Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

Reporter’s Notebook: Understanding the automatic cuts if the supercommittee can’t deliver

With the supercommittee's deadline only five days away, the special deficit-cutting panel's chances of reaching a deal appear to be in doubt. And if no agreement is reached, more than one trillion dollars in cuts would be set in motion starting in 2013. That is, if the Congress and president allow the automatic trigger to take effect.

Senators on super committee collecting less campaign cash this quarter

All but one Senate member on the super committee collected less campaign funds this quarter compared the previous quarter. Only Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, had a modest increase collecting a total of $85,532.

Wednesday: Sunlight Live to check in on super committee

When the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or super committee, emerges from the shadows on Wednesday morning to hold its first public hearing in a month, the Sunlight Live team will be there to shine a light on who’s influencing the panel.

Super committee related issues feature in hundreds of lobbying reports

K Street firms got little respite this past quarter, between lobbying on the debt ceiling early in the summer and then quickly shifting their focus to the "super committee," recently released lobbying reports show.

Van Hollen's alternate fundraising vehicle wakes up

After being dormant for all of 2011, Congressman Chris Van Hollen's joint fundraising committee woke up in the third quarter, with most of the over $180,000 in funds coming after he was tapped for Congress’s powerful deficit-cutting committee in early August.

Super committee member Van Hollen doubles campaign cash intake over last quarter

The campaign of super committee member Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., took in more than twice as much money in the third quarter of 2011 as it did in the second, newly released Federal Election Commission records show. Overall, two of the six House members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--popularly known as the "super committee"--reported increased fundraising totals in the third quarter.

Online poker lobby gives timely donations to pair of congressmen pushing its cause

Congressman Joe Barton, who is now lobbying the special deficit panel to legalize Internet poker, got some not so subtle nudges from the Poker Players Alliance when he introduced his own online poker bill in June.

Big PACs contribute $83,000 to super committee members

The political action committees of Lockheed Martin, the National Association of Realtors, Pfizer and Chevron all reported making contributions to members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--better known as the super committee--in the roughly 20 days of August after House and Senate leadership appointed them to the panel.

Super Committee, Boehner speech protests linked to major labor group

Our DC, a SEIU-linked protest group that stopped the first Super Committee meeting, has been regularly delivering a pro-jobs message to congressional Republicans: with some 100 protesters outside House Speaker John Boehner's speech at the Economic Club of Washington yesterday, according to organizers, who said the protest was in support of the American Jobs Act.

How do lobbyists snag front-row seats at hearings?

As the 12 members of the “super committee” scour the nation’s budget searching for at least $1.2 trillion in federal cuts, Washington lobbyists are watching their every move, hoping to protect the interests of their clients.

Top donors to Super Committee House Dems lobby for Defense and Medicare funding

A replacement for the Space Shuttle, tax breaks for personal injury attorneys, two nuclear powered submarines and bigger Medicare reimbursements for some specialists and drugs are among the lobbying wish lists of the top career donors to the three House Democrats on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, otherwise known as the super committee.

Sunlight Live to cover Super Committee meeting on Tuesday

Lobbyists golfing with Clyburn have friend on Super Committee

In early August, Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a member of the newly created congressional super committee, held his annual charity golf tournament, welcoming nearly 600 golfers to spend the weekend in Santee, South Carolina.

Donors to Senate GOP super committee members seek tax cuts, tax breaks

The Club for Growth, which advocates making permanent some tax cuts and eliminating entirely others that, over just two years, would amount to more than $765 billion in lost revenues over two years, is a top donor to two of the three Republican Senators on the Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction--the super committee. Other top donors include a hedge fund run by a top Republican donor that invests in, among other things, defaulted debt of sovereign nations, corporations trying to shield income earned overseas from U.S. taxes, and utility firms seeking to avoid regulation of greenhouse gases.