lobbying

A lot of those spontaneous calls from constituents are the work of lobbyists.

Analyzing the senator's ethics reform package.

When potential clients crossed the threshold into his dark and paneled office not far from the White House, Clark Clifford would give them a little speech. Yes, he told them, he could offer them his “extensive knowledge of how to deal with the government on your problems.” And certainly he could…

Last week’s latest indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller added dozens of new counts to the charges already leveled against former Trump campaign manager, lobbyist Paul Manafort and his disloyal deputy Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty late last week. Manafort, arraigned Wednesday morning,…

Having failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, congressional Republicans have turned their attention to tax reform. Given the disappointing track record of the 115th Congress, a victory on taxes is a political must-win. However, the history of tax reform is mostly one of failure and suggests that…

Watchers of Ukraine’s NewsOne television channel on September 25 were treated to what was suggested to be a congressional hearing in Washington about corruption in the National Bank of Ukraine (the NBU), which is the Ukrainian equivalent of the Federal Reserve Board.

At long last, The Scrapbook has developed proof of foreign meddling in our democracy. Justice Department documents lay the plot bare: a secret deal between a foreign power and two former administration officials at the highest echelons of the U.S. government.

Sometimes you hear that thriving businesses are capitalist enterprises that relish competing and winning.

Bob Livingston, the former Republican congressman, was among the conservatives who met with Donald Trump in Washington on March 21. Now a corporate lobbyist whose clients include Verizon and Adobe, Livingston liked what the GOP frontrunner had to say. He endorsed Trump as he left the gathering.…

Arizona Republicans are in a tough fight to keep the governor's mansion. Their candidate, state treasurer Doug Ducey, is effectively tied with Democrat Fred DuVal. Since voters in the state generally lean toward the GOP, DuVal has cast himself as a moderate outsider, a businessman who seeks…

The former constituents who returned Eric Cantor to the private sector have reason to think, He is who we thought he was. As Mario Trujillo of The Hill reports:

It comes as no big surprise that K Street has no plans to impose sanctions on Russia … or itself.

News of a new and creative way for the recipients of federal grants to spend the money.  Use it to pay lobbyists.  Who will, presumably, work their magic in order to get more federal money, which can then be spent to lobby for yet even more federal money.  

Happy days are here again on K Street.  As Kevin Bogardus and Erik Wasson of the Hill write, with Congress debating individual spending bills instead of simply passing continuing resolutions:

Washington, D.C. is booming. That's in large part because of a massive growth in lobbying expenditures and federal contracts.

The bigger and more bewildering the legislation, the better for the Lords and Ladies of K Street.  So as Megan R. Wilson of The Hill reports:

Special interests—mostly advocacy firms and former-Congressmen turned lobbyists—drive Congress’s agenda and play an oversized role in the formation of policy. But the face of lobbying is changing, thanks partly to approaches pioneered in the last three years by Heritage Action for America, the…

The country has been crying out for another big-money lobbying effort and now, as Jennifer Martinez writes in the Hill, "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is helping launch a new lobbying organization with a group of prominent Washington political consultants and tech executives."

There have been a lot of ill considered articles following the heinous grade school shooting in Connecticut, and I'm afraid this article in the Huffington Post is no exception. The headline, "The Gun Lobby: Why The NRA Is The Baddest Force In Politics," more or less sets the tone. Here's how the…

National Public Radio media enterprise is so essential, according to backers, that it requires government support. But, as its supporters always point out, in an amount equal to merely 2 percent of the NPR budget.  Which leads one to ask if the outfit couldn't find a way to spend two percent less…

It appears increasingly likely that Senator Richard Lugar will not be the senior U.S. senator from Indiana when the next Congress is sworn in. After 36 years on the job, he is running behind in a tough primary. His opponent's main knock on Lugar is that he has been in Washington too long and been…

In just the last few months, Bidzina Ivanishvili, one of the world's richest men with an estimated $6.5 billion fortune, hired a small army of PR consultants and lobbyists in Washington, including at least 7 of Washington’s most prominent firms. And though Ivanishvili built his business empire in…

"House Speaker John Boehner is warning President Barack Obama that he may be in violation of the War Powers Act if Obama refuses to ask Congress for authorization to overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi."

A delegation of the People's Liberation Army, the largest group of Chinese military officers ever to visit the United States, recently toured the Pentagon and other U.S. defense facilities. Part of their mission was to further erode and finally end the congressional ban on weapons and technology…

According to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, the top lobbying group in Wisconsin for the 2009-2010 session of the legislature was the Wisconsin Education Assocation, which as of August 20, 2010 had spent 10,462 hours and $2,143,588 lobbying state lawmakers.