Deb Fischer shocked political observers recently when she came from behind and won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in Nebraska. Although an endorsement from GOP icon Sarah Palin probably helped, it’s worth noting that Fischer has also been campaigning on a strong proposal to reform the ethics and lobbying laws in Congress. Here’s a
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The Countrywide VIP scandal has rocked Capitol Hill. Initial reports showed that Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) were the most high profile politicians to accept special cut-rate mortgages from the troubled subprime lender. Now, it has become clear that dozens of lawmakersand high-ranking officials were recipients of these bribes. The scandal has
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Polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans view lobbyist and big money influence as the main problem in our politics today. But the two major political parties, on both the state and federal level, have done little to substantively reform the system. Republic Report interns Nick Lyell and Mehrad Yazdi took a look at the
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With little debate, lobbyists slipped language into an FAA reauthorization bill earlier this year that will allow some 30,000 drones to fly over domestic airspace in coming years. While the shift may lead to a marked loss of privacy for millions of Americans, one congressman is bragging about carrying the drone industry’s water. Congressman Rick
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The Washington Post: Romney outraised Obama in June, $106 million to $71 million (Important to note that these totals don’t include funds raised and spent by outside groups like super PACs!) New York Times: Democrats to Ask for Curbs on Donor-Shielding Groups The Democratic Party’s Senate campaign arm will file a formal complaint on Monday with
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Last month, we covered how the National Govenors Association (NGA) — a bipartisan policy organization for the nation’s state governors — has jumped into bed with the predatory for-profit education industry, taking thousands of dollars from for-profit college and education technology interests, both of which depend on government funding. Starting this Thursday, the NGA will
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The nation’s major for-profit colleges show no sign that they are ready to accept the inevitable: that in a time of enormous budget pressures, they cannot continue to siphon off 32 billion dollars a year in federal student aid for high-priced, low-quality programs that often leave students without jobs and deep in debt. They show
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In May, Republic Report approached Virginia Democratic Party chairman Brian Moran and asked him if there was a conflict of interest between his role in the party — advancing the goals of President Barack Obama — and his job as a for-profit college lobbyist for the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU), which
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