Last month, a cache of internal fundraising documents revealed that the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based think tank, operated essentially as a pay-to-play front for polluters. The Heartland Institute has played a major role over the years in shaping the debate over climate change, aggressively arguing that greenhouse gases do no contribute to the warming of
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 The controversial Keystone XL Pipeline has been a flashpoint for debates between environmentalists and oil advocates. But for the company trying to build the pipeline — TransCanada — the issue has always been one of business. Thus the company has spent enormous amounts of money lobbying state and federal lawmakers to approve the pipeline. Nebraska’s Omaha World-Herald
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**Republic Report’s Zaid Jilani has organized a protest on March 13th outside of the Koch Industries lobbying office in Washington, D.C. to oppose the hostile takeover of the Cato Institute. See this Facebook page for details.** The petrochemical billionaires David and Charles Koch are attempting a hostile takeover of the Cato Institute, one of the
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Over the weekend, the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) hosted its 2012 annual policy conference in Washington, D.C. The conference, which advocated the organization’s hawkish views on the Middle East conflict, drew 13,000 attendees, including hundreds of members of Congress, President Obama, and Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney. In 2001, AIPAC was named the fourth most powerful
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One of the many ways Big Money runs Washington is by enlisting former legislators to become lobbyists. These former lawmakers have a high level of access that affords their clients expansive influence. The Center for Responsive Politics and Remapping Debate have teamed up on a joint project to identify the new jobs of members of Congress
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Earlier this week, an oil and gas company lobbying group began airing radio ads featuring a recorded message from Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO). During the ad, Hickenlooper says that there has never been a recorded incident of groundwater contamination associated with fracking or drilling in his state. This record and the state’s existing fracking regulations,
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Every week, Republic Report calls attention to the “Sell Out Of The Week,” a feature that highlights politicians and public officials who have sold out their values and become corrupted. Our first week was President Obama for his super PAC reversal, followed by Democratic operative Joe Trippi for working for the regime in Bahrain, and
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Last week, the Sunlight Foundation’s reporting blog responded to a post I wrote about my experience as a lobbyist convincing members of Congress not to impose a retroactive tax on inverted companies, including my then-client, Tyco. Inverted companies are those who reincorporate overseas, primarily to avoid paying US corporate taxes. Tyco was actually purchased by
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