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.
Last Remaining Populist House Republican Faces K Street’s Own Wolf of Wall Street
Rep. Walter Jones and Taylor Griffin [/caption]Congressman Walter Jones, a Republican who represents a wide swath of eastern North Carolina, might not strike you as a populist. But as a lawmaker, the veteran politician with a slow Southern drawl has become a gadfly in his own party for thumbing his nose at powerful political interests.
Continue Reading >>>
Sen. Manchin Defends Law Firm Accused of Concealing Black Lung Medical Evidence
Only one day after the Center for Public Integrity’s reporting series on denials of black lung benefits to coal miners was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) defended the controversial law firm at the center of the investigation. As he stepped to the podium of the National Western Mining Convention in Denver on
Continue Reading >>>
Staffers Managing Gardner’s LNG Export Hearing Are Former Gas Lobbyists
Today, the congressional subcommittee on Energy and Power is scheduled to hold a hearing on Rep. Cory Gardner’s (R-CO) bill to force the Obama administration to approve all application for new liquefied natural gas terminals used to export natural gas. A close look at the staffers involved with this particular subcommittee reveals that several have
Continue Reading >>>
Pundit, Politician Demands to Solve Crimean Crisis Fueled by Gas Lobby
A small group of pundits and politicians with close ties to the fossil fuel industry are using the crisis in Crimea to demand that the United States promote natural gas exports as a quick fix for the volatile situation. But such a solution, experts say, would cost billions of dollars, require years of development, and
Continue Reading >>>
Are Prison Labor Companies Lobbying to Keep Prisoners in Jail for Nonviolent Offenses?
In recent months, a broad, cross-ideological coalition has pressed forward to reform mandatory minimum prison sentencing. In some cases mandatory minimum sentencing can lead to a lifetime in jail for nonviolent offenders. But a strange group has appeared on lobby disclosure forms reviewed by Republic Report. Prison labor companies are attempting to influence the bill,
Continue Reading >>>
Chevron Hires Yet Another Democratic Staffer
Republic Report has obtained an e-mail from J.J. Ong, a senior Democratic staffer to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. On Monday, Ong announced that she is leaving the committee to take a job with the “international government affairs team at Chevron here in DC, where [Ong] will be managing their government relations work for the
Continue Reading >>>
Jon Kyl, Barred From Lobbying, Offers to ‘Assist’ Clients with Tax Reform
Need help navigating the proposed federal tax system overhaul? Covington & Burling, a major law-lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., sent out a client alert recently announcing that former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) stands ready to assist businesses seeking the best outcome of the legislative proposal led by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) and Sen. Ron Wyden
Continue Reading >>>
CHART: Koch Spends More Than Double Top Ten Unions Combined
The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel either has no understanding of campaign finance, or is willfully misleading her readers. In either case, her column today about the Koch brothers’ political spending — which parrots a meme that has bounced around conservative blogs and websites like a bad chain e-mail — gets the facts about Koch
Continue Reading >>>