Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

1. Pesticide industry would benefit from farm bill provisions

   By Nancy Watzman Jun 13, 2013 9:15 a.m.

   Tucked within the 1,234-page House farm bill expected to come up for debate next week are two controversial provisions benefitting the pesticide industry by reversing court-ordered federal agency policies designed to protect water and wildlife.

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2. Senators who write farm bill fine print reap agribusiness campaign cash

   By Nancy Watzman Jun 10, 2013 3:13 p.m.

   As senators cast their votes today on the 1,139-page, $955 billion farm bill, the unseen backdrop is the more than $26 million in campaign cash that agribusiness has pumped into their political campaigns. All but two members of the current Senate have received money from these donors who represent every possible agriculture concern, from sugar growers to dairy farmers to chemical manufacturers and more.

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3. Thanks to lobbying, farm bill yields crop insurance funds

   By Nancy Watzman May 22, 2013 2:11 p.m.
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4. Tangled web: The IRS role in campaign finance

   By Nancy Watzman May 15, 2013 10:28 a.m.
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5. Key elements of food safety law stuck at White House regulatory agency

   By Nancy Watzman May 7, 2013 11:20 a.m.

   Regulations designed to improve food safety have been languishing in an obscure White House office.

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6. As summer growing season starts, produce safety rules delayed

   By Nancy Watzman Apr 26, 2013 9:02 a.m.

   As the nation's farmers enter a new growing season two years after 33 people died and 147 people were sickened in 28 states after eating listeria-infested canteloupe from a Colorado farm, the produce industry has effectively delayed implementation of a law intended to improve food safety.

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7. Real estate investment trusts increasing lobbying profile

   By Nancy Watzman Apr 24, 2013 11:16 a.m.

   As more businesses opt for a legal status known as "real estate investment trusts" (REITS) to qualify for tax breaks, they have an active champion in Washington, the trade group known as the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

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8. Why are efforts to regulate potentially hazardous plastics stalled?

   By Nancy Watzman Apr 18, 2013 9:51 a.m.

   In late 2009, when Lisa Jackson, at the time President Barack Obama's new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), invoked a long-existing but never-before-used power to  to create a list of "chemicals of concern," the administration appeared to be putting chemical companies on notice that it planned to be aggressive about regulating risks from exposure to the industry's product. Jackson's list included eight of the common plasticizers known as "phthalates" that have been shown to cause to reproductive abnormalities in animal studies and that have also been linked to health problems in humans. They are used in products from vinyl flooring to cable wiring to backpacks, raincoats, and other products -- even sex toys.

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9. As NRA pushes Congress, states consider bills to put guns in schools

   By Nancy Watzman Apr 2, 2013 2:25 a.m.

   Even as the National Rifle Association (NRA) announced a new push today to put armed guards in schools across the country, state lawmakers across the country are considering similar proposals. So far, legislation related to guns on school grounds has come up in at least three dozen states. The vast majority of these bills would make it easier for school personnel, guards, and volunteers to carry guns on campus, while a handful would toughen laws prohibiting firearms at schools.

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10. Contraceptives remain most controversial health care provision

    By Nancy Watzman Mar 22, 2013 12:02 p.m.
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11. Mary Jo White's former clients generous to senators

    By Nancy Watzman Mar 19, 2013 9:03 a.m.

    Many of the senators voting on Mary Jo White's nomination to head the SEC today got campaign contributions from her high-powered legal clients.

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12. ExxonMobil lobbies consumer agency on phthalates

    By Nancy Watzman Feb 27, 2013 10:31 a.m.

    Under heavy lobbying by ExxonMobil and other industry heavyweights, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is nearly a year late with a mandated report on the possible dangers found in chemicals used to create plastic products from raincoats to "rubber" duck bath toys to shampoo. A Sunlight review of the public record shows how outgunned consumer advocates are by industry.

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13. Gun groups extend influence battle to state houses

    By Nancy Watzman Feb 11, 2013 9:47 a.m.

    DENVER -- A group of Democratic state legislators here had barely concluded their press conference unveiling a broad package of gun control bills when an outspoken opponent threatened to make them pay in the next election.

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14. In floor speeches, lawmakers talk about their guns

    By Nancy Watzman Feb 5, 2013 3:50 p.m.

    During debate on the Senate floor over the Compromise of 1850, Henry Foote of MIssissippi pulled out a pistol and waved it around, threatening another senator, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Lawmakers are no longer allowed to bring guns on the floor, but plenty own them, as a survey of Congress by USA Today shows. And they are of course allowed to talk about their guns. In fact, they talk about them in speeches on the floors of the House and Senate, according to a search of Capitol Words.

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Investigations by Sunlight Foundation reporter Nancy Watzman