Making Government Transparent and Accountable
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government
The Sunlight Foundation Blog
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Former Treasury Official Thought TARP Lobbyist Rules Were Political
Not sure what I think about this, but former TARP czar Neil Kashkari, appointed under President Bush, told the TARP Inspector General that he thought that the lobbying rules announced earlier this year for TARP recipients were political in nature. The lobbying rules have yet to be fully written and implemented, but are expected to closely track those imposed on lobbyists seeking stimulus funding. It appears that this is simply Kashkari’s opinion on the rules and not any admittance of fact.The Washington Times reports the statement by Kashkari in a way that makes it seem that he is revealing something more than his own opinion. (This makes me think of this great post by Michael Scherer at the Time Magazine blog on the media’s obsession with simulacrum.) That being said, Kashkari’s opinion on the rules does raise questions considering the Treasury Department has yet to announce a full set of rules for lobbyists and has yet to implement them nearly eight months after announcing them.
Considering that the administration also announced rules for the stimulus spending that were met with intense opposition from lobbyist groups, the likelihood that these rules were announced solely for political purposes seems doubtful. What I’m really wondering is: why has the Treasury Department slow-walked the implementation of lobbying rules and who is behind that?
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What Am I Reading Today?
Real Times Investigations’ Luke Roziak uses the Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker to expose an Israeli spy with “one of the richest contracts to lobby for a foreign client.” Anything that involves $6.5 million and bizarre land deals in Zimbabwe is worth reading.
The Washington Post profiled super-lobbyist Heather Podesta a couple of days ago. A big focus in the story is the jet-setting life a top lobbyist must lead to get to the big fundraising parties. Dancing with the Ways & Means Chair one night (“Doesn’t get any better than that … A kiss from the chairman.”) and tasting wines at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s vineyard a few days later. This is “the Summer of the Lobbyist.”
Tim O’Reilly asks, “What does Gov 2.0 mean to you?”
Even though we haven’t discussed the disclosure of detainee abuse photos or memos, I found this post by Marc Ambinder illuminating as to how a commitment to transparency can have unintended consequences.
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Daschle: Shadow Secretary & Health Care Lobbyist?
Despite his withdrawal from consideration for the Health and Human Services (HHS) cabinet position, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle remains a powerful voice in the health care debate. The New York Times reported over the weekend that Daschle still commands the ear of those at the White House and may be acting as a shadow HHS Secretary in health care discussions. But behind those Lafont Providence glasses and the genial Great Plains demeanor lies a list of health care clients that exposes a serious conflict of interest as the former senator attempts to influence policy.
Two months ago, I wrote a post on the health care clients of Daschle’s law firm, Alston & Bird. The list includes many powerful players who have organized on both sides of the health reform debate. Perhaps the most important client is UnitedHealth Corp., a powerful insurance company that has opposed the most controversial provision in the debate, the public option. The Times article notes this conflict:
Now the White House and Senate Democratic leaders appear to be moving toward a blueprint for overhauling the health system, centered on nonprofit insurance cooperatives, that Mr. Daschle began promoting two months ago as a politically feasible alternative to a more muscular government-run insurance plan.
It is an idea that happens to dovetail with the interests of many Alston & Bird clients, like the insurance giant UnitedHealth and the Tennessee Hospital Association. And it is drawing angry cries of accommodation from more liberal House Democrats bent on including a public insurance plan.
Below is a complete list of Alston & Bird’s health care clients culled from 1st quarter lobbying reports:
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Quick Links in the Morning
CQ Politics reports that health care related PACs accounted for the top or second highest source of contributions for 15 of the top 18 congressional leaders in the House involved in the health care debate.
Apparently, the $80 billion cost savings that the pharmaceutical industry agreed to with the Obama administration came with a price. In return, the White House promised to protect the industry from further attempts to extract cost savings from them including allowing the government to negotiate drug prices. Now we know what those trips to the White House were all about.
The House Selecte Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is investigating the forged letters sent to three congressmen by a grassroots lobbying firm on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). ACCCE has been trying to distance themselves from Bonner & Associates, the firm in question, and has denounced the letters. In a new letter sent by Chair Ed Markey, ACCCE is questioned as to why they did not act on the forged letters after they discovered their existence on June 24, two days prior to the vote on the cap and trade bill.
A new hire by the State Department may exploit a loophole in the administration’s lobbying ban.
The Washington Post has a useful interactive graphic to compare the various versions of health care reform in Congress.
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Stimulus Lobbying Rules, Take Two
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget released the administration’s new stimulus lobbying rules on Friday, as John mentioned earlier. In summary, the new rules generally expand who is covered by the ban on agency staff having oral communications regarding Recovery Act grants, although it shrinks the circumstances as to when the ban applies and what it covers. It also closes a loophole pertaining to written communications by lobbyists on policy matters.
The 787 billion dollar question is how does the OMB’s July 24th guidance on stimulus recovery lobbying differ from its April 7th memo? (For a short video explaining the old rules, see this.) Here’s how the rules have changed.
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White House Refuses to Disclose Visits From Health Care Lobbyists, Execs
During the 2008 presidential primary campaign between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, then-Sen. Obama promised to hold open, televised negotiations on health care reform, a direct swipe at his opponent’s approach to health care reform when she was First Lady and in charge of the White House’s health care reform efforts. As it turns out, that was all just politics. As President, Obama has not held televised negotiations on his health care reform efforts. Now, the Secret Service is refusing to release a list of health care lobbyists and executives visiting the White House for these not-so-televised negotiations.
Invoking an argument used by President George W. Bush, the Obama administration has turned down a request from a watchdog group for a list of health industry executives who have visited the White House to discuss the massive healthcare overhaul.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to the Secret Service asking about visits from 18 executives representing health insurers, drug makers, doctors and other players in the debate. The group wants the material in order to gauge the influence of those executives in crafting a new healthcare policy.
While the administration required lobbyists to meet a pretty high transparency burden for the stimulus funds, health care lobbying is allowed to fester without the transparency Obama repeatedly promised during the campaign. Now, negotiations do not necessarily need to be televised — in fact that’s probably a bad idea — but disclosing who is meeting with White House officials is crucial to gauging the power of groups and organizations trying to influence the final outcome.
The same is true with all major issues that the White House has put forward: cap and trade, financial regulation and health care. The New York Times reported that industry officials and lobbyists are seeking to work with the administration, in an effort to have their voices heard, rather than throw bombs from the outside. All of these organizations are seeking to influence White House decisions and ultimately to lobby Congress to set the final outcome, yet there is no mechanism for disclosure of their interactions with government officials.
If President Obama wants to meet his campaign promises of fighting lobbyists and increasing the transparency of the influence sector, he should consider applying the same disclosure rules (not the meeting restrictions) that cover stimulus lobbying to all lobbyists and executives. Or, at the very least, release a list of health care lobbyists and executives visiting the White House, per CREW’s request.
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Senate Finance to Take Up Health Care; See Their Lobbyist Connections
According to First Read, Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus will announce his plans for health care reform sometime this week. Baucus and his committee are seen as the crucial stepping stone for the reform plan pushed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. The outline of Baucus’ plans will likely determine the shape and fate of health care reform this year. Due to Baucus’ import in the reform discussion, we decided to take a look at the circle of lobbyists surrounding both Baucus and the other committee members. By tracking former staffers turned lobbyists for committee members, we can see what other interests are involved in crafting the coming health reform compromise. Senators are not simply island unto themselves, but important pieces in a network of companies, interest groups and lobbyists trying to formulate policy. Hopefully, these visualizations help to make that a little bit clearer. You can see all of them on one page here.
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Health Care Industry Operates Shadow Congress of Lobbyists
The Washington Post reports today that the health care industry, in its attempt to influence the debate over health care reform, has hired at least 350 former government staffers and former members of Congress to lobby on the issue. With the many connections these former government workers have, particularly former members of Congress or congressional chiefs of staff, they will have near saturation coverage of the 535 current members of Congress. They also are operating with seemingly bottomless funding. The industry is currently spending $1.4 million a week on lobbying. Perhaps, the most unparrelled lobbying campaign ever.
Now the Post story has a few caveats that indicate that this lobbying campaign is probably larger than their reporting shows. For one:
The analysis identified more than 350 former government aides, each representing an average of four firms or trade groups. That tally does not include lobbyists who did not report their earlier government experience, such as PhRMA President W.J. “Billy” Tauzin, a former Republican congressman from Louisiana. Federal law does not require providing such detail.
Lobbying disclosure reports contain a field for listing prior government work, but this field is often left empty by lobbyists with government experience. If someone like Billy Tauzin, who is the poster boy for everything wrong with the revolving door, does not list his previous work as a leading lawmaker, what hope do we have for the many lesser former government workers to list their previous government work. I’d assume that the number of former government employees working in this campaign far exceeds 350.
One other aspect of the story highlights something which we’ve discussed here, lobbying contacts. The real problem with the revolving door is the unusual amount of access that former government officials, particularly members of Congress, have to current government officials. And that includes the ability to meet, call, or email with staffers or lawmakers to push their client’s agenda. Of course, Congress does not require any disclosure of lobbying contacts, thus obscuring the role that these 350+ lobbyists are having in the process of crafting a health care reform bill that will affect everyone in the country.
If you want to see other reporting on the network of former government staffers turned health care lobbyists, we’ve been looking at the Senate Finance Committee — “the central broker in the [health care] debate,” according to the Post — and the connections each lawmaker has with health care lobbyists. You can see our visualization of Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus’ connections or our visualization of all Senate Finance Committee Democrats and their connections. I’ll be posting about the Senate Finance Committee Republicans this week.
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Lobbyists Daschle, Dole Release Health Care Plan; Do Not Note Health Care Clients of Their Law Firm
Today, former senators Tom Daschle and Bob Dole released a plan for health care reform that is being hailed a bipartisan way forward. Headlines blare about the Daschle/Dole plan for health care. But were these two to not have had illustrious careers in the Senate, the headlines would tell a far different story: “Health Care Lobbyists Release Health Care Plan.”
Both Daschle and Dole work for a major Washington, DC lobbying firm, Alston & Bird. Many of Alston & Bird’s major clients are from the health care sector including the American Hospital Association, HealthSouth Corp, and pharmaceutical companies Abbott Laboratories, Bayer, Celgene, and Mylan Laboratories. In total, Alston & Bird is currently representing 31 clients from the health care sector. Of the $2,730,000 reported income received from clients, nearly 50% of that, $1,070,000, comes from these 31 health care clients.
This looks like another benefit of the revolving door. You can release a legislative proposal from outside of Congress and the first thing anyone thinks of is your previous job and not your current one.
The following 31 companies and organizations are listed as health care sector clients of Alston & Bird:
Abbott Laboratories $30,000.00 Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care $40,000.00 American Assn of Nurse Anesthetists $30,000.00 American Clinical Laboratory Assn $10,000.00 American College of Gastroenterology $50,000.00 American Hospital Assn $20,000.00 American Orthotic & Prosthetic Assn $30,000.00 Anthem Inc $0.00 Bayer AG $30,000.00 Celgene Corp $90,000.00 Cltn of Full Service Community Hospitals $40,000.00 Covenant Health System $10,000.00 CSL Behring $30,000.00 CVS/Caremark Corp $20,000.00 Endo Pharmaceuticals $0.00 Fresenius Medical Care $40,000.00 Fundamental Health $0.00 Generic Pharmaceutical Assn $50,000.00 Giner Inc $20,000.00 Health Management Assoc $30,000.00 HealthSouth Corp $110,000.00 Humana Inc $0.00 Kidney Care Council $90,000.00 Lifescan $30,000.00 Mylan Laboratories $50,000.00 National Assn for Home Care $50,000.00 National Assn of Behavioral Health $20,000.00 Roche Group $30,000.00 Roho Group $50,000.00 Tennessee Hospital Assn $20,000.00 Vision Service Plan $50,000.00
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Cutting in Line
I was reading this blog post that the Advocacy Director of End the Occupation, a pro-Palestinian organization, sent Sunlight over e-mail about the difficulty in obtaining a seat at a congressional committee mark-up session and was thinking about all those stories about homeless people working as line-sitters for corporate lobbyists. Lo and behold, The Daily Beast has a video report up today on that exact topic.
Another aspect of the Washington influence game that most people are completely unaware of.
