About: Lee Fang
Bio: Lee Fang is a reporter for The Intercept. He has a longstanding interest in how public policy is influenced by organized interest groups and money. He was the first to uncover and detail the role of the billionaire Koch brothers in financing the Tea Party movement. His interviews and research on the Koch brothers have been featured on HBO’s “The Newsroom,” the documentaries “Merchants of Doubt” and “Citizen Koch,” as well as in multiple media outlets. He was an investigative blogger for ThinkProgress (2009-2011) and then a fellow at the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute and contributing writer for The Nation. In 2012, he co-founded RepublicReport.org, a blog to cover political corruption that syndicates content with TheNation.com, Salon, National Memo, BillMoyers.com, TruthOut, and other media outlets. His work has been published by VICE, The Baffler, The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Progressive, NPR, In These Times, and The Huffington Post. His first book, “The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right,” published by The New Press, explores how the conservative right rebuilt the Republican Party and its political clout in the aftermath of President Obama’s 2008 election victory. He is based in San Francisco.
DELETED: See How Eric Cantor Fulfilled Wall Street’s Wish And Gutted The Stock Act
Just two hours ago, the House of Representatives passed the Stock Act, a measure to curb insider trading by lawmakers and some federal officials. The bill Congress voted on today, however, is different than the legislation that passed out of the Senate last week. Last week, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) attached a strong transparency amendment
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CPAC Opens With Address By Granddaughter Of GOP President Who Fought Back Against Lobbyists
Today, CPAC, the most important conservative convention of the year, opens with an address by Susan Eisenhower. Her grandfather President Dwight Eisenhower represented another era, when many in both parties rebuked special interests. President Eisenhower despised the growing corporate influence lobbies. In 1956, for example, Senator Lyndon Johnson and Congressman Sam Rayburn, backed by aggressive
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Congressman Endorsed Romney Shortly After Romney’s Patton Boggs Attorney Hosted A Fundraiser For Him
Yesterday, Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI) endorsed Mitt Romney for President, just ahead of the Michigan Republican primary. The announcement — which can be found here on the Romney website — omits an important, yet behind the scenes detail. The morning of the announcement, Ben Ginsberg, an attorney with the mega-lobbying firm Patton Boggs hosted a
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Rep. Eric Cantor Blocked Foreclosure Crisis Fix While Owning A Financial Stake In Mortgage Businesses
Will the House of Representatives strengthen the Stock Act, legislation to curb lawmakers and government officials from profitting from their position in government? In the Senate, a strong amendment offered by Senator Sherrod Brown to force members of Congress to either divest from companies that stand to benefit from policymaking or dump their investments into
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Rep. Lamar Smith, Top Border Security Hawk, Invested In Border Monitoring Tech Company Before Gov. Grant
Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) is among the few members of Congress who have not embraced or cosponsored the STOCK Act, a measure to curb insider trading by lawmakers and some federal officials. Smith’s hesitance to back the legislation may relate to his own history of investment. According to records reviewed by Republic Report, Smith, who
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Rep. Upton Set To Host Hearing To Vilify EPA’s Boiler Regulations Hours After Fundraising With Boiler Lobbyists
Later today, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, is hosting a hearing about the purported negative effects of Environment Protection Agency’s (EPA) MACT rules. The new rules, which apply to industrial boilers, would place stricter limits on mercury, dioxin, particulate matter, hydrogen chloride, and carbon monoxide — environmental pollutants known
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Wall Street Consultants Complain: STOCK Act Transparency Proposal Will “Hurt Middle Class Americans”
In the Senate debate last week to amend the STOCK Act, a measure to prevent insider trading by lawmakers and some federal officials, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) successfully attached a smart proposal to the bill to require “political intelligence” firms to face disclosure requirements just as other lobbying firms are forced to disclose their clients. The
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Video: House GOP Huddle With Lobbyists To Plan 2012 Legislative Agenda, Rep. Walberg Refuses To Comment
On January 21st, the two year anniversary of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, the entire House Republican caucus traveled to a hotel along the Baltimore waterfront for a retreat to plan their legislative agenda this year. The timing was coincidental, but interesting given the event’s hosts. The Congressional Institute, the ostensibly “educational” organization that
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