Friday, March 27, 2009 9:32 AM

Lobbyists Speak Out On Administration Ban

Roundup from news sources and Earlybird:

• "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 Post reports. 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 Times reports. "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."