A leading credit union trade association came out against a compromise draft proposal on a controversial measure that would allow judges to rewrite the terms of home mortgages. Senate Democrats, led by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), have been trying to strike a deal with a handful of financial industry players, but the issue has been stalled in the upper chamber for more than a month. The policy, known as "cramdown" in the industry, is strongly opposed by major parts of the industry. The board of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions on Wednesday unanimously opposed the cramdown policy.
After the jump, read the letter that the association's president, Fred Becker, wrote to Durbin.
No, this is not a re-post from earlier. For the seventh time, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has introduced a "privileged resolution" asking for an ethics investigation into the relationship between earmarks and campaign contributions.
The resolution makes specific reference to a "raided firm," leaving little doubt that Flake's target is the now-defunct PMA Group, an appropriations lobbying group with close ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) that was raided by the FBI in February.
No sooner did the House vote to table the motion last night than Flake re-introduced the same resolution.
A lobbying group under investigation for it's work securing earmarks for its clients will close shop next week, the New York Times reports.
Paul Magliocchetti, a one-time aide to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the head of PMA Group, was a powerful player in the capital, schmoozing with lawmakers and using loopholes in the ethics code to provide staffers with meals:
And many on Capitol Hill, recalling the scandal that mushroomed around the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, are wondering who else will be ensnared in the investigation as prosecutors pore over the financial records and computer files of one of K Street
The Government Accountability Office Wednesday released the full report of its decision to sustain Boeing's protest over the Air Force's refueling award to Northrop Grumman
Chuck Norris got a taste for politics on former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's (R) campaign, and he liked it.
Norris is now working for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga.) group "American Solutions for Winning the Future."
In a web ad cut for group, Norris complains about the cost of filling his truck with gas and directs viewers to sign a petition being circulated by American Solutions urging Congress to "act immediately to lower gasoline prices...by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves."
Standing at the gas pump, Norris says, "I'd like to roundhouse kick this pump all the way into the next county."
Records from the former firms of jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff show that his colleagues had more than 120 contacts with aides to Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and at least 10 with Young himself, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
The billing records covered dealings between Abramoff firms and one of his clients, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Young oversaw the U.S. territory as chairman of the House Resources Committee from 1995 to 2001.
In 2000, Young had blocked a bill regulating Chinese-owned factories on the island, something that had concerned Abramoff and his firm, the records show. The newspaper also highlights one letter from Abramoff to the territory's governor in which the lobbyist voiced concern over Young's departure from the chairman's seat due to term limits.
"The loss of Chairman Young's authority cannot easily be measured -- or replaced," Abramoff wrote. "We have lost major institutional memory and friendship."
Young told the newspaper in 2006, when it wrote about ties between Abramoff and Young, that Abarmoff was "inconsequential" to his work in Congress.
"I have never had any personal or professional relationship with Abramoff," Young wrote in a letter to the newspaper.
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