Lobbying and Ethics

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

Look closely at the grassroots

By Gary D. Bass, OMB Watch
Published in the March 19, 2007 edition of The Hill
We see and hear the ads all the time: "Call your senators today and tell them to oppose this bill!" Have you ever wondered where those messages come from, who pays for them and who creates them? Sometimes, the groups sponsoring the television commercials, newspaper spreads, or evening phone calls will come right out and tell you exactly who they are. Often, however, those behind such communications, called grassroots lobbying, don't provide us with the information we need to figure out who the messenger really is.

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House Proposal for Grassroots Lobbying Disclosure Due Soon

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) office is still working on the details of grassroots lobbying disclosure as part of a package of Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) reforms, both supporters and opponents have continued to debate the merits of the idea.

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Distortions and Misinformation Continue to Abound in Grassroots Lobbying Disclosure Debate

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2007—Public statements by opponents of grassroots lobbying disclosure, which would bring transparency to big money grassroots lobbying campaigns, have misled Americans by inaccurately claiming that potential proposals are intended to silence criticism of Congress and are "a plot by Washington insiders" to shut out diverse viewpoints.

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Disclosure Bill Faces Opposition

Mar 6, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The Hill reports how strongly the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) opposes H.R.984, the Executive Branch Lobby Reform Act. The organization views the measure as a threat to a citizen's right to petition the government. The bill would require agency officials to document all communications from any private party that sought to influence a public policy issue. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee unanimously passed the bill, and now NRLC is engaging in a full blown campaign warning that the public's ability to weigh in on public policy will be jeopardized.

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Bush Continues Anti-Regulatory Efforts with Industry Nominee to CPSC

In nominating Michael E. Baroody Mar. 1 to be chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), President Bush demonstrated yet another example since the 2006 elections of his efforts to slow down or roll back government regulation. CPSC is the independent regulatory agency charged with protecting the public against injury and death from a wide range of consumer products.

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Grassroots Lobbying Center Point of Lobby Reform Hearing

Mar 2, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Yesterday the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing on the lobby reform measures included in S.1. The heated discussion on the issue of grassroots lobbying disclosure has not gone unnoticed. A BNA Money and Politics ($$) points out the undeniable prominence the issue had during the session. The hearing was intended to focus on the ethics and lobby changes passed in S.1, but instead focused mostly on a measure that was voted out of the bill.

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Stealth Lobbyist Disclosure Act of 2007

Feb 27, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Roll Call ($$) chronicles Representative Lloyd Doggett's (D-TX) long running fight to require that coalitions must disclose its members, providing that the coalition employs other persons to conduct its lobbying activities. Coalitions have become a viable way for corporate interests to engage in single-issue campaigns, and sometimes avoiding transparency rules.

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House Considers Lobbying Reform With S.1 as Base

Feb 27, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The House has begun working on its own piece of lobby reform legislation, and on Thursday the House Judiciary Committee will begin with a hearing focused on the provisions passed by the Senate in S. 1. Hopefully the lobby law changes approved in the Senate will remain intact in the House, along with some important measures left out of the Senate version such as grassroots lobbying disclosure.

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Deliberation on Grassroots Lobbying Disclosure

Feb 22, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

This noteworthy blog posting at "The Questionable Authority," addresses the notion that the grassroots lobbying provision stripped from S.1 would have included bloggers. It clarifies that any blogger advocating federal legislation would not have to register and report under the Lobby Disclosure Act (LDA).

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Soft Landing for Losers-Turned-Lobbyists

Feb 22, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Congress Considers Lobby Reform Legislation Although federal law prohibits former members of Congress from lobbying former colleagues for a year from when they leave office, that hasn't stopped a number of members who lost their elections last November from joining lobbying firms, today's lead USA Today story reports. Nothing in the law prohibits former Congress members from advising lobbyists and clients, lobbying executive branch officials or directing a firm's congressional lobbying efforts.

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