Lobbying

A new business coalition on climate change was formed last week by Nike, Starbucks, Levi Strauss, and Sun Microsystems. The companies say they are prepared to lobby on climate and environmental legislation.

The coalition, dubbed Read more...

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said that the healthcare reform plan put out by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) this week represents "a giant step" toward getting all Americans insured.

Baucus's plan, released Tuesday, seeks to increase coverage for Americans by expanding Medicare and Medicaid and require companies to provide healthcare benefits to employees.

See Sweeney's full statement below:

Today

A local grassroots group Wednesday heralded Barack Obama's presidential election as an event that could lead to Washington D.C. gaining a vote in Congress.

"DC Vote is greatly encouraged by the results of the presidential election and the election of new senators in several states," said Ilir Zherka, DC Vote's executive director. "We have gained two crucial allies in the White House: President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden are on the record as strong supporters of D.C. voting rights."

For the past 10 years, DC Vote has been at the forefront of the movement pushing for legislation that would allow the vote of the district

Labor representatives watching the returns from AFL-CIO headquarters put down their beer and wine to let out a cheer at news that North Carolina state senator Kay Hagan, the Democratic challenger, would unseat Sen. Elizabeth Dole, the Republican incumbent. If the projection proves correct, it moves the unions a vote closer to a key priority next session: the Employee Free Choice Act.

That measure is intended to make it easier for unions to organize workers, and the labor movement looks to it as a way to reverse the trend of declining union membership. It would allow workers to join a union by signing a petition, ending the current requirement that secret ballots be cast. Union officials say companies make it difficult to hold votes for union membership. Read more...

Even before Barack Obama was projected to win Ohio, union leaders were feeling pretty good at an election party at AFL-CIO headquarters on 16th Street.

Karen Ackerman, the union

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and other Democrats on the committee today called on President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to use some of the $700 billion to help prevent foreclosures, pressing the president for swift action.

"The fact remains that the Administration has not dedicated the time, attention or resources needed to address the cause of the crisis -- the historic levels of foreclosure," the senators wrote in a letter to Bush and Paulson.

The group of senators--comprised of Dodd, Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Tom Carper (Del.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), Daniel Akaka (Hawaii), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Robert Casey (Pa.)--proposed the administration modify existing mortgages to help keep homeowners in their homes. Read more...

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) says it's been the target of partisan attacks over the past few days, and that recent allegations of voter fraud are scare tactics aimed at promoting an agenda that would suppress voter turnout among low- and middle-income Americans.

The group has come under accusations of voter fraud from election officials and conservative activists recently for reported irregular voter registration cards submitted to election boards in at least seven states. Today, the group became the latest political football in the presidential race, as John McCain's campaign released a web ad implying that Barack Obama had shady connections with the group in his early days of community organizing in Chicago.

ACORN pushed back today in a conference call with reporters. Read more...

Richard Viguerie, a Virginia-based conservative activist, says opposing the Wall Street financial package can put conservatives in control of Congress in 2010.

Opposing the bill being considered today by the House, Viguerie says, will help conservative candidates overtake both Republicans and Democrats who vote fin favor of it.

Dozens of powerful trade associations and lobbying groups again urged lawmakers to approve the financial bailout package in a letter sent Tuesday evening.

They ranged from groups with an obvious interest in the package, such as the American Bankers Association, to groups that would seem more Main Street than Wall Street, such as the Air Conditioning Contractors of America.

Read the letter below.

-Ian Swanson

JOINT ASSOCIATION LETTER TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE U.S. CONGRESS

September 30, 2008

We are writing to express our profound disappointment in the House vote yesterday rejecting the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, and to urge both the House and Senate to act as soon as possible this week to enact legislation to bring stability to credit markets.

Read the rest after the jump. Read more...

A coalition of financial lobbyists on Tuesday sent a terse letter to Congress, urging House and Senate members against including bankruptcy provisions in the pending $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill.

The letter by 12 organizations including the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the National Home Builders Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce objects to provisions known as Read more...