Organizations donated $94.7 million to campaign committees and federal candidates through their political action committees during the first half of 2009, with a majority of those contributions landing in the coffers of Democrats, an analysis of midyear lobbyist contribution forms by Lobbyists.info revealed.
Of funds donated by organization PACs that could be broken down by party, 63 percent went to Democrats and 37 percent went to Republicans. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee received $3 million from organization PACs, making it the top recipient.
The analysis also found that organizations donated $22.5 million through funds not associated with their PACs and lobbyists donated $13 million from personal funds.
The top Senate recipient was the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who received $1.6 million from organization PACs in the first half of 2009, just as questions loom about where his re-election funds will go following his death.
The top House recipient from organization PACs was Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., who received $1.2 million.
The top donating organization PAC was the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which donated $1.6 million, and the top donating organization excluding PAC funds was Wal-Mart, which donated $1.2 million.
The LD-203 forms that are used by registered lobbyists and lobbying organizations to report contributions were first introduced in 2008 under the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act.
Dan Mica, president and CEO of the Credit Union National Association, announced last week that he, along with CUNA Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff Richard McBride, will resign effective January 2011.
Mica, who represented Florida's 11th district in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1989, said he was resigning in accordance with advice he once received not to stay in a position for more than 10 years. After leaving Congress, Mica was executive vice president for federal affairs at the American Council of Life Insurance until 1996, when he joined CUNA.
"Now, completely of my own choosing and preference, I am making the change. I fully intend to move on to something else after I depart CUNA. There is much room in my life for additional accomplishments, and I am looking at all opportunities," Mica said in a statement.
While at CUNA, the trade organization for credit unions, Mica lobbied members of Congress to pass various pieces of legislation impacting the industry, including the Credit Union Membership Access Act and the Bankruptcy Abuse Reform Act.
"During his tenure at CUNA -- longer than any other CEO -- Dan has brought CUNA and the credit union movement to the highest levels of respect in Washington and nationwide," Kris Mecham, chairman of CUNA's board of directors, said in a statement.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• Despite a presidential order to do so, few federal officials' contacts with lobbyists "have been reported even though lobbyists say they are busier than ever with the multibillion-dollar stimulus," AP reports. "Since the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February, federal agencies have reported 197 contacts with lobbyists about stimulus grants."
• The battle over the upcoming climate bill "could be just as nasty as the one over healthcare, and many of the groups opposing or supporting the energy proposals are gleaning lessons from the current fight," the Los Angeles Times reports. "Groups on both sides 'are not just watching healthcare closely, but calibrating how we go about doing this based on what we see happening out there,' said Matt Bennett, vice president for public affairs at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank engaged in both the healthcare and climate fights."
• "Organized labor is betting big in Virginia and New Jersey, where two critical off-year gubernatorial races are taking place in November," Politico reports. "In New Jersey, where Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine trails Republican Chris Christie in the polls, the AFL-CIO earlier this month unveiled a web site slamming Christie for promoting an 'economic agenda threatens the middle class.'"
National Federation of Independent Business
This association speaks for the interests of small and independent business owners. The group has 350,000 members.
What They Want
The NFIB has four top goals for health care reform legislation: lowering costs while increasing access, reforming the individual and small group insurance markets, providing greater choice for insurance options and making insurance plans portable.
The group's focus is different from other business groups like the Business Roundtable, because small business owners are characteristically different from large corporations in their insurance-buying habits. NFIB reports that small businesses pay 18 percent more in premiums than large companies for the same health insurance benefits and premiums for small businesses have risen by 113 percent since 1999.
"We feel [the individual and small group] marketplaces are currently broken," said Amanda Austin, NFIB's director of federal public policy, citing the need to eliminate denials of coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
To increase choice in those markets, the NFIB would like to open up the system so insurance consumers can shop across state lines.
"We would like employers to be able to choose the plan that fits them," Austin said. Small business owners "need to be in the driver's seat and not the back seat."
The NFIB also feels health care reform should provide a way for people to keep their insurance plan if they leave a job that provided coverage. Because of the way the employer-based insurance system works now, individuals are often reluctant to become self-employed or move to a small business because they'll lose coverage, Austin contended.
"People are staying in jobs versus becoming the next big idea because of reasons like health care," she said.
The group's overall stance -- that reform needs to happen promptly -- is far different from the last time health care reform was on the table. In the 1990s, the NFIB actively worked against Clinton's reform plan.
"It is necessary we have reform," Austin said of this year's reform debate. "Status quo is unacceptable in our eyes."
At a bar in Washington, D.C., last week about 100 people filled a back room. As they flowed in, they found seats, introduced themselves to the others at the table and promptly started sharing their opinions, some passionate and some subdued, on one pressing issue: health care reform.
What drew them to the event? Not the hope to voice opinions to an elected official. Not the desire to protest or rally. Just the opportunity to learn and engage with a local community, fueled by the type of "do it ourselves" political activism found on Meetup.com.
Individuals have long used the site to host local meetings related to any topic -- from Indian food to education policy -- though it wasn't until the grassroots-style success of the Obama campaign that Meetup reached its highest levels of use and its first month turning a profit, CEO Scott Heiferman said.
The core idea behind the site, creating an online platform where groups of people with common interests can find each other, seems tailor-made for the type of grassroots activism that many people want to be a part of on current political issues, like health care reform and climate change policy.
Alexander Moll, a citizen participation consultant, organized last week's health care forum, sponsored by the National Issues Forum. He spread word about the event through Facebook.com, my.BarackObama.com and Meetup.com, but he thinks Meetup is the most effective site available for bringing out crowds to his events.
"I still think Meetup is underrated comparatively," said Moll, who started using the site about six years ago, shortly after its launch. "Meetup has more of a suite of tools for organizing people."
Continue reading Meetup Blossoms In Shadow Of Organizer-In-Chief.
For candidates and interest groups, raising funds and effectively communicating the right message are two important tasks that are seemingly never complete.
But to provide strategies for better approaching those tasks, the Huck Group, a visual communications consulting firm based in Los Angeles, has opened a political division.
"There are so many great people who just cannot simplify and clarify their message in a persuasive way," said Juliet Huck, the firm's founder and CEO.
What does she suggest to hone a message? Just add visuals. "We have statistics to show that the level of retention goes up by 70 percent as soon as you put visuals in front of" an audience, she said.
Since 1999, Huck has spread her gospel of "visually persuasive storytelling" to lawyers and business executives. She has also consulted for government departments, including the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and helped the DOJ on the Enron case.
"You have to get information out there in a way that people relate to it," Huck said. To reach that goal, she consults with clients on the full gamut of visual techniques, from old-fashioned poster boards to high-tech graphics.
Through her consulting process, Huck hopes to teach politicians how to bring an audience to "a moment when you don't have to make a decision because it's already right there in front of you."
Huck is opening the political division now because she sees a glaring need for her type of consulting in D.C. For example, she says groups and lawmakers working on health care reform haven't been able to communicate their message effectively because they haven't shown the American people how reform will be beneficial.
People "only want change if it's going to benefit them, and they don't see -- literally see -- how [health care reform] is going to benefit them," she said.
Federation of American Hospitals
This group represents the 1,100 investor-owned, or for-profit, hospitals that make up about 20 percent of the hospital industry.
What They Want
FAH's top priority for reform legislation is getting as close as possible to universal coverage -- about 95 percent coverage is the target, FAH President Charles Kahn said. "Our focus has been on assuring that all, or as many as possible, of Americans receive health care coverage," he said.
"We understand, at the same time, that... costs need to be held under control and contained," he said.
To help reach that coverage goal, three groups representing hospitals -- FAH plus the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States -- agreed in July to take $155 billion in government reimbursement cuts over the next 10 years, assuming legislation with near universal coverage passes.
Kahn suggested other ways to fund the overhaul that would lead to coverage expansion, like pay for performance.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "President Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee on Thursday joined the growing group of politicians and committees pledging to return or donate to charity campaign contributions from Democratic moneyman Hassan Nemazee, who was arrested and charged Tuesday with trying to defraud Citibank of $74 million by offering fake collateral for a loan," Politico reports. "But a DNC official stopped short of promising that Obama would give back or give away contributions from other donors that came through Nemazee through a process known as bundling that brought in more than $500,000 for Obama's campaign."
• "The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been lobbying for three decades for the federal government to provide universal health insurance, especially for the poor," the New York Times reports. "Now, as President Obama tries to rally Roman Catholics and other religious voters around his proposals to do just that, a growing number of bishops are speaking out against it."
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "has launched an urgent effort to raise $100,000 by Monday to help combat what she calls GOP 'smears' about health care reform," Politico reports. "'Republican opponents of reform are coming out with one outrageous smear after the next, all aimed at derailing our progress. We must be able to counter their special interest-funded attacks and set the record straight,' Pelosi wrote in a letter to Democratic supporters."
In a sign that Obama-style online fundraising is here to stay, political donation site ActBlue outspent any other PAC during the first six months of 2009, according to a report released last week by the Center for Responsive Politics. The left-leaning group sent nearly $8.5 million to Democratic candidates during that period, $3 million more than EMILY's List, the next-highest spender.
Unlike other PACs, which focus on particular issues or agendas, ActBlue is a fundraising tool people can use to send money to whichever Democratic candidates or causes move them to open their wallets. Its quick climb to the top of the list -- the site launched in 2004 -- represents less the rise of any specific issue than it does candidates' growing reliance on online fundraising methods.
And, as quickly as it sends the money out, more keeps coming in. The group announced today that it had hit the $100 million mark in cash raised since its founding, with a reported median donation of $50. And a fundraising drive begun last week to support legislators who favor a public health care option is still bringing in cash and recently surpassed $400,000.
J Street, the pro-Israel political powerhouse that raised nearly a million dollars in the 2008 election cycle, announced yesterday the appointment of Hadar Susskind as director of policy and strategy. A longtime Washingtonian, Susskind will be leaving his position as vice president and Washington director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs to join J Street.
"My goal is to build as broad a base of support as possible for Israel at this politically pivotal moment when there is both great opportunity to make progress in resolving the conflict and a tremendous risk of squandering it," Susskind said in a press release.
In his new role, Susskind will take charge of J Street's government affairs team as well as its political and strategic campaigns, and will coordinate the group's lobbying, political action and grassroots operations. Born in Israel, Susskind is a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces.
A list of candidates JStreetPAC supported in the 2008 election cycle can be seen here.
As the health care debate has worn on, President Obama has looked to elected officials, interest groups and his campaign volunteers for help in pushing reform. Now he's hoping for another band of advocates: doctors.
On a conference call Tuesday night, White House health advisers prodded about 3,000 physicians and health industry professionals to take a more active role in promoting health care reform, the AP reports. A pamphlet sent out to doctors before the call suggested they host town hall meetings and hospital tours or hold a whole "Health Insurance Reform Week." The conference call included members of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Surgeons and was similar to ones held earlier this summer with nurses and senior citizens, the article reports.
A leading conservative group that was running television ads against a public option pulled the ads from the airwaves Wednesday after news of Sen. Edward Kennedy's death.
Conservatives for Patients' Rights announced last week that it would spend $150,000 on a targeted ad campaign in Martha's Vineyard and Boston because of President Obama's vacation in the area. That ad campaign and another nationwide campaign are now suspended.
"Conservatives for Patients' Rights is immediately suspending our ad campaign for health care reform out of respect to the Kennedy family as well as the senator's colleagues and supporters, to whom we extend our condolences," CPR Chairman Rick Scott said in a statement. "We know the debate will continue -- a debate Senator Kennedy embraced with vigor -- and we look forward to engaging in the debate in the months ahead. But now is a time for respect, reflection and remembrance."
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "A new report by the group Public Citizen says that representatives of the banks that received the most money in a federal bailout have ponied up millions of dollars in campaign donations to Members of Congress," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Lobbyists, political action committees and trade associations connected to the industry have scheduled 70 fundraisers for Members since Election Day 2008 and have made $6 million in contributions," the report found.
• "Opponents of a health care overhaul have been stoking fears that a government health plan would entail 'death panels' that deny treatment to sick people. Now, a liberal group financed by two large labor unions is turning the tables with an attack ad that portrays health insurance companies denying medical care to patients as the 'real death panels in America,'" the New York Times reports.
Following news of Sen. Edward Kennedy's death Tuesday night, groups from all corners of the health care community mourned the loss of reform's strongest advocate.
Kennedy, D-Mass., first pushed for universal health care coverage in the 1970s, and his absence during health care reform discussions this summer has been felt by those involved.
"Older Americans lost a champion and this nation lost a role model," AARP CEO Barry Rand said in a statement. "Senator Kennedy was a tireless fighter for the poor and the working class and the programs they relied upon, especially Medicare and Social Security."
"We are truly saddened by the passing of a giant in the area of health care policy -- our friend, U.S. senator and recipient of the American Cancer Society's highest award, Medal of Honor and the National Distinguished Advocacy Award, Edward 'Ted' Kennedy," American Cancer Society CEO John Seffrin said in a statement. "Senator Kennedy was a passionate advocate for cancer patients and their families, not just in his home state of Massachusetts, but nationwide."
Kennedy "was America's health care champion. His contribution to health care policy is unmatched," said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans. "AHIP and its members join the entire health care community in extending our thoughts and prayers to the Kennedy family."
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
This organization, the advocacy wing of the American Cancer Society, works to find government solutions to issues affecting cancer patients and to reduce the disease's occurrence.
What They Want
ACS CAN has three priorities for reform legislation: guaranteed access to sufficient care, emphasis on preventative screenings and services, and improved quality of life for cancer patients. "We want to go from a sick care system to a true health care system," said President Dan Smith.
To help cancer patients gain access to affordable coverage, the group supports eliminating health insurance exclusions, ratings based on preexisting conditions and annual and lifetime caps. They'd also like to limit out-of-pocket costs for patients.
Ultimately, ACS CAN wants to drive down the incidence of cancer. The group says 60 percent of the country's 565,000 annual cancer deaths are preventable through measures like early screening, maintaining a healthy body weight and quitting smoking. So ACS CAN hopes to see provisions relating to those measures in health care legislation. "We're not properly incentivizing prevention in this country," Smith said. He added that such measures would lower overall costs while cutting down on cancer rates.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Vice President Joe Biden, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday evening they plan to return or donate to charity campaign contributions from Democratic financier Hassan Nemazee, who was arrested and charged Tuesday with trying to defraud Citibank of $74 million by offering fake collateral on a loan," Politico reports.
• "New financial disclosure reports filed by Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) show that the veteran lawmaker failed to report more than $660,000 in assets during 2007, a potential violation of House ethics rules," Politico reports. "The latest revelations on Rangel's personal finances may prove problematic for the New York Democrat, who is already the target of a wide-ranging ethics investigation."
The top five heavy hitters in health care this year work in the White House or on Capitol Hill, followed by many of K Street's biggest influencers, according to Modern Healthcare's 2009 list of the 100 most powerful people in health care.
Last year, the magazine listed leaders in the technology sector as its top three, but this year reform efforts in Washington have dominated the attention of the industry.
President Obama is ranked No. 1, followed by his health care gurus, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Filling out the top five are Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
A little further down the list are CEOs, presidents and executives from a host of the top-spending interest and advocacy groups: Andy Stern of Service Employees International Union; James Guest of the Consumers Union; Billy Tauzin of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; Richard Umbdenstock of the American Hospital Association; Karen Ignagni of America's Health Insurance Plans; Chip Kahn of the Federation of American Hospitals; Scott Serota of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association; James Rohack and Michael Maves of the American Medical Association; and John Rother of AARP.
Under the Influence has been profiling the top players in the health care reform discussion.
Read the rest of Modern Healthcare's list here (subscribers only).
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Four independent groups are launching more than $1 million in attack ads" today "targeting five House Republicans who voted against energy legislation in June, spokespeople for the groups said," Politico reports. "The ads from the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, MoveOn and Americans United for Change, will target Reps. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.), Denny Rehberg (R- Mont.), Roy Blunt (R- Mo.) and two Virginia Republicans, Frank Wolf and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor."
• "Faced with a souring public mood on health care reform, Democrats and their supporters are launching a national grassroots push Wednesday to show lawmakers that the majority of Americans still support overhauling the system," Politico reports. The Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America and Health Care for America Now "are planning to hold more than 500 events between Wednesday and when lawmakers return to Washington Sept. 8, ranging from neighborhood organized phone banks to professionally staffed rallies with hundreds of people."
American College of Radiology
This association boasts 32,000 members in radiology-related professions, including radiologists, medical physicists and radiation oncologists.
What They Want
ACR would like to see three issues addressed in health care reform legislation: medical malpractice reform, physician self-referral and the implementation of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) technology.
As health care providers, who are affected by medical malpractice insurance rates, radiologists would like to see limits on the amount of money that can be paid out in malpractice cases.
"We hope and continue to hope [medical malpractice reforms] will be part of the health care reform discussion," said Ariel Gonzalez, ACR's director of congressional relations. "However, it looks like that isn't going to be the case this time."
The group also wants better regulation of physician self-referral for imaging services because the "financial conflict of interest" can hurt patients, Gonzalez said. Laws were passed in 1993 regulating imaging device referrals, but the self-referral loophole popped up because most doctors didn't own the machines at the time.
Another patient safety issue the ACR is pushing deals with how imaging services are ordered. Currently, radiology benefit management companies determine what tests a doctor can order for a patient, and if they say no, their word is final, Gonzalez said. But using CPOE technology instead would standardize the process, ACR contends, ensuring "the right test or the right scan is being ordered at the right time for the right person."
Doctors would input symptoms, and CPOE would give the doctor a rating of 0 to 10 on the appropriateness of the test. The technology would also track how many of each type of test doctors order, and it could be integrated into health information technology systems to avoid duplicating test orders. As a result, test orders would decrease, Gonzalez predicted, which would cut overall health care costs and protect patients from overexposure to radiation.
ACR also supports changing the sustainable growth rate, which ties Medicare payments to doctors to the growth of the economy, rather than health care costs.
Amid an August dominated by debate over the "public option," WellNet, a health technology company, maintains that the conversation is overlooking a critical variable: cost control.
The key to clamping down on health care costs will be increased transparency and information, said WellNet President Keith Lemer. Lemer's company creates software tools that help employers manage and understand their health care costs and advocates for two measures that would increase transparency and competition: leveling the playing field and unbundling benefits.
Leveling the playing field would mean eliminating "most favored nations" (MFN) clauses. Under MFNs, a health care provider cannot offer a lower rate than it does to the dominant insurer. To "unbundle benefits," employers would purchase medical and pharmaceutical coverage separately, resulting in greater clarity of the costs between the two. Presently, employers often purchase medical and pharmacy coverage together, hence the reason most people use the same insurance card at the doctor's office and at the pharmacy.
Before passing any major legislation, Lemer hopes lawmakers will take a step back to make sure they are addressing the root of problems with health care costs, not just expanding access.
After individuals went on Fox News and took to the Internet last week complaining they'd received unsolicited e-mails from the White House, the administration said it would change how it collects addresses. That's a good idea, e-mail experts say, because the White House has plenty of room for improvement.
"I would grade their e-mail collection process as an F," said Marco Marini, CEO of ClickMail Marketing, citing privacy and e-mail campaign effectiveness concerns.
The box at the top of WhiteHouse.gov allows anyone to subscribe by simply typing in an e-mail address and ZIP code. What's stopping my friend, or political opponent, from signing me up, Marini wondered? Adding an e-mail confirmation step would be "very easy to implement and would save a lot of headaches," he said.
Most sites that users must register for -- from newspapers to banks to stores -- send a confirmation to the e-mail addresses provided before beginning to use the address to communicate with the user. Though the White House said it was changing its e-mail collection process, Marini's basic suggestion is not among the changes made.
"We are implementing measures to make subscribing to e-mails clearer, including preventing advocacy organizations from signing people up to our lists without permission when they deliver petition signatures and other messages on individual's behalf," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said in a statement last week.
The White House's online director, Macon Phillips, followed that up with a blog post reiterating their suspicion that outside groups were signing up individuals without their permission and saying that changes had been made.
"It has come to our attention that some people may have been subscribed to our e-mail lists without their knowledge -- likely as a result of efforts by outside groups of all political stripes -- and we regret any inconvenience caused by receiving an unexpected message," Phillips wrote in the blog post. "We have ... implemented measures on WhiteHouse.gov to boost the security of the mailing list and we will carefully evaluate signups already received to work toward preventing this problem in the future."
What are the new measures Phillips mentions in the blog post? The only noticeable one is a CAPTCHA -- the disfigured words used to confuse automated computer programs -- on WhiteHouse.gov's "Contact Us" page, where a contact form requires an e-mail address and the sender is given the option of clicking a box to subscribe to e-mail updates. The White House believes groups were using this feature to send petitions to the administration from its members' e-mail addresses, resulting in the unsolicited e-mails.
But elsewhere on the site, users can still sign up directly for e-mail updates by simply inputting an e-mail address and ZIP code.
Shapiro declined to comment on whether the White House would add an e-mail confirmation step in its collection process.
An advocacy group opposing a controversial wind farm in Nantucket Sound -- the backdrop for the first family's vacation next week -- has a message for President Obama. And, if he happens to tune the radio to the local station in Martha's Vineyard, there's a good chance he'll hear it.
The Alliance To Save Nantucket Sound is running the ad in the Vineyard and elsewhere in Cape Cod to coincide with the president's vacation, which starts Sunday. Launched today, the ad will run throughout next week and weekend, said Audra Parker, chief operating officer and executive director of the alliance. The ad buy is a "few thousand dollars," Parker said.
"Mr. President, welcome to the beautiful waters of Cape Cod and the islands," a narrator begins, before making the case against what would be the nation's first offshore wind farm. "National treasures like Nantucket Sound should be off limits to industrial development," he concludes. "Mr. President, please protect our cherished sound."
Click here to listen to the ad, and read more about the controversy here and here.
Dick Morris, the reliably conservative pundit and former Democratic strategist for President Bill Clinton, is trying to raise lots of bucks for an anti-Obama health care reform ad that he boasts "can defeat Obama's health care takeover."
The ad, which can be seen below and is featured at DickMorris.com, is sponsored by an apparently new group called the League of American Voters, and it features a stern looking neurosurgeon named Mark Cuffe warning that the Obama administration plan will be a catastrophe: it will hurt seniors, lead to the rationing of care, end Medicare as we know it and more. The Web site encourages donations from $25 to $5,000 to help get the ad on the air. And Morris even promises a free copy of his new anti-Obama book, titled Catastrophe, to donors who kick in $250 or more.
It's unclear if the League has raised much money and the only staffer who's been identified with the fledgling group is Bob Adams who, during the Bush administration, worked for the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. The League is located is at 722 12 St. NW which also houses Americans for Tax Reform, the conservative anti-tax group run by Grover Norquist.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "AARP thinks U.S. health care needs a sweeping overhaul. Problem is, a lot of its members don't agree," the Wall Street Journal reports. "That is putting the 40-million-strong organization of older Americans in a tight spot. It is fielding a flood of calls from worried seniors and battling rumors about" President Obama's "health push, which it supports."
• "The United Health Group, a major insurer seen as playing the politics of reform better than most, is denying a report that it directed its employees to attend tea parties opposing the Democratic plans," Politico reports. "The insurance giant, with about 75,000 employees, confirmed another element of the report, however: That its employees' talking points include opposition to a public option for health insurance."
Updated at 10:15 a.m. on Aug. 24.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity said Thursday that it would no longer be working with Bonner & Associates, the grassroots lobbying firm founded by Jack Bonner, whose employee sent false letters to lawmakers urging them to vote against the House energy legislation.
"We will not be working with Mr. Bonner again," Joe Lucas, senior vice president for communications at ACCCE, told NationalJournal.com. "ACCCE did nothing wrong. Looking back, there would be many things we would do differently."
Bonner's firm was hired by ACCCE's subcontractor, the Hawthorn Group. Lucas said his group is in the process of determining exactly what it could have done differently. "We're taking this very seriously, but we do recognize that this was an isolated incident involving the wrongdoing of someone working for a subcontractor."
The Hawthorn Group itself cut ties with Bonner over the fake letters in June, according to ACCCE.
Whether ACCCE will continue to work with Hawthorn is still under review, Lucas said. But his comments suggest the middleman in this scandal is not losing out. "Hawthorn has been a consultant in this area for over 10 years and has a very, very good record of performance," Lucas said. "And this is, again, a very serious but isolated incident."
CLARIFICATION: The original version of this post implied that ACCCE was announcing the firing of Bonner & Associates. A company representative subsequently told us that the subcontractor, the Hawthorn Group, had already fired Bonner in June.
Biotechnology Industry Organization
This organization advocates for 1,200 biotech companies, academic institutions and biotech centers. Its members include companies that develop health care technologies, like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer and Merck.
What They Want
In the health care reform debate, BIO has concentrated on what it knows best: biologic drugs.
Biologics are drugs made from living organisms instead of chemical compounds. They are used to treat particularly serious or complex conditions like cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS.
Thus far, these drugs have not seen generic competition because the technology that creates them is cutting-edge. And true generic versions are unlikely because of the biologics' complexity. But Congress and the Food and Drug Administration are exploring how biosimilars -- drugs that would have small differences from the original -- can be manufactured and sold at a lower price. According to a June report from the Federal Trade Commission, treatment of breast cancer with a biologic drug can cost up to $48,000 per year. The report estimated that Americans spend a total of $40.3 billion per year on biologic drugs.
Legislation dealing with biosimilars was originally considered on its own, but it has since become part of health care reform legislation. BIO is supporting rules on biosimilars as a way to regulate the drugs to promote safety and further development.
"We took the position that we were going to be proactively in favor of biosimilars legislation," said Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of BIO.
Because the drugs are so complex, biosimilars need to be tested thoroughly to make sure they are as effective as biologics, BIO argues. And the group says the companies developing the biologics need to maintain exclusive rights for 12 years to get back their financial investment, since biologics take more time and resources to research and develop.
Health care reform bills passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee included amendments mandating the 12-year exclusivity period. The amendments passed in both committees with bipartisan support, in the Senate HELP Committee by a vote of 16-7 and in the House Energy and Commerce Committee by a vote of 47-11.
The White House, AARP and others have called for a seven-year exclusivity period that would get the cheaper drugs to patients faster.
"Those legislative battles have been fairly ferocious with AARP and the administration," Greenwood said.
He added that with the Senate HELP and House Energy and Commerce amendments passed, BIO will still have to work to protect biologics language in conference committee and in floor debate, but "so far, so good."
BIO also supports comparative effectiveness initiatives.
"We think it's important [to have] good, well-designed studies that can compare one drug to another drug or a drug to a surgical procedure or one surgical procedure to another surgical procedure," Greenwood said.
Former Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, has been elected to a two-year term as chairman of the board of directors at Ethics Resource Center, the nonprofit announced this week. ERC is devoted to business and workplace ethics.
Oxley served in the House for 25 years, including as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, before his retirement in 2007.
In a statement, Oxley said the ERC mission meshes with his own priorities. He was an architect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which aimed to improve the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures.
At ERC, he will help set the agenda for the nonprofit and work on strategy and fundraising.
"He has an extensive knowledge of the private sector and of government work," said Patricia Harned, president of ERC.
Oxley also serves as a senior advisor to the board of NASDAQ OMX Group and as a lobbyist for Baker Hostetler, working this year on behalf of the insurer Old Mutual, according to Center for Responsive Politics lobbying disclosure reports.
President Obama reiterated his support of a public option as part of health care reform today in a forum hosted by Organizing for America, the advocacy wing of the Democratic National Committee.
"One of the options we want to provide... is a public option," Obama said, disputing indications earlier this week that the administration was backing down from its stance on the government-sponsored health insurance plan. "I think a public option is important."
In a speech that sounded like a throwback to the campaign trail, Obama told a room full of supporters and volunteers not to give up on health care reform just as they didn't give up on him during the campaign. Others watched and listened on the group's Web site and on the phone.
As the president approached the podium, the crowd chanted "yes we can." Obama recalled the efforts of his volunteers, saying that it was just as important to go door-to-door with his message now as it was during the election.
"Nothing is more powerful than millions of voices calling for change," he said. "The true ambassadors for... true information is all of you."
The messages Obama wants his volunteers to spread are the same ones he's been repeating throughout the health care debate. Obama asked his supporters to tell their friends and neighbors that they can keep their doctors or insurance plans if they want; inclusion of a public option will drive down overall costs and keep private insurers honest; and reforms will not cut benefits to seniors on Medicare.
"If you are presenting the facts clearly and fairly, I'm absolutely confident we're going to win this debate," he said.
When Epolitics.com founder Colin Delany describes himself, he sounds more like a surgeon than a blogger, devoted to "dissecting the craft of online political advocacy." Along with consulting on campaigns and running his blog, which won a Golden Dot Award in 2007 in the national politics category, Delany has authored two e-books about online political advocacy and organizing. Learning from Obama, his latest, published last week and has since been downloaded 1,150 times.
Picking apart what made President Obama's online efforts so successful during the campaign, the book breaks down the nuts and bolts of successful Web fundraising and recruitment. And in the spirit of social media, Delany agreed to sit for a Twitterview on his new book. In excerpts after the jump, he expounds (in 140 characters or less) on how to raise lots of money online, which medium to keep an eye on, and, well, the challenges inherent in Twitterviews. (Note: A few tweets have been lightly edited for clarity.)
The head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency will move to a New York financial services firm when his retirement takes effect next month, the Washington Post reports.
James Lockhart will become vice chairman at WL Ross & Co., an affiliate of Invesco, an international investment management firm. WL Ross & Co. specializes in distressed investments. While at the FHFA, Lockhart was responsible for regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
"As head of the FHFA and its predecessor agency the past three years, Lockhart has been at the center of prominent financial, legislative, legal and lobbying battles," the Post reports.
Wilbur Ross, who runs the firm, touted Lockhart's governmental know-how as a main reason for his hire. "With his extensive government experience, deep knowledge of the U.S. mortgage markets and strong background in public/private finance, Jim is ideally qualified to help expand the financial services portfolio of the funds we manage," he said in a statement Wednesday.
President Obama addressed religious groups who believe extending health care to every American family is a "a moral priority" during a live call Wednesday evening organized by 40 Days for Health Reform, a campaign encompassing faith groups as varied as Jewish Women International, Islamic Society of North America, Progressive National Baptist Convention, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.
The president's brief remarks covered his usual healthcare reform talking points -- cost effectiveness, the brokenness of the present system, and that those currently covered will not lose their coverage -- along with an explicit defense against "fabrications," such as rumors legislation would fund abortions, provide coverage for illegal immigrants, and sponsor "death panels."
"There are [a lot of] folks out there who are frankly bearing false witness," he said.
By invoking the moral imperative for healthcare reform, an argument he usually subordinates to points about bending the cost curve, Obama seemed to tailor his remarks for the religious community.
"The one thing you all share is a moral conviction," Obama said. "You know this debate over health care goes to the heart of who we are as a people."
Individuals could listen to the call by phone or online. Organizers said 140,000 people of faith joined in.
For its part, the Republican National Convention put out a statement to counter the message Obama issued during the call.
"The religious left talks about their desire for 'social justice.' No bill that funds abortion or strips health care services away from seniors and low-income Americans can or should be considered just, and that is precisely what the president's plan does," said RNC Chairman Michael Steele, according to a release.
Since legislation is still taking shape as an effort of five committees across two chambers, it is not at all clear that a new law would have the consequences Steele invoked. Some pieces of the legislation specifically aim to safeguard against the two prospects Steele identified.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Liberal bloggers say they have helped raise more than $160,000 in the past 24 hours for about 60 progressive House Democrats who have pledged to vote against any health care plan that does not include a public insurance option," Roll Call (subscription) reports.
• "House Democrats are probing the nation's largest insurance companies for lavish spending, demanding reams of compensation data and schedules of retreats and conferences," Politico reports. "Letters sent to 52 insurance companies by Democratic leaders demand extensive documents for an examination of 'extensive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry.' The letters set a deadline of Sept. 14 for the documents."
America's Health Insurance Plans
This association includes 1,300 health insurance companies that provide coverage for over 200 million Americans, according to company information. Members include America's largest insurers: Aetna, the Blue Cross Blue Shield chapters, Humana, UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint and others.
What They Want
As the representative of the health insurance industry, AHIP's focus is on one key aspect of the health care discussion: insurance reforms.
The group is on board with reforms that would eliminate the industry's practice of denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions and rating insurance based on health status or gender, AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach said. But he added that those reforms can only happen if coverage is mandated.
"The only way it works is if everybody participates," Zirkelbach said. Without the personal requirement, individuals would wait to get insurance until health problems arose and overall premiums would increase, he said, citing data from states where insurance reforms have been implemented already.
To reach universal coverage, AHIP also proposes an expansion of Medicaid and tax credits for lower-income families.
Continue reading AHIP: All For Reforms, But Not Government Competition.
The tides have turned for President Obama now that health care opponents are out-communicating the politician who made it to the top through his effective rhetorical and campaigning skills, Advertising Age reports.
Obama's administration has "lost control of the messaging in the health-care reform debate, the first big policy test of his administration," the article contends. "And according to a number of communications professionals, the irony in all of this is that the president's opponents have managed to define the issue and take control of the conversation with tools -- such as grassroots marketing and e-mail communications -- that he used to near perfection during the election."
According to the public relations professionals quoted in the article, the White House has committed three fatal mistakes in selling health care reform: being too vague on the details due to multiple bill versions, not following through on bipartisanship and moving too quickly.
Biomet, a medical device maker, is meeting with advocacy groups to make sure specialists don't get squeezed out in health care reform.
Bill Kolter, Biomet's vice president of government and public affairs, came to Washington to meet with advocacy groups -- the Committee for Economic Development and the National Federation of Independent Businesses -- looking for common ground on reform goals.
Kolter said the drumbeat from the Obama administration that specialists are contributing to higher costs and lower quality prompted Biomet to join the discussion. "Prevention and access to primary care physicians is great," said Kolter. "But access to specialists for people who need them cannot be compromised."
Making sure that patients have access to specialists and that health care reform maintains a balance between quality, cost and access is a top priority for Biomet, which is based in Warsaw, Ind. The company makes specialized medical devices such as dental implants, spinal hardware and joint replacements.
In 2008 and the first half of 2009, Biomet spent $360,000 on federal lobbying. The company supports the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Act of 2009, a bill sponsored by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D. Introduced in June, the legislation would establish a private, nonprofit body to generate scientific evidence and new information on treatments for diseases, disorders and other health conditions.
Opponents of health care reform made their voices heard at town hall meetings across the country this month. Now supporters of a key Democratic proposal are answering back with their wallets.
In little more than a day, Blue America PAC has raised over $140,000 on the fundraising site ActBlue to reward liberal Democrats for their support of a public option. That's the largest 24-hour haul of any single fundraising page in the site's history, according to ActBlue spokesman Adrian Arroyo. A similar campaign by Blue America last year to raise money around the FISA bill ended up bringing in more than $350,000.
Spurred by a coalition of left-leaning blogs led by FireDogLake, more than 2,000 donors have given so far to 65 congressional Democrats, for an average contribution of about $65. Top recipients include: House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, current toast of the progressive blogosphere for his pugnacious response to health care protesters; Eric Massa of New York, who became a target of Republicans for saying he would vote against the wishes of his district on reform; and Lloyd Doggett of Texas, who was confronted earlier this month by angry protesters in an Austin parking lot.
Arroyo described the effort as an outgrowth of the recent Netroots Nation conference, where the focus was on turning grassroots energy into policy change. "This is a way for small-dollar donors scattered all over the United States to make their voices heard in Washington," he said. "The idea is that this really communicates to these people, to these representatives, that this is a priority issue for this community."
Progressive activists -- as well as the Democratic National Committee's Organizing for America -- have struggled recently in adapting the tactics pioneered by the Obama campaign to influence the slower-moving and less accessible legislative process.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "A lobbying firm working for a pro-coal industry group sent lawmakers a total of 13 fraudulent letters opposing the House climate bill -- five more than initially believed, the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming said Tuesday," Politico reports. The letters "purported to be from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, senior citizens groups and Creciendo Juntos, a Hispanic advocacy organization."
• "The prescription drug industry's lobbying arm is defending its deal with President Barack Obama in the wake of criticism from House Minority Leader John Boehner, who charged it with "appeasing" the Obama administration," The Hill reports. "'At the end of the day, comprehensive healthcare reform is good for patients, the economy and the future of our country,' Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), said in an interview with The Hill."
• "Critics of President Obama's health-care overhaul are zeroing in on his senior adviser David Axelrod, whose former partners at a Chicago-based firm are the beneficiaries of huge ad buys -- now at $24 million and counting -- by White House allies in the reform fight," Politico reports. The scrutiny "revolves around two separate $12 million ad campaigns advocating Obama's health care plan that were produced and placed partly by AKPD Message and Media, a firm founded by Axelrod that employs his son and still owes Axelrod $2 million."
• "With just over 100 days until the expiration of a tax credit for roughly a third of U.S. homebuyers, building and Realtors' groups are spending August trying to sell lawmakers on a broad expansion of the incentive program," CongressDaily (subscription) reports.
American Hospital Association
About 5,000 hospitals and health care networks are members of the AHA, including a large majority of the 5,708 registered hospitals in the U.S.
What They Want
The AHA promotes a five-pronged approach to health care reform: coverage, prevention, quality, cost control and information.
"We'd like to see health reform be comprehensive, not just focus on a couple of small dimensions," said Robert Umbdenstock, president and CEO. "We don't think any one of them will solve the problem."
Because hospital emergency rooms are legally obligated to provide health service for everyone, whether or not they're insured or can pay out of pocket, hospitals have an interest in universal coverage. The AHA has taken to promoting "coverage for all, paid for by all," saying all stakeholders -- individuals, businesses, insurers and the government -- must help with the inevitable costs of expanding coverage.
To do its part, the AHA, along with two other hospital associations, announced in July an agreement to take $155 billion in cuts in Medicare reimbursements and other payments over the next 10 years. The relinquished funds will instead be used for the health care overhaul.
To control overall health costs, the AHA proposes a focus on preventive measures, a reduction in administrative costs and improvement in chronic disease management; to improve quality of care, the group wants to see payment incentives and care coordination.
Finally, the AHA is calling for greater access to information, both on the provider side and on the patient side.
"We do want to see greater movement and sharing of information across the health system," Umbdenstock said, citing health information technology and "informed decision-making by patients and providing them with alternatives."
A new web tool unveiled today makes lobbying data disclosed by foreign entities searchable and easier to track.
Built in a joint effort by ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom for investigative journalism, and the Sunlight Foundation, that group working to make government more transparent, the "Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker" digitizes information gleaned from lobbying disclosure reports filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Previously, that data was available online as clunky PDF files offered by the Justice Department.
FARA requires foreign entities to reveal more details about their lobbing efforts than domestic companies must do under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. For instance, FARA disclosures include names of congressional members and staffers who are lobbied. The tracker allows the data to be mined by legislator, country, client, lobbying firm, and contact issue.
So what did the tool's builders find after digging through the data? For one, that lobbying is effective.
"The shocking thing is when you look at this data is how close legislative contacts fall" to legislation being introduced in Congress, said Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation and a part of the team that worked on the project.
Right now, the tracker covers filings made between July 2007 and December 2008. The team is unsure if it has the resources to update the service year-round, Allison said. It's a "labor-intensive" project, requiring ample fact checking, error-correcting, and standardizing for a large among of data.
Ten companies have accounted for more than a quarter of health-sector lobbying -- $70 million -- this year, according to our analysis of lobbyist data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Not all spending was necessarily related to the health care legislation, and some insurers -- notably, America's Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross/Blue Shield -- did not figure into the analysis because they fell outside CRP's five health-related industries: pharmaceuticals/health products, hospitals/nursing homes, health professionals, health services/HMOs and miscellaneous health.
Here's what the analysis shows:One of the companies that hadn't lobbied before 2008 was the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, an group advocating for facilities that provide surgical services to patients who don't require hospitalization. The ASCA -- which was fourth-highest in spending this year among companies that hadn't lobbied in the decade prior to 2008 -- spent $420,000 in the first half of this year.
One of the group's goals is to lobby the government to move more procedures to Ambulatory Surgery Centers rather than hospitals, a spokeswoman said, noting that it would save the government money: "ASCs right now get paid 59 percent of what hospital outpatient departments get paid to perform the same procedures."
One of the companies that started lobbying this year is Dossia, a new nonprofit that securely collects health records for the employees (and other qualifying individuals) of its funders. The information is available to the employees for life regardless of whether they switch insurers, doctors or employers. Dossia, the fifth-largest first-timer this year, is funded by a group of large companies including AT&T, Applied Materials, BP America, Intel Corporation, Pitney Bowes and Wal-Mart, to name a few.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "The pharmaceutical industry's trade group has bowed to bullying by Democrats and sold out its members and the public, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) charges in a strongly worded letter to a former GOP congressman who helms the organization," The Hill reports. "'Appeasement rarely works as a conflict resolution strategy,' Boehner wrote Monday to Billy Tauzin, the former Republican House member from Louisiana who has been president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) since 2005."
• "With health care town halls continuing to dominate the August recess, energy and environmental interest groups are making an aggressive lobbying push to bring the climate change debate to the fore," Roll Call reports. "The American Petroleum Institute, along with several other trade groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Association of Manufacturers, are launching a series of 19 'Energy Citizen' rallies Tuesday."
David Bereit, a lead organizer for Stop the Abortion Mandate, boasts that the coalition has been so effective in advocating for anti-abortion language in health care legislation that President Obama has taken notice.
"None of us expected we'd get pushback directly from the president of the United States," said Bereit, who claims Obama is directly responding to his group's efforts this week in a Webcast similar to one STAM hosted in July. And Bereit says the group hosting the Webcast, 40 Days for Health Reform, has adopted a title that riffs on the name of a STAM member organization, 40 Days for Life. But campaigners from 40 Days for Health Reform say its actions have nothing to do with the anti-abortion coalition.
Whether STAM has actually grabbed Obama's attention stands in question, as do many things about the organization's claims.
A STAM Webcast last month drew over 36,000 listeners, as well as Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Joe Pitts, R-Pa. according to organizers. And an e-mail campaign through STAM's Web site has generated 43,809 e-mails, organizers say. Those results have been bolstered by the appearance of unity between a broad range of groups that want health care legislation to include an explicit ban on abortion coverage in any government-funded or government-mandated insurance plan.
The coalition consists of some of the most powerful advocates against abortion -- including Focus on the Family, the Traditional Values Coalition, and Christian Coalition of America -- plus members as varied as Catholic lay groups, and both Libertarians for Life and Democrats for Life.
"In terms of things [STAM members] all have in common, that's a very small list," Bereit said. "But we're historic in our ability to bring this many groups together that are so divergent."
But STAM's status as a broad-based coalition may be exaggerated. STAM's efforts are largely headed by a small handful of groups, including 40 Days for Life, Susan B. Anthony List, Americans United for Life, and Students For Life of America, according to SFLA executive director Kristan Hawkins.
The most blatant fracture in STAM's claims as a broad and united front was its inclusion of a member organization that says it never signed up for the cause.
Continue reading Anti-Abortion Coalition Called Into Question.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
This federation represents the interests of the 39 "independent, community-based and locally operated" Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance companies, which collectively cover more than 100 million Americans.
What They Want
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association's basic requirements for health reform are in line with most everyone talking reform. The group wants to "expand coverage to everyone and rein in costs while improving quality," Senior Vice President for Policy and Representation Alissa Fox said.
To expand coverage, BCBSA wants to get rid of the current blockages such as ratings based on age or gender and denials based on pre-existing coverage. As a representative for insurance companies, BCBSA's support of those reforms is significant, but the group says its push for those changes is nothing new.
"We've been supporting insurance reforms for years. Blue Cross Blue Shield plans had the exact same position in 1993 and 1994," Fox said. "No other industry is coming to the table offering reforms of their own industry in such a significant way."
To control costs while improving outcomes, the group supports comparative effectiveness research and more preventative care, according to the group's reform plan, "The Pathway to Covering America."
"We agree with the vast majority of what's in the bills that we've seen," Fox said.
Continue reading BCBSA Likes The 'Vast Majority' Of What It Sees.
President Obama said today he would veto any defense bill that includes wasteful items, such as the F-22 fighter jets and presidential helicopter he has fought against.
"The special interests, contractors and entrenched lobbyists are invested in the status quo. And they're putting up a fight. But make no mistake, so are we," Obama said while addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Phoenix. "If a project doesn't support our troops, we will not fund it. If a system doesn't perform, we will terminate it. And if Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with that kind of waste, I will veto it."
Obama said his administration would continue working for defense spending reform, and he praised Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for his work on the issue.
He said the government is not spending its defense budget wisely enough because of "no-bid contracts that cost taxpayers billions and make contractors rich," "exotic projects that are years behind schedule and billions over budget" and "weapons that even our military says it doesn't want."
"This waste would be unacceptable at any time," Obama said. "But at a time when we're fighting two wars and facing a serious deficit, it's inexcusable. It's unconscionable. It's an affront to the American people and to our troops. And it's time for it to stop."
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Some environmental groups are urging the Senate to include in its version of" climate change legislation "provisions to prevent" giving companies the incentive to "to squeeze even more power out of their old plants, many of which are running well below capacity," the Washington Post reports. "Public health advocates say these urban power plants can pose a threat to local residents, with ozone-forming compounds and particulate matter exacerbating respiratory and cardiac problems."
• Exotic pet industry "lobbyists are scrambling to win changes to legislation advancing in the House and Senate that would add pythons to a federal list of 'injurious' species -- a designation that would bar future imports and interstate transport," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "The bills, sponsored by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), take aim at the tens of thousands of Burmese pythons that have invaded the Florida Everglades in recent years."
Former House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, resigned from his post at the law and lobbying firm DLA Piper amid turmoil caused by his leadership of Freedom Works, a grassroots group that has been opposing health care reform, Politico reported.
Armey told Politico that he was concerned about the media scrutiny he and his group were receiving and its impact on DLA Piper. Click here to read the full story.
American Medical Association
This 162-year-old national organization advocates for physicians and medical students.
What They Want
The AMA endorsed the House bill for its inclusion of near-universal coverage, a health insurance exchange, Medicare reform, and prevention and wellness initiatives.
In a July letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the AMA also praised the bill for funding chronic disease management and care coordination, stopping denials of insurance based on preexisting conditions, mandating insurance coverage, improving the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative and addressing "growing physician workforce concerns."
Under the House bill, those workforce concerns will be addressed through an increase in funding for the National Health Service Corps -- a program within the Department of Health and Human Services that assists doctors in underserved communities -- and greater promotion of primary care services and community health centers.
The House bill, however, does not include any provisions relating to tort reform or defensive medical practices, issues the AMA has advocated for in the past. For years, the AMA has said that tort reform, which would cap pain and suffering awards in medical malpractice cases, could lower insurers' payouts and limit the rising costs of insurance.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "A multitude of former House and Senate aides are expected to take the witness stand when the trial of former House aide and lobbyist Kevin Ring begins next month," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Federal prosecutors said Thursday that they could call as many as 15 witnesses against Ring, who is charged in the ongoing influence-peddling investigation of disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including former Hill aides and lobbyists, several of whom have cut plea agreements."
• "The cost of earmarks increased this year despite lawmakers' claims they're working to reduce pork-barrel spending," The Hill reports. "Earmarks, which are inserted in appropriations bills by members in order to fund specific projects, added up to $19.9 billion in 2009, according to an analysis by the Taxpayers for Common Sense and Center for Responsive Politics. Earmarks in 2008 spending bills were worth $18.3 billion."
• "The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a coal industry lobbying group, responded in writing Thursday evening to questions from Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) about a dozen forged letters that Bonner & Associates sent opposing the House climate change bill on behalf of the group," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "But the group refused to make the letter public and declined to say whether it had confirmed that additional letters the firm generated on behalf of the association were also forgeries."
Claire Buchan, chief of staff at the Commerce Department under former President George W. Bush, has joined Constellation Energy in the newly created position of vice president for public strategy.
She will report to James Connaughton, who was the former chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality for Bush. Connaughton is Constellation's executive vice president of corporate affairs, public and environmental policy.
Before the Commerce department, Buchan was White House deputy press secretary and she served as deputy assistant secretary at the Treasury department under former President George H.W. Bush.
Constellation Energy spent $1.37 million on lobbying for the first half of 2009 and $2.96 million for all of 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
(Photo courtesy of Commerce department)
The sheer amount of activity in the health care debate, in terms of interest group lobbying for and against various aspects of reform, makes it almost impossible for a reader to put things in perspective. It seems like almost every other day this summer National Journal and its sister publications have reported on some new multi-million dollar advertising or lobbying campaign.
Fortunately Trudy Lieberman, a writer for Columbia Journalism Review, has been producing a series of in-depth and thought-provoking stories over the past year, called "Who Is At the Table," on the many interest groups who have the most influence on shaping the outcome of health care reform. She is also sharp in her criticism about how media outlets have been covering these interest groups, which has been useful to me as I've been thinking about various stories.
Most recently, she wrote a piece about United Healthcare and its top lobbyist Cory Alexander, a former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. United Healthcare also owns the Lewin Group, a health care management consulting firm that is repeatedly quoted by lawmakers as if it is a neutral source on health care policy issues. See Business Week's recent story declaring the health insurance industry will get what it wants in new health care legislation.
If you are interested in getting some perspective as the rhetoric at these town halls continues to heat up, click here to take a look at Trudy's stories.
Though protesters continue to shout at town hall meetings and supporters continue to plead their cases, those efforts won't impact insurance companies, who have already won the health care reform debate, Business Week reports this week.
"The carriers have succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable," the article declares, listing UnitedHealth Group, Aetna and Wellpoint as some of the big winners.
To get what they want out of health care reform -- like limiting or stopping a public option -- insurance companies focused on the moderate Democrats in the Blue Dog Coalition, a strategy that seems to have paid off as a strong public option now appears unlikely.
Blue Dog Reps. Mike Ross, D-Ark., and Jim Matheson, D-Utah, "have given strong voice to the industry's contention that such a public insurer would actually reduce competition by undercutting private plans on price and driving them out of business," the article reports.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Taking a cue from angry protests against the Obama Administration's health care restructuring, the oil industry is helping organize anti-climate bill rallies around the nation," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The American Petroleum Institute, along with other organizations such as the National Association of Manufacturers opposed to the climate legislation Congress will consider again in the fall, is funding rallies across 20 states over the August recess."
• "Environmental groups, including one led by former Vice President Al Gore, have unveiled a broad campaign that will run through Labor Day to push the Senate to follow the House toward passing a climate-and-energy strategy this year," CongressDaily (subscription) reports. "Repower America, an initiative Gore spearheaded, and the Blue Green Alliance, a coalition of labor and environmental groups, are kicking off a series of more than 50 events in 22 states, including states with particularly high unemployment and swing-vote senators."
• "Some of the nation's biggest food and agriculture companies are planning to release a flurry of studies in coming weeks that scrutinize the potential impact of climate-change legislation, warning that it could lead to higher food prices," the Wall Street Journal reports.
Business Roundtable
This association includes about 160 chief executive officers of the country's top companies.
What They Want
As the providers of employer-sponsored coverage for about 35 million employees and dependents, the CEOs that make up the Business Roundtable are primarily concerned with controlling health care costs. "The CEOs have said their companies will continue to provide coverage, but what they want out of this is a better system," said Maria Ghazal, the policy director heading the Business Roundtable's Consumer Health and Retirement Initiative.
To those ends, the group would like to see more competition in the health insurance marketplace, perhaps through a regional system of insurance markets, and an increase in insurance options so individuals can keep coverage no matter their employment status.
But until a system overhaul becomes reality, the business leaders want to make sure their coverage of employees continues without interruption. "We need to make sure that we don't do anything that dismantles" the current coverage system, Ghazal said.
The Center for Responsive Politics has added a new feature to its website that allows people to sort through the names of lobbyists, the industry they represent and which member of Congress they most recently worked for.
For example, take a look at the list of lobbyists working in the pharmaceutical and health product industries.
This tool could help citizens and the media better monitor the influence of various interests on public policy. I have often thought that personal lobbying is even more influential than campaign donations to lawmakers, so readers, let us know if you find something interesting with this new tool.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "A group usually seen as one of Barack Obama's allies in the health care debate -- AARP -- says the president went too far Tuesday when he said the seniors lobby had endorsed the legislation pending in Congress," the AP reports. "AARP is sensitive to the issue because polls show that Medicare beneficiaries are worried their health care program will be cut to subsidize coverage for the uninsured."
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
This trade group speaks for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that provide and develop drugs.
What They Want
Drugmakers don't sell their products in a vacuum, so when the health care discussion began, PhRMA made sure it was part of the conversation early on. "When the president called on leaders in the health care industry to work on health care reform, we were one of the first ones to do it," said Ken Johnson, senior vice president at PhRMA.
According to its "Platform for a Healthy America," PhRMA wants reform to emphasize patient care by focusing on disease prevention, management of chronic disease and expansion of insurance coverage. The group also wants to increase use of health information technology, coordination of care and comparative effectiveness research.
"The problem is that we have a sick care system and not a health care system," Johnson said. "We've got it backwards."
Continue reading PhRMA: Involved In Health Care 'Since Day One'.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit business federation, represents 3 million businesses nationwide.
What They Want
The Chamber has three main demands from health care reform: controlling costs, making it harder for insurance companies to deny coverage and streamlining a competitive insurance market.
The group wants to target costs because of the role businesses play in providing health insurance for Americans. About 160 million Americans receive health benefits from their employers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Chamber reports that employers spend $500 billion annually on health benefits.
"We can't insure the uninsured unless we make it affordable to do so," said James Gelfand, senior manager of health policy. To achieve that goal, the Chamber supports many of the wide range of options that have been suggested for cost control, such as reforming and improving primary care services and tying physician pay to performance.
To reform the insurance system, they want legislation to stop insurance companies from denying coverage based on medical conditions and rating individuals based on factors like health and gender.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights says some little-noticed provisions in the House health care bill are racially discriminatory, and it intends to ask President Obama and Congress to rewrite sections that factor in race when awarding billions in contracts, scholarships and grants," the Washington Times reports.
• "A Washington nonprofit that advocates nutrition-policy reform paid $20,000 to get its message across and carefully maneuvered Metro's tangle of regulations to display its posters" mentioning Obama's daughters, the Washington Post reports. "Metro gave it a go -- but the White House did not, according to the group. Within 24 hours of the signs' appearance, the White House asked the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to take down the ads...The Physicians Committee has declined to take down the posters."
This nonprofit organization of 40 million members represents Americans aged 50 and over, a segment of the population that's particularly tuned in to the health care debate.
What They Want
AARP's No. 1 goal from reform legislation is to make health care affordable, said John Rother, executive vice president of policy and strategy at AARP. The group suggests reaching that goal by limiting insurance companies' ability to rate costumers based on age or preexisting conditions.
Additionally, AARP wants to improve Medicare, specifically by closing the "doughnut hole." Currently, Medicare Part D -- the prescription drug program -- covers 75 percent of prescription drug costs up to a certain level, then covers no part of prescription costs in a coverage gap, then covers 95 percent at the highest levels of prescription costs. The cost limits change annually; for 2009 the coverage gap where seniors must pay 100 percent of their prescription costs is between $2,700 and $6,154.
In 2007, 26 percent of seniors who were enrolled in Medicare Part D and did not receive low-income subsidies reached the level where they had to pay 100 percent of their prescription costs out of pocket, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report. Of that 26 percent, 15 percent eventually reached the level of catastrophic costs.
Leaders of religious communities across the country are no longer content leaving health care reform to politicians.
Through a call-in event with President Obama, television advertisements, prayer rallies, meetings with members of Congress and sermons, a coalition of faith-based organizations hopes to show that health care reform is a "profoundly moral issue," said Katie Paris, spokeswoman for the group.
As protestors have expressed their opposition at health care town hall meetings, the faith community wants to redirect the debate to focus on the need to provide affordable care for all Americans.
"Every so often there is an issue that is so clear and compelling that it really does galvanize the faith community," said Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Christian organization Sojourners. "There are people in the country who want to stop an honest, fair, moral discussion about health care. We can't let that happen."
Historically, members of local communities who cannot afford basic necessities - like food, housing or health care - have relied on faith-based organizations for help. And now, those organizations want to see the government do more to provide health care for all.
"A lot of people are sick, and our institutions are often taking care of sick people," Wallis said. "We clean up the mess. I see exclusion. I see people being left out."
Representatives of the coalition say that Americans should see health care as an ethical matter, rather than a political one.
"We come to this precisely because it is a human rights issue that supersedes any politically ideology and any partisan ideology," said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. "There's a powerful religious voice that needs to be heard.
The coalition will hold a call-in event with Obama next week, which will be broadcast through their Web site.
The coalition is organized by PICO National Network, Faith in Public Life, Faithful America, Sojourners and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.
CongressDailyPM reports on this event as well.
The 60 Plus Association, a conservative seniors group, launched a TV ad on Friday warning that President Obama's healthcare reform legislation will mean billion dollar cuts in Medicaid. 60 Plus is headed by Jim Martin, a former marine who served six years as chief of staff to a former Republican Senator, the late Edward Gurney.
The ad attacks Obama and Congress for asking seniors to sacrifice during the most vulnerable stage of life. The 500,000-member group spent upwards of $1.5 million on the TV spot that will run for a week on national cable.
Cutting Medicare funds to pay for healthcare reform, the ad cautions, means long waits for care, possible denial of care and letting the government, not your doctor, decide if older patients are worth the cost. (see full ad here)
The White House disputes the claim made by 60 Plus. "By reforming Medicare, we will add years to the life of the program's trust fund and improve the quality of care. With these reforms, we'll move toward a system where people get better care -- not just more care -- and where doctors and hospitals will be rewarded for spending time with patients and keeping them healthy," wrote a press aide in an email.
60 Plus spent $200,000 on federal lobbying in the first half of 2009. The group markets itself as the conservative alternative to AARP and specifically advocates for a free enterprise, less- government, less-taxes approach to seniors' issues.
UPDATED @ 11:53 AM to add AARP spokesman Drew Nannis's comment.
Don't put the brakes on health care reform. AARP, the nation's most powerful seniors' association, launched a multimillion-dollar campaign this morning to debunk so-called myths surrounding the health care debate. Founded in 1958, AARP has 40 million members in offices in all 50 states.
Leaving no media format untapped, AARP's 'myths versus fact' advertising will run on national and local television and radio, in print publications and online. In an attack against largely conservative ideas, AARP is attempting to dismantle the notions that health care reform is not affordable to fix right now, equals the end of Medicare, and will lead to a government takeover as well as rationed care.
Click here to see all of the ad materials.
In a big grassroots push, AARP activists will take action in every state to make sure all lawmakers know that the 50-plus community wants action on healthcare reform now. For the first half of 2009, AARP spent upwards of $9 million on federal lobbying.
"It's critical that people have the information about the proposals currently being debated in Congress," said Drew Nannis, spokesperson for AARP. "There is a lot of misinformation out there, and people need to make decisions based on accurate information, not myths, lies, and scare tactics."
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Anne Wexler, a well-connected political power broker who founded the first major Washington lobbying firm to be led by a woman, and who was considered one of the capital's most influential lobbyists, died Aug. 7 of cancer at her home in the District," the Washington Post reports.
LittleSis, the government watchdog National Journal reported about last March, announced today its intention to identify 500 health care lobbyists who formerly worked on the Hill. In a partnership with the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, LittleSis has already identified over 140 former congressional staffers who now lobby for the health industry.
Described as an involuntary Facebook for government, LittleSis organizes information about health industry hired guns in a way that makes it easy to see the relationships between lobbyists, lawmakers and K Street shops. Check out the 'Interlocks' tab, which highlights firms that employ the greatest number of congressional staffers turned health care lobbyists.
To support their lofty investigative goals, LittleSis is calling on citizen journalists, or 'analysts,' as they refer to them on their site, to help with the digging. Since launching last May, the transparency group has added a wealth of content to their site and modified the interface to help track Washington's elite.
"I think this is a great opportunity for people following health care reform to develop a deeper understanding of how the legislation is being shaped and the role that big health care interests are playing," said LittleSis co-found Kevin Connor.
Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has been tapped to aid the Chamber of Commerce's new advocacy campaign against government growth as executive vice president of the National Chamber Foundation, a non-profit public policy think tank affiliated with the Chamber.Spellings was the second secretary of education under former President George W. Bush. She joined the Chamber in April as a senior advisor to its president and CEO, and will continue in her position as president and CEO of her public policy consulting firm Margaret Spellings and Company, according to the Chamber.
Before serving as education secretary, Spellings helped shape the No Child Left Behind Act as assistant to President Bush for domestic policy. She also served as a senior adviser working on education issues during his governorship.
In her new role, Spelling will help reach out to universities and colleges in support of the Campaign for Free Enterprise, a multi-year $100 million effort slated to launch this fall.
The Spellings announcement follows a few other high-profile hires for the effort.
(Photo of Spellings courtesy of Creative Commons)
Lobbying-related stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Climate Competition Heats Up: In this week's cover story, Margie Kriz Hobson takes a look at the energy industry advocates jockeying to have a hand in shaping the Senate's version of climate change legislation.
Retail Marriage Ends At The Altar: Bara Vaida takes a look at why the planned marriage of the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association may have fallen apart.
The 'V' Commerce Lobby: The vending machine industry has hired its first full-time D.C. lobbyist, writes Neil Munro.
From The K Street Corridor: Democratic strategists David Di Martino and Michael Meehan leave BGR Group to launch their new firm, Blue Line Strategic Communications; The American Beverage Institute and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers are in a dust up over the propriety of President Obama's 'beer summit' with erstwhile antagonists professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard and police Sgt. James Crowley of Cambridge, Mass.
From Inside Washington: Disco diva Gloria Gaynor swung by Capitol Hill on Tuesday to lobby for legislation that would require AM and FM radio stations to pay performers for airing their work. At a reception following a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, she belted out her 1979 hit "I Will Survive"--and noted that despite the song's decades of popularity, she has never made a cent from its airplay.
From the People section: Michael Wilson begins as national director for the liberal lobbying group Americans for Democratic Action this week. Most recently, he was a chief lobbyist for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; Mike Smith's new public-affairs firm aims to find the intersection between politics and social media. Smith did press and advance on the Obama presidential campaign, and he was communications director of the brief presidential bid of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.; the Nuclear Threat Initiative hired Mark Kitchens as its chief communications officer. The former Clinton administration official was most recently at AARP.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "In an increasingly bitter Washington battle between the nation's two largest shipping companies, some unionized UPS workers say they are being forced to write letters to their lawmakers in support of more stringent labor rules for arch rival FedEx," the Washington Post reports.
• "White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel warned liberal groups this week to stop running ads against Democratic members of Congress," Politico reports. "The powerful top aide to President Obama made his feelings known at the weekly closed-door strategy session of an array of progressive organizations, according to two sources who were there."
• "The Treasury Department is in the final stages of drafting restrictions on lobbying for financial bailout funds -- 10 months after the program began," The Hill reports. "The government's top watchdog over the financial bailout package said in a report released Thursday that the Treasury guidelines are now awaiting White House approval."
• "Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is demanding answers from a coal industry group as he continues his probe into a series of forged letters urging Democrats to oppose climate change legislation," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Markey, chairman of the Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, on Wednesday sent a letter to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity asking why the group waited to notify Members of Congress about the forged letters until after the climate change vote."
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion," the New York Times reports. "Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm this week to a House health care overhaul measure that would allow the government to negotiate drug prices and demand additional rebates from drug manufacturers."
• "Small boutique lobbying firms are thriving in an otherwise mixed year for K Street by promising to deliver more bang-for-the-buck than marquee houses," The Hill reports. "Revenues at some of Washington's biggest lobbying firms have been falling as companies and trade groups look to cut costs during the recession. Eight of the 10 firms that booked the biggest earnings in the first half of 2008 saw hefty declines in the first half of 2009 -- some as high as 18 percent."
• "A lingering presidential veto threat and differences between the House and Senate over funding two engines for the Pentagon's next generation fighter jet have awakened a sleeping giant -- General Electric," Politico reports. "General Electric, the nation's fifth-largest company, has already spent nearly $12 million on lobbying this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and is girding for battle this summer, targeting senators who voted against the GE engine."
• "A Justice Department official who briefly worked as a corporate lobbyist has emerged as the leading candidate for U.S. attorney in Alexandria, one of the nation's most prominent law enforcement posts, sources familiar with the selection process said Wednesday," the Washington Post reports.
• "A former lobbyist for Pakistan has been hired by the State Department to coordinate aid to that country, which may highlight loopholes in the administration's tough new lobbying rules, designed to slow Washington's revolving door," The Hill reports.
Two former state Republican party officials have formed a federal political action committee called "Dump Reid PAC" to try to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada's senate race next year.
According to a release from the PAC, former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis and former Nevada Republican Party Executive Director Chuck Muth hope to combine Muth's inside knowledge of the state with money from the nationwide network of donors Anuzis assembled during his unsuccessful bid for the Republican National Committee chairmanship earlier this year.
Opponents say they're compelled to raise out-of-state money because Nevadans fear crossing Reid. The PAC's purpose, the release says, is "Daschling" Reid--a reference to the campaign tactics that helped Republican John Thune defeat the Senate's then-Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, D-SD, in 2004. Thune and his backers used Daschle's party leadership role to portray Daschle as out of step with his home state. The PAC, which hopes to raise money for radio TV and voter contact mail, will focus on defeating Reid, rather than endorsing any of his would-be Republican challengers.
More than 200 interest groups have submitted testimony in support of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor -- eclipsing the next-most-praised nominees 10 times over. Robert Bork and Justice Clarence Thomas had previously shared the record, with 21 interest groups in support of each judge during their nomination, according to a database compiled by Northwestern law professor Lee Epstein and her colleagues.
Just eight groups submitted testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to Sotomayor, compared with 66 filing against Justice Samuel Alito in 2005. The last nominees chosen by a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, didn't trigger nearly as much interest group attention: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg motivated 10 groups to submit testimony and Justice Stephen Breyer only six.
The chance to put the first Latina on the high court has no doubt contributed to the unusual level of interest, as did Obama's popularity on the left and the Democrats' first chance at a Supreme Court appointment since 1994. But the heightened involvement from interest groups is also a product of convenience: More than they have in the past, groups added their names to joint letters of support, some of which were signed by dozens of organizations. "It's easy to attach themselves to a letter," said Jeffrey Segal, a political science professor at Stony Brook University who compiled the data included in this graph. "There's no cost for them to do that."
The increased politicization of the Supreme Court confirmation process also contributes to the numbers. "It's an easy way for groups to rev up their base and to send out letters asking for support," Segal said. "It becomes a way for these groups to raise their visibility."
Neil MacBride, who has been an associate deputy attorney general at Justice since January, is the leading candidate for U.S. attorney in Alexandria, one of the nation's most prominent law enforcement posts, the Washington Post reported this afternoon.
MacBride was vice president for anti-piracy policy, general counsel and a registered lobbyist in 2007 for the Business Software Alliance, which represents some of the country's largest software and information technology companies. MacBride also worked for Vice President Joe Biden, when Biden was a Democratic senator from Delaware.
MacBride's lobbying background prompted the Post to report that:
"It would be unusual for a recent corporate lobbyist to be a U.S. attorney, and some prosecutors and governmental watchdogs have questioned whether appointing MacBride would run counter to the spirit of the Obama administration's efforts to change the lobbying culture of Washington."
For all those outside the Beltway who want to unleash their inner policy wonk and talk with others about the nitty gritty of legislative policy, we have the site for you.
OpenCongress.org, a project by the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation, revamped its site last week, adding a new set of social networking and other tools to make it easier to track a bill, find others who share views on legislation, and contact lawmakers about an issue.
"You never hear somebody at a bar talking about clause 56 in H.R. 3200," said project manager David Moore. So OpenCongress "enables peer-to-peer communication about the best information on bills in Congress."
The site now has an e-mail form, so you can send an email to contact lawmakers about legislation, a tracking tool so you can compare how you would vote on a piece of legislation with how your representative has voted and a personalized list of legislation you may support or oppose.
"There was a real opportunity to bring together this confusing government data with helpful data and what people were saying about it," said Moore. The site aims to "make all the information about Congress more accessible to people who aren't necessarily Congress-buffs."
Continue reading How To Find A Fellow Policy Lover (Or Hater).
Robin Raphel, a former U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, is returning to the State department where she will be coordinator of all U.S. non-military assistance to Pakistan.
Raphel has been working at lobbying and consulting shop Cassidy & Associates since 2007. She serves as a senior vice president and practice leader for Cassidy's global affairs and trade consultancy group.
Raphel was assistant secretary of State for South Asian affairs in the Clinton Administration. More recently, she was deputy inspector general for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent body established by Congress to oversee aid sent to Iraq. Early in her career, she was detailed to Pakistan by the U.S. Agency for International Development as an economic/financial analyst.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Raphel has represented Anwar Hossain Manju, a former cabinet minister in Bangladesh and an owner of a newspaper chain. She's also represented the Iraqi Red Crescent Society
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "The increasingly heated fight over health-care legislation is saturating the summer airwaves, with groups on all sides of the debate pouring tens of millions of dollars into advertising campaigns designed to push the cause of reform forward, slow it down or stop it in its tracks," the Washington Post reports. "Drugmakers, labor unions, both national political parties and the sector currently under the heaviest fire -- health insurance companies -- are all weighing in with significant ad buys. Nationwide, more than $52 million has been spent this year on health-care reform-related ads, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, setting the stage for what may be a record-breaking legislative battle."
• "The health insurance industry is fighting back against intensified Democratic attacks and vowing to 'correct the record' on its role in healthcare reform, its chief lobbyist said Tuesday," The Hill reports."The health insurance lobby, aware of its low public standing and the general antipathy of Democrats toward its industry, has put on a humble public face during the course of the healthcare reform debate. But strong anti-insurer rhetoric from Democrats struggling to win over a skeptical public could wake the sleeping giant."
• "For the insurance industry, long an opponent of health care reform, it was a striking change: with a new administration coming to Washington, insurers agreed to abandon some of their most controversial practices, like denying coverage to applicants with pre-existing medical conditions," the New York Times reports. "One of the main architects of the friendly approach, Karen M. Ignagni, the industry's chief lobbyist, personally pledged to President Obama that insurers would not stand in the way of a sweeping overhaul this time."
• "A coal and utility industry coalition has launched a major campaign pushing industrial and farm state Democratic senators to boost coal-friendly provisions in the Senate climate and energy bill," Politico reports.
If the Supreme Court overturns rulings that empower government to limit corporate spending on elections when it rehears Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in September, the impact could reverberate across the economy, afflicting "severe consequences on the openness, dynamism and operation of markets."
This is the argument the Center for Political
Accountability, a non-profit, and the
The CPA/Zicklin brief is one of numerous briefs filed in the past week weighing in on a case prompted by whether the FEC was justified in mandating that a 2008 film by the conservative non-profit Citizens United that negatively portrayed then-Democratic presidential primary candidate Hillary Clinton not be broadcast or advertised on television. The Court heard the case in June but decided to rehear it on September 9, before the start of the next term, a move that upped the ante by widening the scope of what the Court will consider.
Although many who oppose corporate spending in elections have sounded alarm bells about the case, the CPA/Zicklin brief stands out even among recently-filed briefs in that it wages a broad macroeconomic argument. Predicting doom and gloom for the financial system if the Court overturns decisions limiting corporate influence on the election process, the brief focuses on the nation's economic health rather than focusing more exclusively on elections.
"The brief introduces into the argument some justifications for corporate prohibition that have never been fully considered by the Court," said Karl Sandstrom, CPA's counsel, who authored the brief. Sandstrom, who is also of counsel at law firm Perkins Coie, noted that CPA comes at the case from a distinct perspective as an organization that works with shareholder advocates for transparency in corporate political spending. "[The brief] shows the large consequences the decision could have on the overall economy."
Continue reading Campaign Finance Opinion Could Roil Economy.
Republican pollster Glen Bolger says the current GOP message on energy policy is a dog because it offers no support for alternative sources of power.
"The GOP counter message on cap and trade/energy got spanked by the Democrat message," writes Glen Bolger, a leading Republican strategist and pollster. Recent poll results from Public Opinion Strategy, which Bolger co-founded, and Greenberg, Quinlan and Rosner, found the public agrees with the Democrats on the energy bill by a significant margin.
"It's crystal clear that a GOP energy message, which does not include the need to expand and grow alternative fuels, is lacking a key component," Bolger wrote. "Every time over the past two years that I have tested a GOP message that doesn't include alternative energy, it is a stone-cold loser. Every time that GOP message includes an alternative energy component, it does significantly better. More oil, less taxes is not enough."
Health insurers are pushing back against increasingly fiery rhetoric from some Democrats accusing insurance companies of blocking health reform, reports CongressDailyPM. (subscription)
"At this point in the summer of 2009 the country should be in the midst of a transformative national conversation about health reform," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said. "Instead, a campaign has been launched to demonize health plans."
Insurers back a series of regulatory reforms that would end exclusions for pre-existing conditions, eliminate ratings based on gender and other factors, and reduce premium growth rates.
But they oppose including a public option in an overall package. "The almost singular focus on the issue of whether we should have a government program or not, and the fact that that has become a litmus test for reform, is crowding out the very significant consensus that exists," Ignagni said
She said during August, AHIP would continue airing a positive TV ad that it first began airing two weeks ago that aims to inform people on how health insurers have been participating in health care reform. She said the group will try to communicate to average Americans that insurance plans favor comprehensive health reform and have been trying to promote a bipartisan consensus.
She also said that while AHIP was sending its supporters to Democrats' town hall meetings on health care during August, it had nothing to do with protesters organized by Conservatives for Patients' Rights, who have been disrupting those meetings.
Click here for story. (subscription)
Organizing for America volunteers have been working to sell the health care reform effort to the public through phone-banking and canvassing. In this video, NationalJournal.com's Theresa Poulson follows one canvasser as he goes door-to-door to promote the administration's plan for overhaul. On the front lines of the message war, the OFA volunteer comes up against some of the same problems that are plaguing the Obama administration.
Music and broadcasting industry lobbyists have ramped up their rhetoric ahead of Tuesday afternoon's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on legislation that would end a royalty exemption extended to AM and FM radio, according to CongressDaily's AM Edition (subscription required). The bills Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers introduced in February would bring over-the-air radio in line with cable, Internet and satellite services, which pay performers -- but broadcasters warn some stations could go out of business. (Cross posted from TechDailyDose)
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association announced it has hired former Rep. Kenneth Bentsen, D-Texas, as executive vice president of public policy and advocacy. He will run the trade group's D.C. office.
Bentsen arrives from the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, where he was president and CEO since 2006. "With his breadth of financial experience in both the private and public sector, Ken understands our member's public policy goals and business interest and will help drive our efforts to play a proactive, constructive role in the ongoing regulatory reform debate," said SIFMA president and CEO Timothy Ryan in a statement.
From 1995 to 2003, Bentsen (nephew of former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas) sat on the House Financial Services Committee (and its predecessor House Banking and Financial Services Committee), and separately on the House Budget Committee.
• "Lobbyists and special interests spent more than a million dollars during the first six months of 2009 honoring a man who is no fan of K Street: President Barack Obama," The Hill reports. "Corporate sponsorship paid for Inaugural festivities as well as events after Obama took office. For example, Ford Motor Co. spent $105,000 to help sponsor the NAACP's annual convention last month, at which Obama spoke."
• "Health care reform has 'the potential to become the mother of all advocacy ad wars,' says Evan Tracey, founder of the Campaign Media Analysis Group," Politico
reports. "Thus far, more than $51 million has been spent on television
ads since" Obama "was elected last fall, he said. And interest groups
of all stripes are promising major campaigns through the August recess."
• A "note from the private National Health Council, sent to House
leaders drafting health overhaul legislation" purporting to represent
"'the more than 133 million Americans living with chronic diseases and
disabilities and their family caregivers' ... did not mention that
nearly $1.2 million of the council's $2.3 million budget in 2007 came
from the pharmaceutical industry's chief trade group and 16 companies
that sell or are developing the brand-name biotech drugs," AP reports.
My Atlantic Monthly colleague Marc Ambinder posted an interesting interview Friday with Karen Ignagni, CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) which represents the majority of health insurers in the U.S.
Ignagni told Ambinder that her group isn't going to run negative ads against health reform during the August recess, though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the White House have recently begun calling health insurers the prime obstacle to getting a deal done.
Liberal blogs are abuzz with stories today saying health insurers, D.C. lobbyists and opponents of health care reform are preparing to send people to town hall meetings at congressional districts this month to disrupt discussions on the issue, prompting Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. to respond. See this post on ThinkProgress, the blog for the Center for American Progress.
Ignagni is holding a press briefing Tuesday morning, to discuss "the status of health care reform." I am sure the question of whether or not the industry is launching attack ads will come up.
The Washington Post also had an interview with an AHIP board member on whether or not the insurers would launch attack ads:
More blunt in an interview today was a member of AHIP's board of directors, James Roosevelt Jr., the grandson of Franklin D. Roosevelt who runs the Tufts Health Plan in Massachusetts and is a longtime Democratic National Committee official. He said he had no problem with reform proponents shifting the framing of the debate to "health insurance reform." But, he added, the increasingly harsh anti-industry bent to the rhetoric was "offensive."
"I like the focus on health insurance as opposed to trying to accomplish everything at once in trying to reorder health care -- this is the great trap that Democrats fall into, that they try to change the system as a whole, and then people get scared and it falls to pieces," he said. "But the part about calling insurers villains and morally bankrupt I find offensive and ineffective. The polling says we're an easy target, and it's easy to see the political motivation, that to get this to the goal line you need to create a villain. But I do worry that that does ramp up the opposition as much as it ramps up support."
Were his colleagues on AHIP discussing jettisoning their collaborative stance for full-bore opposition? "What I see is people being very irritated but so far staying committed to universal coverage and the things you have to do to get there," he said.
As Democrats head out to face a populace riled up by health care, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has some tips for talking with constituents. She distributed a message card on Friday that promotes health care reform as a way to "hold insurance companies accountable" and put "you and your doctor back in charge -- not the insurance companies -- to guarantee stability, lower costs, higher quality and more choices of plans."
Remember that last week Pelosi attacked insurers as "villains" and "immoral," which the companies dismissed as "political rhetoric."
Federal and state regulators are moving aggressively to rein in so-called pay-to-play abuses -- the cozy deals that involve kickbacks or campaign contributions given in return for lucrative government contracts -- in the wake of a string of such scandals in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere, writes Eliza Newlin Carney in this week's column "Rules of the Game."
Investigations by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D) and the Securities and Exchange Commission have led to charges that numerous investment firms in several states made millions in illegal payments in exchange for the right to manage public pension funds.
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III (D) stepped down last week amid allegations that he took $25,000 from a federal informant in exchange for pledging to support a building project. Earlier this year, of course, there were the indictment of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) on pay-to-play conspiracy charges and the federal investigation involving New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D).
But even as officials at the SEC and in state legislatures take steps to end pay-to-play dealings, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are showing little interest in curbing contracting abuses. This despite a congressional ethics investigation involving the PMA Group, the now-defunct defense contractor, and growing White House impatience with spending bills loaded with defense industry earmarks.
Recently the SEC voted unanimously to propose new rules aimed at ending pay-to-play practices involving the $2.2 trillion tied up in public pensions and investments. The public funds -- which include the pension plans that pay retirement benefits to government employees -- represent a growing market for investment advisers. The rules also target advisers angling to manage the $104 billion now invested in so-called 529 college savings accounts.
Continue reading Congress Should Heed "Pay-To-Play" Scandals.
As Congress heads into its summer recess, some members have more worries to take home with them than others.
According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 17 representatives and senators are known to currently be under investigation for breaking ethical standards. Of those under investigation, 13 are Democratic members and four are Republican members.
Charges range from steering earmarked funds toward associates to tax evasion to receiving preferential mortgage rates.
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct does not release information regarding which members are under investigation, but a July committee report stated that 26 investigations had been underway since the beginning of the 111th Congress, 11 of which were carried over from the 110th Congress and 15 of which began this Congress. Four investigations had been resolved in that time period. A Senate Ethics Committee official couldn't be reached for comment.
According to CREW's records, the lawmakers currently under investigation are: Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Rep. Jesse Jackson, D-Ill., Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Rep. Gary Miller, R-Calif., Rep. Allan Mollohan, D-W.Va., Rep. Timothy Murphy, R-Pa., Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska.
Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that Richardson is under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics in relation to a home she owned in Sacramento that was in foreclosure.
So should the public wonder if Democrats as a part are more ethically challenged than Republicans at this point? CREW spokeswoman Naomi Seligman doesn't think so. She says more Democrats than Republicans are under investigation because more Democrats are in Congress right now.
"I don't think it indicates anything for the parties," Seligman said. "It takes power to abuse it. It's the cycle of things here."
Craig Holman, legislative representative for watchdog group Public Citizen, said it is typical that the majority party would be dealing with more ethics questions.
"A lot of the money and influence peddling is going to flow disproportionately towards Democrats," Holman said.
Holman is impressed with California Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi's leadership efforts on ethics reform despite the number of Democrats who are under investigation, saying she "has done a phenomenal job when it comes to passing the strictest ethics rules that we've seen on Capitol Hill."
Business Week reports this week that while some lobbying tactics have changed in Washington after Obama's stigmatization of traditional lobbyists during his campaign, the influence game is still on.
To make their interests heard as Congress considers impactful legislation, like health care reform and a climate change bill, companies have hired more strategists instead of lobbyists, used more contact between executives and lawmakers and employed grassroots campaigns, the article says.
For example, rather than registering as a lobbyist, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. works as a "special policy adviser" at Alston & Bird, where "he doesn't lobby directly but lends others insight into legislative terrain and the tendencies of lawmakers he knows well."
"Appearing cooperative is the new name of the game," the article concludes.
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "Overall, Washington's lobbying business continued to slump as the economy pinched budgets at some big companies and trade associations," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Companies, nonprofits, unions and other organizations spent $814.6 million to influence Congress and the Obama administration in the second quarter, down 1% from $825.3 million during the same three-month period in 2008, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of lobbying data. The data were supplied by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics."
• "Towns, cities, counties and states across the country spent a total of $21.4 million on lobbyists between April and June, up 2.7% from the first quarter of the year and in line with spending levels through 2008, according to data provided by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Almost 1,000 different governments reported paying representatives to pursue their agenda. About a quarter reported lobbying specifically about the stimulus package."
