Now there's a quick way to keep track of 17 lawmakers facing possible action by the Department of Justice, House ethics committee, Senate ethics committee and the Office of Congressional Ethics.
The group Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington has created a new site called Underinvestigation.org to profile the members in question. They include Rep. Jesse Jackson, D-Ill., Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.
"The American people deserve to know which of their representatives may have engaged in misconduct," said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan, in a statement.
American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies and the School of Public Affairs periodically pay for advertisements to thank teachers and guest speakers as a way of highlighting the programs they offer.
But a new ad thanking Jack Bonner, CEO of grassroots lobbying firm Bonner & Associates, has gotten the university and center Director James Thurber into some hot water. The full-page print ad, for which American University paid Roll Call $1,523, ran on November 4 and said "Thank you Jack Bonner for over 15 years of teaching excellence." It then went on to note many of Bonner's guest lecturers, which included reporters, public relations specialists and D.C. lobbyists from associations, firms and unions.
The problem? Bonner admitted last summer that a former employee sent multiple fake grassroots letters to three House lawmakers regarding climate change legislation, which has made his firm a target for ethics questions. On Oct. 29, members of the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming grilled Bonner about his ethics. Bonner testified that he had hired AU's Thurber as an independent ethics adviser to make sure his firm never produces fake letters again.
The timing of American University's ad, one week after the hearing, makes it appear the school ran the ad to prop up Bonner's reputation. That has raised eyebrows and questions around town about why a university would come to an aide of a lobbying firm under an ethics cloud.
(UPDATE@1:44 pm on Nov. 4 to add a link to prominent economist Jeffrey Sachs' reaction to Jankowsky's editorial)
The Obama administration is talking out of both sides of its mouth regarding special interests, writes longtime D.C. lobbyist Joel Jankowsky in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece Tuesday.
He argues the White House has welcomed top campaign donors while ostracizing lobbyists as tainted:
"Campaign contributors, especially those who bundled large contributions from others, have been embraced by this administration. Because they aren't formally registered or regulated in the way lobbyists are, they enjoy the benefits and privileges of serving in the heart of the administration. These contributors serve in critical foreign and domestic policy positions, as well as department and agency boards and commissions. Dozens of Obama for America National Finance Committee members have joined the administration. Most of them raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the campaign, according to the watchdog group the Center for Responsive Politics."
Jankowsky adds:
"This inconsistent treatment does a disservice to federal policy making. Talented women and men who registered themselves as lobbyists under the Lobbying Disclosure Act are being excluded from contributing their expertise at a critical time in our nation's history."
Jeffrey Sachs, economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University took issue with Jankowsky's argument, calling it "preposterous" on the Huffington Post.
He says: "Lobbyists may indeed be talented people of expertise, but they are part of a dysfunctional system that has turned policy over to the highest corporate bidder and that puts our economy and society in jeopardy."
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct unanimously voted Thursday to open investigations on Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif.
The ethics committee will examine whether Waters violated House rules through alleged conversations with the National Bankers Association or OneUnited Bank. Her husband owns stock in OneUnited and previously sat on its board of directors.
In Richarson's case, the committee will look at whether she broke House rules by failing to disclose "real estate, income and liabilities" on her financial disclosure forms. Also at issue is whether Richardson received an impermissible gift or received preferential treatment regarding loans on her property in Sacramento, Calif.
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct has concluded that Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., did not violate House rules or standards when he invited a witness to testify before the Committee on Small Business earlier this year.
The ethics panel, as well as the Office of Congressional Ethics, investigated the relationship between Brooks Hurst and Grave's wife, both of whom are investors in two renewable fuels cooperatives. Graves approved Hurst to testify before the Small Business committee on March 4.
According to an ethics committee report on the matter released Thursday, "The Standards Committee found that no relevant House rule or other standard of conduct prohibits the creation of an appearance of a conflict of interest when selecting witnesses for a committee hearing. In addition, neither the Standards Committee nor OCE identified any evidence that the March 4, 2009, hearing or Mr. Hurst's testimony resulted in any action that could benefit Representative Graves, Mrs. Graves, or Mr. Hurst."
Case closed. But the Graves investigation is more interesting for the turf fight is caused recently between the House ethics committee and the OCE. You can read about that here. (Subscription required).
A recent lobbyist-turned-staffer shied away from a party held in her honor last week because the shindig was hosted by telecommunications industry lobbyists, Roll Call reports.
The party was held for former AT&T lobbyist Amy Andryszak, who joined the staff of Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, as chief of staff today.
The event was hosted by CTIA, the United States Telecom Association, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and several lobbyists, the article says.
"This is something put together by my friends, and I think it's a wonderful gesture that they wanted to host this event for me," Andryszak told Roll Call. "Even though this is completely legal and ethical, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, I will not attend this event."
New Republic's Jason Zengerle has a cover story in the magazine's latest issue, exploring the paradoxes of Rep. John Murtha's D-Pa., one-man "industrial policy" for his hometown of Johnstown, Pa. Zengerle adds rare context to the tales of pork and shady associates that have swirled around Murtha, showing how the former Marine used his chairmanship of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Defense to reinvent the economic base of a flood ravaged and depressed former steel town. But Zengerle also makes clear that the federal largesse comes with its own risks -- not only to the federal Treasury and ethical government, but to Johnstown itself. "All major corporations have succession plans, and, if you want to think about this as a business model, if Jack is the CEO of the area, what is our succession plan here?" former Johnstown mayor Donato Zucco tells Zengerle. "I don't think we have one, and I don't know that people are even thinking about it."
Rep. Ed Markey, D, Mass., chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, has launched an investigation into reports of forged letters sent to the Hill to derail the energy bill.
Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., received several letters from Charlottesville, Va.-based organizations on faked letterhead urging him to vote against the cap and trade legislation, DailyProgress.com reported today. "This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress," Baucus said in a statement. "My select committee will immediately begin an investigation of the extent and scope of this activity."
DailyProgress.com reports that the letters came from non-existent individuals at several organizations, including the Hispanic advocacy group Creciendo Juntos and a local Virginia chapter of the NAACP. The publication also traced the letters back to the grassroots advocacy shop Bonner & Associates in Washington.
Bonner officials have not returned a call for comment but we will update this story if and when they respond.
With the climate bill moving through Congress, energy-industry lobby expenditures were up more than 10 percent in the first quarter of 2009, according to an analysis of the companies that Common Cause lists as the top spenders.
The 34 top spenders in the oil, gas, and electric utilities industries spent almost $24 million in that time frame. Number 1on the list, Edison Electric Institute, dished out $2.5 million (up 14 percent), and American Petroleum Institute parted with $1.8 million (up 42 percent). American Electric Power, Norfolk Southern Corporation, Koch Companies Public Sector, and Duke Energy Corporation all broke the million-dollar mark as well.
The same companies spent more than $21 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2008, when the cap-and-trade bill wasn't looming. And 12 of the companies that Common Cause lists actually spent less in the first quarter of this year, compared with their spending for the same period last year.
Comparatively, lobby expenditures by industries that stand to gain from climate-change legislation are low, and not listed by Common Cause. The alternative energy production and services sector spent just $7.2 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2009, according to Center for Responsive Politics data. The largest spender in this category was American Wind Energy Association, shelling out $1.2 million. Environmental groups spent $4.7 million on lobbying for the same period, with the Environmental Defense Action Fund shelling out the most money: $300,000.
For its part, Common Cause spent $40,000 on lobbying in the first quarter of this year.
The White House announced today that President Obama has chosen Derek Douglas to serve as special assistant to the president for urban affairs. Douglas also happens to be the most recent former lobbyist Obama has welcomed into his administration despite his hard stance against influence peddlers during the campaign.
According to Senate records, Douglas lobbied for O'Melveny & Myers and for the Center for American Progress.
Douglas previously served as counsel to New York Governor David Paterson and was director of Paterson's Washington, D.C., office. He was also associate director of economic policy at the Center for American Progress where he founded and ran the the Economic Mobility Program. Earlier in his career, Douglas was an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
-- Winter Casey
The Federal Election Commission, in a draft advisory opinion, has given Sen. Frank Lautenberg's campaign committee the go-ahead to use contributions to repay the New Jersey Democrat for $1,340,000 in loans he made to his 2008 and 2002 Senate campaigns.
Lautenberg, a millionaire, won re-election to a fifth term last November, and lent his campaign $1,650,000. FEC lawyers, responding to a request for an advisory opinion from Lautenberg's lawyer, Marc Elias, wrote that the senator's campaign committee could repay the senator up to $250,000 for loans he made to the committee for the 2008 primary election. That is the limit imposed on repayment of personal loans after an election, established by the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which took effect on Nov. 6, 2002.
Separately, the FEC opinion said that the $250,000 cap does not apply to loans made before the effective date of McCain-Feingold. Of the funds Lautenberg lent to his 2002 campaign, $1,090,000 of the debt remains. "The (campaign) committee may use contributions received for the 2008 election or that will be received for the 2014 election to repay the entire outstanding amount of Senator Lautenberg's personal loan to the committee for the 2002 election,'' FEC lawyers concluded. The six-member commission is scheduled to meet Friday, and the advisory opinion is among the issues to be reviewed.
--Edward T. Pound
Washington lobbyist Vicki Iseman sued the New York Times on Tuesday for suggesting that she may have had an affair with Sen. John McCain.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, responds to one of the most sensational stories of the presidential campaign, a 3,000-word, front-page Times article in February intimating that the little-known telecommunications lobbyist had an affair with McCain during his first run for the White House in 1999. The story did not provide any evidence of an affair, but said that McCain's top aides became convinced that the relationship was romantic and took steps to keep McCain and Iseman apart.
But even before the suit was filed, Iseman made clear that she disapproved of the Times' handling of the story. In an exclusive series of interviews and e-mails with National Journal's Edward T. Pound this fall, Iseman told her side of the story about how the alleged affair made its way into the media, calling it "a hit-and-run smear campaign."
