The Center for Public Integrity, “an award winning, investigative journalism non-profit organization” has done extensive investigative work involving various aspects of the lobbying industry, political action committees, special interest groups, and political contributions.

Though the years, the Center has doggedly pursued the intricacies of the relationship between private sources of money and how it is able to buy influence, favoritism, privileges, and protection from the federal and state governments. Thus, it is not surprising that the Center has been actively investigating the widening lobbyist scandal in Washington.

Last week, when asked at a news conference whether he meets with lobbyists, President Bush side-stepped the question by answering, “I try not to.” There can be little doubt, however, that the Bush White House “has deep connections to the lobbying industry.”

The following “myriad of personal, business, and political ties between the Bush administration and K-Street” has been uncovered by The Center for Public Integrity:

• “Since 1998, more than 4,600 companies, trade associations and interest groups have directly lobbied the 14 offices of the White House.”
• “The Center found 52 registered lobbyists who were major fundraisers for the Bush campaigns. The donations gathered by each fundraiser were tabulated with “Solicitor Tracking Numbers” assigned by the campaigns—as a way to insure that each fundraiser received due credit for the donations he or she collected.”
• “Embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff raised $100,000 for Bush’s 2004 campaign as a Pioneer and represented 15 clients that were lobbying the White House, including such business enterprises as Tyco International Ltd. and Unisys Corp. Abramoff is also listed among those lobbying the Executive Office of the President and the White House on behalf of three American Indian tribes, including the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.”
• “More than 1,300 registered lobbyists have personally given more than $1.8 million to President George W. Bush during the last six years.”
• “The Center identified 12 former registered lobbyists who have been hired to work in the various offices of the White House—sometimes formulating public policy about the various issues on which they once lobbied.”
• “Similarly, the Center found that the Bush administration appointed 92 lobbyists to its transition advisory teams between 2000 and 2001.”
• “273 former White House staffers registered as lobbyists since 1998. Collectively, these lobbyists have represented more than 3,000 special interests and have been personally involved in billings worth approximately $1 billion – or as much as 10 percent of all lobbying since 1998.”
• “More than one in five companies that lobby the federal government has lobbied the offices of the White House; more than the Departments of Education, Federal Communication Commission and Veteran’s Affairs put together.”

The news release also provided the chart below, which demonstrates that the Bush White House has consistently been lobbied by more companies than had lobbied the Clinton administration.

The Clinton White House in comparison to the Bush White House

For more information, readers are invited to visit the Center for Public Integrity’s website at http://www.publicintegrity.org./default.aspx where there a number of revealing reports dealing with the lobbying industry and its pervasive influence over Washington politics.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2006 at 8:48 am and is filed under Consumer Fraud, Legal News.