From this morning's Earlybird:

• "With fourth-quarter lobbying reports due to the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House" Tuesday night, "a number of large companies and associations have already disclosed that their spending to influence federal officials was either equal to or greater than the previous year," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "The financial industry won't be shy in fighting a new fee proposed by President Obama that could strip as much as $2 billion from some balance sheets," The Hill reports. "The industry sees the fee as an unjust punishment on firms that have paid back money received from the government under the $700 billion bailout with warrants and dividends."

• "While election-year restrictions on the Office of Congressional Ethics could create a bottleneck of its investigative referrals to the House, government watchdogs say the potential delays should not significantly impede the ethics process," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "Twenty-two executives and employees at suppliers to the military and law enforcement agencies were arrested on the eve of their industry's annual trade show in Las Vegas after a 2 1/2-year undercover sting operation aimed at schemes to bribe a foreign official," AP reports.

• "The Justice Department and the FBI have begun a preliminary investigation into actions by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who arranged to provide money and career assistance to the husband of his mistress, sources familiar with the case said Tuesday," the Washington Post reports.