lobbying

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Looking to Settle, Goldman Launches Lobbying Blitz

Firm steps up effort to woo lawmakers, repair battered image

(Newser) - Goldman Sachs' lobbying efforts have gone from cavalier to frenzied as it faces what could be the worst crisis in its history. The firm has assembled a high-powered team of Washington insiders to do battle, even as the New York Post reports that, in wake of the beating Goldman took...

Democrats Defy Wall Street, GOP on Bank Reform

Banks trying mightily to kill restrictions on derivatives

(Newser) - Democrats defied Wall Street lobbyists’ push to kill new reforms on derivative trading yesterday, and got an earful from Republicans for their troubles. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley have been leaning heavily on Blanche Lincoln’s Agriculture Committee to scrap a plan to force derivatives—which, incidentally, played a...

Greenpeace Finds 'Kingpin of Climate Denial'

Little-known US oil company has spent $67M to foster doubt

(Newser) - A little-known private US oil company called Koch Industries has become the driving force behind the climate change denial industry, according to an investigative report from Greenpeace (full pdf here ). Koch funneled $25 million into groups opposed to climate change from 2005 to 2008—three times as much as...

Emails: Ensign Pulled Strings for Lover's Husband

Evidence mounts that Ensign may have crossed ethics lines

(Newser) - John Ensign tried to get a Las Vegas energy firm to hire his lover's husband as a lobbyist, according to new emails making the rounds at the FBI and a Senate ethics panel. The emails, which a source passed off to the New York Times , represent the first written evidence...

Special Interests Write Laws, States Fill In Blanks
Special Interests Write Laws, States Fill In Blanks
Sausage Making Report
Feb 16, 2010 11:05 AM CST

Special Interests Write Laws, States Fill In Blanks

Bill templating an increasingly common practice

(Newser) - There’s a decent chance your state lawmakers aren’t writing the bills they’re sponsoring—they’re pulling them off the Internet and filling in the blanks. Bill templates are becoming an increasingly common way for special interests from both sides of the political spectrum to influence local legislatures,...

Bristol Launches PR Firm
 Bristol Launches PR Firm 
Jan 6, 2010 3:02 AM CST

Bristol Launches PR Firm

New Palin family business provides PR for pro-abstinence group

(Newser) - Bristol Palin has founded her own "lobbying, public relations, and political consulting services" company, according to paperwork unearthed by NBC's Rachel Maddow. The firm is called BSMP, for Bristol Sharon Marie Palin, mediabistro notes. The 19-year-old is currently serving as a PR ambassador for Candie's Foundation, a group that...

Politics Played Major Role in Bailout Choices
 Politics Played 
 Major Role in 
 Bailout Choices 
U Michigan study
Dec 23, 2009 8:53 AM CST

Politics Played Major Role in Bailout Choices

Politically connected banks likelier to get TARP funds

(Newser) - Banks with ties to lawmakers were a lot likelier to get bailout cash than their less well-connected counterparts, according to a University of Michigan study unlikely to surprise bailout critics. Researchers crunching data on the 700 institutions that received TARP funds found that those with connections to members of congressional...

Taxpayers Send $40K a Month to Ex-speaker, Now Lobbyist
Taxpayers Send $40K a Month
to Ex-speaker, Now Lobbyist
FRINGE BENEFITS
Dec 21, 2009 8:00 AM CST

Taxpayers Send $40K a Month to Ex-speaker, Now Lobbyist

Dennis Hastert gets paid by both sides

(Newser) - Taxpayers are doling out more than $40,000 a month to pay for Dennis Hastert’s office, staff, cell phone, SUV, and satellite TV subscriptions—even though the ex-speaker of the House now works as a lobbyist. It’s a troubling situation, ethics experts tell Politico , because though the law...

How Obama Screwed Up
 How Obama Screwed Up 



OPINION
Nov 27, 2009 3:39 AM CST

How Obama Screwed Up

Lack of bipartisanship undercuts campaign promises

(Newser) - It's polarized, lobbyist-laden business as usual in Washington, and President Obama is largely to blame despite his campaign pledges to change the way business is done in the capital, writes Fred Barnes. Obama mistook his personal election victory for a victory for liberalism and failed to try hard enough for...

Lobbyists See Advisory Roles Clipped by New Obama Rule

Feds aim to cut special-interest access; K Streeters demur

(Newser) - An Obama administration rule taking effect over the next few months will take potentially thousands of those oh-so-evil Washington lobbyists off panels advising federal officials on everything from consumer protection to environmental policy. The panels’ web is so tangled, the Post reports, that the feds aren’t even sure how...

Big Pharma Lobbyists Put Words Into Reps' Mouths
Big Pharma Lobbyists Put Words Into Reps' Mouths
Puppetmasters
Nov 15, 2009 8:37 AM CST

Big Pharma Lobbyists Put Words Into Reps' Mouths

We 'didn't know' where the language came from, reps plead

(Newser) - Yep, that's an echo you hear in the House chamber. The New York Times has obtained emails showing that language drafted by lobbyists working for biotech giant Genentech made it almost unchanged into statements and speeches made on health care—by Democrats and Republicans alike. A Genentech lawyer told staffers,...

Lieberman, Bayh Wives in Bed with Health Biz
Lieberman, Bayh Wives
in Bed with Health Biz
ANALYSIS
Oct 30, 2009 9:38 AM CDT

Lieberman, Bayh Wives in Bed with Health Biz

Ties to pharma, insurers make filibuster threats suspect

(Newser) - The threats from Sens. Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh to help filibuster any health reform bill with a public option should come as no surprise to anybody familiar with their family finances, writes Joe Conason. Lieberman's wife Hadassah spent 30 years working in the corporate health sector for pharmaceutical firms...

How Insurers Got Their Way With Reform

Early, sophisticated lobbying effort paid off for health care industry

(Newser) - Though the final bill is still being hammered out, health reform appears to have given the insurance industry most of its wishes. Everyone will be required to buy insurance, there won’t be any limits on premiums, and any public option will likely be weak. They pulled off these anticipated...

Drug Makers' Big Spending Pays Off on Hill

Biologics debate shows how lobbyists shape health debate

(Newser) - Drugmakers could get quite a gift from the health care reform bill. Senate and House amendments passed this summer give the makers of biologics—next-generation wonder drugs derived from living matter—12 years of exclusivity on their hyperexpensive products. That’s 7 more years than normal drugs get, and critics...

Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign
Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign
sausage and politics
Oct 16, 2009 11:19 AM CDT

Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign

Meeting raises questions about ties to big business

(Newser) - Aides to President Obama and Max Baucus met with a variety of lobbyists for corporate health care companies on April 15, to help form two industry coalitions and launch a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, Politico has learned. Though both sides insist no quid pro quo was laid out, some participants say...

Apple Quits US Chamber, Slams Climate Stance

Computer giant goes with outward flow over lobbyist's climate position

(Newser) - Apple has joined a growing list of companies to ditch the US Chamber of Commerce over its skeptical view of climate change. “We strongly object to the Chamber’s recent comments” calling for a “Scopes Monkey Trial for the 21st century” to expose climate change fallacies, says a...

Ensign May Have Busted Ethics Rules After Affair

Senator arranged lobbying work for senior aide after having affair with his wife

(Newser) - Sen. John Ensign says his affair with an aide was a strictly personal matter but he may have trampled on ethics rules and federal criminal law during his efforts at damage control, according to the New York Times. Ensign helped his mistress' husband, Doug Hampton—another senior aide— join a...

Obama's Olympic Lobbying Trip Is Useless Gamble

Too many actually pressing issues, and what if he goes and Chicago is snubbed?

(Newser) - Aside from showing love for his adopted hometown, President Obama’s decision to go to Copenhagen to lobby for Chicago as host of the 2016 Summer Olympics is drawing a chorus of boos from the punditocracy as a gamble that could be embarrassing at best—what if, say, Brazil gets...

Pols-Turned-Lobbyists Use Campaign Cash to Curry Favor

Turn donations into 'political slush fund'

(Newser) - When congressmen leave Capitol Hill for lobbying jobs, they take their unused campaign funds with them, then dole them out to other lawmakers to influence policy, USA Today reports. Such donations are legal—federal law permits ex-congressmen to keep campaign accounts active, donating the money to candidates, parties, and charities—...

How Obama Wooed and Won the AMA: With a $228B Gift
How Obama  Wooed and Won the AMA: With a $228B Gift
health care reform
Sep 14, 2009 11:16 AM CDT

How Obama Wooed and Won the AMA: With a $228B Gift

Plan gives huge concession to doctor's group

(Newser) - Ever since its cries of “socialized medicine” killed Harry Truman’s attempt to reform health care 60 years ago, the AMA has been not only a vociferous enemy of reform, but a deep-pocketed one—only the Chamber of Commerce has spent more on lobbying over the past decade. But...

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