Lobbying

If you read the stories in The Wall Street Journal last week or The New York Times this week about campaign contributions from financial companies, you might have the impression that financial PACs and executives are shifting their money from Democrats to Republicans en masse over bonus restrictions, new regulations and the proposed big bank [...]

Instead of shutting down, payday lenders in some of the same states that passed reforms are making loans at higher rates than before the laws were enacted.

Earlier today, the Israel Project — a pro-Israel organization that endorses tough measures against Iran’s nuclear program — sent out a release announcing substantial support for placing sanctions on Iran. A petition issued by the Israel Project to be sent to “every ambassador to the U.S., all UN member states, the president of the World [...]

As we mentioned here last week, the recently passed jobless benefits extension, though packaged as a boost for Main Street, provided many times more funding to the nation’s businesses, including the largest corporations. Specifically, the law allows companies to recover already-paid taxes by applying recession-year losses to income made over the past five years. The [...]

The push is on to dilute the climate change bills moving through Congress, and it’s not coming only from conservatives. Mother Jones’ Kate Sheppard reports today that 14 Senate Democrats are urging their leadership to amend the proposal to grant more free polluting permits to the coal-burning utilities that emit the most greenhouse gases. In [...]

In January of 2008, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). CREW wondered if a $2 million earmark Landrieu had showered on a children’s literacy company wasn’t inspired by a $30,000 fundraiser the company had held for the senator days earlier.
Twenty-two months [...]

As Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) marks his line of opposition to a public insurance plan in the Democrats’ health reform bill, it’s worth noting that no industry has given more to Nelson’s congressional career than the insurers. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign contributions, insurance companies have donated nearly $1.3 million to Nelson [...]

Over a complete Republican boycott, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed its climate bill last week by a vote of 11-1. The lone dissenter was Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) — a name you’ll be hearing a lot more if you’re keeping tabs on the climate debate. Baucus chairs the powerful Finance Committee and [...]

The news that “dozens” of House lawmakers are under scrutiny by ethics investigators — reported last night by The Washington Post — will likely stir a small storm in Washington, particularly on an otherwise quiet Friday when Congress is out of town.
Yet few details contained in the leaked document are new (which makes some sense [...]

Reid called the insurers’ anti-trust exemption “anticompetitive and damaging to the American economy.”