At first glance it looks totally off base. But Gary Andres, vice chairman of research at Dutko Worldwide, has written an excellent piece in The Weekly Standard arguing that Barack Obama's Washington -- marked by the huge and rapid expansion of government -- is a gift to the lobbying and advocacy professions.
Among other things, Andres points out that the White House's rhetoric demonizing lobbying is causing an important behavioral change on K Street. Andres writes: "...some government relations executives who previously registered as lobbyists are now 'delisting' -- causing a growing number of former interest group advocates to move out of the federal disclosure regime entirely."
The article includes this quote from an executive at a major company: "Why should I take all the cheap shot criticism for being a 'lobbyist' when I spend most of my time doing other things, like managing my staff and giving advice to senior management about public policy?"
Ring true, readers?
Given the outcry on K Street caused by President Obama's restrictions on lobbyist communications with executive branch officials on stimulus projects, I thought it worth a post on lobbyist support of the administration's decision to expand the restrictions to everyone.
From David Wenhold, president of the American League of Lobbyists:
"The American League of Lobbyists applaud the revisions to the White House's previous policy that limited lobbyists' communications on stimulus projects. In working with the WH, ALL, Citizens for Responsiblity and Ethics and the American Civil Liberties Union made suggestions about increasing transparency for all parties petitioning the government and not limiting access to one group of law abiding, compliant citizens who happen to have the job title of lobbyists. Increasing accountability for all parties is important and so is removing the restricting on lobbyists meetings because oftentimes the lobbyists are the subject matter experts and merit based decision making often relies on this expertise. ALL is proud to have represented and ensured that lobbyists voices have and will remain to be heard in these important discussions."
UPDATED @ 6 PM:
Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, posted a comment on the White House blog explaining the amendments to the president's directive on communications with executive branch officials regarding stimulus package grants. See post here.
Eisen said that once the "merit-based" decision on a grant has been made, a lobbyist can communicate orally with government officials regarding the project.
Meanwhile, Public Citizen applauds the White House's move. See statement here.
Earlier:
The Obama administration expanded the ban on oral communication between lobbyists and executive branch officials with regard to stimulus projects to include anyone who has submitted an application for a grant, according to advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Those applying for grants will still be able to communicate with officials in writing.
"The White House announced updates to President Obama's March 20, 2009 Memorandum on Ensuring Responsible Spending of Recovery Act Funds. That policy barred lobbyists from engaging in oral conversations with agency officials regarding specific requests for Recovery Act funds. The new policy will bar not just lobbyists, but everyone from speaking with agency officials about competitive grants once grant applications have been submitted. Written communications will be permitted." according a CREW release.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW applauded the move as a way "to level the playing field to ensure that corporate bigwigs and major donors who do not register as lobbyists do not benefit from an inside track unavailable to those less politically influential."
Sloan had joined with the American Civil Liberties Union and the American League of Lobbyists to protest the March 20 directive which initially only applied to federally registered lobbyists.
A White House official couldn't be reached for comment.
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Progressive health care reform groups demanded on Thursday that Washington's NBC television affiliate refuse to air a 30-minute infomercial funded by a conservative group opposed to creating a public insurance plan," Politico reports. "The Service Employees International Union sent a letter to NBC4, arguing that the station has a responsibility to pull the documentary-style commercial paid for by Conservatives for Patients' Rights."
• "The average family with health insurance in 2008 paid a 'hidden health tax' of $1,017 to cover the health-care costs of the uninsured, according to a report released Thursday by advocacy group Families USA," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The report by the group, which promotes universal health insurance, found that a total of $42.7 billion in care for those without insurance was passed on to health insurers. The insurers, in turn, passed on the costs through higher premiums, the report said."
UPDATE: May 29 10:30 a.m.
We received the following e-mail response from Ryan Rudominer, national press secretary for the DCCC: "You don't need to contribute to win the contest. We are not accepting money from lobbyists for this fundraiser."
(Click on the invitation below to see the contest he refers to.)
The Democratic lobbyist who received the invitation/solicitation and told us about it had this to say: "They know damn well that this is Hillary's old mailing list, which includes every DEM lobbyist in the entire freakin' world who gave her money."
________________________________________________
Here is the original post:
Oops! Someone at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee forgot to scrub a very important, and sensitive, e-mail/donor list.
You see, at least one lobbyist (who contacted us) -- and no doubt many others -- received an invitation from the DCCC and James Carville to make a contribution to the committee for a June 18 fundraising dinner in Washington that will include President Obama.
See invitation here:
Dinner with President Obama.pdfThe president has instructed the DCCC (and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) they are not to solicit contributions from lobbyists and political action committees for these types of events.
But the Carville-DCCC invitation was sent to members of HillaryClinton.com's online community. Hillary Clinton had no prohibition on taking K Street-connected money when she was running against Obama for the Democratic nomination.
Health care reform is being teed up on Capitol Hill, so the Sunlight Foundation's Party Time blog has started keeping track of fundraisers for lawmakers hosted by health care lobbyists. Among the events they found were fundraisers with lobbyists representing companies such as Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson as well as such trade associations as the American Hospital Association.
Party Time has identified at least 124 fundraising events in 2009 for members of the House Ways and Means Committee, which will be considering options to pay for health care reform.
Most invitations do not contain information about hosts or who might be attending. However, those that do, provide an interesting glimpse of what the guest lists are like at these private events.
See Party Time's blog post here.
Change Congress launched an offensive today on Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., for opposing a public plan for health care reform while having accepted huge campaign donations from health insurance interests over the years.
"Will Ben Nelson sell out Nebraska for $2 million?" reads the campaign literature, which will be distributed to Nebraska residents and 3000 local Democratic donors. The government reform group is spending $10,000 in paid online ads and direct mail. One flier features Allen R. Schreiber, a Nebraska native who has become disillusioned with private health care after his small business collapsed in the face of astronomical costs. The second piece highlights the campaign contributions.
Change Congress, founded by Stanford Prof. Lawrence Lessig and campaign guru Joe Trippi, advocates for campaign finance reform. At the top of its legislative agenda is passing a bill that would bring public financing to congressional elections.
-- Eliza Krigman
The Judicial Confirmation Network pushed back today after White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, downplayed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's comments in 2005 at Duke University about courts of appeal judges making policy from the bench. Gibbs said critics were taking Sotomayor's words "out of context."
At Duke, Sotomayor said: "...Court of Appeals is where policy is made. And I know ... I know this is on tape and I should never say that, because we don't make law, I know.... I'm not promoting it, and I'm not advocating it.... Having said that, the Court of Appeals is where, before the Supreme Court makes the final decision, the law is percolating."
See the videos of Sotomayor and Gibbs here.
Wendy Long, the network's legal counsel responded:
"An important controversy and debate continues to brew over Judge Sotomayor's comments at Duke University in which she said that appellate courts "make policy," and in her published words tucked away in law review articles. The White House continues to say that her words caught on tape were taken out of context. It appears that whenever the press or other critics point out troubling or radical statements made by Judge Sotomayor that clearly reveal her approach to judging, the White House spin machine is dizzying itself trying to figure out how best to communicate what it is that Judge Sotomayor really meant when she uttered the appellate "courts make policy" comment or her published writings saying a "Latina woman would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who has not lived that life."
"President Obama promised the American people a transparent presidency. Indeed, this White House's communications machine has been vigilant in posting the President's policy agenda online and keeping folks up to speed saying they want to create dialogue and discussion. In that spirit, we are calling on White House Press Secretary Gibbs to post the Duke University video on The White House web site and let the American people judge her comments... If Mr. Gibbs does not have time to post this video, he is welcome to link to it and other Sotomayor comments at www.aboutsoniasotomayor.com"
-- Robert Gettlin
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Conservative judicial activists have gone up with a new Web video questioning the judicial philosophy of President Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "The Judicial Confirmation Network put up its Web ad, aboutsoniasotomayor.com, in response to a television ad campaign kicked off Wednesday by Sotomayor's backers. The JNC's ad, 'Equal Justice for All?' questions Sotomayor's judicial bent and references an excerpt from a speech that she gave in 2002."
• "Conservative groups are stepping up the battle against Democrats' proposed health-system overhaul with advertising campaigns contending that the changes could result in long waits for surgery and difficulty obtaining prescription drugs," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a conservative advocacy organization, on Wednesday plans to launch a $1.7 million television-advertising campaign that negatively likens the U.S. health-care system envisioned by lawmakers to Canada's publicly administered system."
The Americans for Prosperity Foundation launched a multi-million dollar TV, radio and grassroots campaign today against a larger role for government in health care. The centerpiece of the campaign is a television ad (see here) featuring Shona Holmes, a Canadian brain tumor survivor. "If I'd relied on my government, I'd be dead," says Holmes in the ad. She sought treatment in the United States after being told by her government that she would have to wait six months to see a specialist.
APFP is a conservative organization that advocates for limited government and free markets. Carrie Dann at Congress Daily reports that the group has spent $2 million on the media buy for this campaign. Read her story on the health care reform battle.
-- Eliza Krigman
The Judicial Confirmation Network launched a new ad on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The 70-second ad, titled "Equal Justice Under The Law?" includes a voice over of Sotomayor's statements on gender and race, including:
"Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences... our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging."
The network is a conservative organization run by Executive Director Gary Marx, an organizer for the Bush-Cheney '04 national campaign and before that a lobbyist for The Family Foundation of Virginia. He is also president of the public policy and public affairs consulting firm of Principium Consulting. Wendy Long, the network's legal counsel, was a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis in New York and was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
-- Robert Gettlin
Advocates from the environmental, veteran and trade union communities have launched an advertising campaign criticizing lawmakers who opposed the American Clean Energy & Security Act last week in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A strange bedfellows coalition, the League of Conservation Voters, VoteVets.org and America's Building Trades Unions, have joined forces to support the clean energy bill.
The coalition is behind TV ads targeting Reps. John Barrow, D-Ga., Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Mike Ross, D-Ark., for voting against the green legislation. View one of the ads here.
"We are focusing a lot of resources around getting a [comprehensive clean energy] bill to the president's desk to be signed," said Navin Nayak, director of the global warming program at the League of Conservation Voters. "There is still a lot of opposition to this bill, but what's encouraging is a huge amount of support from a more diverse set of interests than ever before."
Business Forward, a new trade group backed by AT&T, Facebook, Hilton, IBM, Microsoft, Pfizer, Time Warner and others, is hitting the ground running with the launch of its Web site and radio advertisements this week in Indiana and Arkansas promoting health care reform, my colleague Andrew Noyes reports in Tech Daily Dose.
The ads encourage industry leaders in those states to work with the Senate to help shape the debate and underscore the need "to bring down skyrocketing health care costs, and protect a patient's right to choose his or her own coverage plan and physician," according to the organization whose goal is to promote President Obama's economic competitiveness agenda. Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., "are leading the fight for health care reform, and Business Forward is encouraging business leaders in their states to learn more and get involved," said Jim Doyle, the group's executive director.
The health care reform debate is expected to heat up in Congress after the Memorial Day break.
To read more, go to Tech Daily Dose.
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has brought on Andrew DeSouza as a manager of global communications. He will focus on policy, regulatory and market practice issues. DeSouza previously served as a public affairs specialist at the Treasury Department and as a press aide for former Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn.
-- Winter CaseyFrom this morning's Earlybird:
• "Liberal-leaning groups have launched a TV ad campaign attacking three lawmakers who voted against cap-and-trade legislation in the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Reps. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), John Barrow (D-Ga.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are targeted in the ads paid for by the League of Conservation Voters, VoteVets.org and building trades unions."
• "A report by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) disclosed that four lobbyists collected $209,700 in campaign contributions for the political committee during the month of April," The Hill reports. "The top lobbyist bundler for the Senate Democrats' campaign committee is Ted Burnes, a lobbyist for the American College of Radiology."
• "Conservative groups are stepping up the battle against Democrats' proposed health-system overhaul with advertising campaigns contending that the changes could result in long waits for surgery and difficulty obtaining prescription drugs," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports. "The conservative groups' campaigns seek to liken the Democrats' proposed system to those in countries where the government has more involvement in the health system."
• "Drug-company executives are aiming to prevent steep cuts in prescription prices by joining the effort to overhaul the U.S. health-care system," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports. "The pharmaceutical executives are using their new access to try to steer lawmakers away from measures that could reduce drug margins, pressing instead for cost reductions by hospitals and insurers."
Retired Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2005 to 2007, is the newest senior adviser at BGR Group. (www.bgrdc.com)
Pace, 63, who served in the Marine Corps for 40 years, will not register to lobby. He will help clients develop strategies on defense and national security issues, the firms says, and will also be involved in foreign and domestic corporate strategy work.
In April, SDI (System Development.Integration), based in Chicago, announced that Pace would be joining the firm as a special advisor to its board of directors. (http://www.sdichicago.com/news_sdi_press_release_general_pace.html)
-- Winter Casey
Magnum Entertainment Group, co-founded by Washington lobbyist Jeffrey Kimbell, is sponsoring the first Annual Lobbyists for Speed Drag Race Series for Charity to be held June 20 at the Capitol Raceway in Crofton, Maryland.
"What better way to hash out your political views than on a race track?" says Ian Weston, Magnum Entertainment's CFO and director of government affairs at Jeffrey J. Kimbell & Associates. "We're aiming for a Democrat on one side of the raceway and a Republican on the other side."
The cost: $200 per racecar for lobbyists; $150 for federal government and military employees; $125 for Capital Club members; and $10 for spectators. Each driver will race for a particular charity with all money going to the race winner's charity.
The event comes on the heels of the group's lobbyists-versus-lawmakers' hockey game that raised approximately $25,000 for the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, a program for underprivileged kids in the District.
To learn more go to: http://www.lobbyistsforspeed.com/about.htm
-- Eliza Krigman
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "President Obama and his allies in Congress have given the gun lobby a string of victories - from forgoing new gun laws to easing restrictions already on the books - since Mr. Obama took office and Democrats assumed complete command of political power in Washington," the Washington Times reports. "Gun-control groups blame the Obama White House for the setbacks, saying the administration kept mum on firearms issues even when shooting incidents killed six at a North Carolina nursing home in March and left 13 dead at an upstate New York immigration center in April."
• "The White House has yet to nominate anyone for the top food safety slot at the Agriculture Department, but public health and consumer advocates have already started a quiet campaign against the job's frontrunner," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Michael Doyle, a professor at the University of Georgia and director of the school's Center for Food Safety, is certainly no registered lobbyist. But his critics charge that he's too cozy with the meat industry that he would be in charge of regulating as undersecretary for food safety at USDA."
• "A battle royal is brewing on Capitol Hill for an already bruised business community," Politico reports. "The Treasury Department this week is expected to unveil its plan for revamping the patchwork of agencies that oversee the financial industry. Judging from the talk of add-ons from Congress and even the White House, some business lobbyists figure the package might as well come with Santa wrapping, tinsel and lights."
• "The definition of renewable energy seems clear cut: The sun continues to shine, so solar energy is renewable. The wind continues to blow, so wind turbines churn out renewable power," the New York Times reports. "But industries are now pushing to have a growing number of other technologies categorized as renewable -- or at least as environmentally advantageous. They include nuclear power plants and the burning of garbage and even the waste from coal mines."
There's a bewildering question hanging over the intriguing report in The Washington Post on the $520,189 tax refund that imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff received this month from the IRS. Abramoff quickly used some of the money to pay bills to lawyers and accountants, to his father, and to pay other debts. See Post story here.
Why was Abramoff due such a refund in the first place? Could it be there was a miscalculation in how much he owed the government in back taxes when he pleaded guilty in January 2006 to tax evasion, fraud, and conspiracy to bribe public officials? At the time, the plea stated that he owed Uncle Sam $1.7 million.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is upset that Abramoff used the IRS refund to pay off these debts before making restitution to the Indian tribes that he and his covert partner Michael Scanlon defrauded. (Scanlon has pleaded guilty but has not been sentenced.)
Under his sentencing, Abramoff was not supposed to start making restitution to the tribes until he is released from prison, but he was also supposed to apply the value of his tax refund towards the money he owed the tribes. This week Justice went to court seeking to prevent Abramoff from using any of what's left from his IRS refund for other purposes before he and Scanlon pay back more than $23 million they jointly owe to several casino-owning tribes that they bilked.
According to DOJ's court filing more than $400,000 of the IRS refund has been spent.
-- Peter H. Stone
In This Week's National Journal (subscription)
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would make it easier to unionize FedEx Corp. workers, prompting the company to renew its threat to hold off buying billions of dollars of new planes if the bill becomes law," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Supporters of the bill, including the Teamsters and FedEx's biggest rival, United Parcel Service Inc., applauded Thursday's vote. But the measure faces a difficult climb in the Senate. A similar bill passed the House in 2007 but died in the Senate."
• "A pharmaceutical company that collected campaign contributions for Rep. Henry Waxman is the only bundler disclosed under a new ethics rule that took effect earlier this year," The Hill reports. "The political action committee for Gilead Sciences, Inc. has collected $17,500 in campaign contributions for LA PAC, a leadership political action committee affiliated with Waxman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee."
• "There are two ways of looking at the Transportation Security Administration's performance in the 2009 Best Places to Work in the federal government report released this week," the Washington Post reports. "One is to hail the TSA's nearly 23 percent increase in its score measuring job satisfaction among employees -- the largest jump among any large subcomponent agency in the federal government -- as evidence that the troubled Department of Homeland Security agency has turned a corner. A second take, offered by unions representing TSA employees, is that the agency's score of 49.7 still leaves it near the bottom of the rankings, and that the new study is therefore evidence the agency is still mired in problems."
From this morning's Earlybird:
• Business Forward, a coalition of executives backing President Obama's priorities, will announce its formation Thursday, the New York Times reports. "Organizers said the group, whose initial members include AT&T, Facebook, Hilton, IBM, Microsoft, Pfizer and Time Warner, will engage in public advocacy but will not lobby administration officials or members of Congress."
• "A lobbying fight between the high-tech industry and a group that includes manufacturers and pharmaceutical representatives has the potential to stall controversial changes to the nation's patent laws at a time when the congressional calendar is filling up," The Hill reports. "Heading into the congressional recess next week, several loose ends remain for a patent reform bill that has yet to get a floor vote in either chamber."
• "Freshman Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat whose Florida district includes tourist meccas such as Walt Disney World and the Universal Orlando Resort, plans to introduce a bill today that would mandate paid vacation for most American workers," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "While the measure could boost travel to Grayson's district and theoretically spur an uptick in tourism around the United States, the travel industry's response has been tepid."
You're going to like the way you look, David Wenhold hopes. Wenhold, president of the American Lobbying League, has teamed up with Men's Wearhouse and The Hill to promote a business clothing drive to help adults re-enter the workforce.
The event, branded the Capitol PurSuit Drive, will be held at the Rayburn House Office Building foyer on June 2 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Participants are encouraged to donate "gently used" male and female business attire. According to ALL, the drive has collected more than 44,000 pieces of business attire worth roughly $1.68 million.
Six years in the running, the charity is the brainchild of Wenhold. "The Capitol PurSuit Drive is a wonderful opportunity for the lobbying, Hill, and association communities to make a genuine difference in the lives of those in our local community who cannot afford to buy a new suit for their first interview," he said in a statement.
-- Eliza Krigman
The comment period on President Obama's March 20 executive order detailing rules for lobbyists' contacts with the administration on stimulus projects ended yesterday. David Wenhold, president of the American League of Lobbyists, submitted suggested rules revisions to the White House, but he doesn't expect that the administration will adopt his recommendations. Instead, his group is preparing to take the administration to court over the rules, and ALL is soliciting other organizations to join the fight.
The issue is a ban on oral communications from lobbyists to federal officials. "I want the president to succeed as much as any other guy but not at the cost of anyone's right to petition the government," said Wenhold on Monday at a compliance conference held at the office of McKenna, Long & Aldridge, a firm that represents some in the lobbying industry.
"I've never gotten a good answer [from the White House] as to what is improper influence," said Wenhold.
-- Eliza Krigman
• "Top aides to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) held a private meeting on Monday with a bloc of prominent Democratic lobbyists, warning them to hold their fire or be left out of negotiations on President Barack Obama's No. 1 legislative priority," Roll Call (subscription) reports.
• "From the perspective of gun control advocates, the playing field is upside down," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Their nemesis, the 138-year-old National Rifle Association, seems more powerful than ever. Instead of a Democratic trifecta lending gun control the upper hand, it has energized the NRA, whose membership has grown 30 percent since the November elections. And the NRA has been on the attack."
• "A new analysis of Senate disclosure records by The Center for Public Integrity found that 10 lobbying firms -- all with deep ties to Capitol Hill -- have amassed such large client lists that they represent nearly 100 of the business stakeholders in the [climate legislation] brawl," Politico reports.
• "Reshaping the nation's health care system has spurred some shotgun marriages of convenience," AP reports. "Momentum for redoing the medical system has been helped by unlikely alliances that broadly embrace" Obama's "drive for overhaul but gloss over prickly issues like how to pay for it. Those political unions, though, will likely fray when Congress begins to pencil in the details."
Caroline Fredrickson, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington legislative office, is leaving to become executive director of the American Constitution Society -- a center-left rival of the conservative Federalist Society.
"Caroline will provide us with the vision and energy to deepen ACS's influence on legal and policy issues and to strengthen a diverse and dynamic progressive legal network," Goodwin Liu, chair of the ACS board and associate dean and professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, said in a statement.
Frederickson, who has been director of the ACLU's DC leg office since 2005, is replacing Lisa Brown, who joined the Obama administration as White House staff secretary. Before the ACLU, Frederickson was general counsel and legal director of NARAL-Pro Choice America, and prior to that worked for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. She also worked in the Clinton White House as special assistant for legislative affairs.
Abortion has re-emerged as a hot issue, and if history is any indication, it will get even hotter when President Obama makes his Supreme Court nomination. Groups on the right and the left are responding to the president's recent address at University of Notre Dame.
Read more on our blog The Ninth Justice at: http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/05/abortion-debate.php
The American Council of Life Insurers could be getting a new leader later this year, depending on whether Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., decides to run for reelection in 2010. The ACLI has quietly launched a search for a possible replacement for its current president and CEO, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who is seriously considering running for the Senate if Coburn chooses not to seek a second term, according to life insurance industry sources.
Keating, a Republican who served two terms as governor from 1995 to 2003, has a contract with the ACLI that runs to January 2011. He has told leading life insurance executives that he is waiting for Coburn's decision. Coburn has confided to close associates on K Street that he is uncertain about running for reelection; he is expected to make a decision within the next few weeks.
ACLI spokesman Jack Dolan said "the search process has always begun very early" prior to the end of a CEO's contract with the trade group, and noted that Keating's contract has been extended twice. Dolan added that "Gov. Keating has been entirely transparent with the ACLI leadership. In that context, he informed them that if Sen. Coburn decides not to seek reelection he would take a hard look at running." The ACLI represents 340 life insurance companies.
Keating had a high profile in last year's presidential contest as a co-chair for John McCain's campaign. The ACLI leader pitched in with fundraising and surrogate work for McCain and also generated controversy with public comments during the waning days of the campaign. In a radio interview, Keating said that Barack Obama was trying to cover up his "extreme record" and he urged the Democratic candidate to acknowledge that he "was a guy of the street."
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party underscores the clout of Club For Growth, a conservative group that targets Republicans it brands insufficiently committed to low taxes and small government," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Mr. Specter fingered Club For Growth as the key factor behind his decision, saying he would have lost the Republican primary to a Club-backed rival. His decision has prompted some Republicans to turn on the organization, saying it backs those who are so conservative that they then lose to Democrats."
• "Despite moves by Senate Republicans to downplay expectations of a battle royal over the next Supreme Court nominee, conservative judicial activists are increasing pressure on their Congressional allies to oppose a liberal jurist," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Though it's unclear just how soon President Barack Obama will name Justice David Souter's replacement, groups such as the Third Branch Conference, the Judicial Confirmation Network and the Committee for Justice are mapping out their strategy to rally Senate Republicans' appetite for pushback."
• "Union groups are targeting one of their close allies in Congress over a controversial proposal to tax employee healthcare benefits," The Hill reports. "In a coordinated campaign using radio advertising, mail and other pressure mechanisms, three top unions are urging Oregonians to voice their displeasure to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), whose proposal may be stalled in the Senate."
Even as Congress and the Obama administration mull a new round of campaign finance regulations, a series of legal challenges threatens to dismantle the existing rules, election law experts warn, according to "Rules Of The Game."
Emboldened by the court's tilt to the right under Chief Justice John Roberts, conservatives who champion the First Amendment have mounted more than 20 challenges to election laws in both federal and state court recently, according to a recent analysis by the Campaign Legal Center.
At least one of these, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, is already before the Supreme Court and will be decided by the end of June. Other cases, most notably Republican National Committee v. FEC and SpeechNow.org v. FEC, are working their way through the lower courts and appear inevitably headed to the high court.
What worries lawyers defending the existing regulations is not that the Roberts court will overturn the campaign finance rules wholesale. Rather, they foresee the Supreme Court continuing its pattern over the past two years of chipping away at the building blocks of the current campaign finance regime. These include contribution limits, disclosure requirements and the ban on direct corporate and labor expenditures, which some warn are now under siege.
"Slowly but surely, the move is toward deregulation," said Richard L. Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, at a May 8 conference on money in politics at the National Press Club. The event was sponsored by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "The 60-day review period for the Obama administration's new restrictions on lobbying federal agencies for stimulus funds ends Tuesday, but already there is concern that the White House will not address lobbyists' concerns that the rules are discriminatory," Roll Call (subscription) reports.
• "Six health care groups that pledged to cut the growth rate in health care spending restated their commitment Friday after some of their leaders suggested this week that the deal had been misinterpreted," Politico reports. "The statement followed news reports detailing doubts raised this week by the American Hospital Association and the Advanced Medical Technology Association about the agreement to trim $2 trillion from health care spending over the next decade."
• "It may be surprising that company executives are pushing Congress to pass a version of President Obama's plan for combating global warming," the Los Angeles Times reports. "After all, Obama wants to slap hefty fees on facilities like [electric utility] Alcoa's that pump millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air. Those fees could raise costs for the company and leave it vulnerable to foreign competitors. But a growing number of coal users have come to believe that, with the right tweaks, Obama's plan would not only help the environment but boost their profits."
• "Last week, hundreds of nurses rallied on Capitol Hill, carrying signs and calling for health care reform legislation," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "The California Nurses Association-National Nurses Organizing Committee and other nursing unions want lawmakers to pass legislation that would bring all Americans into a single-payer government system."
Christopher Brown recently joined Manatt, Phelps & Phillips as senior counsel in the firm's government and regulatory affairs practice. He most recently was assistant administrator for government and industry affairs at the Federal Aviation Administration, where he worked on a number of legislative issues, including the reauthorization of the FAA and an effort to overhaul the nation's air traffic control system.
Before that, Brown served as counsel to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He was also an associate in the public law and policy section of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
-- Bara Vaida
Less than a fifth of House members disclosed their earmark requests for the upcoming transportation reauthorization bill, according to the Sunlight Foundation.
Unlike the House Appropriations Committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee doesn't require members to post their earmark requests online before they submit them to the committee for consideration. Sunlight's 'real time investigation' staff did the yeoman's work of scrolling through member's websites searching for transportation earmark requests through yesterday's deadline.
"[Congress has] got to come up with a better way for the public to find this information," said Bill Allison, senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation. According to Allison, lawmakers submit earmark requests through a web-based form, which would make it easy to create a central database.
Sunlight is rallying support for a new resolution sponsored by Reps. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif. The resolution would require a more robust online disclosure of earmarks. Read more about the legislation here.
Though lobbying reports filed with Congress show that 871 lobbyists registered in the first quarter of 2009 to lobby on the stimulus package, only 12 of them appear on filings that government agencies are now required to post online under the Obama administration's new rules related to lobbyist communication with the executive branch, ProPublica reports.
The story suggests that lobbying firms are handing off the formal influence duties to lawyers and junior staff who aren't registered to lobby and hence don't fall under the new restrictions.
Under a March 20 directive, lobbyists may not talk directly to executive branch officials about specific projects funded by the stimulus package and instead must put all requests in writing.
Under a 60-day review period, the administration is currently examining feedback about the rules from the K Street community. Critics say that the rules are reducing transparency rather than increasing it, as intended.
ProPublica has also put together a who's who list on those lobbying on the stimulus. See here.
Democratic Leadership Council Founder and former CEO Al From is joining the lobbying firm Parven Pomper Strategies as a senior adviser.
From will also continue to head up the From Company, a firm he created to provide strategic advice to private clients and non-profits. In addition, From is working on a book about political change, and serves on the boards of the Center for American Politics, the University of Maryland, and the Annapolis Symphony.
Parven Pomper posted $630,000 in lobbying fees in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Business and environmental groups are flooding the airwaves with advertisements targeting a dozen or so Democrats whose votes are seen as crucial on a controversial climate bill," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The outreach is intensifying as House Democratic leaders are gaining confidence that they have the votes needed to move the bill through the House Energy and Commerce Committee as early as next week."
• "A top pharmaceutical company executive Thursday came out hard against any public healthcare plan, saying it would stifle innovation and be a 'slippery slope' to government-run care," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports. "'There is simply no example, worldwide, of a robust private health insurance market co-existing with a government plan that's open to all,' Eli Lilly President and CEO John Lechleiter said at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Obama administration officials met with at least seven left-leaning groups Wednesday to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy and what the groups are looking for in a nominee. The White House would not confirm which groups were in attendance, but NationalJournal.com has learned that the list included People for the American Way, the National Council of La Raza and the NAACP. According to a White House official, the administration plans to "meet with senators on both sides of the aisle and a diverse array of organizations not limited to the left or the right." But the staffer declined to comment on any specific plans to hold a similar meeting with right-leaning groups.
Read more at The Ninth Justice, NationalJournal.com's blog on the Supreme Court nomination and confirmation process.
Freedom Works, a grassroots conservative group that advocates for lower taxes and less government, has hit cyberspace with an email soliciting support for staving off a possible increase in the excise tax on soda.
Freedom Works Chairman Dick Armey, the former House Majority Leader, is a lobbyist for DLP Piper. In 2008, Armey represented Diageo, an international beverage business.
"They [liberals in Congress] think that a tax on soft drinks is better than any other type of tax," said Armey. "They are wrong, and need to understand this message loud and clear: No new taxes!"
Armey's ire is in response to a proposal which recommends increasing the tax on soda and alcoholic beverages as a way to generate revenue to pay for health care. The beverage tax, promoted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, was one of many ideas presented to the Senate Finance Committee in a roundtable discussion.
The full testimony by the center Executive director Michael Jacobson can be read here.
-- Eliza Krigman
Duke Energy stirred controversy last week when the coal-burning utility parted ways with the National Association of Manufacturers over the trade group's stance on climate change issues. Now, Duke CEO Jim Rogers is taking things one step further: He is starring in a commercial backed by the Environmental Defense Action Fund advocating a cap on carbon emissions.
Watch the ad here.
Duke Energy is one of many companies to have joined the United States Climate Action Partnership, an alliance of business and environmental groups advocating for legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In the first quarter of 2009, Duke Energy spent $1.3 million on lobbying.
-- Eliza Krigman
It's the calm before the Internet storm. Interest groups, influential bloggers and others are anxiously waiting to see who President Obama will pick as his first Supreme Court nominee after Justice David Souter announced his retirement May 1. Once the news is out, they will rally their online supporters and rake through the nominee's court decisions on controversial topics like gay marriage, abortion and affirmative action to speculate on how he or she will influence the high court for decades to come.
"Every chink in the armor, every flaw, gets magnified" on the Internet, said Tony Mauro, a reporter with the National Law Journal who has covered the Supreme Court for nearly 30 years. The Web makes what would otherwise be normal criticism or flaws seem "like deal breakers," he said.
In the last battle over a Supreme Court nominee, conservatives roundly criticized President Bush's choice of Harriet Miers and forced her to withdraw; liberals then attempted to filibuster Samuel Alito's nomination, charging that he was too far to the right. As legal and political blogs have grown in influence since 2005, Mauro said, the mainstream media, in turn, has acknowledged their higher profile. It only seems natural that the process will be much more intense this time around, he said.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "The high-tech industry, disturbed by President Obama's proposal to raise taxes on U.S. companies operating overseas, is being courted by the Republican Party while ramping up its own opposition strategy," The Hill reports. "The president has embraced technology-- from the use of his BlackBerry to his administration's policy agenda -- and that has won favor from tech companies. But now Obama has proposed a change to 'deferral,' which would allow the government to tax the overseas revenue of U.S. companies. That could mean billions in increased taxes for tech companies, many of which do more than half their business abroad."
• "A rise in issue advertising, the so-called 'permanent presidential campaign' and early primary elections could combine to drive 2009 political advertising to 'well over $1 billion this year,' according to Evan Tracey, founder and president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group," TVNewsday reports. "The administration's tough rules requiring public officials to wait at least two years before entering the ranks of lobbyists has restricted traditional lobbying avenues, he said. 'This forces advocacy groups to go outside the Beltway' and do more advertising."
• "With climate change legislation heating up, liberal advocates are taking aim at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been skeptical of recent legislative moves to deal with global warming," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "A petition organized by MoveOn.org that asks the chamber to stop lobbying against" Obama's "clean-energy bill has already garnered the names of more than 10,000 small-business men and women, 650 of whom are also chamber members."
Hoping to catch a key swing vote at a vulnerable moment, the labor group Americans Rights at Work is running a television ad in Pennsylvania calling on now-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter to support the Employee Free Choice Act. The ad notes Specter's prior support for the measure, as well as for President Obama's stimulus package, and wonders aloud if he'll stand with "Obama, Biden and the working families of Pennsylvania," or with "the greedy CEOs and Big Business lobbyists."
In a not-too-subtle reminder to Specter that the Senate's newest Democrat could use some friends, the ad urges viewers to tell Specter that Pennsylvania's for him.....as long as he's for the Employee Free Choice Act.
-- Julie Kosterlitz
Hilton Hotels, which is gearing up to move its headquarters this fall from Los Angeles to Tysons Corner, is in the market for a full-time Washington lobbyist. According to one lobbyist interested in the job, the hotel chain hired the search firm Korn Ferry to help locate someone to run a new DC office. Word of the new post, billed as a senior vice president for government affairs, seems to be sparking interest on K Street at a time when a number of lobbying shops and corporate offices are feeling the pinch of the recession. Hilton announced in March that it would be leaving its current digs in Beverly Hills and moving its base to Park Place II in Tysons where it has reportedly signed a ten year lease.
-- Peter H. Stone
Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist and frequent TV commentator, has joined public affairs and lobbying firm the Raben Group.
Most recently, Simmons was president of New Future Communications, where he provided strategic advice for companies and nonprofits. Before that, he was communications adviser to the Democratic National Committee during the 2008 presidential election and was traveling press secretary for two presidential candidates in the 2004 election -- former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla. and Gen. Wesley Clark. He's was also communications director to former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga. and was chief of staff to Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich.
Simmons was on the cover of Washington Life's March 2009 issue called "The Young & The Guest List."
The Poker Players Alliance is flush with confidence after learning that their primary legislative agenda, legalizing online poker, ranked first as a priority among technology items in a citizens briefing book given to President Obama.
The briefing book, a project of the transition team, gathered policy ideas from Americans and submitted the most popular ones to Obama. Change.gov received more than 44,000 ideas and people cast more than 1.4 million votes on them. Policy ideas received 10 points for each positive vote and were ranked accordingly.
Boosting America's economy with legal online poker rung in with nearly 47,000 points, beating out 'restoring net neutrality protections' at 46,000 points. John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance (and their principle lobbyist), is not surprised his issue came in at No. 1. "There is a very vocal community out there...through our website last year, over 80,000 letters were sent to Congress in support of licensing and regulating internet poker," he said.
PPA has more than one million members; in the first quarter of 2009 the organization spent $430,000 on lobbying, up $80,000 from the same period in 2008.
The debate over whether to regulate online gambling is gaining momentumm the Los Angeles Times reports on the industry's efforts.
But the most popular issue overall in the briefing book, with 92,970 points, is ending the prohibition on marijuana.
Here are the Top Ten issues overall:
-- Eliza Krigman
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "The drug industry, already the biggest-spending lobby in Washington, is placing an even bigger bet on the influence game," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Potential windfalls and pitfalls in the expected overhaul of the health-care system have energized drug companies, which spent $47.4 million on lobbying in the first three months of 2009. That is up 36% from the first quarter of 2008, according to company disclosure reports filed with Congress and analyzed by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics."
• "A breakaway group of homebuilders is mounting its own lobbying campaign -- and working around the powerful National Association of Home Builders -- to secure passage of a tax provision that would help its members write off billions of dollars in losses," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "The new entity, the Homes for America Alliance, includes about 75 big and small builders."
Updated at 10:27 a.m. on May 13.
There was no shortage of suspects in the case of who killed the nomination yesterday of Chuck Hurley to be the new administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But environmental advocates - and not the carmakers or the alcohol industry - appear to be the culprit, sources tell National Journal.
Hurley, most recently the head of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, abruptly withdrew his name Tuesday, before the nomination had even been made official. While a wide array of stakeholders had expressed nervousness about aspects of Hurley's record since his appointment was announced in April, Hurley's sudden withdrawal caught insiders on all sides by surprise.
An administration official said he knew nothing beyond confirming that Hurley had withdrawn. But a source who spoke to Hurley said the former nominee cited environmentalists' concerns that he was too soft on raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards - the fuel efficiency requirements that NHTSA imposes on carmakers.
"He said he withdrew because he was getting opposition from the environmental community, who did not like his previous statements about the impact of raising the CAFE standards on safety," the source said.
Since his appointment, environmental advocates had expressed concern about statements made when Hurley worked for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Hurley had suggested that changes in car design in response to rising CAFE standards, such as making cars smaller and lighter, were dangerous for drivers and passengers who were involved in a crash.
Environmental groups reject the notion of a zero-sum tradeoff. "I was surprised to hear he had withdrawn, but it's good to know that people are listening on fuel economy and safety," said Lena Pons, a policy analyst at Public Citizen.
Daniel Schulman, policy counsel for the Sunlight Foundation, flagged us on his video (4 min., 30 sec.) explaining President Obama's rules on lobbyists' communications with the executive branch on stimulus funding.
Take a look here.
You may think that most civil rights groups would want President Obama to nominate a Supreme Court justice in the mold of Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Stephen Breyer. But the American Association of People with Disabilities isn't one of them.
The Supreme Court has narrowed the scope of the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act in several decisions, and both Ginsburg and Breyer joined in unanimous rulings on United States v. Georgia in 2006 and Toyota Motor Manufacturing v. Williams in 2002.
In an interview last week, Andrew Imparato, president and CEO of AAPD, said he disagreed with Obama's campaign-trail characterization of Ginsburg and Breyer as model justices. "My hope is that they can stretch beyond Ginsburg and Breyer and really try to get somebody who is more like a [William] Brennan or Thurgood Marshall, who can be a strong voice for civil rights across the board. Even if it's a lone dissenting voice, I think it's a really important role, and I don't feel like we have that right now on the court."
Imparato says the next court pick is a top priority for his organization, and AAPD will be pushing hard for a Supreme Court nominee who strongly supports disability rights.
See this story and more on our newest National Journal blog about Obama and his pick for the Supreme Court. Click here: "The Ninth Justice."
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Several major defense contractors reduced their lobbying expenditures in the first quarter of 2009, even as the companies are quietly trying to reverse President Barack Obama's proposal to slash the budget for several high-profile military aircraft," Roll Call (subscription) reports.
• "Utilities, steelmakers and oil industry lobbyists have tried to ease the pain of" Obama's "push to curb global warming, and they've gotten an early return on the millions of dollars they've spent influencing Congress," AP reports. "Lawmakers determined to get a deal on climate change are going along with valuable concessions to polluters."
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has weighed in with the White House against lobbying restrictions placed on the stimulus package, arguing the rules could limit its members' First Amendment rights," The Hill reports. "Chamber General Counsel Steven Law laid out two points of concern the business group has with the restrictions, which forbid lobbyists from talking or holding meetings with government officials to discuss specific stimulus projects. Lobbyists instead must submit their views in writing."
"The fact is, there is no proof whatsoever that federally registered lobbyists deserve a higher level of scrutiny than any other group," says Doug Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council, in a letter to the White House urging the administration to track all conversations about specific Recovery Act projects, not just those of federally registered lobbyists.
Read Pinkham's letter here: Pinkham Letter to White House on Lobbying Restrictions.pdf
The Public Affairs Councils is a nonpartisan organization that provides public affairs training and best-practice information to its member companies and nonprofit organizations.
Pinkham's chief complaint is that the lobbying restrictions regarding stimulus funds are not the best way to increase accountability to taxpayers. Members of Congress may be the most important group to track, Pinkham maintains. Lawmakers could be asking for recovery funds from agencies whose finances they have control over.
Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics agrees. "There is no reason to limit it to registered lobbyists," she reported after a meeting at the White House with Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, and several other White House staffers.
In his letter, Pinkham suggests the government create a searchable database that tracks all conversations of those seeking stimulus funds.
-- Eliza Krigman
The campaign days of 'My Barack Obama' may be over but the new administration is determined to maintain the community organizing spirit of the successful presidential bid. To that end, the White House announced today that the Office of Public Liaison will now be known as the Office of Public Engagement. Accompanying the new name is a new mission to help build relationships with Americans through which they can participate in and help inform the work of the president.
The initiative speaks to the president's desire to maintain grassroots outreach to Americans. Gathering information from outside the capital city and creating a strong online presence will be a focus of the office.
Despite the new name, the leadership will remain the same as it was under the Office of Public Liaison. Carrying out the new mission is Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to the president; Christina Tchen, director of the Office of Public Engagement; and Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public engagement.
Read the full release here: WH Office of Public Engagement.pdf
-- Eliza Krigman
It's easy to see why some good government advocates are upset that President Obama has tapped labor lawyer John J. Sullivan to serve on the Federal Election Commission.
Labor unions fought to block the landmark McCain-Feingold legislation that banned soft money, joining in an unsuccessful Supreme Court challenge in 2003. More recently the Service Employees International Union, where Sullivan is associate general counsel, has urged the FEC to relax its enforcement both of disclosure rules and of limits on coordination between candidates and outside groups.
Sullivan's selection bodes poorly for Obama's pledges to fix the dysfunctional FEC, complained J. Gerald Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center.
"The gusto with which Mr. Sullivan has bashed important elements of McCain-Feingold and repeatedly taken radical deregulatory positions does not inspire confidence that he will have different views if confirmed to the Commission," Hebert warned in a statement.
But Sullivan's critics would do well to remember another labor lawyer whose nomination prompted similar dire warnings back in 2005. President Bush's nomination of Robert Lenhard also caused a stir among reform advocates, who objected at that time that Lenhard, too, had challenged the constitutionality of McCain-Feingold as associate general counsel of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
As it turns out, Lenhard went on to help preside over what in hindsight looks like one of the FEC's more productive recent phases. Not that Lenhard's every decision was lauded by good government watchdogs. But compared with today's FEC -- which in recent months has bogged down repeatedly in partisan deadlocks and public disputes -- Lenhard's tenure looks like a virtual model of efficiency.
To Read More, click on "Rules of the Game."
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "As President Obama ends his 100-day honeymoon and begins his first term in earnest, two things are clear downtown: The 111th Congressional agenda is truly as ambitious as the most optimistic lobbyists had expected and the recession is having a real impact on K Street's hiring practices," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "While Washington isn't facing massive layoffs, the influence business hasn't been trying to woo politically-connected aides with the massive signing bonuses and compensation packages it would have offered in a more upbeat economy."
• "It still may seem like the winter of discontent for Republicans looking for lobbying slots, but the job chill for many K Street GOPers has begun to thaw," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Republicans might not command the top salaries they did three years ago, but that doesn't mean their dream jobs are out of reach."
• Obama "will announce an initiative Monday that the administration says will reduce national healthcare spending by $2 trillion over 10 years," The Hill reports. "A coalition of six interest groups representing healthcare companies and a labor union are behind the plan. Their chief executives will meet with the president Monday to present him with a written commitment to cut the rate of growth in healthcare spending by 1.5 percentage points each year for 10 years."
• "Duke Energy is bailing on its membership in the National Association of Manufacturers, in part because of disagreements with the lobbying group's stance on climate change policy," Politico reports. "Duke, one of the largest utilities in the country, supports passing legislation that caps greenhouse gas emissions. The company is a founding member of United States Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of business and environmental groups advocating for a cap-and-trade system."
"There is no doubt in my mind that the substance of the campaign finance debate has reached the turning point," says Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute. He was one of several panel members at a money-in-politics conference convened last week by the Brennan Center for Justice. Freshman Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, who gave the opening remarks, noted her state has been lauded for establishing an effective public financing system. But, she said, running for federal office was a demoralizing "dialing for dollars" exercise: "I learned firsthand that to fund-raise you must set up a telemarketing operation. This doesn't seem to me like any way to run a democracy."
Other attendees included Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, and the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus. Yearwood explicitly promoted the Fair Elections Act, legislation that would reform campaign finance to create matching payments for qualified small-dollar contributions, among other things.
-- Eliza Krigman
In this week's National Journal and today's CongressDailyAM: (subscription)
Never too early to get up to speed!
Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told National Journal Thursday afternoon that he was heading out to get some pointers and background information from two veteran Washington lawyers about how to lead the GOP questioning of President Obama's upcoming nominee to the Supreme Court. (Sessions secured his new committee role this week because Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the former committee ranking member, switched parties to become a Democrat.)
According to the former Alabama federal prosecutor, his guides were former Attorney General William Barr, who served in the Justice Department under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and President George W. Bush's former assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy from 2001-2003, Viet Dinh.
Barr, a telecomm attorney now with Kirkland & Ellis, headed Justice during the confirmation hearings for now-retiring Justice David Souter in 1990 and for Justice Clarence Thomas, who barely cleared Senate approval in 1991 by a vote of 52-48. Dinh, known as the primary architect of the USA PATRIOT Act in the wake of 9/11, is a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University, and someone whose name has been a favorite on lists of potential Supreme Court nominees in a Republican administration.
Dinh, who clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, was part of the team that helped the Bush administration win Senate approval of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
Health Care for America Now, a liberal advocacy group, hopes to use the health care background of Conservatives for Patients' Rights founder Rick Scott against him. Scott, a a founder and former CEO of Columbia/Hospital Corporation of America, has been bankrolling a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign against government-sponsored expansion of health care coverage.
Today, HCAN announced it would be running television ads in Washington and Scott's home town of Naples, Fla., spotlighting Columbia/HCA's $1.7 billion settlement in a fraud case in the late 1990s and Scott's ouster by the company's board. The group says the personal attack on Scott is warranted because he is underwriting the campaign with money made by defrauding the government and the public" and has made himself the face of the opposition to reform. See press release here.
-- Julie Kosterlitz
General Electric has hired Joshua Raymond, chief of staff to Rep. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., as senior manager of government relations. Raymond will report to Nancy Dorn, head of GE's DC office.
"Josh spent the bulk of his career working on banking and financial services in the Office of Management and Budget, in the Congress and as a lawyer at a leading DC law firm, where he represented major lenders, investment banks and insurance companies," according to an e-mail circulated within GE's office today.
John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation writes about a May 6 meeting he and his colleagues and others in the nonprofit community had with White House officials on President Obama's rules for lobbyists.
Many in the nonprofit world have been highly critical of the revolving-door rules, which have eliminated many lobbyists for nonprofits from being considered for administration posts. And many on K Street have been critical of the administration's rules restricting lobbyists' communications to writing when it comes to discussing specific stimulus requests with executive branch officials.
Wonderlich provides both an interesting defense and a criticism of the rules. He writes:
"To me, this looks like an imperfect law (the Lobbying Disclosure Act)
being used as a foundation for imperfect lobbying restrictions, in the
face of enormous and unprecedented stimulus spending. Whether the
restrictions are proportional to the sudden need for competent spending
is certainly up for debate. There seems to be little debate, however
over whether the LDA is a sufficient vehicle for lobbying regulation.
It isn't. The LDA requirements are easily skirted, enforcement is lax,
and many terms are insufficiently defined. (It's probably fair to say
that position was the consensus of the groups present, but certainly
not presented as administration policy.)"
Read more at Sunlight Foundation.
From this morning's Earlybird:
UPDATE (May 6 @ 5;45 p.m.): We have obtained two letters related to the Chevron case. One is by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ( Cuomo Letter.pdf), and the second is from Amnesty International to Cuomo ( Amnesty Letter to Cuomo.pdf)
This past Sunday, "60 Minutes" aired a tough piece about oil pollution in the Amazon region of Ecuador and the massive lawsuit by some 30,000 Ecuadorans against American corporate giant Chevron.
(View the "60 Minutes" piece: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4988079n)
But weeks before the May 3 CBS program, the oil company was already fighting back through an Internet video narrated by former CNN television newsman Gene Randall that portrayed Chevron in a more positive light. Randall's video blamed much of Ecuador's oil pollution problems on its state-owned oil firm, and it downplayed criticism from Ecuadorans and their lawyers about Chevron's responsibility for toxic oil wastes in many Ecuadoran rivers and streams owing to more than two decades of oil drilling by Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001.
(View Randall's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YMCGC-2ytE)
Randall's news report has an authentic feel - but the video was paid for by Chevron, which hired Randall last fall, not long after the company got wind that "60 Minutes" was working on a big story.
"I don't portray it as a piece of journalism, but I used journalistic techniques in telling Chevron's side of the story," Randall said in an interview. "I belong among the people who don't think Chevron has gotten a fair shake over the years."
Randall, now a corporate consultant who has done one other project for Chevron, worked with the Alexandria, Va. firm CRC Public Relations to produce the video. He would not say how much he was paid. Two environmental groups have called on Chevron to cease airing the video unless it discloses its role.
Randall's project is just one part of Chevron's legal, lobbying and PR full-court press to influence a court proceeding in Ecuador that could result in civil damages of up to $27 billion against the company. A court in Ecuador is expected to rule this year.
Continue reading Former CNN Reporter Pitches for Chevron (Update).
Update @ 3:16 PM. Here is NAB's press release.
David Rehr, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, is stepping down after three years on the job, a source confirmed. Other news outlets are also reporting on his departure. NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton declined to comment.
Rehr joined the NAB in December 2005 from the National Beer Wholesalers Association, where he had been CEO.
He is departing as the industry faces a number of critical and thorny public policy issues, including the digital television transition and a battle with the music industry over royalty fees.
We'll update this story as we have more information.
(Photo by Liz Lynch)
I've seen the women's anti-war group CodePink disrupt many a hearing on Capitol Hill over the past several years in protest of the war in Iraq, but yesterday was the first time that I have seen protesters disrupt a Senate hearing on healthcare.
The protesters weren't anti-war activists, but rather doctors and other citizens, organized by Healthcare-Now! and Physicians for a National Health Program who want Congress to create a single-payer public-financed healthcare plan. Here's the press release and video they published on the event.
No one in Congress is discussing creating a single-payer system and President Obama didn't campaign on starting one either. Still, the protesters yesterday probably put some lawmakers on notice about the passions surrounding the issue.
Eight people got up, one after the other, to yell at Senate Finance Committee members and their panel of 18 stakeholders. Capitol Hill police took them away, one by one and arrested them for disorderly conduct. At one point, a person in the audience turned to me and said "Wow. Now this is democracy in action."
The Huffington Post has more on the story here.
The George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management hosted a forum Tuesday looking at the Obama administration's lobbying rules. White House ethics adviser Norman Eisen defended the restrictions. And one panel discussed crafting appropriate government policies for lobbying. Panelists, from left to right, were: Melanie Sloan, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington; Leo Wise, Office of Congressional Ethics; Moderator Steven Roberts, GW's SMPA; Ron Christie, Christie Strategies; and Ellen Miller, Sunlight Foundation. Video highlights and a write-up of the event follows.
At a forum at George Washington University Tuesday, White House ethics adviser Norman Eisen touted the "open-door" policies of the White House and said that restrictions the administration has placed on lobbyists have been created in the interest of striving for merit-based decision-making.
"What we have attempted to do in defining the public interest is to embark on a ... compact with the American people that we will not be subjected to the influences ... that have waylaid good policy, but really will attempt to be guided by that point on the horizon that represents the best thing for the country," said Eisen, who was a partner at law firm Zuckerman Spaeder and co-founded watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington before joining the administration.
Eisen said that the administration recognizes that there are challenges in figuring out how to create a transparent and effective policy-making environment, but is gathering "evidence" on the impact of ethics rules by meeting with lobbyists to hear their opinions.
"One of the striking things that does not come across [in the media] is the level of agreement that lobbyists and others have with us with respect to the stimulus lobbying rules," Eisen said.
Continue reading White House's Eisen: K Street Rules Evolving.
In a rare sight on Capitol Hill for any industry, health insurers practically begged senators Tuesday to regulate their livelihood rather than subject them to the fierce, and potentially lethal, competition that would ensue if lawmakers unleash a government-run public insurance option on them.
"We accept the premise that the system is not working today and needs to be reformed and, in fact, we need very clear, specific government regulation," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans said.
AHIP also said insurers would stop discriminating based on gender, which typically leaves women paying more than men.
AHIP has suggested insurers are willing to drop conditions for insurance coverage and variations in premium costs depending on how sick a person is.
Ignagni spoke at a roundtable discussion with the Senate Finance Committee and other stakeholders. She elaborated after the event that she envisions the government setting a minimum health benefit package and enforcing the limits through penalties she said AHIP would help design. She admits the request is unusual.
"It's radical for an industry working in a market to say 'Renovate the rules. Here's the road map,'" Ignagni said.
A handful of major high-tech companies wrote to House Transportation Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn. and ranking member John Mica, R-Fla. on Wednesday to voice their opposition to a proposed ban on the usage of wireless telecommunications on U.S. commercial flights, reports TechDailyDose.
The Consumer Electronics Association, CTIA-The Wireless Association, the Satellite Industry Association, Technology Association of America, and the Telecommunications Industry Association joined passenger rights and business groups that recently complained about a legislative rush to prohibit the activity as part of a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill without meaningful public input. Rather than eliminating the option of using devices on airplanes, CTIA Vice President Jot Carpenter called for a study to determine whether there is consumer demand.
To read more, click here.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "With Justice David Souter set to step down from the Supreme Court, lobbying groups are revving up their research and advocacy efforts in a battle that could cost a million dollars or more before a justice is confirmed," The Hill reports. "The White House said this week that the nomination process is on a "tight timeline," and that President Obama would like to see a new justice installed on the court by October."
• "The White House's top ethics cop said on Tuesday that 'there is a process' in place for enforcing the new lobbying rules on the books since President Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "'We have had extensive conversations with both the groups that agree with the rules and disagree with the rules,' White House special counsel Norman Eisen said Tuesday at George Washington University. 'We're also in regular conversation with the agencies.'"
• "During the 2008 campaign cycle, a political action committee set up by Rep. Paul Gillmor spent nearly $6,000 on seemingly personal outlays: fast-food, doughnuts, bar tabs and golfing," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The spending was highly unusual. The Ohio Republican was dead. Such free spending on behalf of federal lawmakers who are retired, defeated -- or, in this case, deceased -- is legal, according to the Federal Election Commission, and becoming increasingly common."
• "Online gambling advocates are upping their ante inside the Beltway, adding new hired guns and rethinking their Capitol Hill strategy as Congress gets ready to take up legislation that would reverse the ban on online gaming," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is expected to introduce legislation as early as today aimed at legalizing online gambling."
Richard Hunt has landed on his feet, as the new president of the Consumer Bankers Association.
The one-time aide to former Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La, is filling a vacancy left by the death of Joe Belew in January. Hunt was let go by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association late last year, amidst downsizing and some questions about the future for Republicans on K Street.
Hunt arrives as the Association gears up to oppose the Obama Administration's proposal to end private lender's involvement in the federal student loan programs. See the association press release here.
Hunt release.pdf
Law firm Foley Hoag has hired Lindsey Toohey to work in its government strategies group and represent clients in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries.
Toohey is a former senior health policy adviser to Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. She dealt with Medicare, Medicaid, Food and Drug Administration regulations, and other issues for the Senate Budget Committee chairman.
A Boston, Mass.-based firm, Foley Hoag's Washington office includes Barrett Thornhill, a former aide to Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho and director of federal government relations for the Biotechnology Industry Organization; and Susie Ahn, who also worked in federal government relations for BIO.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Foley Hoag has lobbied for BIO and pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Eli Lilly.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "An anonymous organization backing the card-check bill is using tags on Twitter to con opponents of the legislation into signing a petition supporting it," The Hill reports. "The group, operating in apparent association with a primitive website called TheTruthAboutEFCA.org, links to a pro-Employee Free Choice Act petition in its Twitter feed, run under the name EFCANow. But in doing so, the EFCANow Twitter feed broadened its reach well beyond the 2,274 followers it has on the popular micro-blogging site."
• "Retailers and credit card companies are facing off over interchange fees as merchants try to add language to a Senate bill that limits the ability of banks to raise interest rates," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "The Merchants Payments Coalition has long lobbied against the fees, which are about 2 percent of each purchase and are charged to merchants each time a customer uses a credit or debit card."
• "From car companies to big retailers, firms looking for shelter in the recession are swarming around a promising opportunity: a multibillion emergency spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," AP reports. "Whenever such a must-pass bill comes along, it becomes a magnet for interest groups and industries looking to use its momentum for their own purposes. Lawmakers get in on the act too, using the bill as a shortcut to accomplish their goals."
• "A cybersecurity adviser in the White House would provide the coordinated and consistent approach industry needs to create and develop technology for the federal government, officials at the technology industry group TechAmerica said today," Federal Computer Week reports. "The group supports provisions in the Information and Communication Enhancement bill introduced by Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.), including naming a White House cybersecurity adviser."
The Campaign Legal Center is up in arms over President Obama's nomination of John Sullivan for a seat on the Federal Election Commission. Jabbing at Obama's campaign slogan, the organization released a statement last Friday calling Sullivan "not the change we need."
"Mr. Sullivan has bashed important elements of McCain-Feingold and repeatedly taken radical deregulatory positions," said center Executive Director J. Gerald Hebert, in a press release.
Sullivan is a veteran labor lawyer. Most recently he served as the associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union. Citing various instances where Sullivan supported the deregulation of campaign finance laws, the center says it has deep concerns over whether he will effectively support the agency's mission of enforcing money-in-politics restrictions.
-- Eliza Krigman
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers released a statement today touting automakers' support for a single national standard on carbon emissions. See Auto Alliance on CO2.pdf The Alliance represents 11 vehicle manufacturers, including Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler.
The federal government is due to make a decision on whether to grant California the authority to implement its own low-carbon emission standards.
The Auto Alliance opposes California's desire to set its own fuel economy rules. Having different standards, "creates complexity and inconsistency for manufacturers," said Charles Territo, director of communications for the Auto Alliance. "We believe that a single national standard would make granting California a waiver unnecessary."
In the first quarter of 2009, the Auto Alliance spent $1.3 million on lobbying.
-- Eliza Krigman
Correction 5/5 @ 3:00 pm. The orginial item incorrectly reported the name of the new head of Fleishman-Hillard's DC office. The correct version is below.
Bill Pendergast takes over as leader of Fleishman-Hillard's Washington DC office, replacing Martha Boudreau, who was promoted to run the company's mid-Atlantic and Latin American offices.
Pendergast has been with the company since 1998, where he has managed corporate communications, reputation management and crisis communications. Most recently he was Fleishman-Hillard's deputy general manager and led the DC office's corporate practice.
Before Fleishman-Hillard, Pendergast was director of public relations at Ameritech and before that was at Ketchum Consumer Services.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "A growing number of industries are lobbying for free pollution permits under legislation capping greenhouse-gas emissions, in a potential threat to the funding for President Obama's proposed middle-class tax cut," the Wall Street Journal reports. "A range of industries, including electric utilities, auto makers, and oil and natural gas refineries, are making their case to lawmakers ahead of a vote on proposed climate legislation expected this week by the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment."
• Obama "says lobbyists won't run his administration, but he picked an antitobacco lobbyist with ties to the pharmaceutical industry as the No. 2 official at the Department of Health and Human Services," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The nomination of William Corr -- former executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, where he was a registered lobbyist until September -- highlights the murkiness of Mr. Obama's antilobbyist policy."
• "Less than a week after the House passed an expansion of federal hate crime laws, gay rights activists are upping the pressure on lawmakers to enact the first of several pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender bills," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "To press the point, the Human Rights Campaign is blanketing Capitol Hill on Monday and Tuesday with a 'Clergy Call for Justice and Equality,' bringing in more than 300 clergy from all 50 states to lobby on LGBT issues."
• "For going on two weeks, the Washington professionals who represent the nation's 67,000 pork producers have been in a mad dash to, as President Obama once said, put lipstick on this pig," the Washington Post reports.
The Wall Street Journal's Susan Davis has a story on judicial advocacy groups drawing battle lines for the coming fight over President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, now that Justice David Souter offically announced he is retiring.
Davis talked to the Judicial Confirmation Network, Americans United for Life and People for the American Way for her story.
Also, though the House will have no role in the confirmation of a new justice, Davis says the House Republican Conference has tapped six conservative members to serve as the "Supreme Court Rapid Response Team."
When it comes to fundraising, what a difference a seat on the House Financial Services Committee makes, writes Nancy Watzman for the Sunlight Foundation's Political Party Time blog.
"Take Rep. Leonard Lance of New Jersey, a rarity in this new Congress: a GOP freshman," she writes. "When Lance ran his campaign for this open seat, he collected just $34,500 from the financial sector. With his seat on the influential committee secured, invitations went out for a March 17 'financial services industry' dinner at the Matchbox restaurant in Chinatown."
Watzman then dug into first-quarter finance reports at the Federal Election Commission and found $46,000 in donations from financial services political action committees. "More in three months than Lance had collected for his entire 2008 campaign."
Click here to see the invitation and read more of the story.
After many months of hunting for a new heavyweight lobbyist to head its D.C. outpost, Hewlett-Packard seems to be approaching the finish line. Lobbying sources say that HP is zeroing in on a few well known GOP hands on K Street-- two of whom now work for companies that have been pummeled by the recession. Among the big names on the short list are Nick Calio, the GOP lobbyist who runs Citigroup's Washington office, and Ziad Ojakli, also a GOP lobbyist, who heads Ford's D.C. operations.
From this week's National Journal and Congress Daily: (subscription)
