There's pork aplenty in the Agriculture-Rural Development-Food and Drug Administration appropriations bill - 481 congressional requests totaling $370.4 million, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. A "Swine and Other Animal Waste Management" project in North Carolina will receive $349,000. (Isn't that a by-product of pork?) Other, more cryptic earmarking includes a "wool research" project in Montana, Texas and Wyoming ($206,000) and $4.8 million for "wood utilization" - requested by 28 members. (See the group's earmarks database here)

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd has been busy delivering the bacon to his constituents in West Virginia. In the 2010 Homeland Security appropriations bill, he has earmarked $39.7 million for an "advanced training center" and another $3.6 million for an "operations systems center." And scores of small towns - undoubtedly the epicenter of possible future terrorist attacks - received handouts. They include Shelter Island, NY ($200,000), Winthrop, Mass. ($500,000) and Pelham, NY ($563,000).

While presidents invariably rail against unauthorized appropriations, they too get their finger in the pie. Obama alone earmarked four projects totaling $21 million in the Homeland Security bill. His requests in the Agriculture appropriations measure were more numerous - 14 earmarks totaling $101.4 million.

Members often join the president in requesting earmarks that land in their states or districts. The practice provides some political cover, as presidential requests tend to be less parochial than money steered by a lawmaker alone, said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The university, which serves more than 400,000 students at some ninety campuses and 150 learning centers worldwide has been a goldmine for its parent company, the Apollo Group, accounting for most of Apollo's $4 billion in revenues. But a spate of recent pricey ads the University has been running in The Washington Post are about damage control.

A recent joint investigation by New York -based ProPublica and American Public Media's "Marketplace" accused the school, which is the single largest recipient of federal education aid, of using high pressure recruitment tactics that leave students in deep debt--which the school denies-- while The Washington Monthly has an article outlining how federal laws and regulatory changes in the past decade have abetted aggressive recruitment and a spike in predatory private lending to students at these schools.

The charges come as the Apollo Group, is setting aside $80.5 million to settle a long running suit by two former admissions officers accusing the school of getting federal student-aid funds under false pretenses. It also comes as the Obama Administration contemplates tightening regulations meant to prevent such recruitment abuses. One University ad featured an open letter to students, alumni, calling the media reports the work of "ideologically driven critics" and asking to share success stories on the University's website.

• "Eight Key Hurdles For Health Care Overhaul:" National Journal looks at eight groups that will be pivotal to the outcome of health care reform. However carefully crafted, no reform bill that emerges from Congress will win over all of these key constituencies. But unless enough of them are on board, President Obama's signature policy issue will go down on Capitol Hill.
• "Campaign Finance Law Under Seige": The death of the 'millionaire's amendment' has emboldened opponents.
• "Probing Murky Trades": K Street works to defend lucrative, high-speed stock mechanisms from too much government regulation.
• "The Chamber Pile-On": Advocacy groups are pressing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's members to break with the powerful organization.
• "Inside Washington:" Some union leaders looking ahead to next year worry that the Obama administration is not being aggressive enough in pushing labor's top agenda items, from the Employee Free Choice Act; A Q&A With Roger Hickey, co-director, Campaign for America's Future; a look at the off-hours work of Patton Boggs lobbyist Vinoda Basnayake.
• "On The Move": Amber Allman, 38, is a new director of global public affairs in the D.C. office of Yahoo; Jennifer Wood has left Constellation Energy to become vice president of the energy and environment practice at Financial Dynamics, a business communications and consulting firm Technology policy specialist Nicole Silverman is joining Qorvis Communications as a director.

• "The insurance industry lobby is panning the Senate legislation. The lobbying group, America's Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement on Thursday that the bill would increase costs for individuals, families and employers; reduce benefits for older Americans; and threaten employer coverage," the New York Times reports. "In the statement, Karen Ignagni, the group's president and chief executive, said the association would work with the Senate to improve the bill."

A GAO study released Thursday, which sought to cut through the fray, was pretty much a wash. Stakeholders on both sides immediately adopted certain aspects of the report into their lobbying efforts, ignoring points that weren't so favorable.

Points supporting retailers:

- Total costs of accepting credit cards for merchants have risen over time as consumers use cards more.

- Part of these increased costs ...may be the result of how Visa and MasterCard competed to attract and retain bank issuers to offer cards by increasing the number of interchange fee categories and the level of these rates.

- Consumers who do not use credit cards may be paying higher prices for goods and services, as merchants pass on their increasing card-acceptance costs to all of their customers.

"Small business can't support a proposal that does not address their No. 1 problem: the unsustainable cost of health care," said Susan Eckerly, senior vice president of the NFIB in a statement about the legislation Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., unveiled last night.

Their opposition matters because the 350,000-member group has used its grassroots muscle in years past to oppose legislation, most memorably 15 years ago when it helped play a role in ending then President Clinton's plans for health care reform.

The NFIB joined with other business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to create a coalition called Employers For A Healthy Economy, which has committed to spending as much as $10 million on advertising criticizing the House Democrats plans for health reform.

The NFIB had been working much of this year with Democratic staff, mostly in the Senate, to offer input into the developing health care legislation, and therefore remained conciliatory. We will be watching to see what they do next. I couldn't immediately reach an NFIB official for comment.

Meanwhile my colleague Marilyn Serafini and I have a story in tomorrow's National Journal looking at the NFIB and other groups that will have to be reckoned with for a health care bill to reach President Obama's desk.

According to a release, Wells will work with public policy and international law teams at the firm to "help corporate clients in their dealings with foreign governments and legal systems, as well as international markets."

Wells, who worked under current committee chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif. and the late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., dealt with issues such as international refugee policy and immigration matters, international women's issues, and consular affairs. While working on Capitol Hill, she has had a hand in congressional resolutions declaring genocide in Darfur, the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, and the Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.

She has also worked as counsel at the House Judiciary Committee under then-ranking member (now chairman) John Conyers, D-Mich. In addition to the departure of Wells, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chief Counsel David Abramowitz recently took a position as director of policy and government relations in Humanity United's Washington office.

Nearly half of the 150 former members who have reported lobbying in 2009 are working in the financial services sector. These include former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill; former Senate Majority Leader and Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, R-Kan.; former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.; former House Majority Leaders Dick Armey, R-Tex. and Dick Gephardt, D-Mo; former Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La.; former Ways & Means Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif.; and former Rep.Vin Weber, R-Minn.

"It's a shame that so much taxpayer money has been spent to train people to lobby," said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Watch division.

White's departure follows the September exit of the ABA's chief financial officer, Kenneth Widelka, who was arguably the No. 2 staff official below White.

The Journal says that the executives left as part of a reorganization led by Carolyn Lamm, the president of ABA, who joined the organization in August.

The ABA has 1,000 employees and has a membership of about 400,000.

• "The nation's mayors are pressing lawmakers to send more money directly to cities if Congress passes a second stimulus, arguing joblessness is often concentrated in metro areas. The lobbying push could reprise an earlier battle with state governors over control of federal dollars," The Hill reports. However, "several interest groups are reactivating and dusting off old policy proposals as Democratic leaders in Congress consider another jobs measure to ease unemployment levels."

Ramsey currently is chief executive officer of One Economy Corp., a global nonprofit that leverages the power of technology to improve the lives of low-income people, which he co-founded in 2000. One Economy brings unserved and underserved communities into the economic mainstream through facilitating affordable at-home broadband access, producing public-purpose media, and training and employing "Digital Connectors," youth aged 14-21, to enhance their communities' technology capacity.

At TechNet, Ramsey will be based in Washington, D.C. where he will oversee the Silicon Valley organization's day-to-day operations, strategic planning and implementation of its public policy and political agenda.

Separately, TechNet also announced that Paul Otellini, president and CEO of Intel, and Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google, will join the organization's executive committee.

(Photo of Ramsey from One Economy website)

Previously, Daschle was a senior advisor at Alston & Bird.

At DLA Piper, Daschle will counsel clients on a wide range of regulatory and government affairs issues, the firm said. He is also expected to play a significant role in management and client development globally. In addition to advising clients, Daschle will also serve on DLA Piper's Global Board.

(Photo of Daschle from Creative Commons)

• "House Republicans want the AARP to rescind its endorsement of comprehensive health reform legislation after a government report showed it could cause some providers to stop accepting Medicare patients," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio "and other Republican leaders wrote to Barry Rand, AARP's chief executive officer, to 'strongly urge you to reconsider your endorsement' of the health reform bill the House passed Nov. 7."

• "National Catholic leaders this week ratified the church's official position in the ongoing health care debate, reiterating their tough stance against abortion rights and on other hot-button issues as the legislation makes its way through the Senate," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "At the annual fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a group that has come under fire for lobbying heavily for anti-abortion measures in health care reform, church officials defended their positions and the pressure they have put on Capitol Hill leaders."

• "Native American advocates are vowing to keep up the fight after the Supreme Court this week opted against reviewing a nearly two-decade-long challenge to the Washington Redskins name. The court didn't comment on why it declined to reconsider a lower court's ruling that the plaintiffs took too long to file the case," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

RiskMetrics advises mutual funds and pension funds on proxy votes. The group "believes that the chronic and serious nature of the accounting issues, potential stock option misdating, and potential insider trading is indicative of a significant lack of oversight on the part of the board," the New York-based firm said in a November 6 report.

• "Abortion-rights groups and other progressive lobbies are organizing a post-Thanksgiving assault on Capitol Hill to press lawmakers to keep restrictive language on abortion out of the final health care package," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "The coalition has scheduled a 'National Day of Action' on Dec. 2 that will include a rally at the Capitol as well as visits by activists from around the country to lawmakers' offices."

• "Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, defended the bishops' decision to play an active role in shaping national health care legislation, saying Monday that the church must be the 'leaven' in the country's political debate," the Washington Times reports.

• "Business foes of health care overhaul legislation are outspending supporters at a rate of 2-to-1 for TV ads as they grow increasingly nervous over a final bill," AP reports. "Led by the giant U.S. Chamber of Commerce, opponents of the Democratic health care drive have spent $24 million on TV commercials over the past month to $12 million spent by labor unions and other backers."

• "The Club for Growth's recent claim to fame -- or infamy, for some -- has been mixing it up in House Republican primaries by backing conservative candidates running against moderates," Politico reports. "But the anti-tax, anti-big-government group now is positioning itself to be a major 2010 player in Senate races, too, a development likely to cause headaches for both parties."