On Independence Day, Remember That The Founding Fathers Revolted Against Big Money
Tomorrow is Independence Day, the holiday where Americans celebrate declaring independence from the British Empire. And the joy of hot dogs and fireworks. But Independence Day shouldn’t just be a day where we’re all glad we drive on the right side of the road and perplexingly still don’t use the metric system. It’s also a
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Northrop Grumman Lobbyist On Staff With Armed Services Committee Also Owns Stock In His Former Firm
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
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Foreign Lobbying Ban Advances In The House Of Representatives
Earlier this year, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) introduced the Foreign Lobbying Reform Act, which would prohibit federal government officials such as Members of Congress from lobbying for foreign governments until ten years after they have left office. “I am very serious about this,” said Wolf at the time. “It is not put in for just
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As More Political Money Becomes Secret, Which Agency Will Step Up To Enforce Disclosure?
An OpenSecrets investigation revealed that non-profits, which don’t have to disclose their donors, have become the real heavyweights in the 2012 election cycle, outspending their Super-PAC counterparts 3 to 2 on political expenditures. Ninety percent of these shadowy groups never reveal their donors. The Obama administration has made positive steps towards calling for disclosure of secretive nonprofits
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The Senate Ethics Rules Are A Joke, And Here’s One Reason Why
Can Congress effectively police itself and stop corruption? We visited the Senate Ethics Office, and found a pretty blatant example of how lawmakers exploit a loophole in a rule designed ostensibly to stop revolving door bribery. In 2007, in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, in which it became obvious that many lawmakers and
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Obama’s Second Term Agenda: Why Not Focus On Campaign Finance Reform?
Ryan Lizza’s much buzzed about recent piece in The New Yorker investigates what Barack Obama might focus on in a second term. Obama could focus on immigration reform, on clean energy and the environment, on shoring up healthcare reform to future attacks from Republicans, on foreign policy. These are all issues that candidate Obama promised
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Four Decades Ago, A Senator Warned About The Revolving Door Of The Military-Industrial Complex
The Center for International Policy released a new report this month focusing on the nuke lobby — the coalition of defense contractors and former government officials who continue to push for costly Cold War-style nuclear stockpile and delivery systems. Interestingly, the report references a statement by the late Senator William Proxmire, Democrat of Wisconsin, from
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Congressman Dan Boren Agrees To Republic Report’s Challenge For Retiring Lawmakers To Disclose Negotiations With K Street
One of the worst forms of bribery that takes place in Washington, D.C. arises when lawmakers retire. As we’ve reported, many lawmakers, once they announce retirement, open themselves up for corruption. These members of Congress will make a special deal or offer an earmarks, and end up taking jobs later at firms that benefit from
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