Melanie Sloan, often mentioned and quoted in this blog as chief of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, received a mysterious package at her house recently.

The Washington Post tells the rest of the story. Let's just say your college-aged kids probably would have been very happy to keep the unexpected gift -- and smoked it for years to come.

Musician advocates are crying foul after the National Association of Broadcasters took to the airwaves recently to oppose a measure that would force stations to pay royalties to musicians. A coalition of musician groups sent a letter to Congress last week complaining about broadcasters' use of the airwaves to advance their own interests.

"Broadcasters used their free and unfettered access to the airwaves that they are required to operate in the public interest," said Marty Machowsky, a spokesman for musicFIRST, a coalition including the RIAA, the Recording Academy, and the American Federation of Musicians. Machowsky cited a report from Inside Radio that the NAB's ads aired 40,000 times over the Congressional recess.

The ads pan legislation that would require radio broadcasters to pay performers rather than just songwriters and publishers, when airing songs. They also urge listeners to call their lawmakers. The bill, backed by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has passed out of the committee of jurisdiction in both chambers, and could be taken up by the House or Senate. The ads charge that the bills are a "bailout" for rich performers. When they have aired, they cite the station and the NAB as their backers. 

A spokesman for the NAB acknowledged the broadcasters' ownership of the airwaves provides a benefit.

"I wouldn't deny that," said Dennis Wharton, executive vice president at the NAB. But he also said that musicians receive free promotion for their own arguments during televised awards shows. The NAB also plans to have over 400 station representatives come to Washington next week to lobby members.

Advocacy and lobbying stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel," D-N.Y., "is being admonished by the House Ethics Committee for violating a House gift rule by accepting trips to conferences in the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008 that were paid for by corporations, the committee announced Thursday night," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

• Rangel "denied wrongdoing on his part," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "The Office of Congressional Ethics" on Thursday "criticized the House Ethics Committee for not fully investigating an allegation against Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif.," CongressDailyPM (subscription) reports. "In a pointed memo that exposed growing friction between the two bodies, the OCE took exception to the Ethics Committee's claim last month that OCE erred by referring a tax-related allegation about Stark to the panel."

Republican lobbyists have been buoyed by recent talk among analysts and pundits that the GOP's political fortunes are on the rise and that the party might even have a decent shot at winning back the House of Representatives.

Not only does that kind of thinking help in recruiting new clients, it's also helpful when you're trying to raise money for GOP candidates.

One lobbyist relayed a telling anecdote from contacting a pal on K St., to raise money for the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan: At first, the K. St. pal demurred, but then he recalled that Camp was in line to become chairman of the tax-writing panel. "Right," said the lobbyist. After a pause, the K St., pal said, "Put me down."

Fittingly, Camp's fundraiser is scheduled for April 15.

Local Michigan papers have published several stories over the past few months speculating that National Association of Manufacturers President John Engler, may be considering a 2012 challenge to incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

Engler, the Republican governor of Michigan from 1991-2002, has been shopping for houses near Lansing and some state Republican strategists think he will run, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported earlier this month. The Michigan Messenger also reported on the story.

NAM spokeswoman Laura Narvaiz denied the story and said Engler is "fully focused on his job and committed" to being the head of NAM. She didn't know if he is shopping for a house in Michigan.

"Does he go to Michigan a lot? I think so because he grew up there and he is from there," she said.

Engler became CEO of NAM in mid-2004 and his salary including benefits was $1.3 million in 2008, according to the association's tax documents. Narvaiz declined to state the length of Engler's contract with NAM and a source said it has no time limit. The group's former CEO, Jerry Jasinowski, served for 14 years.

CEO Update Managing Director Mark Graham said about 20 percent of trade association CEOs work under unlimited employment contracts.

(Photo of Engler by Liz Lynch)

When 2009 began, the number of lobbyists working to influence health care legislation was 1,400. By the fourth quarter, that number had more than doubled to almost 3,700. All told, the health care debate kept more than 4,500 lobbyists employed at various points throughout the year.

A new interactive analysis by the Center for Public Integrity found that more than 1,750 companies and organizations -- ranging from corporations, advocacy groups and universities -- more than doubled their lobbyists in Washington just in the first three months of 2009. That's eight lobbyists for each member of Congress, writes CPI.

AARP deployed the most lobbyists, with 58, followed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with 47 and the Business Roundtable bringing in 40.

Notably, the pro-business chamber outspent every other group in 2009, pouring $123.3 million into lobbying activities and beating out everyone else's annual lobbying udget in their fourth quarter alone.

The U.S. Chamber also ranked first out of the 25 top-spending groups in the health care debate.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Senate Democrats fired off their first legislative response Wednesday to a recent Supreme Court decision overruling restrictions on outside political spending," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "The proposal introduced by Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) would grant lawmakers the sole constitutional right to set federal campaign finance standards."

• "After clashing with business interests over compensation, health care, energy policy, spending and taxes, President Obama sought Wednesday to mend ties with CEOs, arguing that his policies have been distorted by political opponents," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

Health care interests have given $46.6 million in campaign donations since 2005 to the 21 lawmakers in today's bipartisan health care summit -- including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va. -- and to the summit's host, President Obama, according to a new report.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington found that health professionals, political action committees, hospitals and nursing homes, pharmaceutical and health product companies, health services firms, HMOs and accident insurers have given heavily to all summit attendees.

Obama received almost 10 times more than any other name on the list, raking in $18.7 million from the industry during the presidential campaign.

Receiving the most money in the Senate were Baucus and McConnell, who scored more than $2 million each. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., took in $1.6 million.

In the House, Cantor and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., were just shy of $2 million each, while Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., received about $1 million.

Democrats on the list accepted about $15 million from health care interests; Republicans trailed slightly with $12.8 million.

"The health care industry has paid millions to insure its views are represented at tomorrow's health care summit," CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said in a statement Wednesday. "The question is, who will be there representing the rest of us?"

A former George W. Bush administration official is launching a center-right non-profit focused on devising, discussing and publicizing new economic policies.

Economic Policies for the 21st Century, or E21, is described by its founder, former Special Assistant for Domestic Policy Christopher Papagianis, as "pragmatic" and "non-ideological." According to its website, the outfit plans to "encourage a spirited debate about the way forward for democratic capitalism" with research, commentary and events.

The group is getting assists from other Bush II officials. Keith Hennessey, former economic policy adviser and National Economic Council director, is advising the group, and Edward Lazear, former chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, is one of several academics listed as "contributors" to the organization.

Papagiannis won't reveal his donors or budget, other than to say the group is a "multimillion dollar outfit" that "plans to be here for awhile." The organization, which has offices in Dupont Circle and New York City--where Papagiannis lives--had what he calls a "soft launch" as a website last fall. Now it's poised for a sort of wonky coming-out party in late March, when it sponsors a high level conclave on Federal Reserve policy in New York, with Fed Governor Kevin Warsh -- another Bush administration alum -- as keynote speaker.

The start-up has a staff of five, including Jennifer Pollom, former appropriations and budget counsel to the Senate Republican Policy Committee, and writer Reihan Salam, who will advise on policy.

Shareholder and advocacy groups launched a letter-writing campaign Wednesday seeking corporate disclosure of all political contributions made with company funds in response to the Supreme Court's January decision enabling unlimited business spending on elections.

The Court's decision on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission  "is likely to put companies under immense pressure to use shareholder funds to support candidates, groups and causes whose positions and activities could threaten a company's reputation, bottom line and shareholder value," wrote about 50 groups in a letter sent to the chairs of 427 publicly-traded companies.

Disclosure, the groups say, could help companies resist that pressure. The organizations also urged corporations to adopt a policy requiring their boards to approve and review all political donations to candidates.

Among the groups who signed the letter are the California Public Employees' Retirement System, Center for Political Accountability, the Council of Institutional Investors and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Continue reading Groups Want Corp. Disclosure

From this morning's Earlybird:

• A report by nonprofit watchdog Global Integrity "notes the administration has not taken bold action on... money in politics," The Hill reports.

Goldman Sachs has tapped Joe Wall as an associate on its government affairs team. Wall served as former Vice President Dick Cheney's deputy assistant for legislative affairs, as floor assistant to former Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and as an assistant national field director on the Romney for President campaign.

He later worked for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America as senior director of government affairs.

When all is said and done, the 2010 election is likely to cost more than $3.7 billion, more than any other mid-term election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

CRP made the prediction based on historic spending increases in previous mid-term elections. The center said election spending has increased by 31 percent to 35 percent from cycle to cycle. About $2.9 billion was spent in the 2006 election cycle.

"With so much on the line, the outpouring of big money into federal campaigns looks likely to continue at a brisk pace," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of CRP. "Additionally, the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission could precipitate millions more in spending by special interest groups looking to advance their own agendas."

Included in the estimate is spending by Senate and House candidates and political parties, as well as 527 committees and independent expenditures on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. It doesn't include expectations of boosted spending by corporations as a result of the Citizens United case.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "After a short pause in their high-profile lobbying campaigns, stakeholders in the health care reform debate resumed their noisy effort Monday as they drew clear battle lines over President Obama's new blueprint for an overhaul," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "Lobbyists for healthcare, energy and financial interests had a banner year in 2009, with the average payout for each reaching as high as $177,000," The Hill reports. "Despite his push to rein in special interests," Obama "sparked a boom on K Street with major new proposals on healthcare, climate change and financial policies."

• "As Congress prepares to open hearings" today "into Toyota's rash of safety problems, government watchdog groups are questioning whether the deep financial and personal connections between lawmakers and the carmaker could taint the inquiries," the New York Times reports.

The recent Conservative Political Action Conference was not just about raising visibility for the right, but about making some money for its sponsor, the American Conservative Union.

The conference listed 90 cosponsors, comprised almost exclusively of ideological groups, media, think tanks, foundations, and consultants or vendors -- many of whom who were also exhibitors. (Indeed, former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who skipped the confab, griped to Fox News that it was a "pay to play" event, with cash contributors setting the agenda.)

But at least two sponsors were less interested in defining conservatism than lobbying for their own self-interest. The American Petroleum Institute and The Poker Players Alliance ponied up to take advantage of  access to the conservative radio talk show hosts and bloggers that set up shop at the convention. API sent economist John Felmy to talk up how policies encouraging the industry could "generate revenue, employment and reduced trade deficit;" the the Poker Players Alliance, sent Greg "FossilMan" Raymer the 2004 World Series of Poker champion, to sign autographs and gin up support for legalizing Internet poker. The group also got to post its talking points on a conference website.

James Williams is heading to Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal as a senior managing director. He arrives after a year at Icahn Associates, working for billionaire financier Carl Icahn. Before that, Wiliams spent a year and a half at Ogilvy Government Relations and four years at the National Association of Realtors.

Before these private-sector gigs, Williams worked for Democrats on the Hill. He was a senior policy adviser to then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., a staff director on a Senate Banking subcommittee, and a professional staff member on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Candidates preaching fiscal discipline have a new line of attack to hurl at incumbents during this deficit-focused cycle: an increase in earmark spending in 2009.

Nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense analyzed congressional earmarking for FY2010 and found 2,000 fewer earmarks but a $300 million increase in cost. The group also broke down each chambers' top 10 earmarkers.

A handful of candidates have taken up earmark spending as a campaign issue, including state Sen. Charlie Justice, D-Fla., who went public with his criticism of Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., the day after the earmark report came out. Young was the biggest recipient of earmarks in the House, accumulating around $90 million.

"It is time for Bill Young to go," Justice said in a press release that also accused the congressman of funneling money to family and former staffers. "Bill Young has embraced the corrupt ethics of a bygone era and made it a part of the federal budget process. Until Bill Young is removed from Congress, the federal budget process cannot be healed and deficits cannot be controlled."

In Utah, Sen. Bob Bennett faces fire from four Republican primary challengers, including James Williams, who criticizes Bennett for lining up over $200 million in joint earmarks. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Williams "would forgo all earmarks if elected" and for every earmark Congress funds, he "wants to see a corresponding budget cut elsewhere."

Continue reading Incumbents Hit On Earmarks

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Unions and liberal groups have dismissed Sen. Harry Reid's $15 billion jobs bill as 'puny' while calling for larger stimulus measures," The Hill reports. "More than two dozen organizations, including the AFL-CIO," the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People "and the National Council of La Raza, warned Democratic leaders in Congress to avoid tackling the troubled economy through incremental action."

• "When President Obama announced last year a plan to have the federal government assume direct control of all student loans, Sallie Mae, the large student lender, moved quickly to step up its lobbying game," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Fearful that the administration's plans could dramatically reduce its operations, the company sought some well-connected help, including the lobbying firm Podesta Group, and Jamie Gorelick, a partner at Wilmer, Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr -- and a deputy attorney general during the Clinton years."

• "As Toyota braces this week for its first round of congressional hearings, the automaker and its affiliates have assembled a formidable lobbying force to build support on Capitol Hill and leverage longstanding relationships with key lawmakers," the Washington Post reports.

• "Toyota estimated that it saved $100 million by negotiating with regulators for a limited recall of 2007 Toyota Camry and Lexus ES models for sudden acceleration, the same problem that has since prompted it to recall millions of cars, documents turned over to a Congressional committee showed Sunday," the New York Times reports.

--The U.S. Chamber's big enterprise campaign is off to a slow start. Stan Anderson is now at the helm to get it back on track. Read the story here. (Subscription required)

--Comcast and NBC are dancing as fast as they can to sell their massive media merger to Washington regulators. Read story here. (subscription required)

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Defense Department officials are trying to be 'as fair as humanly possible' in the competition to replace the Air Force's refueling tanker aircraft, " said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell on Thursday. "Boeing and Northrop Grumman have been going head to head for several years to win the approximately $35 billion tanker contract," The Hill reports.

Patton Boggs announced Thursday it has hired Dick Thompson, the former top lobbyist at Bristol-Myers Squibb, to advise its clients on health care and pharmaceutical matters.

"It is a major coup to have such a highly experienced and well-respected leader like Dick Thompson join the firm," said Stuart Pape, managing partner of the firm, in a statement.

Thompson ran the pharmaceutical giant's DC office for 26 years.

Members of the Main Street Alliance, a progressive group representing small-business owners, voiced their anger and anxiety over rising health care costs in a conference call with Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., this afternoon. (National Journal subscribers can read more about the Main Street Alliance here.)

Small-business owners are finding the public option more appealing than ever before, the group said, as they face health insurance rate hikes of 20 percent to 120 percent next year. "We're eating the cost of the increases with about 10 percent of our payroll," said Laurie Pitman, owner of Golden Gate Helicopters in San Jose, Calif., whose current plan under Anthem Blue Cross increased by 25 percent in November.

Pitman, who is proud to offer coverage for her 11 employees, expressed anger over a recent report from Health Care for America Now, the nation's largest health care campaign, that measured a $12.2 billion profit for the biggest health insurance companies in 2009 -- a 56 percent increase from last year.

According to HCAN, insurance companies such as WellPoint, Humana and Cigna Corp. "sailed through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression" with record profits by increasing costs to policyholders. This rate hike disproportionately burdens small-business owners because of their problems of scale, Blumenauer said.

Forced to absorb annually increasing rates, small-business owners have little option but to cut health care plans, lay off employees or as the members of the Main Street Alliance fear -- close up shop. "We can't compete with national chains," said Virgina Beach restaurant owner, Brian Radford. "These rates just aren't sustainable."

With the support of Blumenauer, the group has written Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pressing them to pass a health care reform bill that includes the public option. "It's not too late to clean up the Senate bill," Blumenauer said, a task he looks forward to next week once Congress is back in session.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "The American Conservative Union" today "will kick off the 37th annual Conservative Political Action Conference -- an event long known for red-meat rhetoric and patriotic fervor," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• On the eve of the conference, "several well-known Republicans, including Edwin Meese III, the former attorney general, have signed a new document called the Mount Vernon Statement," the New York Times reports.

• "Since Richard Nixon was president," CPAC "has provided the American Right with an annual occasion for self-evaluation," Politico reports. Today, "when some 10,000 activists gather in Washington for this year's conference, they will find themselves part of a conservative movement significantly different than it was during the Bush administration, or even in 2009."

A group supporting the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of fewer limits on corporate political spending says recent negative polling overestimates public opposition.

The Center for Competitive Politics released a statement Wednesday listing criticisms of three recent polls that indicated broad public opposition to the ruling. This includes the poll released earlier today by the Washington Post and ABC News which said "eight in 10 poll respondents say they oppose the high court's Jan. 21 decision to allow unfettered corporate political spending." Another survey was sponsored by Change Congress, Common Cause, and Public Campaign Action Fund and the third comes from the firm Argus Reid.

"Two of the three polls on the Citizens United decision contained questions arguably biased against the Court's ruling (the third poll did not even release the questions asked)," said CCP.

Jeff Patch, communications director for the First Amendment advocacy group, said "Polling is an art form and the responses are so dependent on how the questions are phrased."

Members of Congress took in a combined $78 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, up 5.4 percent from the previous quarter and enough to bring their yearly total to $294 million. Digging through end-of-year campaign finance reports, researchers at the Center for Responsive Politics have ferreted out 2009's top fundraisers in the House and Senate.

Much of the big money went to incumbents running for the Senate, such as Rep. Mark Kirk , R-Ill., who raised $4.8 million in his bid to capture the seat currently held by Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill. Kirk's top donors included Kirkland & Ellis LLP and medical supply company Medline Industries.

No surprise, those in the hot seat also brought in impressive hauls, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who accrued a whopping $9.5 million, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who raised $7.1 million.

Among the House leadership, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., brought in $1.5 million, trailing Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio's $2.4 million and Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia's $2.6 million.

The top fundraiser in 2009 from either party was Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who raised $10.1 million. Former presidential candidate and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., currently has the most cash on hand, ending the year with $27.5 million.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Americans of both parties overwhelmingly oppose a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, and most favor new limits on such spending, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll," the Washington Post reports.

• "The continued practice of lobbyist donation bundling shows that Obama's pledge to take on lobbyists and special interests in Washington is one promise that's been... nearly impossible to keep," Politico reports.

We know lobbyists make a boat load of money, but the Center for Responsive Politics has done the math and it comes out to $1.3 million an hour in 2009.

The group divided the total spent on lobbying the Hill during the year ($3.47 billion) by the number of hours Congress was in session (2,668).

You can find out more here.

Three companies Tuesday dropped out of the US Climate Action Partnership --a pioneering coalition between environmentalists and corporation pushing for a cap-and-trade approach to curbing carbon emissions.

According to a US CAP release, BP, Caterpillar and ConocoPhillips decided not to renew their membership in the coalition. The release offers little explanation for the departure, and downplays the significance by saying that its membership "changes periodically," and noting that it has also gained three members over the past seven months, (AES, Alstom and Honeywell) with more expected soon.

Opponents of cap and trade were quick to spin the news as a sign that the movement is moribund. Companies "are recognizing that cap-and-trade legislation is dead in the U. S. Congress and that global warming alarmism is collapsing rapidly," said the Competitive Enterprise Institute in a statement.

But comments from the companies themselves suggested more parochial concerns about how the House bill and Senate proposals dealt with their specific industries. Conoco Phillips CEO Jim Mulva in a statement that the bills "to date have disadvantaged the transportation sector and its consumers, left domestic refineries unfairly penalized versus international competition, and ignored the critical role that natural gas can play in reducing GHG emissions."

The Houston Chronicle noted that both BP and Conoco Phillips had unsuccessfully pushed the alliance "to strip the refiners' responsibility for consumers' transportation emissions out of the leading climate change bills and instead replace it with a retail-level fee for refined products."

Other members of USCAP remineded us that another oil company, Shell remains part of the coalition -- and has offered statements supporting its work, as does Caterpillar competitor John Deere. One member, who asked not to be named, suggested that the defections actually concealed some good news for cap and trade proponents--a broad continuing consensus across industries in the coalition, and signs of progress on proposals  in the Senate.

Resurgent Republic, a 501 (c) 4 organization co- founded by former Republican National Committee Chair Ed Gillespie and pollster Whit Ayres, has just named Leslie Sanchez as the latest addition to the group's board of directors.

Sanchez (at right) is CEO of Impacto Group, a D.C. strategic communications and market research firm that targets women and Latinos in the U.S. Sanchez was formerly executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans in George W. Bush's administration.

She's written two books, You've Come a Long Way, Maybe and Los Republicanos. Sanchez is also a ubiquitous political pundit on CNN and other networks.

Resurgent Republic is an interest group aiming to "replicate on the right the success Democracy Corps has enjoyed on the left," according to its website. It promotes free market conservatism and conducts a number of focus groups, polls and surveys. Resurgent Republic's advisory board includes GOP vets Haley Barbour, George Allen, Mary Matalin, Vin Weber, and Bill Paxon.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Online gambling operatives and their backers in the financial services industry may have a new stumbling block in getting legislation passed that would reverse a ban on Internet gaming: the Morongo Band of Mission Indians," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "Retiring lawmakers are entering a job market that has openings with some of K Street's biggest players -- jobs that include seven-figure salaries or the chance to rub elbows with Hollywood stars," The Hill reports.

There has been a lot of talk over the past year that President Obama's new restrictions on lobbyist communications with the executive branch and bans on serving on government boards has been driving lobbyists to try to skirt registration rules instead.

So I read with interest that Obama's chief ethics counsel Norm Eisen told the Washington Post in a story today that: "We think people are actually leaving the business. We have bent the demand curve of the special interests. It's no longer acceptable for a lobbyist to come into your office and write the rules governing industry."

The story notes that the evidence for that comment is the reduction in the number of registered lobbyists to about 13,000, the lowest level since 2004. Except the actual amount of lobbying has risen to an all time high of $3.5 billion in 2009, so how is it people are leaving the business? Eisen's comment doesn't fit with what people on K Street keep telling me, which is that lobbyists deregistering doesn't mean they are necessarily leaving the "special interest" industry in Washington. There is plenty of work in the influence industry that occurs that doesn't require registering, like lobbying strategy, research, public relations and grassroots work.

I'll be examining this question further in a feature running in National Journal in a few weeks.

Despite the recession, K Street had a banner year, posting growth of 5 percent to $3.47 billion in 2009, which was an all-time high, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The growth was driven by the ambitious Democratic agenda pursued by Congress and the White House on energy, financial services, health care reform. It also reflected the $819 billion stimulus package passed by Congress last year.

"Lobbying appears recession proof," said Sheila Krumholz, the Center's executive director in a statement. "Even when companies are scaling back other operations, many view lobbying as a critical tool in protecting their future interests, particularly when Congress is preparing to take action on issues that could seriously affect their bottom lines."

The top industry spender on lobbying was called "miscellaneous" business, followed by health care and financial services.

The center said there were 13,741 registered lobbyists in 2009, down from 14,446 in 2008.

In 2008, lobbying-fee income was $3.3 billion.

Given the announcement that PhRMA CEO and former Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., was stepping down in June, I thought I'd point our readers to an interesting and informative Sunlight Foundation report.

The Foundation's Paul Blumenthal delved into the White House visitor logs, lobbying disclosure forms and campaign finance documents to track the influence of PhRMA as Tauzin worked on health care reform over the past year.

Among the interesting stats are this:

Over the course of 2009, the drug industry trade group spent over $28 million on in-house and hired lobbyists. Aside from PhRMA's massive in-house lobbying operation, the trade group hired 48 outside lobbying firms. The total number of lobbyists working for PhRMA in 2009 reached 165. Some 137 of those 165 lobbyists representing PhRMA were former employees of either the legislative or executive branches. Of these, dozens were former congressional staffers including two former chiefs of staff to [Senate Finance Committee Chairman and Montana Democrat] Max Baucus.

PhRMA negotiated a controversial $80 billion deal with the White House in exchange for its support of health care reform and Sunlight pinpoints Tauzin's meetings with key officials along the way.

See his post here.

Billy Tauzin will leave PhRMA in June - and a lot of insiders around town may not be sorry to see him go.

The list of critics includes Pfizer Chairman Jeff Kindler, whom sources say has had a rocky relationship with the former Louisiana congressman. Kindler, a Democrat, is taking over the chair of PhRMA this spring. (Tauzin said in a statement he is leaving PhRMA voluntarily to pursue other interests.)

Tauzin's role in negotiating the expensive deal to back now-stalled health care reforms with Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and the Obama administration, has sparked other recriminations inside PhRMA. Lobbyists have grumbled increasingly about the wisdom of the Tauzin strategy-- even though early on it looked like legislation could benefit the industry if it passed and drug companies benefitted from millions of new customers. The White House also promised Tauzin that drug importation from Canada would be off table. In return, Tauzin said his industry would contribute about $80 billion over the next decade to help pay for the health care overhaul.

He will leave PhRMA with a lot of work to do on the Hill to repair ties with Republican leaders who were furious that after years of helping drug companies fend off Democratic backed regulations, PhRMA was working closely with the White House. "He's left a reservoir of ill will both with liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans," said one veteran PhRMA hand. 

Further, sources predict that some of Tauzin's key staff at PhRMA who he brought with him to K Street from the Hill, such as his long time spokesman Ken Johnson, will also be leaving PhRMA with Tauzin.

Tauzin has also been criticized for spending a large amount of time outside Washington at his home in Texas.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Former Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) is stepping down as the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)," The Hill reports. "Tauzin, 66, has been a major player on healthcare reform during the 111th Congress."

• "Congressional Democrats outlined legislation Thursday aimed at undoing a recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporations and interest groups to spend freely on political advertising," the New York Times reports.

• "Lobbying by insurers and banks including Morgan Stanley may eliminate a proposed new standard that would make retail brokers more accountable to their clients," Bloomberg News reports.

A new think tank/communications shop launched Thursday with the financial help of GOP money man Fred Malek. Malek chairs the operation, called the American Action Network.

The group will hold a formal press conference to announce more about its policy and political advocacy efforts on February 22 at the National Press Club.

The press event will feature former Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who is president and CEO AAN. The group's policy arm - called the American Action Forum -- is led by Doug Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. The group's advocacy and communications efforts are led by Rob Collins, a former top aide to Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.

On February 23, American Action Forum will host a conference am at the W Hotel on "How to Create Jobs," which will include talks by Coleman, Malek and Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., unveiled their framework Thursday  for comprehensive legislation to respond to the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, a ruling that will allow corporations to make independent expenditures to support or oppose candidates in elections.

Their plan has five parts:

-Ban expenditures by foreign interests

-Stop bailout recipients and government contractors from spending unlimited amounts "because tax payer money should not be used to promote a company's political interests," Schumer said.

-Impose new disclosure requirements to the public through the Federal Election Commission and the Lobbying Disclosure Act, and new disclosure requirements to shareholders through the Securities and Exchange Commission.

-Impose new disclaimers on ads

-Require candidates and party committees to have reasonable access to airtime (lowest-unit rate rules)

Schumer said the legislation will be introduced after the recess, and that it is designed for swift passage in time for the upcoming elections. The goal of expedience persuaded the pair against introducing a constitutional amendment, Schumer said. That far-reaching solution has been promoted by some campaign finance watchdogs.

"Our goal is to advance the legislation quickly, otherwise the Supreme Court will have predetermined the winners of next November's elections," Schumer said. "It won't be Republicans; it won't be Democrats; it will be corporate America."

Another notable proposal missing from their plan are measures to allow shareholders to weigh in on their corporations' political spending, an idea touted by many campaign finance reformers as more moderate that a constitutional amendment.

Sunlight Foundation's Political Party Time asks a fun question related to our epic snow fall this week: Will the snow cut into lawmakers' fundraising opportunities?

People often joke about the birth rate going up nine months after a big storm like Washington, DC's snowmagedden. But what about congressional fundraising? Will we see a dip in campaign contributions for this week, when candidates report them to the U.S. Federal Election Commission all too long from now?

Click here for the whole post, which notes several of the canceled fundraisers this week.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "If there were any question where lobbying ranks in popularity these days, the attacks on former senator Dan Coats of Indiana over the past week provide a pretty clear answer," the Washington Post reports. "Coats, a Republican who served in Congress for nearly 20 years, is preparing a run to win back the seat occupied by Sen. Evan Bayh (D).... The problem for Coats is that he spent a good part of the past decade as a well-connected Washington lobbyist."

• "Labor groups are furious with the Democrats they helped put in office -- and are threatening to stay home this fall when Democratic incumbents will need their help fending off Republican challengers," Politico reports. "The Senate's failure to confirm labor lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board was just the latest blow, but the frustrations have been building for months."

Three Democrat firms that focus on using online communications in campaigns have merged forming Trilogy Interactive.

Partners from Articulated Man, Blackrock Associates and Mayfield Strategy Group combined their resources to help Democrats "accelerate and innovate to maintain" their lead in online communications.

The new firm said it now represents the campaigns of 22 Democratic Senators and "dozens" of advocacy groups.

Among the partners at the new firm are Brent Blackaby and Larry Huynh, who both worked on the draft retired General Wesley Clark as president movement and Josh Ross who managed Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry's online strategy for president in 2004. Other partners are Stacey Bashara, who worked at Ogilvy & Mather and helped launch Ameritrade, and Randy Stearns, who has worked for Democratic campaigns, labor unions and non-profit groups.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "For years Northrop Grumman has been engaged in a seesaw competition with rival aerospace giant Boeing over" an estimated $35 billion contract for next-generation aerial refueling tankers, Roll Call (subscription) reports. "The protracted drama, however, may soon be coming to a close with the Pentagon expected to shortly seek final proposals for the fleet of in-air refueling tankers. As a result, Northrop Grumman and its allies have been waging a last-ditch public relations campaign and engaging in hardball political tactics to change the bidding process that it claims is tilted in favor of its rival."

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "As most of Washington, D.C., spent Monday digging out from the weekend's blizzard," "lobbyists continued to press ahead even though some of their signature issues are hanging in limbo," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "With its global reach, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee attracts as wide a swath of special interests as any on Capitol Hill," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "A group advocating the rights of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are on the Hill this week to press lawmakers on issues ranging from disability care to high rates of unemployment," Politico reports.

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - The lawmakers now investigating Toyota's recall include a senator who was so eager to lure the Japanese automaker to his state that he tramped along through fields as its executives scouted plant sites, and a congresswoman who owes much of her wealth to a Toyota supplier.

They and others on the congressional committees investigating Toyota's massive recall represent states where Toyota has factories and the coveted well-paying manufacturing jobs they bring. Some members of Congress have been such cheerleaders for Toyota that the public may wonder how they can act objectively as government watchdogs for auto safety and oversight. The company's executives include a former employee of the federal agency that is supposed to oversee the automaker.

You can read the full story here.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• The New York Times reports on how Wall Street has shifted its lobbying spending from Democrats to Republicans in light of President Obama's "proposals for tighter financial regulations."

• "Lobbyists for healthcare interests are eyeing the Senate jobs bill as a vehicle for several key priorities left behind when healthcare reform stalled," The Hill reports.

• "With renewed White House support but tough midterm elections expected this fall, the business community says this year's legislative window is closing quickly for a trio of trade deals still awaiting Congressional approval," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "Republicans are hammering away at the Census Bureau's $340 million ad campaign, calling the 30-second $2.5 million Super Bowl Sunday commercial spot 'wasted money,'" The Hill reports. "But congressional Democrats and U.S. Census Bureau officials defended the ad campaign as necessary for outreach and saving money in the end, with some saying that even more money may be needed."

• AP reports on Toyota's ties to some of the lawmakers investigating the automaker's recalls.

The retrial of former Jack Abramoff lobbying associate Kevin Ring has been postponed until July 26, after concerns about the Supreme Court's review of the honest services fraud statute delayed the retrial from its planned June 21 start date.

At a hearing today, Judge Ellen Huvelle suggested, as she has in the past, that the government may need to revise its case against Ring after the Supreme Court hands down its decision on honest services fraud. Legal experts expect the court to either throw out the statute altogether or provide clearer limitations on what it entails. Ring was tried on six counts of honest services fraud, along with one count of illegal gratuities and one count of conspiracy to commit both crimes, but his first trial ended in a mistrial after the jury hung on all counts in October.

"I'm assuming [the government] is going to lose their 'honest services'" and "cut back their case dramatically," Huvelle said. She has previously suggested that Ring could be charged with bribery, which is harder to prosecute than honest services fraud because it requires evidence of quid pro quo.

Justice Department attorney Nathaniel Edmonds responded that the government may "revise the indictment" based on the Court's ruling, but it does "not anticipate doing so."

Continue reading Ring Retrial Reset For July

Think that the Supreme Court's January decision in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission will send torrents of corporate political money coursing anonymously through business groups and into campaign advertising? Not US Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donahue.

The group does plan to spent money "in a more significant way" in this year's election, he told National Journal in an interview this week, "and of course we will be able to be a little more specific because of the recent decision of the Supreme Court," he said. True, lifting the ban on corporate ads mentioning candidates 60-to 90 days before elections means "you can spend a few more dollars there," Donahue allows. "But you're not going to bring more money in just because you can change what you said" in advertisements under the old regime.

Translation: Corporations and unions had already found ways to effectively sidestep the rules overturned by the Roberts Court.

Advocacy and lobbying stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)

• "When
  Lobbying Goes Wrong:" Not all influence-industry representatives are
  smooth operators, Joseph Gibson writes in his new book "Persuading
  Congress."

• "No Room At The Inn For Online Travel:" Online travel companies, hotels and states are in a lobbying battle over a tax provision that may be attached to the Senate's job bill.

• "On The Move:" Rey Ramsey has joined the lobbying group TechNet, a consortium of CEOs of major technology companies, as president and chief executive officer; Carl Thorsen has launched a one-man lobbying shop, the Thorsen Group. He most recently was a director and partner at the American Continental Group, a government-affairs and strategic; Ogilvy Government Relations has a new senior vice president, John O'Neill, who arrives from the law firm Venable, where he was a partner.consulting firm; Also joining Ogilvy as a senior vice president is Justin Daly, who most recently was counsel to Securities and Exchange Commissioner Kathleen Casey.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Despite being at the center of a racial firestorm last month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scored an A on the latest report card from the NAACP," the Washington Post reports.

• The New York Times reports on how an "aggressive lobbying campaign" by lenders has jeopardized Democrats' plan to overhaul "the student loan business and ending government subsidies to private lenders."

• "The recession has battered the U.S. economy, but the lobbying industry is humming along in the nation's capital, even for companies that have shed thousands of jobs in the past year," USA Today reports. "The 20 trade associations and companies that spent the most on lobbying increased their spending by more than 20% in 2009 to $507.7 million, up from $418.2 million a year earlier, according to a USA TODAY analysis of reports compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics."

• "Chief executives at some of the biggest financial institutions are on a mission to repair their image with Congress and the public, part of a strategy to gain more influence over legislation that would overhaul financial regulations and intrude further into their business," the New York Times reports.

• "National Football League players have hired a new union chief from Washington's top lobbying firm and hired his former colleagues to help influence Congress," Bloomberg News reports.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee aide David Marks is moving to Outreach Strategies, where he will be a vice president. Marks joined the committee five years ago, serving most recently as a press secretary to Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N. Mex.

Outreach Strategies represents such green-minded clients as the U.S. Climate Action Partnership and the Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development. It was founded last year by two other former Senate staffers, Tad Segal, who worked for former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., and Joe Clayton, who worked for former Sen. Alan Dixon, D-Ill. The firm has a focus on advocacy communications.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Washington lobbyists and lawyers helped launder millions of dollars for allegedly corrupt African politicians and their relatives, according to a two-year-long investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations," The Hill reports.

• "A group of prominent Republicans is forming an organization to develop and market conservative ideas, copying a successful Democratic model and hoping to capitalize on the fund-raising and electioneering possibilities opened up by a recent Supreme Court ruling," the New York Times reports.

• "Some lobbyists are spending less time stalking members of Congress and more time reaching out to government bureaucrats as federal agencies regain some lost authority over spending," The Hill reports.

• "Consumers for Competitive Choice, a self-described grass-roots nonprofit representing mostly small-business owners, is storming Capitol Hill today in a push to lower the fees that credit card companies charge merchants," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity is beefing up its media operations by hiring two outside public relations firms-- one of which has very strong Republican ties-- to burnish its image.

Last year, the group generated a wave of negative press when it was widely reported that an outside grassroots consultant, Bonner & Associates, sent bogus letters to some members of Congress. Bonner no longer does grassroots work for the clean coal group.

The ACCCE recently retained HDMK, a PR firm that boasts Terry Holt, a former spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Oh., and Trent Duffy, a former deputy press secretary to President George W. Bush, to work with national media. Holt told NJ that his firm will be "part of the strategy team on message development."

Further, Dan Ronayne, a managing director of the Howard Consulting Group, was retained to work with regional reporters. ACCCE has been pushing for significant alterations on climate change bills in Congress. President Barack Obama's latest budget calls for ending billions in tax breaks for the coal industry, but includes sizable new funding for clean coal technology which he has long backed.

ACCCE is in its third year of operation and spends upwards of $30 million a year on advertising. Earlier this week, it launched a new round of television and online ads that are expected to run for a few months.

Americans still don't care that much about the DC lobbying and influence issue when ranking it among other pressing priorities, according to a new Pew poll.

Concerns over the industry ranked 19th in the survey, behind "moral decline" and "helping the poor" - the same as in 2009. The top three priorities this year are the economy, jobs and terrorism. Reducing health care costs ranked 8th on the list, little changed from last year.

Conservative activist Grover Norquist launched his latest stink bomb at the National Federation of Independent Businesses, saying the group is failing to respond to what he says is growing rage at the Obama agenda from small business.

"The biggest hole in the center-right bloc is that the NFIB is not being the tribune of the masses on this," said Norquist in an interview to be published Friday in National Journal. "Why is that? That is a fascinating question."

Norquist and other conservatives have been furious with the NFIB since its 2007 decision to join with AARP and the Service Employees International Union to promote bipartisan ideas for health care and Social Security reform. NFIB president Todd Stottlemyer, who engineered this alliance, left the group a year ago, but Norquist opines that things haven't improved under new president Dan Danner.

Norquist says he's continued to seek out NFIB in organizing small businesses to resist Obama initiatives such as new workplace safety rules, to no avail. "I don't know what they are doing, whether they are selling insurance or advertising or what. But it isn't moving the ball politically."

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "It appears that the public fight between Obama and the biggest business lobby of them all, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has come to a détente -- at least for now," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "Grass-roots advocacy groups will kick off a national lobbying campaign later this week to rally support for a constitutional amendment that they hope will mute" the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "Lobbyists in the healthcare industry say they must remain vigilant even as their focus narrows and their profiles diminish with healthcare reform on the back burner," The Hill reports.

Current MPAA CEO and former Rep. Dan Glickman, D-Kan., announced last month that he would be leaving Hollywood's lobbying group in April, sparking the discussions about who would be his replacement. He joined the MPAA in 2004 after the legendary Jack Valenti stepped down after 3 decades on the job.

"Richardson makes sense because he has that global international experience, he knows state and federal staff and it keeps the job at an elevated level," said one K Street source.

It's also a lucrative job. In National Journal's 2008 salary survey, we reported that Glickman had received compensation and benefits of $1.3 million as CEO.

Others in the mix are Robert Pisano, the former vice chairman of MGM, and currently MPAA's COO and Richard Bates, who was recently named the head of Disney's Washington D.C. office.

Another source said Bates is unlikely to take the job as he just received a promotion to head Disney's office after its former head Preston Padden announced he was retiring in 2011. Padden is becoming become a senior fellow and adjunct professor at University of Colorado Law School and will be working on strategic planning projects until he leaves the company next year.

(Photo by Rick Bloom)

The group Conservatives for Patients Rights has declared victory over the public-option health plan and will step out of the lime light.

The outfit, which has spent millions of dollars over the past year beating up on Democrats' healthcare yearnings, says it will run an ad in the Washington Post tomorrow to publicly dance on the grave of the government plan, espoused by liberals as the best way to solve America's dire health care insurance problems.

"Although the health care debate is far from over, it is clear that the public option, which Conservatives for Patients' Rights viewed as "patient enemy number one," is dead," said CPR chief Rick Scott in a statement. "Accordingly, we're stepping back from the debate and taking a breather.

Scott said the group "will remain focused on promoting the Four Pillars of Free-Market Health Care Reform - Choice, Competition, Accountability and Personal Responsibility - pillars that will lead to lower costs and better patient outcomes."

After exchanging some heated rhetoric in 2009, U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas Donohue and President Obama made nice in an exchange of letters after last week's State of the Union speech.

On January 28, Donohue sent a conciliatory letter to the president that said: "You hit the nail on the head last night when you said that in times of adversity, Americans of all backgrounds and political persuasions come together to find common ground and tackle big challenges." He added that "the American business community is ready to partner with the government to revitalize our economy."

Obama on Feb. 1 sent an equally conciliatory note in return: "it was great to receive your kind comments on the State of the Union. I very much appreciate your offer of cooperation around the many areas of common concerns we share."

Is there a truce? Depends on the issue. The chamber loves Obama's stimulus spending -- especially for infrastructure, but can't stand his regulatory prescriptions for health care insurance or banking reform.

Here are the two letters.

Environmentalists are chafing over the new charm offensive launched by the chemical industry in anticipation of a rewrite of the Toxic Substances Control Act. In the planning stages since late last year, the Coalition for Chemical Safety has now gone public with a press release celebrating its 150th member.

The group has a website featuring photos of smiling families and a pair of hands cradling a miniature green earth, and appeals for business, labor and individuals to press Congress to pass "legislation that will take a comprehensive approach to protecting public health, preserving American jobs and innovation, and promoting the development of new safe green chemicals that will protect our planet for years to come."

The coalition is led by Joe Householder -- a consultant to PR firm Purple Strategies and one-time communications director for former Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, who won't say who hired him or what his budget is. He concedes that one of the coalition's Washington-based "national members," the American Chemical Council, was an "early part of our discussions." (Another newly listed national member is the Fertilizer Institute.)

The group claims members in 17 states -- including several agribusiness groups in the farm belt -- and pays individuals in several states to coordinate activities there. The group wants the Environmental Protection Agency to have authority to declare chemicals safe for their intended uses, and to have the process incorporate industry preferences.

Environmental Defense Fund senior scientist Richard Denison says the industry wants the EPA to ignore safety risks from multiple sources of exposure and that it opposes assessing the safety of thousands of existing chemicals exempted from scrutiny when the TSCA was first passed in 1976.

Householder says the group, a 501c4, won't be hiring a lobbyist, but will rely on earned media and encouraging members to contact their senators. He and Denison have already sparred on Denison's blog about the group's claim to be made up of "people like you." The coalition's Montana spokesperson, captured on public radio, said that the group supported banning bisphenol A,  a controversial component in many plastics -- even as the chemical industry has launched a $10 million campaign to defend it. Householder dismissed the Montana representative's statement as her personal views and said the group doesn't have a position on individual chemicals.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Twelve Democratic Senators spent last weekend in Miami Beach raising money from top lobbyists for oil, drug, and other corporate interests that they often decry," Politico reports, citing a guest list.

• "Law firms and lobbying shops are preparing for a flood of résumés from soon-to-be unemployed Members," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "The White House has started a war of words with a trade association representing the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies over new campaign finance reform legislation," The Hill reports.

• "Lehman Brothers, the securities broker and investment bank now in bankruptcy, briefly lobbied federal lawmakers in the last two months," The Hill reports.

Lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie is the latest to add a journalist to its ranks. The firm announced it expanded its strategic and public affairs practice by bringing in Matt Dornic as a director of QGA Communications.

The firm also purchased Dornic's media strategy firm, 3 Dog Agency, which he founded at the end of 2007. Before 3 Dog Agency, Dornic was the manager of media relations and creative services for Anystream Inc. where he spearheaded client, partner and corporate communication initiatives.

He is a former broadcast journalist, the co-editor of mediabistro's FishbowlDC blog and a columnist for Capitol File magazine.

Last month, lobbying firm BGR brought on former lobbying reporter Jeff Birnbaum, to head up its communications practice.

School officials said Rehr will comment on policy and politics for the Graduate School of Political Management. He left the NAB last year after a controversial tenure.

Rehr currently serves as senior adviser to Leading Authorities, Inc. He who holds a Ph.D. from George Mason University and serves as an adjunct professor at the graduate school where continues to lecture and teach on advocacy, fundraising, marketing and communications, and leadership.

(Photo by Liz Lynch)

Our colleague Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic does the math -- The US Chamber of Commerce's lobby spending surpassed the war chests of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in 2009.

Check out the story here.

Ogilvy Government Relations has tapped Justin Daly and John O'Neill to join the firm as senior vice presidents next month.

Daly most recently served as counsel to SEC commissioner Kathleen Casey. Before that, he was chief securities counsel on the Senate Banking Committee, advising then-Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala. He was also chief securities counsel at the House Financial Services Committee, where he advised former Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio. Prior gigs include tenures as counsel to former Rep. Vito Fossella, R-NY, and late Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-NY, and a stint at the Financial Services Roundtable.

O'Neill arrives from law firm Venable, where he was a partner. He has previously served as policy director and counsel to former Senate Majority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., when he was Senate GOP whip. Before that, he was a tax counsel on the Senate Finance Committee, advising ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "With their signature issue struggling for survival, liberal groups are now rallying behind the budget reconciliation route to pass health care reform, despite concerns about the practicality of the legislative maneuver and some skepticism on K Street about pursuing the politically troublesome issue," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "As President Obama vows to refocus Democrats' attention on jobs and the economy, advocates for overhauling the nation's immigration laws say they are still gearing up for a battle in the Senate in coming weeks, despite fading hopes for victory," the Washington Post reports.

• "Watchdog groups are scolding the House ethics committee for continuing to openly feud and rebuke the ethics office Democrats created in 2008 to help the panel police members," The Hill reports.

• "A Defense Department inspector general's report has stirred debate at the Pentagon over what constitutes a conflict of interest after the report determined that Pentagon test agencies gave $91 million in contracts for advice and assistance to corporations that helped develop the system," the Washington Post reports.

• The Post also reports on the new media strategies conservatives are using against Obama and other Democrats.