New Mexico Independent asks for help hunting earmarks
By Bill Allison May 19 2009 10:09 p.m. 1 commentThe New Mexico Independent is asking readers to delve into the earmark requests of Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, and comment on anything interesting they find. This is what's really important -- while the hide-and-go-seek disclosure methods of Congress make for an amusing diversion, it's the substance of the disclosures should command our attention.
So I'm happy to chip in the first thing I noticed: How about the first earmark disclosed here, to a company called Advatech Pacific. TPM Muckraker noted that the company's employees contributed to PAC run by Rep. Jerry Lewis' stepdaughter:
The group, the Small Biz Tech PAC, takes money from defense firms with business before Lewis' committee. A number of them are clients of the Copeland Lowery lobbying firm, which employs Letitia White. (Both Copeland Lowery and White are under investigation in the Lewis matter.)At least two of the PAC's contributors -- ICUITI Corp. and Advatech Pacific -- have received earmarks from Lewis' panel, according to records kept by the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Anu wrote about the firm as well -- they turned up in the congressional correspondence we FOIA from government agencies.
Advatech Pacific still employs White as a lobbyist. Wonder
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> they turned up in the congressional correspondence we FOIA['d] from government agencies.I noticed you guys in the 2006-7 NOAA case logs -"Received on 04/25/2007, from Anupama Narayanswamy, Sunlight Foundation, request for a copy of all logs of correspondence between members of Congress and NOAA fromMarch 1, 2007 to March 31, 2007"...and just ~6 wks later, Anu was writing about what y'all had found (though perhaps not from the _NOAA_ correspondence)A question and a request -How long does it typically take, to get a response to a FOIA request like Anu's 4/25/07 one?And could I see what the correspondence log looks like? (could you perhaps email it to me, or put it online, or...? (or is it already online somewhere?) )There's info I want, involving NOAA, but I don't know what particular docs to ask for.