From this morning's Earlybird:

• "A lively mix of regulars and families with small children ate lunch at a kosher pizzeria in northwest Baltimore on Wednesday, and several said they have no problem with the restaurant's new employee: ex-Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

As the recession has pounded the travel industry over the past year, its chief lobbying group, the U.S Travel Association was in a search for funds, so it came up with a clever way to raise money: an online auction tied to travel products donated by the association's members.

"We called it a kind of bake sale," said Geoff Freeman, senior vice president of public affairs for U.S. Travel.

Twenty six of the group's largest members, including travel companies, airlines, hotels, resorts, and convention centers, donated dozens of packages. Between May 4 and June 4, visitors to the group's DiscoverAmerica website could bid on trips like a Las Vegas vacation for two that included airfare, limo service, four nights at a hotel, concert tickets, dinners, a shopping spree, helicopter ride, a celebrity makeover and a spa treatment. The association asked for a starting bid of $5,500, which was snapped up in about a half hour.

Through the auction of the packages, the organization raised more than $1 million that it can use for lobbying and public policy efforts to support the travel industry. The effort was so successful that U.S. Travel will likely have another round of auctions in December, tied to the holidays.

"The benefit of this program is that it simultaneously addressed the needs of the organization in terms of resources and it was great for the marketing of travel too," said Freeman.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• The Federal Communications Commission "came under fire Tuesday from public-interest groups demanding that the agency -- which regularly trumpets its openness -- disclose its private meetings with telecommunications industry lobbyists," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

• "A handful of Members of Congress have accepted more than $100,000 worth of free international travel from the religious organization affiliated with the 'C Street house,' a Capitol Hill townhouse linked to recent Congressional sex scandals," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "The chairman of the Business Roundtable, an association of top corporate executives that has been President Obama's closest ally in the business community, accused the president and Democratic lawmakers Tuesday of creating an 'increasingly hostile environment for investment and job creation,'" the Washington Post reports.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Non-profit groups and special interests spent 73% more in the first three months of the year jetting members of Congress on domestic and foreign trips, a USA TODAY review of records compiled by CQ MoneyLine shows," USA Today reports.

• "Companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are hiring a bevy of high-priced Washington lobbyists and consultants to help them weather the crisis, as investigations heat up and calls for policy changes intensify," the Washington Post reports.

• "Business and advocacy groups eagerly await the release of the government's first-ever strategic plan for intellectual property enforcement, as a Senate panel prepares to assess the performance of the post tasked with coordinating enforcement efforts and drawing up the plan," The Hill reports.

• "As Congress rushes this week to complete the most far-reaching financial reform plan in decades, the banking industry is mounting an 11th-hour end run," the New York Times reports.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "The labor federation Change to Win today is launching a group called U.S. Chamber Watch, a new organization to put pressure on one of labor's top opponents, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Displaying its remarkable clout, the National Rifle Association agreed on Tuesday to permit House passage of tougher disclosure requirements on campaign advertising and other political activity, one day after Democrats pledged to exempt the gun-owners' group from the bill's key provisions," AP reports.

• "Under pressure from the FCC, the communications industry is lobbying Congress to pass narrowly focused legislation to blunt two contentious, game-changing proposals championed by Chairman Julius Genachowski," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

• "This appropriations season is even more precarious," for lobbyists "than past years with new earmark bans in place," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

The Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate announced they have revised two sections of the Lobbying Disclosure Act to clarify reporting requirements related to lobbyists and their campaign contributions, and their previous employers.

The congressional document offices appear to have streamlined the disclosure reporting process. The offices clarified that once a lobbyist files a report for a client and discloses the names and titles of previous employers that are considered "covered" under the LDA, they do not have to report that information again on subsequent forms unless the lobbyist files on behalf of a new client.

The offices also said that active lobbyists and their registrants, both must file a semi-annual report (on January 30 and July 30) disclosing campaign contributions during the period, even if no reportable contribution was made during that time.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Wall Street's lobbying army is marching around Washington in a push to shape the final financial-overhaul bill," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports. "But it has gotten harder to get through the door with some lawmakers."

• "National Association of Convenience Stores lobbyist Lyle Beckwith had some sharp words for Members of Congress on a credit card interchange fee proposal," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

Powerful gun lobbying group, the National Rifle Association, has won a carve-out in the DISCLOSE Act that will exempt them from having to disclose the names of top donors behind its political ads, according to sources.

After the NRA threatened to oppose the legislation, which would require companies, unions and other parties to disclose the donors behind political ads, House Democrats negotiated with the NRA to find common ground. Under the agreement, the bill would exempt from the disclosure requirements, non-profit organizations that have over one million members, that have been in existence for more than 10 years, that have members in all 50 states, and that raise 15 percent or less of their funds from corporations. The NRA falls under that category.

The DISCLOSE Act was introduced after the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United vs the FEC, to strike down restrictions on election spending by corporations and unions. Democrats and some Republicans, fear the the ruling will result in overwhelming expenditures by corporations and introduced the disclosure requirements in hopes of curbing excessive spending.

The House is expected to take up the bill this month.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "As BP ramps up its public relations effort to stem the fallout of the oil spill crisis that has badly stained its reputation, the company faces another big hurdle this week when its gaffe-prone chief executive, Tony Hayward, testifies before a House panel" Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "Congress' final tinkering with Wall Street overhaul this month offers lobbyists a last-ditch shot to reshape the package on behalf of clients with billions at stake," AP reports.

• Roll Call (subscription) profiles the advocacy group CodePink: "What started in 2002 as a small group of women staging anti-war protests has become an international organization that raises about $500,000 each year from its more than 200,000 members."

There are 56 former Hill staff, now lobbyists, who have ties to the lawmakers who have been named to the conference to reconcile Wall Street reform, according to an analysis conducted by the Center for Responsive Politics and Public Citizen.

The financial services industry's links to the Senators on the panel, including Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. and Richard Shelby, R-Ala. are particularly extensive. Each senator once employed at least one current lobbyist.

"Lobbyists with these sorts of connections can have a profound effect on the outcome of legislation," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "Their knowledge extends not only to the issues, but, perhaps more importantly, to their former bosses' cell phone numbers."

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Health care industry leaders are pressing the White House to get more involved with promoting health care innovation, saying the U.S. leads the world but faces growing challenges," The Hill reports.

Longtime education veteran Arthur Rothkopf announced today that he would be leaving the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at the end of July. Since 2005, Rothkopf has overseen the Chamber's Education and Workforce initiative, including the nonprofit Institute for a Competitive Workforce.

"After 52 years of putting on a coat and tie and going to an office every day, I decided that it was time to take more control of my time," Rothkopf said about the decision to leave the Chamber. He also told National Journal that he would not be playing golf but rather continuing work in the education reform area. He will continue to be a member of the Education Department's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity and serve as a trustee of American University and the Educational Testing Service.

Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will oversee the Chamber's education programs for the time being.

Previous to his work at the Chamber, Rothkopf spent 12 years as president of Lafayette College. Before entering the field of education, Rothkopf held two top positions in the Transportation Department, Deputy Secretary and General Counsel. In a statement released today, Thomas Donohue, president of the Chamber, called Rothkopf a "major force in education reform in both the public and private sectors"

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "The battle over interchange fees assessed on debit and credit card purchases has been a knock-down, drag-out lobbying war for years between banks and retailers. But the lobbying fight has turned from those behemoth industries to a smaller scale, pitting state treasurers and a hip-hop impresario against colleges and the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.

Angela Stroschein, an aide to Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has joined lobbying firm TwinLogic Strategies.

Stroschein has more than a decade of state and federal government relations experience, most recently as legislative counsel to Nelson. She has a broad policy background with a primary focus on the Senate Commerce and Appropriations Committees. She also has extensive experience working on tech and telecommunications legislation, as well as transportation, financial services and judiciary issues.

Prior to her position with Nelson, Angela was an attorney in private practice. She also worked in the state legislature in her home state of Nebraska. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University Of Nebraska College Of Law.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "This week, K Streeters are expected to cut checks in droves for the chance to mingle with about 50 senior House staffers who are headlining a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Individual attendees are expected to shell out $1,000, while political action committees need to come up with $2,500 to score a seat ... but lobbyists say it's worth the price tag to get a rare kind of access with high-level staffers."

• "A push to require bank-holding companies to hold better capital has sparked a lobbying drive because it would force the industry to raise as much as $1.3 trillion from its balance sheet if the changes were to be enacted, according to one estimate," CongressDaily (subscription) reports. "Banking groups are concerned an amendment attached to the Senate-passed financial regulatory revamp would force them to raise additional capital in the midst of a credit crunch."

• "Ten Washington lobbying firms have represented a whopping 130 different clients in the financial regulatory reform debate -- raking in millions of dollars as the bill heads for final passage," Politico reports.

After 16 years on Capitol Hill, Shawn Whitman, chief of staff to Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wy. is heading downtown to join Kountoupes Consulting as a principal.

Whitman oversaw Barrasso's DC Senate office, five state offices, and all political activities. Prior to his tenure with Barrasso, Whitman served as chief of staff to Sen. Craig Thomas, R-WY, where he worked with the Senate Republican leadership and the White House on key policy and political initiatives. As legislative director to Thomas, Whitman worked on a wide range of high-profile policy matters, including energy and environment, technology and telecommunications, trade and workforce issues.

Whitman is a key leader among Senate chiefs of staff with a command of Senate process, procedure and policy issues including energy and the environment, technology and telecommunications issues. As the senior strategist to the Senate's only surgeon, he also played a pivotal role in the healthcare reform debate. Whitman has also been head of RAMS, a networking group of current and former Republican House and Senate chiefs of staff as well as senior government officials.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "The 'card check' bill shows no signs of life, at least not in this Congress. But that doesn't mean the groups that sprang up to fight the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize, are disbanding," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "At least three business groups -- the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Workforce Freedom Initiative, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace and the Workforce Fairness Institute -- are all continuing the fight."

• "Big banks and other financial interests will launch a final push to influence the Wall Street reform bill when Congress returns this week, but it won't be the kind of scorched-earth lobbying blitz that traditionally accompanies final negotiations," Politico reports.

• "Democratic lawmakers are pushing the White House to force federal contractors to pay their employees a 'living wage,' setting the stage for another summertime showdown between organized labor, government watchdog organizations and the business community," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

One time super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has been incarcerated in a federal prison in Cumberland, Md. since the fall of 2006, is expected to be transferred in the next week or two to a halfway house in the Baltimore area where he will stay for about six months, according to two sources familiar with his plans.

In January 2006, Abramoff pleaded guilty to corrupting public officials, defrauding four casino- owning Indian tribes of almost $25 million and tax evasion. He was at the hub of an extensive influence peddling scandal: to date, the Justice probe has led to a total of 19 convictions of former Hill aides, lobbyists, members of the Bush administration and one member of Congress, Rep. Bob Ney R-Oh. (He served a 17 month prison term after pleading guilty to conspiracy and making false statements).

The Justice investigation, which has been underway for almost six years, is still continuing, albeit at a markedly slower pace than a few years ago.

Kevin Ring, an Abramoff associate and one time chief of staff to former Rep. John Doolittle R-Calif. is scheduled to be retried on July 26 on an eight count indictment including six of honest services fraud. Ring's first trial held last fall was declared a mistrial by U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle after a jury was unable to reach a verdict on any of the counts.

The charges against Ring could be revised depending on a ruling that's expected this month from the Supreme Court on three separate cases involving different kinds of honest services fraud that are under review. White collar lawyers expect that the Supreme Court will, at the least, tighten the definition of honest services fraud which has been often criticized as a vague statute and some lawyers think that certain applications of the statute could be declared unconstitutional. 

(Photo by Rick Bloom)

EMILY's List, a group that supports Democratic female candidates who favor abortion rights, has just named Amy K. Dacey as executive director.

Dacey comes over from Service Employees International Union, where she served as director of government relations. Dacey has experience in Democratic electoral politics. She was national political director for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's Keeping America's Promise political action committee during the 2006 election cycle, and she was traveling political director for Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign.

In the 2002 election cycle, Dacey worked as deputy political director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee under chair Patty Murray, D-Wash. The current president of EMILY's List is Stephanie Schriock, a former campaign manager for Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. during his disputed contest against former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday that his organization "will partner with the Democratic Party when they operate in the best interests of working people, and we will not when they don't," The Hill reports.

• "Armed with a survey that showed doctors are limiting the number of older patients they are seeing and cutting office expenses, the American Medical Association on Thursday launched a national ad campaign to pressure Senators to reverse cuts in Medicare physician payments," Roll Call reports.

The Center for Public Integrity announced a substantial expansion of its staff including the hiring of two from National Journal -- Staff Correspondent Peter Stone and managing editor Randy Barrett.

Stone has been a long-time reporter for National Journal, where he covered lobbying and campaign finance issues. He also authored the book "Casino Jack and the United States of Money: Superlobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Buying of Washington." He will lead the Center's money and politics team.

Barrett becomes the Center's new director of communications. At National Journal, Barrett was most recently editor of the lobbying and law coverage. Previously he was a reporter and editor for Ziff Davis Media.

Other hires include John Solomon, who is the organization's first journalist in residence. Most recently, Solomon was executive editor of the Washington Times. Before that he was an investigative reporter for the Washington Post and the Associated Press. Reporters Mike Hudson and Ben Hallman are joining the Center's business and finance team. Hudson previously worked for the Wall Street Journal and the Roanoke Times. Hallman comes from the American Lawyer.

Nadi Penjarla is joining as director of the Ujima Project, a computer-assisted reporting effort under the Center's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Ujima is creating web portals and data hubs for international journalists. Also joining the group is Sandoval Palos, a new project manager. Most recently he was the assistant city editor at the Sacramento Bee.

Armando Zumaya is the new development officer, after working on campaigns to raise money for Cornell University and the University of California, Berkley. Robin Heller is the center's new director of foundations. She hails from the non-profit community, including work for organizations such as Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The International Franchise Association has tapped Stephen J. Caldeira as its new CEO. He comes to IFA from Dunkin Brands, where he was executive vice president of global communications and chief public affairs officer. At Dunkin' Brands, Caldeira oversaw worldwide communications, government affairs, corporate social responsibility, customer relations and the Dunkin' Brands Community Foundation.

In addition to his tenure at Dunkin' brands, Caldeira has held a variety of positions in the foodservice industry. He is former vice president of industry relations at PepsiCo. and a co-founder of the Elliot Leadership Institute, a nonprofit in Bloomington, Minnesota, dedicated to training executives in the hospitality business.

Caldeira has also worked for former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Ronald S. Lauer, the chairman of Estee Lauder and onetime candidate for mayor of New York.

He replaces Mathew Shay, who is leaving the IFA to head the National Retail Federation.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Interest groups are gearing up to spend record amounts of money on this year's congressional and state elections, as liberals seek to shore up Democratic defenses and conservative and business groups plan a well-funded push on behalf of Republicans," the Washington Post reports.

• "The American Medical Association will unveil" today "a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at pressuring waffling senators to approve a $23 billion freeze on scheduled Medicare cuts to physicians," The Hill reports.

• "Environmental activists have taken their campaign for climate change legislation to the states, prodding Senators with television and radio ads and trying to gin up grass-roots support with direct-mail pieces," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

From this morning's Earlybird:

• The FCC "is being urged to monitor 'hate speech' on talk radio and cable broadcast networks," The Hill reports. "A coalition of more than 30 organizations argue in a letter to the" Federal Communications Commission "that the Internet has made it harder for the public to separate the facts from bigotry masquerading as news."