
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has written a letter to members of the House telling them that voting for federal contractors to be more transparent about their political spending will negatively impact their legislative scorecard.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The U.S. Chamber of Commerce thinks a law that prohibits American businesses from paying bribes to foreign government officials is hurting U.S. companies, and Republicans in the House agree. But don't accuse them of being pro-bribery.
"Nobody here is in favor of bribery," said Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) at a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday examining the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). But Sensenbrenner and House Republicans made clear they intend to change the law as it currently stands.
Sensenbrenner called the FCPA statute vague and said it was too open to the interpretation of the Justice Department, arguing that the feds could even apply the law to paying for cab rides for their overseas workers if they wanted. But a Justice Department representative pointed out that all the panelists advocating for reform couldn't point out one example of when they believed the feds had overreached by prosecuting over a cup of coffee or taxi ride and touted recent cases involving bribery with a Ferrari, a yacht and a $170,000 payment toward a credit card bill.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has hired former Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) to participate in a regulatory reform "road show" of speeches, events and media appearances, according to a memo obtained by iWatch News.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Lawmakers on Thursday offered two competing amendments to a bill addressing the anonymous flow of taxpayer money to third party political groups. One would have required disclosure of such donations, the other would ban the government from doing anything to shed any light on the financial flows.
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) said her amendment, which was ruled out of order, would "require that anyone that receives an appropriation, a contract, doing business with the federal government produce full disclosure relative to political expenditures." She said it would eliminate "a dark corner of our system that is not being addressed."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The U.S. Chamber of Commerce claims that a draft executive order being considered by the Obama administration would be an assault on free speech. The proposed order would require federal contractors to disclose donations to third party groups. But many of the companies affiliated with the Chamber have extolled the values of disclosure and already publicly reveal their donations voluntarily.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The Chamber of Commerce, as a non-profit "business league" in the eyes of the IRS, is legally allowed to withhold the names of its donors from public filings. So it does.
The names of Chamber donors, and the amount they donate, are so secret that when the New York Times set out to find out who they were, it didn't find much. But what it did find provided a window into the kind of legislation companies are willing to spend millions to defeat.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)ThinkProgress came out with another story on Wednesday about the Chamber of Commerce's foreign funding, indicating that the Chamber has raised at least $885,000 from corporations based overseas.
ThinkProgress, which is the blog arm of the Center for American Progress, compiled a list of corporations that are listed as members of the Chamber's "business councils." The business councils, based in Bahrain, India and elsewhere, are international arms of the Chamber but housed in the Chamber's D.C. headquarters and run by Chamber staff.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Karl Rove hit back at the blog ThinkProgress for its report that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was using foreign money to fund campaign ads.
The Associated Press and FactCheck.org have reported that the claims about foreign funding have not been proven. The New York Times said "there is little evidence that what the Chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual."
Appearing on "Good Morning America" on Tuesday, Rove said that the Center for American Progress -- the organization ThinkProgress is associated with -- also receives anonymous donations.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) wants the Federal Elections Commission to investigate whether the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is violating election law by raising money from foreign donors. In a letter to the agency, he also asked the FEC to review its own regulations.
The Chamber raises thousands from foreign individuals and companies through its overseas branches, ThinkProgress reported yesterday. The money reportedly goes into the Chamber's general fund, which it is using to run a $75 million midterm campaign, mostly against Democrats. (The Chamber denies doing anything illegal, and says it only raises about $100,000 in dues from its foreign branches.)
It is illegal to solicit or accept donations from foreign nationals, directly or indirectly, for election activity.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Think Progress, the reporting arm of the Center for American Progress, is out with a big story today about how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce raises hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign nationals and corporations.
The Chamber is in the midst of a $75 million midterm ad campaign focused largely on supporting Republican candidates and has aired more than 8,000 ads so far. It also lobbied heavily against health care reform and financial reform.
As the 2010 congressional campaign shapes up to be the most expensive in history, a Supreme Court decision and unclear campaign finance regulations have thrown some of the rules out the door -- and one campaign finance expert tells TPM this is the least regulated election in recent history.
House and Senate candidates in the 2010 election cycle have raised nearly $1.2 billion, and they're on track to spend more money than candidates did in 2004, 2006 and 2008, according to an Associated Press analysis.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)A post on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's own blog by one of its employees that suggested women are to blame for the wage gap solely because they take time off to have children has gotten a very public smack-down from a top Chamber executive.
In the post "Equality, Suffrage and a Fetish for Money," which went up Wednesday, ChamberPost editor and Senior Director of Communications Brad Peck accused Democratic women who compare the fight for fair pay to the fight for suffrage of having "Scrooge-like fetish for money." This would, of course, be the same Chamber that regularly advocates for policies on everything from environmental regulation to, yes, equal pay to tort reform that would allow its members to increase profits.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)The group Stop Too Big To Fail, which is employing a liberal-sounding message to fight the Wall Street reform legislation, is working with an advertising agency whose past clients include the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and myriad GOP campaigns.
Stop Too Big To Fail this week announced a $1.6 million ad buy in Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia. The ads warn of a "bailout fund" and call on senators to "vote against this phony 'financial reform.'" The agency behind that ad is Mentzer Media, according to Kristen Waskie, a staffer at TeleRep, a Philadelphia firm which represents local TV stations and which has placed the financial reform ads in local markets. Waskie tells us the Stop Too Big To Fail ads came out of Mentzer, which is based in Towson, Maryland.
You've probably never heard of Mentzer, -- which describes itself as "expert at zeroing in on the correct audiences, the right markets, identifying the right media, [and] locking in at the right times" -- but in the world of political professionals, it's quite well known.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)No one ever said that Congressional Republicans lack chutzpah. But this is rich even for them.
The GOP is trying to use the Jack Abramoff scandal -- in which a Republican lobbyist bribed staffers to Republican members of Congress and members of the Republican Bush administration -- to tar Democrats and their allies.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Some of the biggest names in the GOP are organizing an outside group to help Republicans win in the 2010 midterms -- and donors have already pledged a whopping $30 million for the new project, according to National Journal.
The new group -- which, as a 527, can collect unlimited soft money donations and won't be regulated by the Federal Election Commission -- is called American Crossroads. It's a name you'll likely hearing a lot, in part because, as the Wall Street Journal points out, the group's ambition to raise $52 million makes it "the largest ever planned by a pro-Republican outside campaign entity."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Key players in the year-long fight over health care reform -- including heavyweights like PhRMA's Billy Tauzin and Karen Ignagni of America's Health Insurance Plans -- rake in huge annual salaries, according to tax filings.
New IRS rules require non-profits, including trade associations representing health care stakeholders, to disclose more salary information than ever before, a development first reported on by Roll Call.
So TPMmuckraker decided to take a look at what the lobbyists and leaders of these organizations make for a day's work.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)The U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- already a major force in fighting the Obama administration's big-ticket domestic agenda items -- is set to play an out-sized role in this fall's midterms.
The business lobby plans to spend at least $50 million in a bid to sway around 10 Senate up to 40 House races on behalf of "pro-business" candidates, primarily Republicans, reports the Washington Post. To do so, it has built a grassroots machine, Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with a member list of 6 million names. The effort is based in part on the much-praised field operation for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Microsoft is distancing itself from the Chamber of Commerce's controversial opposition to progress on climate change.
The software company today posted the following statement on its "environmental sustainability" blog:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)In the wake of last month's Citizens United ruling, a powerhouse Washington lobbying firm is informing its corporate clients on how they can use middlemen like the Chamber of Commerce to pour unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns, while maintaining "sufficient cover" to avoid "public scrutiny" and negative media coverage.
A "Public Policy and Law Alert" on the impact of the Supreme Court's ruling, prepared by two lawyers for K&LGates and posted on the firm's site last Friday, notes that, thanks to disclosure rules, corporations could alienate their customers by spending on political campaigns -- especially because they could become the target of negative media coverage.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Some of the business interests that had abandoned their traditional conservatism to flirt with the Obama agenda may now be shifting back towards the GOP -- another sign that the president's standing is badly weakened a year after taking office.
During 2008 and much of 2009, Obama enjoyed an unusual amount of support for a Democrat from the business community, much of which had grown disillusioned with President Bush and hoped for a return to the steady growth of the Clinton years. But after a string of political setbacks, high-lighted by Scott Brown's win last month in the Massachusetts Senate race, some key business groups and sectors appear to be shifting back to the GOP column.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)One of the biggest winners from this morning's Supreme Court decision on campaign finance: the Chamber of Commerce. And that's not just because the court's ruling gives the corporations that make up the business lobby's membership an even greater voice in the political process than they've enjoyed until now.
As we explained last week, over the last decade, under CEO Tom Donohue, the Chamber has perfected a strategy of using the Chamber as a "pass-through" for corporations looking to run issue campaigns, but wary about having their names tied to the effort. In 2001, the Wall Street Journal described this as Donohue's "striking innovation." And a recent report made clear that the Chamber had played just this role on behalf of health insurers in a bid to stop health-care reform.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)This week, National Journal reported that the health insurance lobby funneled tens of millions of dollars to the Chamber of Commerce to fund an ad campaign attacking heath-care reform. The Chamber essentially acted as a pass-through, allowing the health insurers to avoid having their names tied to the campaign.
The story understandably generated outrage -- with health-care reform advocates now demanding hearings. But it looks like the pass-through tactic is nothing new. In fact, it's a technique the Chamber has been pioneering for almost a decade.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Last night Rachel Maddow picked up TPMmuckraker's reporting on the Chamber of Commerce anti-health reform effort involving what Maddow calls an "American family dining chain that's famous for its wings."
That would be Hooters.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Forget those forged letters, and fake rallies. This week, we've been digging into it what may be the latest tool in the astroturf toolbox: incentivized online advertising.
That's when internet users are induced to take political action, on behalf of a lobbying group, through websites or online ads that offer rewards -- airline miles, free trips, even a gift card to Hooters. The problem with the tactic is clear: when members of Congress get an email from a voter on an issue of public concern, they assume it's an expression of authentic grassroots passion. If the sender was in fact incentivized by the chance to win a free plasma TV, that assumption doesn't bear out.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Last week, we learned that Facebook users could win virtual currency for use in online games by sending an email to Congress opposing health-care reform.
In response, both the health insurers coalition thought to be behind the ads, and the P.R. firm hired by the coalition, claimed ignorance. A spokesman for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), which runs the coalition, Get Health Reform Right, told us yesterday that the coalition's contract explicitly forbids the use of such "incentivized ads," and said the ads that showed up on Facebook must be fakes. Pam Fielding, the president of 720 Strategies, which handled the campaign, said the same thing.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)How'd you like to fight government-run health-care -- and get a free gift card to Hooters out of it?
Well, now you can! And it's all thanks to the Chamber of Commerce.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)A lobbyist working with the Chamber of Commerce says that if a planned study on the economic impact of health-care reform doesn't support the business community's agenda, he'd recommend burying it.
"If you're doing something like this you want it to be back up the position you've taken," Brian Worth of the International Electrical Contractors (IEC) told TPMmuckraker. If the report showed that reform wouldn't cause significant job losses, said Worth, "I would say sit on it, and don't release it."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)The Chamber of Commerce, an ardent foe of health-care reform, is raising money to fund an economic study on the impact of the legislation on the economy. Unsurprisingly, the Chamber anticipates that the study will find that reform will "kill jobs."
James Gelfand, the Chamber's senior health policy manager, wrote an email to allies that suggested spending $50,000 to hire a "respected economist" to put together the report. The email was obtained by the Washington Post.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)It looks like the Chamber of Commerce is concerned that it be seen as willing to play a constructive role in the coming Senate debate over climate change legislation -- whatever the reality.
That's the message to be drawn from a letter that the business lobby sent -- and posted on its website -- to Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and James Inhofe (R-OK) yesterday.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The Chamber of Commerce, whose intransigent stance on global warming has lately been in the spotlight, is now being slammed in comments on its own Facebook page.
Many of the comments, which appear on the "Just Fans" setting, accuse the Chamber of vastly inflating its membership numbers. Mother Jones reported earlier this month that the Chamber's claim to represent 3 million members is off by a factor of 10.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)The Chamber of Commerce's lawsuit against the Yes Men is "a comedy and a travesty," according to one member of the prankster group and a target of the suit.
"All they care about is taking money out of ordinary people's pockets and putting it in the pockets of the super rich," Mike Bonanno told TPMmuckraker in an interview this afternoon.
By suing the Yes Men over a prank, the Chamber of Commerce certainly isn't doing anything to change its reputation as a greedy and humorless bunch of suits that puts corporations ahead of the little guy. But could the joke be on the Yes Men by the time this is over?
A quick recap: Last week, the Yes Men, a group of political pranksters working with the activist group Avaaz, set up a mock website that looked like the Chamber's, and held a mock press conference where they announced that the Chamber was shifting its opposition to serious efforts to address global warming. The stunt fooled Reuters and other outlets, who reported the position change, before issuing corrections. In response, the Chamber first tried to have the mock site taken down, then sued the Yes Men for trademark infringement, charging that the prank was "nothing less than commercial identity theft masquerading as social activism."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Calling last week's hoax by the Yes Men "nothing less than commercial identity theft masquerading as social activism," the Chamber of Commerce is suing the prankster group and its allies for trademark infringement, unfair competition and false advertising, reports Mother Jones.
The Yes Men -- actors Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos (who also use the names Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, respectively), last week held a fake press conference in Washington DC, along with activists from the Avaaz Action Factory, in which they impersonated Chamber executives and announced that the group had shifted its opposition to real efforts at tackling global warming. A press release announcing the event fooled Reuters and other news outlets into reporting that the Chamber had changed its stance.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue is trying to spin the flap over his lobby group's stance on global warming in his favor -- but he won't even admit that climate change is real.
"Is the science right? Is science not right? I don't know," Donohue said during a seventy-five minute sit-down with business-friendly Politico.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The Chamber of Commerce is trying to raise money off of that hoax press conference organized this week by a group of activist pranksters.
In an email to supporters, obtained by TPMmuckraker, Chamber exec Bill Miller writes that his organization is "under attack" and claims "MoveOn.org and other extremist groups are harassing our members."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)What's the deal with conservatives saying they're going to contact law enforcement over their political opponents' latest outrage -- before turning out to apparently be full of it?
Last week, Rep. Sue Myrick's office told us that, despite her claims to have uncovered a plot by radical Islamists to use interns to infiltrate Capitol Hill, they hadn't actually gotten around to formally asking the authorities to investigate.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants a criminal investigation into the hoax perpetrated this morning by activists, who sent out a fake press release from the Chamber falsely announcing that the group had shifted its opposition to serious efforts to tackle global warming.
A Chamber spokesman put out the following (real) statement this afternoon:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Reuters admits it messed up by not calling the Chamber of Commerce about that hoax press release saying it had changed its stance on climate change.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Well, it looks like we were right.
The Chamber of Commerce hoax was perpetrated by the Yes Men, in tandem with a group of activists known as the Avaaz Action Factory.
Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum showed up at the 11am press conference that had earlier been announced by a "Chamber of Commerce" press release, and, impersonating a Chamber executive, declared:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (8)It's not yet clear who perpetrated the hoax announcing that the Chamber of Commerce had changed its position on climate change. (It hasn't, and remains opposed to serious efforts to deal with the problem.)
But some evidence points to the Yes Men, a group of activists known for similar stunts.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)
