Labor groups descend on K Street to protest Wall Street lobby

A chief aim of the group was to highlight the fact that Wall Street firms have spent more than $1.3 million a day to fight the legislation headed for a vote in the Senate this week. More than 1,500 lobbyists have been hired to weaken the bill’s provisions, according to labor groups.

Monday’s protest centered on K Street, where several of the lobbying shops hired by the Wall Street firms are located.

Lobbyists working for Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo/Wachovia were the primary targets of the march led by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler.

Similar demonstrations took place during the weekend as members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the National People’s Action (NPA), which works with labor groups, descended upon the homes of two bank lobbyists in Chevy Chase, Md.

The targets over the weekend were Peter Scher, a lobbyist for JP Morgan Chase, and Gregory Baer, deputy counsel for Bank of America.

On Baer’s doorstep, protesters armed with megaphones yelled, “Bank of America, bad for America,” as one unnamed demonstrator recounted the effort she endured to save her home from being foreclosed on by the bank.

“Let the big banks know that it is not OK to spend millions of dollars for legislation that protects the banks and forgets the people,” the demonstrator said in a video of the event taped by SEIU and NPA.

Banks have lobbied heavily on the legislation, a version of which was already approved in the House. The emerging bill in the Senate, however, is even tougher on Wall Street than the House-approved bill. 

It includes a new consumer protection body to be housed in the Federal Reserve and might force derivatives to be traded on electronic exchanges, something the industry is still fighting fiercely. 

The demonstrations come on the heels of a report by the Institute for America’s Future that found that since the first major federal bailout of Bear Stearns in March 2008, the aforementioned banks and their trade associations have spent nearly  $600 million  on lobbying, trade association activity and political contributions.

The report states 243 lobbyists for the six big banks and their trade associations used to work in the federal government, including 202 who worked for members of Congress.

“That’s equivalent to 40 revolving-door lobbyists per bank,” the report states.

Of the 243 staffers-turned-lobbyists, five worked with Senate Banking Committee Chairman  Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), according to the report. That panel’s ranking member, Sen.  Richard Shelby  (R-Ala.),  as well as Sens.  Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Tim Johnson  (D-S.D.), each have four former staffers who now work as lobbyists for the banking industry.

Dodd is the chief architect of the Wall Street reform bill. The others are senior members on the committee and enjoy having great influence on fellow members in the upper chamber.

The Senate will continue to vote on amendments to the reform bill this week, with a final vote expected before Friday.