Tell your US Rep. NO to lower public safety standards for the new highway bill

Public Citizen is leading a campaign to promote public safety over the interests of trucking companies. This Summer, Congress will begin drafting the new highway bill, SAFETEA-LU 2009. Already, trucking companies are lobbying our representatives for lower safety standards; this would result in higher fatalities and injuries for us, and would increase the rate of road deterioration.

Please tell your US Representative NO to the industry demands, and to put our safety first; visit Public Citizen's campaign webpage to send your letter (you may edit it, too). If you wish, instead, to call your US Rep., you can use the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121; this is not a toll-free number.

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Sign the online petition to tell presidential candidate John McCain to fire three lobbyist staff members

Public Campaign Action Fund has begun the "Fire the Lobbyists!" online petition campaign. Two of US Senator and presidential candidate John McCain's (R) staff recently resigned because it was revealed that they were lobbyists for the military junta in Myanmar. Still, there remains three more lobbyists on McCain's presidential campaign staff that worked for foreign governments or interests that offend American values and human rights.

Please sign the petition at http://www.firethelobbyists.com/ now, to tell Sen. McCain to fire these three remaining lobbyists! These people, and the associations they bring, have no place in a presidential campaign. Thank you

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Video from US Rep. Murtha's pork crash!

Government Bytes blog has a wonderful video clip of the recent lobbyist dinner honoring US Rep. Murtha (D-PA) for his earmarks ways. You may remember that Murtha was annointed 2007 Porker of the Year by Citizens Against Government Waste's readers.

Taxpayers pay tribute to him with protests! Enjoy! Only one minute long..

Video from the PORK Crash!

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Tell your U.S. Representative to restore intent of 2007 Ethics bill

Public Citizen has an email your representative campaign concerning the recent U.S. House ethics committee's guidelines on convention parties. These lobbyist-paid "honor" parties for lawmakers have given undue influence on those representatives when they return to the Capitol to vote. The 2007 Ethics bill corrected this, but recently the House ethics committee ruled against the intent of this new law. If you agree, please contact your U.S. Representative and tell them to have the House use the Senate ethics committee's correct banning of these convention parties. Thank you.

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Sound science should overrule high powered lobbying

Our legislators in Washington have increasingly over recent years taken stock on the ill-educated lobby industry over sound scientific advise. Clearly, there is a campaign finance element behind this, as this is a corruption of the decision-making process for our Congress and President. Below is a letter I wrote to my U.S. Representative on the topic and corn ethanol, as an blind alternative energy issue drive in Washington:


Dear Representative Neugebauer,
I understand the federal government is still moving forward on the scientific fallacy that ethanol is an improvement on our environment. Quite the opposite! The subsidies from Congress has encouraged a replacement of the food of corn and raised it's price and the entire food chain corn gives! Also, the subsidies encourage a plowing away of land around the world to land cover that is much worse for the climate than what was already there! Please, let's consider more effective alternative fuels before the high-powered lobbyists once again take the place of sound science.
Thanks in advance, David Weller

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Presidential candidates raise money from foreign lobbyists

The Center of Investigative Reporting has issued an alert on a project it has produced in cooperation with ABCNews.com:

Lobbyists for foreign governments raise money, get meetings
By Will Evans and Avni Patel
ABCNews.com February 1, 2008

Top fundraisers for the presidential campaigns of Democrat Hillary Clinton and
Republican John McCain lobby on behalf of foreign governments, and in some
cases, helped their clients gain access to the senators, according to a CIR and
ABCNews.com investigation.

>> Read the story and see source documents:
[http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/projects/moneyandpolitics]

>> A CIR web exclusive chart follows the money: WEB OF INFLUENCE
[http://www.centerforinvestigativereporting.org/files/flash/webofinfluence.swf]

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Many townhouses near the Capitol are owned by lobbyists for fundraising purposes

USA Today newspaper has a special graphical webpage of lobbyist-hosted fundraisers at town houses and offices near the U.S. Capitol.

In the last decade, 18 lobbying organizations have purchased town houses or leased office space near the U.S. Capitol, joining more than a dozen others that had operated there for years. At least 214 members of Congress held fundraisers at these properties last year through November, often for free or at cut-rate prices. Events listed here benefited lawmakers' candidate committees or political action committees they head, or both. This is a partial list, since many events are not reflected in federal campaign records.

If a lawmaker has a bill coming up for a vote, and the bill concerns a lobbyist hosting that lawmaker's campaign fundraiser, that would be a conflict of interest, no?

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Presidential candidate John McCain receiving many lobbyist bundlers to finance his campaign

Public Citizen has issued a press release on the rise of the unethical practice of lobbyist bundlers supporting presidential candidates. There are already more of them than in all of 2004, the last presidential election year. Perhaps more striking is the fact that the leading candidate receiving this questionable campaign finance help is none other than U.S. Senator John McCain (Repub.).

McCain has often been on the front lines of reform in Congress, as an author or co-author of campaign finance-related bills. And now, as the second leading presidential candidate in lobbyist bundling receipts, former New York City mayor Rudy Guiliani (Repub.) is likely to end his candidacy and endorse McCain later today; the senator may subsequently receive even more lobbyist bundlers.

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Sign the Public Campaign petition against special interest deals

Public Campaign Action Fund has a petition to the U.S. Congress leadership, asking them to take control of the special interest bill requests from Bush donors. President Bush rode into the White House in the elections of 2000 and 2004 on a wave of large corporate campaign contributions, and now they are asking for preferential benefits in return. Our president, however, is for we, the people, not special interests. If you agree and would like to sign the petition, please go here. Here's more info from the petitioner, PCAF:

Stop Bush's Holiday Giveaways
The New York Times reported that lobbyists for big corporations were “racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety, labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals from the Bush administration than from its successor.” The industries seeking these changes are big donors to Bush’s elections in 2000 and 2004. Congressional leaders ought to do everything in their power to stop these disastrous changes that hurt the environment, public health, workers, and consumer safety.

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Help pass drug safety law

Take on the powerful pharmaceutical drug industry lobby! State affiliates of U.S. PIRG, a public interest group, are running a internet grassroots campaign to pass a drug safety bill. Here is an opportunity for you to help get President Bush to sign it into law (you don't have to live in this affiliate's state to participate). Here's their message:

The drugs in your medicine cabinet will soon be safer because Congress passed strong drugs safety legislation.The House and Senate hammered out an agreement on a final drug safety bill earlier this week and the House passed it on Wednesday. The Senate will pass the identical bill today, but the President, who has sided with the pharmaceutical industry and their goal of weak drug safety reforms, still must sign the bill.The pharmaceutical industry has opposed many of the safety reforms in the bill, but in the end there were too many headlines about dangerous drugs and Congress had to act. We're glad they did.Our top drug safety priority passed. Drug makers must release the results of their safety studies on-line. No more hiding unflattering or dangerous results. This will help patients and doctors figure out if the drug's risk is worth its benefits.
The bill also authorizes the FDA to issues fines of up to $10 million for drug makers who fail to complete follow-up drug safety studies. Drug makers used to routinely ignore follow-up studies. The threat of this stiff fine should get their attention.The bill includes other good safety provisions such as strengthening conflicts-of-interest rules at the FDA and increasing by $225 million the budget for follow-up drug safety studies. These studies are extremely important for people taking drugs for years at a time to control chronic conditions.Together we can make sure this legislation is signed into law. Join me in telling President Bush to sign the strong drugs safety legislation passed by Congress.
To take action, click on the link below or paste it into your browser: https://www.uspirg.org/action/health-care/strong-bill?id4=ES
Sincerely, Dr. Matthew Tejada TexPIRG Advocate, MatthewT@texpirg.org, http://www.texpirg.org/
P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family and friends.

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President Bush signs government ethics bill!

Campaign Legal Center - Common Cause - Democracy 21 - League of Women Voters - Public Citizen - U.S. PIRG
_________________________________________________________________
Press Release, September 14, 2007, http://www.democracy21.org/ _________________________________________________________________
The following statement on the lobbying and ethics reform legislation passed by Congress was issued today by the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG:
The landmark lobbying and ethics reform legislation passed by Congress constitutes a major accomplishment by this Congress.
The far reaching reforms passed by Congress are the most important lobbying and ethics reforms since the Watergate era. They will help to change the way business is done in Washington and help to protect the interests of the American people.
Our organizations strongly commend the House and Senate for responding to deep citizen concerns about corruption and lobbying scandals revealed in the last Congress by passing landmark government integrity reforms.
Our organizations also strongly commend House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Russell Feingold and Senator Barack Obama and Representative Chris Van Hollen and Representative Rahm Emanuel for the outstanding national leadership they provided for this successful reform effort.
The overwhelming bipartisan vote in Congress for the reform legislation shows once again the powerful voice of citizens and the power of recorded votes when it comes to government integrity issues, with House members voting 411 to 8 and Senators voting 83 to 14 for the reform legislation.
We thank all of the Democrats and Republicans who voted for the legislation.
The immediate challenge that lies ahead now is to ensure that the new lobbying disclosure law and congressional ethics rules are effectively implemented and enforced.
Our organizations will work to achieve this goal and also are working to strengthen the systems for enforcing the congressional ethics rules, lobbying laws and campaign finance laws.
In the longer term, our organizations are working for essential campaign finance reforms that include repairing the presidential public financing system and establishing a public financing system for congressional races.
For now, however, our organizations believe it is important to recognize that this Congress has provided major lobbying and ethics reforms in response to the major corruption, lobbying and ethics scandals that were revealed in the last Congress.
# # #

The above public interest groups are constantly on the leading edge of campaign finance reform and other government ethics concerns in Washington, D.C. With the help of citizen activists such as yourself and thousands of others across this nation, these reform groups work closely with Congress and the President to see that we, the people, are heard and that they are accountable to us only.

Check out these and other government reform groups in the list on the left panel of this blog. Constant vigilance and an optimistic outlook is all it takes to help maintain a responsible and accountable federal government.

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The mandate is there-- no lobbyist campaign contributions!

The Gallup Poll company just concluded a political reform survey about whether presidential candidates should accept campaign contributions from lobbyists. Even though the question was asked in different ways, the vast majority, around 80%, of adults said 'no'. It looks like most respondents, whether Republican, Democrat or Independent, saw the ethical implications of such donations.

If a Congressional candidate accepted financial contributions from a lobbyist, then, if he won, was visited by that same lobbyist about a bill up for a vote, you would see the obvious conflict of interest. Now, take this one step further: if a union paid that lobbyist to work for that bill, the conflict of interest problem would affect the union. So, it is in the interest of the lobbying firm not to not engage in financial campaign contributions if they want to professionally (and ethically) represent their future clients.

Stopping lobbyist "bundling" of financial contributions from others is currently under legislation-- it's awaiting the President's signature for approval. Lobbyist individual contributions, however, continue unabated. Democratic presidential candidates Edwards and Obama have publicly committed to not accepting campaign contributions from lobbyists. Let us hope more candidates see the light and do the same thing soon.

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Travel restrictions in the Congressional ethics bill apply to the administration

A light has now shined on executive branch travel finances: Bush administration officials have been routinely accepting trips from companies and trade associations with a stake in their agencies' decisions. From April, 2006 to March, 2007, more than 100 of these trips would be out of bounds for members of Congress under the recently passed ethics bill, because they lasted more than one day and were paid for by companies or groups that employ lobbyists; the bill doesn't apply to the Executive or the Judicial branches of federal government.

The ethical question would be, of course: do the special interests paying for these trips by their regulators constitute a conflict of interest? It would seem to me that, if Company X in a resort area has polluted the river next to it, and flies Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials there for free to argue their cause, that would be a conflict of interest. The EPA is the regulator, and it's financial support must come exclusively from the American taxpayer, so that a hands-off relationship with their regulatees is maintained.

The Congressional ethics bill to be given a veto or signing by President Bush should have applied to the Executive branch as well. Otherwise, executive officials not mindful of their only financial supporters may continue falling for these travel finance mistakes.

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Keep the people's mandate and reconcile a strong ethics bill

The Senate has an obligation to fulfill a mandate from last year's general elections, that Congress must put a stop and reverse the corruption that has been taking place there. Yet, in just the seventh month of this new session, there are signs of backsliding from both major parties. The Senate is having difficulties assembling a team of negotiators for the procedural reconciliation of its bill with that of the House. Both houses must maintain the people's mandate, and keep the strong ethics bill highlights they individually passed ( HR 2316 / HR 2317 and S 1 ) earlier this year.

There are several full-time "good government" reform groups in Washington DC to help keep this public interest issue alive and urgent. Also, the New York Times just wrote an editorial promoting passage of a strong ethics bill; the Washington Post has a strong record of good government reform. But it was none other than Ralph Nader's recent campaigns for president, that drove the American people forward with its anti-corruption mandate last November, 2006 on Congressional elections day. His message of government reform has been heard by the American people, and it cannot be denied!

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Vote YES on HR 2317 lobbying ethics

HR 2317 is up for a vote in the US House of Representatives today. It would require lobbyists who bundle campaign contributions to candidates, to report their activity. This would include, for instance, purchasing food and drinks for fundraisers throughout the year; lobbyists have worked hand-in-hand with trade groups in organizing campaign dinners for chairmen of Congressional committees.

This campaign helping by lobbyists is wrong-- they should not do favors for potential lawmakers before they may get elected! It makes common sense-- future legislative work should not be contingent upon previous campaign assistance. Vote YES for lobbyist bundling disclosure.

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