NewsTrust - Lobbying - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Road to Copenhagen Part: US Climate Legislation & Lobbyists

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy - By Jeff Smith - Nov. 22 (News Analysis) - Called the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, the Waxman-Markey bill was fought hard by the energy industry. According to a report by the Center for Public Integrity, “More than 460 new businesses and interest groups jumped into lobbying Congress on global warming in the weeks before the House neared its historic vote on climate change legislation.” You can see from the chart above that there was a spike in the amount of lobbying just prior to the bill’s passing.

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Energy Lobbyists Seek Support From Veterans

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Jenna Staul - Nov. 10 (News Report) - Environmentalists on both sides of the fight for climate change legislation are hoping to enlist veterans groups as a powerful lobbying tool.

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Former Baucus Staffers Lobby on Climate Bill

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Aaron Wiener - Nov. 09 (News Report) - 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

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Enviro groups face some tough decisions on path to climate bill

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Environment and Energy Publishing - Nov. 06 (News Report) - For the past year, major environmental groups have framed the climate change bill as the movement's single most significant piece of legislation in several decades -- if not ever -- dedicating the bulk of their political muscle and heavy financial resources to passage of the effort. But as the bill moves forward, with this summer's historic House vote and yesterday's Senate committee markup, some question whether in their quest to get a bill, environmentalists and their allies are far too willing to compromise on historic priorities such as offshore drilling and nuclear power.

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Lobbying From The Great Beyond

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Congressional Quarterly - By Alex Knott - Oct. 30 (Special Report) - With a little planning, you can lobby Congress from beyond the grave. Every year, hundreds of Americans continue to make campaign contributions, lobby Congress and in some states cast votes after they have died. And it’s all completely legal.

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Anatomy of an Ethics Leak

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Mike Lillis - Oct. 30 (News Analysis) - 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 session.

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Pro-Coal Lobby Boss Claims Never To Have Opposed Climate Change Bill

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Arthur Delaney - Oct. 29 (News Analysis) - Steve Miller, president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, told a House panel on Thursday that his organization never opposed climate change legislation passed by the House over the summer.

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Supreme Court Eyes Decades of Campaign Finance Laws

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Sep. 09 (News Analysis) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a case that could reverse major gains made in recent decades to reduce the influence of corporate money on federal elections. At first blush, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission appears to

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NRA threats on Sotomayor met with shrugs

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Julie Hirschfeld Davis - Aug. 02 (News Analysis) - The National Rifle Association's threat to punish senators who vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has been met with a shrug by Democrats from conservative-leaning states and some Republicans who are breaking with their party to support her. The gun rights group is used to getting its way by spooking lawmakers about the political consequences of defying its wishes. But it never before has weighed in on a Supreme Court confirmation battle. It was cautious about breaking that pattern, and it looks like a losing a fight to defeat President Barack Obama's first pick for the court. Sotomayor is expected to easily win confirmation in a vote this coming week that could deflate the long-accepted truism in Washington that you don't cross the NRA.

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Lanny Davis Now Lobbying In Support Of Honduran Coup

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Talking Points Memo - Jul. 15 (News Report) - And now the hardest working conservative Democrat in show business has a new gig: lobbying against the Honduran leader recently deposed in a military coup.

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Lobbyists Skirt Disclosures on Stimulus Lobbying

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Olga Pierce, Brian Boyer - May. 15 (News Report) - We know that, like any giant pot of government money, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act attracted lobbyists’ interest. Lobbyists have long been required to give Congress quarterly disclosure reports outlining their lobbying efforts. In the latest quarterly reports, no less than 871 lobbyists [2] indicated lobbying on the stimulus. But only 12 of those lobbyists appear in the filings that agencies are now required to post online almost immediately after they speak to a lobbyist

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Revolving Door, Bailout Edition

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Daniel Schulman, Jonathan Stein - Apr. 10 (Investigative Report) - Obama's tough new rules apply only to the executive branch and hold no power over Congress. This week, the Sunlight Foundation proposed an online lobbying disclosure system that would require congressional lobbyists to divulge far more detailed information about their contacts on Capitol Hill; they would have to reveal whom they met and what they discussed. Congressional action would be required for a system like this to become a reality. And the lobbying crowd in Washington is hardly likely to embrace such reform. In the meantime, though, there is certainly nothing that prevents lawmakers from voluntarily disclosing their interactions with lobbyists, including those with whom they share history. With many Americans already suspicious about behind-the-scenes dealmaking involving Wall Street, this could help to ease the trepidations of Main Street.

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Murtha: If Loving Constituents Is Wrong ... I Don't Wanna Be Right!

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Talking Points Memo - By Zachary Roth - Mar. 31 (News Report) - Backing down isn't Rep. John Murtha's style. The cantankerous House power-broker is under fire for his ties to the PMA lobbying firm, which just shut down amid reports of an FBI probe into its campaign contributions to friendly lawmakers, including Murtha, who have steered millions in federal earmarks to PMA clients.

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The Dirt on Clean Coal

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Ari Berman - Mar. 28 (Special Report) - Critics argue that "clean coal" means anything the industry wants it to, pointing out that of the country's 616 coal plants, none are carbon-free or close to it. The viability of an environmentally sustainable future for coal is questionable, and so is the industry's commitment to cleaning itself up. The Center for American Progress recently released a report showing that the country's biggest coal companies have spent only a fraction of their multibillion-dollar profits developing technologies to curb carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. "The ads and other public clean coal activities are merely designed to delay global warming solutions without suffering a public relations black eye," the CAP report stated.

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Senate approves earmarks for PMA Group clients

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Real Time Investigations - By Bill Allison - Mar. 05 (News Report) - Like previous measures aimed at PMA Group, this one failed, 52-43. In essence, the House is on record as finding nothing about PMA Group’s activities that merits curiosity, while the Senate says just write the checks already.

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"How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America"

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Common Dreams - By Robert Weissman, Harvey Rosenfield - Mar. 04 (Investigative Report) - "The financial sector invested more than $5 billion in political influence-purchasing in Washington over the past decade, with as many as 3,000 lobbyists winning deregulation and other policy decisions that led directly to the current financial collapse.

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"Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

wallstreetwatch.org - By Robert Weissman, Harvey Rosenfield - Mar. 04 (News Report) - $5 BILLION IN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS BOUGHT WALL STREET FREEDOM FROM REGULATION, RESTRAINT, REPORT FINDS Steps to Financial Cataclysm Paved with Industry Dollars

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Study Finds Unprecedented Growth in Climate Change Lobbying

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Marianne Lavelle, Chris Field, Juan Gonzales, Amy Goodman - Feb. 26 (News Report) - A new report from the Center for Public Integrity reveals that the number of global warming lobbyists has increased by more than 300 percent in the past five years. In the past year, some 770 companies hired over 2,000 climate change lobbyists and spent an estimated $90 million to influence federal policy on climate change.

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The Food Lobby Goes to School

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

American News Project - By Steven Greenstreet - Feb. 20 (Investigative Report) - Who decides what our children are eating? To a large degree, it is the Federal Government. Congress and the Department of Agriculture approve what foods can (and can't) be served to over 30 million American school children who get daily meals from the National School Lunch Program. The government gets a ton of pressure from a food and beverage industry frantic to keep kids hooked on a diet of sodas, snacks and hot dogs. The competition for a piece of this $10 billion market is particularly fierce right now because this year the School Lunch Program is being reviewed and revised. Despite the enormous nutritional and financial stakes at play, ANP was the only media to cover a recent panel set up to discuss the school menu. While nutritionists outnumbered the press, corporate lobbyists outnumbered everyone.

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Bailout Recipients Hosted Call To Defeat Key Labor Bill

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Jan. 27 (News Report) - As evidenced by its dual interpretation of the legislation, Bank of America's role in the EFCA fight is a bit murky. The company, as stated by an official there, hosted the call for the purposes of equity research, meaning that their goal was to represent the opinions of clients and not the bank itself. But their involvement in an effort to drum up support for defeating the labor-backed legislation, so soon after getting bail out funds from the federal government, left a bad taste in the mouth of some union officials.

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The EPA and the Curse of Coal Ash

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

American News Project - Jan. 22 (Special Report) - In March of 2000 during the last days of the Clinton administration, the EPA decided coal ash was a hazardous waste and then two months later, changed its mind. If the EPA had stuck to its guns, the Kingston Coal Ash disaster in Tennessee might have been averted. The push now is to have coal ash federally regulated. Will the EPA make the same mistake twice?

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Lawmakers & Lobbyists Celebrate Inauguration

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Lindsay Beyerstein - Jan. 21 (Special Report) - Despite Obama’s efforts, inaugural festivities still represent a giant loophole in lobbying rules that have grown progressively stricter in recent years. Whether it’s the high-dollar fundraisers underwriting the official inaugural program, or the corporations and lobbyists throwing lavish parties to woo legislators and government officials, influence appears to come with a price tag.

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McCain Picks Up Where He Left Off on Earmarks, Lobbying

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Congressional Quarterly - By Jonathan Allen - Jan. 08 (News Report) - The Arizona Republican was on familiar turf Wednesday inside the Senate television studio — nine weeks and one day after losing the presidential election to Barack Obama — pushing for earmark and lobbying overhauls alongside longtime legislative partner Russ Feingold , a Wisconsin Democrat.

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Guilty Plea For Another Abramoff Crony

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Talking Points Memo - By Zachary Roth - Dec. 13 (News Report) - James Hirni, the former lobbyist who was charged last month in connection with the wide-ranging Jack Abamoff probe, pleaded guilty today to providing an all-expenses paid trip to the World Series in New York to two congressional staffers, including entertainment at a strip club and a chauffeur-driven SUV.

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Obama Tries to Be the Un-Cheney

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Congressional Quarterly - By David Nather - Dec. 09 (News Analysis) - But how much of this openness in the transition team can actually transfer to the new administration? Obama promised to require his executive branch departments and rulemaking agencies to “conduct the significant business of the agency in public,” including posting videos and transcripts of the meetings online.

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