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| House Kills Move to Examine Earmark-Campaign Contribution Axis |
| 2009-02-26 |
| House Democrats killed a resolution Wednesday that called for an ethics committee inquiry into the relationship between campaign contributions and earmarks. The resolution, drafted by Jeff Flake , R-Ariz., cited recent reports of a federal investigation into the campaign finance activities of a lobbying firm, The PMA Group, which has been a major contributor to lawmakers’ campaigns and a successful advocate for earmarked federal dollars for its clients. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland moved to table, or kill, Flake’s resolution, and the House voted, 226-182, to do so. The move prevented a direct vote on whether to refer the matter to the ethics committee. Only two Republicans voted with the Democratic majority. Seventeen Democrats voted with Flake, and 12 lawmakers — six from each party, including nine of the 10 members of the ethics panel — voted “present.” Rep. Tim Holden , D-Pa., who presided over the House during the vote, received more than $57,000 in campaign contributions from PMA’s political action committee between 2001 and 2008. Holden secured $3.2 million in earmarks for clients represented by The PMA Group in the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations law (PL 110-116), according to a database constructed by the nonprofit watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. The PMA Group, which had its offices raided by the FBI last year, is closing its lobbying operation, and many of its employees have left to join or form other companies. More than 100 members of the House sought and obtained earmarks for clients of The PMA Group, the leading defense-centered lobbying firm in Washington, in that fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations law, according to a CQ study of the TCS database. Those same members received more than $1.8 in campaign contributions to their political committees from PMA sources between 2001 and 2008, CQ found. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 whores the lot of them. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2009-02-26 20:14 |