lfang@republicreport.org
Lee Fang, a freelance journalist, is the former Senior Investigator for United Republic and a former investigative blogger for ThinkProgress.org. He has broken stories that include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s foreign funding, the attendance of U.S. Supreme Court justices at secretive political fundraisers and the stealth efforts by lobbyists to orchestrate and control the Tea Party. Lee’s work has resulted in multiple calls for hearings in Congress and the Federal Election Commission. His book on the campaign to block Obama’s domestic priorities is slated for publication in late 2012.
Armed Services Committee Chairman Congressman Buck McKeon (R-CA) is best known today as the weapon industry’s go-to lawmaker for expanding the use of domestic drones in America. But in 1998, the congressman accepted a discounted mortgage from subprime mortgage giant Countrywide as part of the company’s wide-ranging efforts to bribe public officials. (No one has been charged with bribery, but the loans were clearly doled out “in order to influence the judgment or conduct.”) Though McKeon told the Los Angeles Times this year that he had no idea that his Countrywide loan was “VIP,” e-mails released today …
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The New York Times recently ran a very important story showing that opponents of health reform, mostly industry-funded groups, overwhelmed the airwaves with negative advertising against the law. The reported numbers, $235 million against health reform versus $69 for it, only show part of the picture, since the Times decided to quantify only the money spent after the bill passed in late March, 2010.
The real amount spent spreading misinformation about the law, however, is much higher. And quantifying the money is critical in understanding at least part of the reason why public opinion soured so quickly on a law that …
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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has led every major pro-bank legislative drive in recent years: He rallied supporters of the bank bailouts, killed efforts to cap banker bonuses, fought measures to allow those under foreclosure to renegotiate the terms of their mortgage, and marshaled opposition to the sweeping reforms known as Dodd-Frank. Now, a key member of his communications team, Laena Fallon, is moving to work even more directly for Wall Street.
The National Journal reports that Fallon is joining the Financial Services Forum, a “CEO-driven organization” that helps banks like Wells Fargo and …
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Though Republicans came into power promising a moratorium on earmarks — the special legislative deals that benefit a single company or interest group — Congressman Tom Reed (R-NY) explained to Republic Report that an array of bills he recently introduced that only benefit one or two companies in his district are not, in his opinion, earmarks.
Reed, who has led efforts to bring back earmarks in the form of special tariff-reductions and exemptions, defended his practice of handing out these specific giveaways to his campaign contributors. The GOP leadership banned the practice of earmarks to deter rampant pay-to-play corruption. …
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Earlier this month, health insurance company Aetna accidentally leaked a document that revealed that the company secretly funneled $7.7 million to Republican front groups in 2010. The money was earmarked for the Karl Rove’s American Action Forum ($3.3 million) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ($4.4 million), two groups that led the charge in fighting against health reform and running deceptive advertising about supporters of the law. One particularly nasty American Action Network ad said congressmen who voted for the bill were providing viagra for rapists.
This morning outside the Supreme Court, as crowds gathered to await the decision, we …
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Republic Report has broken a series of stories this month showing that a surprising number of high level congressional staffers either maintain a financial relationship with a lobbying firm, or were paid six-figure bonuses by lobbying firms shortly before becoming staffers last year. We’ve reported on Senator Marco Rubio’s chief of staff, Speaker John Boehner’s policy director, and Thomas MacKenzie, a former Northrop Grumman lobbyist who was paid nearly $500,000 in bonus pay just before being tapped by the House Armed Services Committee as a senior staff member.
As other media outlets take interest in the story, it …
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In February, we broke an exclusive story on how the drone industry had worked to shape a new law that will allow thousands of unmanned aircraft to fly over America in coming years. A powerpoint we recovered from the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVS), a drone trade group, boasted that drone company lobbyists’ suggestions for the law were “taken word-for-word” by lawmakers. Indeed, drone lobbying has doubled in recent years.
As drone lobbyists are facing increasing criticism from both right and left, AUVS, the leading pro-drone group, is attempting to rebrand as an academic and …
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America’s embrace of alcohol prohibition from 1920-1933 generally ranks among the biggest mistakes in public policy in the 20th century. It was a period that resulted in a profound loss of personal liberty that gave rise to criminal syndicates that often used violence to control the black market of liquor sales.
But if you ask the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), alcohol prohibition was fantastic, and something we should reconsider as a society.
In reaction to the almost comical viral videos this week of Congressmen Jared Polis (D-CO) and Steve Cohen (D-TN) grilling the DEA chief Michele Leonhart over her agency’s …
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