-
Congress' Family Business, John Murtha edition...
By Bill Allison May 12, 2009 4:17 p.m....continues in the Washington Post. Read the whole thing. Do
-
Cram down look ups, cont.
By Bill Allison May 7, 2009 8:07 p.m.More research (see here for details on what this research is. I'm trying to see if there was a flurry of fundraising around the vote on the Durbin amendment to the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009.
Read all about it -
Quarters doubled in odd years, halved again in evens
By Bill Allison May 7, 2009 4:11 p.m.This always makes me thing of Lewis Carroll every time I see it. A PAC tells the FEC it's going to file quarterly reports rather than monthly reports. The FEC approves the request, and writes back:
Read all about it -
Looking up cram down opponents in Party Time
By Bill Allison May 6, 2009 10:05 p.m.This post is all research and no results -- that'll come later. I wanted to take a look at a vote my colleague Paul Blumenthal referred to with the title (quoting Sen. Richard Durbin) "They own the place." The "they" in question are financial sector firms, the place is Congress; at issue is a bill, the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 -- or rather, an amendment to that bill -- that was voted down by a 51-45 margin.
Read all about it -
Always amazes me...
By Bill Allison May 5, 2009 5:18 p.m.what you can find in lobbying disclosure data. I was looking for something else when I came across this filing. TIG Insurance has hired the Normandy Group to "[a]ddress non-payment by Government of Argentina of fees owed to TIG Insurance Company. Seek to put restrictive language in Foreign Operations Appropriations Bills re: US assistance to Argentina." The fees paid are less than $5,000, so it doesn't seem like a lot of lobbying went on, but the list of lobbyists has a few revolvers on it:
Read all about it -
Congress' family business, John Murtha edition
By Bill Allison May 5, 2009 3:38 a.m.From the Washington Post:
Read all about it -
Roll Call makes PMA Group articles available online
By Bill Allison May 4, 2009 4:31 p.m.In conjunction with the appearance of Paul Singer on C-Span's Washington Journal this morning (his bit starts about 1:03:30 in on the video), Roll Call has put online its amazing body of work tracking the PMA Group, the defunct lobbying firm under federal investigation that, along with its clients, provided oodles of campaign cash to more than 100 members of the House while securing hundreds of millions in earmarks for its clients.
Read all about it -
Congress' family business, Chris Dodd edition
By Bill Allison May 4, 2009 4:02 p.m.Edmund H. Mahony and Jon Lender of the the Hartford Courant report on Sen. Christopher Dodd's wife:
Read all about it -
Specter, unions & Blank Rome LLP
By Bill Allison Apr 30, 2009 8:12 p.m.Just a thought about Sen. Arlen Specter's shift to the Democratic party:
Read all about it -
The unbearable opacity of TARP: Government agencies can't tell us who's in charge
By Anupama Narayanswamy Apr 28, 2009 4:32 p.m.The new report to Congress from SIGTARP -- the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- begins by noting that TARP has evolved into "12 separate, but often interrelated, programs involving government and private funds of up to almost $3 trillion" of an "unprecedented scope, scale, and complexity." The report highlighted the possibilities of fraud and conflicts on interest in the bailout process and calls for better disclosure. We continue to find that even some of the most elementary details about the program -- like who is actually managing distribution of the bailout money to financial institutions -- is still shrouded in secrecy.
Read all about it -
Tracking swine flu...
By Bill Allison Apr 28, 2009 2:28 p.m....with Google maps.
Read all about it -
Still waiting for FOIA reforms to surface
By Bill Allison Apr 27, 2009 2:49 p.m.Roger Strother writes at OMB Watch's Fine Print blog about the latest noise coming out of the Office of Information Policy about the "sea change in the way transparency is viewed across the government." That sea change is supposed to lift a lot of FOIA requests that, unlike boats, seem to sink the bottom with incredible rapidity, then burrow down into the muck at the bottom. We've found that the only way to surface those FOIA requests is the application of vigorous effort (including regularly calling FOIA officers to make sure they haven't forgotten us). Waiting--for months or years at a time--is also a necessary skill to master. In any case, Roger notes:
Read all about it -
Political Party Time: More than 170 fundraisers for appropriators (already!) in 2009
By Bill Allison Apr 23, 2009 9:04 p.m.We're just past the end of the first quarter of the current election cycle (with seven more to go before it's all over), but members of the Appropriations Committees in the House and the Senate have already had <a href="http://blog.politicalpartytime.org/2009/04/23/more-than-170-parties-with-appropriators/">more than 170 fundraisers</a>, according to my colleague Nancy Watzman.
Read all about it -
Bailout Watch debuts from Open the Government
By Bill Allison Apr 22, 2009 10:52 p.m.File this one under useful tools -- our friends at Open the Government have launched Bailout Watch, a compendium of resources on TARP, Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and other places. I like the Expert Exchange page.
Read all about it
Search the Blog
Real Time Ticker
Recent Posts
- Crossroads GPS pushes Congress to pass immigration overhaul in web video
- Americans for Prosperity takes aim at farm bill
- California billionaire pumps $1 million more into Mass. senate race
- Stealthy super PAC avoids disclosing donors before Mass. special election
- Pesticide industry would benefit from farm bill provisions
Reporting we're watching
- OpenSecrets: Millionaire Freshmen Make Congress Even Wealthier
- OpenSecrets: Election 2012: The Big Picture Shows Record Cost of Winning a Seat in Congress
- Sunlight Foundation: New G8 Open Data Charter
- Sunlight Foundation: 2Day in #OpenGov 6/18/2013
- Sunlight Foundation: Possible impacts of the Czech political turmoil
