|
Baucus cancels fundraiser, but declines to say why |
|
By Ian Swanson
|
|
Posted: 06/20/07 07:21 PM [ET] |
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) canceled a fundraiser scheduled to be hosted today by the trade group representing commercial airlines, which has been lobbying Baucus on tax issues surrounding renewal of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) authorization.
Baucus Chief of Staff Jim Messina said the senator personally made the decision last week to cancel the event.
“We look at these things on a case-by-case basis,” Messina said. “And in this case, we decided to cancel the event.” He also said the event had been scheduled a long time ago.
However, some observers to the debate over the Air Transport Association’s (ATA) proposals for FAA funding insisted invitations were still being sent to the event early this week, when The Hill began to inquire about it.
ATA is a trade group representing commercial airlines, and one of its outside lobbyists, David Castagnetti, is listed on a flyer announcing the Baucus event as a co-host with “AirPAC.”
For example, one e-mail inviting recipients to attend the June 20 event at the Mott House near the U.S. Capitol was sent on June 18 by Dawn Levy, a former staffer of Baucus’s who now works at Cassidy and Associates. Levy said she was not aware the event had been cancelled when the e-mail was sent.
The e-mail stated that “ATA is hosting a lunch event this Wednesday at the Mott House for Max. Please let me know if you are interested.”
Invitations to the event asked attendees to come to a lunch honoring Baucus and suggested contributions of $2,000 to the senator, who is up for reelection in 2008.
Ethics played a major role in the defeat of Montana Sen. Conrad Burns (R) last year as Democrats repeatedly noted his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
However, Messina did not indicate that the decision to cancel the fundraiser had anything to do with negative perceptions outsiders might have of the AirPAC event, but did not elaborate.
Messina noted that Baucus, who is serving his fifth term in the Senate, is a member of the “Watergate class” elected to the House in 1974 after President Nixon’s resignation.
ATA and its commercial airline members are engaged in a heavy lobbying fight with groups representing general aviation and corporate jet users. ATA argues that business jets in particular do not pay their fair share for the funding of the FAA system.
The Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation imposing a $25 fee on turbine planes that also recommends phasing out the fuel tax now imposed on commercial airlines as a way of balancing the funding burden. Eliminating the fuel tax falls under Finance’s jurisdiction, and Commerce has asked Finance to phase out the tax.
Industry sources said ATA has also been meeting with members about a possible alternative to the Commerce funding proposal, which some observers believe could be killed on the floor.
Messina said Baucus’s staff is meeting with “everybody” on the issue. No formal time has been scheduled for an FAA hearing or legislative markup, but several lobbyists following the matter said they expected the committee to take it up within the next month.
Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen who has pressed Congress to pass significant meaningful lobbying reforms, said the situation faced by Baucus is not unusual. “It happens all the time,” he said.
At the same time, before learning that Baucus had decided to cancel the event, Holman said, “If I were a campaign consultant, I’d advise Baucus not to do this.”
He also said it is probably particularly difficult for a member like Baucus, whose committee oversees all tax policy, to avoid scenarios where political fundraisers hosted by powerful trade associations are scheduled at times when those groups are also lobbying on legislation.
“The fact that [the] optics of this are less than desired, it’s really something that is unavoidable because of the lead time necessary to plan a fundraiser and the fluidity of legislation,” said Kenneth Gross of Skadden Arps, who advises clients on rules regarding lobbying. |
