of the reform," he stopped short of saying his group would withdraw support for any plan that did not include it. "For anyone other than, say, the president to say what's a deal-breaker would be presumptuous," Kirsch said.
HCAN also has yet to take position as to how the reform duties should be divided among Congress, the administration and other entities. These are decisions, Kirsch said, that will be made in the next several months. While short of details, HCAN representatives were firm on one point: that the status quo of health care -- maintained, they said, by insurance company lobbyists over the past decade or more -- needs to change. It is "crippled," Kirsch said.
Top lobbying stories from Earlybird, NationalJournal.com's daily news roundup:
"Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, who President Obama appointed as director of the White House Office of Health Care Reform on Monday, took home at least $2.4 million in 2006 and 2007 from serving on the corporate boards of health-care companies whose businesses she would be in a position to affect in her new position," the American Spectator reports.
"The Senate on Wednesday rejected a proposal to strip from the omnibus spending bill a series of earmarks associated with a lobbying firm now under federal investigation, despite warnings from reformers that lawmakers would be forced to answer for their vote in the coming election cycle," Roll Call(subscription) reports.
"For years, lobbyists have vied to bundle political contributions to score points with lawmakers," Roll Call(subscription) also reports. "That may change under new FEC rules that take effect in two weeks."
Liberal groups didn't skimp on advertising against Republicans who opposed the stimulus bill, and their attacks haven't been limited to the GOP. MoveOn.org has been quietly taking aim at Democratic congressmen who voted against the final version of the bill with an online advertising effort that places small ads next to Google searches of the lawmakers' names.
MoveOn is just finishing up the two-week Google AdWords campaign, intended to praise or censure centrist Democrats for their position on the stimulus. Depending on the target's vote, the ads send users to a page highlighting the number of jobs that will be created or to one featuring the lawmaker's contact information. A similar campaign is in the works for the current omnibus spending legislation, but MoveOn's economic campaign director, Daniel Mintz, said he doesn't have any specific plans laid out yet.
This time around, Reps. Bobby Bright of Alabama, Walt Minnick of Idaho, Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Heath Shuler of North Carolina were among MoveOn's top targets. Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Evan Bayh of Indiana meanwhile earned positive ads for their "yea" votes.
While MoveOn has advertised online for years now, this is the first time the group has launched a search engine campaign "specifically calling out legislators of any kind," Mintz said. Indeed, the progressive group is catching on to a developing trend: turning lawmakers' names into online lobbying tools.
A coalition of organized labor and other progressive groups are gearing up to help ram President Obama's budget through Congress this spring.
Organizers are describing the campaign, called "Rebuild and Renew America Now", as the biggest grassroots effort in history. The coalition plans to spend $5-7 million from now through May on TV, print and Web advertising and field organizing.
"Obama's budget is the blueprint for transformational change," said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, in an afternoon conference call. "Powerful interests are lining up against this budget because they are vested in the status quo that was established over the last eight years."
Plenty of powerful interest groups are lining up behind the coalition, too, which includes Big Labor heavyweights AFSCME and SEIU and progressive groups like the League of Conservation Voters and Environment America. This isn't the first dance for Americans United for Change, which is spearheading the effort: The group has also led campaigns against former President Bush's Social Security plan and his veto of SCHIP, and fought to pass Obama's stimulus package.
"There's no question this is a very ambitious budget, and there's also no question that the president is taking on a lot of sacred cows in this town," said AFSCME legislative director Chuck Loveless. "I think the support is going to be there, and I think the great majority of the president's proposals are going to make it through."
Ford Motor Company lobbyist Bruce Andrews will be starting as general counsel of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on March 9. As a lobbyist, he has also worked for Arnold & Porter and Quinn Gillespie & Associates.
"I am excited for the opportunity to return to public service to work for Chairman [Jay]Rockefeller [D-W.Va.] and the Committee," wrote Andrews in an email he circulated to his contacts.
In addition to his lobbying work, Andrews spent seven years on the Hill, including three years as the legislative director for Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa. His replacement at Ford has not been named, "but hopefully will be shortly," Andrews wrote. Andrews joined Ford as a vice president of government relations in 2007. Andrews, a Syracuse, New York native, is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and Haverford College.
Top lobbying stories from EarlyBird, NationalJournal.com's daily news roundup:
• "Firms receiving billions of dollars in government bailout money have continued to contribute large sums to political campaigns," The Hill reports. "The eight largest banks' political action committees (PACs) spent roughly $225,000, not including operating expenses, between Nov. 25 and the end of January, according to a review of year-end and February filings with the Federal Election Commission."
• "Will Citigroup's heavyweight lobbying team soon go the way of its counterparts at Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and American International Group?" Roll Call(subscription) reports. "Not according to the banking giant's chief lobbyist, Nicholas Calio, who says despite the recent cash infusions of government money, it's business as usual for his lobby team."
• "In the midst of a deepening economic recession, the Republican Party is turning a cold shoulder to one of its closest allies: business," the Politico reports. "When the Obama administration announced last week that it would come to the rescue of Citigroup, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) denounced the move as 'corporate welfare.'"
Former Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., one of five members of a congressionally appointed panel meant to oversee the government's financial sector bailout, has joined the board of a company affiliated with Bank of New York Mellon Corp, according to the Associated Press.
That bank is one of nine designated by the Treasury Department to get cash infusions from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, and is also Treasury's custodian of the bailout funds. Sununu was named last week to the board of ConvergEx Holdings, the holding company for BNY ConvergEx Group, in which The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. has a 33.8 percent stake. Sununu told the AP in an e-mail that the bank held a minority position in ConvergeEx, which he called an "independent company" and ineligible for help from the bailout fund.
Shortly after being bypassed for a top health policy job in the Obama administration, Howard Dean has signed on to be a "senior strategic adviser and independent consultant" with the government affairs practice of McKenna Long & Aldridge in Washington, according to Legal Times. The firm says Dean will consult on such public policy issues as health care, energy, and public-private partnerships at the state and local level -- but won't lobby.
Of course, Dean is hardly the first prominent pol favoring health care reform to offer his expertise to paying clients without actually registering as a lobbyist. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., has had a similar arrangement at law firm of Alston & Bird -- a fact that garnered considerable attention before Daschle withdrew from consideration to be White House health czar and Health and Human Services Secretary, amidst revelations of problems with his tax filings.
The families of the victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 have finally collected the compensation promised from Libya, and the Washington lobbying firm of Quinn Gillespie & Associates, which helped the families collect, has itself collected a cool $2 million for its efforts, the Associated Press's Alan Fram reports. The sum covers work the firm did from 2006 through 2008 "helping the relatives plot strategy, generate publicity and arrange meetings at the State Department and elsewhere," the article says--only half of which were lobbying fees.
The firm of Palumbo and Cerrell also reported getting $1 million for its work lobbying for compensation from Libya for the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco packed with US soldiers. Only half that sum went for lobbying fees that require disclosure.
Search engine advertising -- paying to place small ads alongside Google's search results -- isn't new, but advocacy groups are using it in increasingly sophisticated ways, as NationalJournal.com's Amy Harderdetails in a new story.
A new ad campaign by conservative group FreedomWorks, which targets Blue Dog Democrats who voted for the stimulus bill, demonstrates how advertisers are taking a page from the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain, both of whom used search engine advertising to cheaply and effectively reach voters during the race.
Two of D.C.'s biggest entertainment trade associations, the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, are facing budget and staff cuts, according to news sources.
The RIAA recently let go 20 to 25 people, or about 20 percent of its staff. It also declined to fill positions that have been vacated, according to CNET News. In all, the RIAA has reduced staff by 31 people -- or just under 30 percent -- to about 75 people. The association's current CEO, Mitch Bainwol, will remain at the helm.
A spokesman noted that the job cuts follow the decline in the recording industry's revenue, as a result of piracy, the economy and a steep decline in CD sales. He noted that in 1999, the industry's revenue was $14.5 billion. By 2008, revenue had fallen to $8.5 billion.
The MPAA is also facing cuts. The association's six-member board clipped the group's budget by $20 million this year and laid off about 20 percent of its staff and consultants in Los Angeles and Washington, the Hollywood Reporter writes. The story also says that the MPAA extended CEO Dan Glickman's contract through the summer of 2010, rather than extending it for multiple years. Glickman's current contract expires this June.
In National Journal's 2008 biannual salary survey, which is based on 2005 and 2006 tax information, we reported that MPAA's annual revenue was $82.1 million and the RIAA's revenue was $46.8 million. --Bara Vaida
Top lobbying stories from EarlyBird, NationalJournal.com's daily news roundup:
• "Firing some of the first shots in the coming showdown over health care, a conservative group led by the former owner of the Hospital Corporation of America is beginning a multi-million dollar campaign" today "in opposition to government-run coverage," the Politico reports.
• "Around a dozen nonprofit groups spent $80 million on television advertisements and grassroots lobbying efforts last election, according to a new study," The Hill reports. "Most of that money was spent debating a controversial proposal to expand union membership known as the Employee Free Choice Act, an analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute released Friday found.
The federal government has agreed to give the American International Group an additional $30 billion of taxpayer money after the insurance giant reported record losses. Could Citigroup be next? Two recent Citi execs now hold top-level highly influential positions in the Obama administration: Jacob J. Lew and Michael Froman.
Until January 2009, Lew served as the managing director and chief operating officer of Citi Alternative Investments. Now Lew has been confirmed as the deputy Secretary of State for management and resources, a new position with wide-ranging responsibilities. The official description of the job includes advising the Secretary on the Department's participation in the National Economic Council and on interagency economic policy matters.
Froman, a top Citi executive from 1999 to 2009, is now deputy assistant to the President and deputy National Security Adviser for international economic affairs. This position also has extensive responsibilities which include providing international finance advice to the National Economic Council and the National Security Council.
The New York Times reported on Feb. 27 that the government increased its ownership of Citigroup, although it did not lend the financial firm more money, yet.
What's more, nearly every major economic decision maker in the Obama administration is tied to Citi's form head, Robert E. Rubin. Former Secretary of the Treasury Rubin held an official position on the Obama economic transition team and is still on the board of Citi. Larry Summers, now director of the NEC, served as deputy Treasury Secretary under Rubin. Current Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner served as under Secretary for international affairs under Rubin. Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag, and Summers' deputy, Jason Furman, both served as directors of the Hamilton Project, a Brookings Institution initiative the produces research and policy positions on economic issues, where Rubin was a founding member of the advisory council. If that isn't enough, Froman served as Rubin's chief of staff during Rubin's stint as Secretary of Treasury.
In early January of this year, Rubin resigned as senior counsel at Citi but remains on the board until the corporation's next annual meeting. "I will continue to do all that I can to help you during my remaining time on the board and beyond," Rubin wrote in his letter of resignation to Citi CEO Vikram Pandit.
Without question, all of these people are exceptionally well qualified for their government positions. However, any decision by the government to give Citi more money should be examined with heightened scrutiny given the overwhelming connections between Citi and those at the helm of economic decision-making in the Obama administration.
Times are tough all around. But that didn't stop the Democratic and Republican Senate campaign committees from holding their winter retreats in Florida this past weekend to thank dozens of longtime K Street donors.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's getaway in Naples drew some 50 donors and about eight senators, among them DSCC Chair Robert Menendez of New Jersey. The bash, according to one attendee, gave lobbyists a "chance to get acquainted" with senators and talk about the political and electoral landscape for 2010. Individuals and PACs that had donated at least $15,000 to the DSCC in the 2008 cycle got invites.
Meanwhile, several dozen GOP K Street donors flew to Palm Beach for a weekend at The Breakers, a ritzy hotel where the National Republican Senatorial Committee and its chairman, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, were holding their event. Lobbyists and PACS that each gave $5,000 to the NRSC in the past cycle were welcome to attend and schmooze with a small group of senators about their hopes for improving the party's fortunes in 2010.
Congress Daily'sAndrew Noyes talks to Michael Gallagher, the head of the videogame industry's main trade association, the Entertainment Software Association, in Congress Daily's "Issue of the Week" today. Among the issues the group is gearing up to push for are government policies that encourage affordable, accessible, and faster high-speed Internet service.
"We're very pleased with the president's strong embracing of broadband deployment as a high value goal for our country," Gallagher, former assistant secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush, tells Noyes.
In keeping with the "outsider" image President Obama tried to cultivate during the campaign, the president presented the upcoming fight over his proposed budget as "Obama versus the lobbyists" in his Feb. 28 address to the nation.
Check out what he said:
"I realize that passing this budget won't be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington. I know that the insurance industry won't like the idea that they'll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that's how we'll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families....I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they're gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this:
A little-noticed bill pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee would give federal officials significantly more money, resources, and power to crack down on public corruption, Eliza Newlin Carneywrites in her "Rules of the Game" column.
Authored by Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act would boost funding for federal public corruption investigations by $100 million over four years. It would also make it easier for Justice Department and other investigators to prosecute federal gratuities violations. A Judiciary Committee markup is scheduled for Thursday.
The bill aims to clarify legal ambiguities that have arisen regarding corruption cases involving public officials and made it harder for the government to prosecute former Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. and others.
Top lobbying stories from Earlybird, NationalJournal.com's daily news roundup:
• "Obama shunned contributions from political action committees during his campaign but the special-interest spigot remained wide open for Congress and could still influence his agenda. A USA Today analysis of campaign contributions identified 175 members of Congress who received half or more of their campaign cash from political action committees in 2007-08."
• "After the frenzied weeks of effort to shape the $787 billion stimulus package passed last month, lobbyists' work has shifted to combing through more than 1,000 pages of fine print in the measure to identify opportunities for business and government -- and then help clients tap those opportunities in state and federal agencies," Newsday reports.
• "The pharmaceutical industry that long has benefited from Sen. Orrin G. Hatch legislative efforts has directed large sums of money to a charity he helped found -- and still raises money for -- while also hiring the Republican lawmaker's son as a lobbyist," the Washington Times reports.
• New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg (R), Obama's former nominee for Commerce secretary, "won taxpayer money for redevelopment of a shuttered Air Force base where he and his brother had invested in commercial property, an Associated Press investigation found."
• "Conservative evangelical leader James Dobson has resigned as chairman of Focus on the Family but will continue to play a prominent role at the organization he founded more than three decades ago," AP reports. "Dobson's resignation as board chairman 'lessens his administrative burden' and is the latest step in a succession plan, the group said."
