Report: Santorum, Clinton took most from lobbyists

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday May 23, 2006

Of the 100 U.S. Senators, Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have accepted the most from lobbyists this election cycle, according to a report released today by the group Public Citizen. The report examines donations by the 50 biggest donors on the hill.

Santorum topped the list of those who have benefitted most from lobby gifts, raking in a whopping $560,738. Clinton, the second biggest recipient, trails Santorum by over 25%, having taken $417,575 from lobbyists and PACs. An almost identical drop can be seen between the numbers three and four recipients: Senator George Allen (R-VA) bests Kent Conrad (D-ND) $378,478 to $282,542. Many of the top recipients are on the appropriations committees charged with doling out government funds.

In the 2006 election cycle, lobbyists and their PACs are already on track to give about 10% more than in the 2004 cycle, even without taking into account the expected increase in contributions as Election Day draws nearer. Lobby gifts, according to Public Citizen, rose from $27.8 million in the 2000 election cycle to $33.9 million in the 2004 cycle – an over 90% increase.

In all, the report finds that lobbyists and their political action committees (PACs) have contributed at least $203.1 million to members of Congress since 1998 – nearly double previous estimates.

Over the entire 8 year period examined, ousted Senator Tom Daschle's (D-SD,) $2,687,721 in lobbyist funds put him at the top of the big recipient list. Santorum, at number two, took in $2,163,560 during that same time period.

Drawing attention to what Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook calls "the seamier side of Washington's congressional decision-making," the report also singles out some of the biggest lobbyists on the hill.

Just 27% of lobbyists have contributed an amount to lawmakers large enough to be recognized by the Federal Election Commission ($200 or more). A mere 6.1% have given more than $20,000. This small percentage of lobbyists account for 83.4% of all campaign contributions.

"The campaign contributions lobbyists make from their own checkbooks, while significant, are just a fraction of the equation," Claybrook explains. "This report also reveals that top lobbyist contributors coordinate lucrative fund-raisers for the lawmakers they hope to influence and bring in a steady stream of contributions from their corporate clients far greater than they alone give."

Infamous ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff ranks just 30th among the lobbyists considered in the report, having given $280,503 in contributions to lawmakers since 1998. His clients, however, have contributed a total of $2.6 million to members of Congress in the same time period.

The access these funds grants is highlighted in profiles of the top 10 money-givers. Kenneth Kies, former chief of staff of the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, has gone on to be ranked by Public Citizen as the fifth largest '98-'06 donor.

Kies is credited with playing a major role in preserving the "synfuel" tax credit, which has allowed companies to collect $2 - 4 billion per year from the government, merely for spraying coal with diesel fuel or other substances. This creation of a "synthetic fuel" is then claimed as a tax credit. Kies' top recipient, House Ways and Means Select Measures Subcommittee Chairman Jim McCrery (R-La.), has helped protect the synfuel tax credit from a crackdown by both the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

Lobbyist Denny Miller, whose $293,203 in contributions to members of Congress since 1998 rank him fourth in Public Citizen's study, was one of two lobbyists to negotiate the proposed $30 billion Boeing tanker deal in 2001. Miller is a former chief of staff to Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA), who was the senator for Boeing's hometown and corporate headquarters.

When on the verge of passage, the deal imploded amid revelations that leasing the planes would be more expensive than purchasing them outright, that the military didn't truly need the planes and that the negotiations repeatedly violated regulations. The near-miss resulted in prison sentences for a Boeing executive and a Pentagon official.

Denny and wife Sandra Miller once hosted a pair of fund-raisers for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) that netted the lawmaker $260,000 in just four hours.

"Our system of selling federal tax breaks, contracts, subsidies, loan guarantees and regulatory cutbacks to the highest bidder is not only subverting the democratic process, it's costing the country billions and driving up the national debt," said Taylor Lincoln, research director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division and the principal author of the report. "Even spending as much as $2 billion a year to publicly finance campaigns would be cheaper than the synfuel boondoggle alone – and that's just one of the tax credits that has emerged from the toxic combination of influence-peddlers and campaign contributions."

Public Citizen urges a number of reforms to end what it sees as abuse by lobbyists and lawmakers, including strict $200 campaign contribution limits, $500 PAC and national committee limits, and the prohibition of lobbyist-facilitated contributions by other parties.

None of these limitations is in the pending ethics and lobby reform bills before Congress.

Public Citizen's full report is viewable, in PDF format, here.