Debt Super Committee an Open Book—for Lobbyists

The debt “super committee” tends to meet in secret, won’t disclose its donors or post its documents online, and has turned a deaf ear to calls for greater transparency from good government groups—but it’s an open book to the best connected lobbyists on K Street, Politico reports. Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl aides, for example, held a six-hour closed-door meeting with various GOP lobbyists yesterday to discuss the committee’s progress, and such pow-wows aren’t unusual.

“You know full well there is all kinds of influence peddling going on behind the scenes,” says one transparency advocate. Lobbyists do say that accessing the super committee has been harder than usual. A few committee members have stopped accepting donations, though most haven’t. “They are a little more sensitive,” says one Democratic lobbyist, “because of the narrative that they are on the take." (More super committee stories.)