Center for Public Integrity tracks influence peddling
SHOWCASE | September 20, 2005
‘LobbyWatch’ manager notes that twice as much is spent on lobbying as on campaign finance but it gets about one-tenth of the coverage.
By Alex Kingsbury
akingsbury@niemanwatchdog.org
Following the money trail is an inexhaustible source of stories for reporters trying to understand and show how government actually works. The Center for Public Integrity has compiled a vast (and free) database of lobbying records with that goal in mind.
CPI's LobbyWatch Project adds thousands of records to the database each week as the disclosure forms are made public. There are currently about 2.5 million searchable records. "We wanted to create a resource for journalists and the general public that is user-friendly but doesn't talk down to them," said Alex Knott, project manager for the initiative, in a telephone interview.
The most useful feature of the database is the ability to cross-reference lobbying monies spent on or by agencies, issues, industries, countries and states. In the coming months, the database will expand to include information on companies and political action committees, Knott said. "There's twice as much money spent on lobbying compared with campaign finance, for example, and about a tenth of the coverage," he said.
Reporters outside the beltway will find state-by-state reports, calculating the amounts of money spent by companies and local municipalities on lobbying efforts. The CPI also plans to integrate a bill-tracking feature into the database, which will connect lobbying with specific legislation, Knott told the Watchdog Project.
In addition to the database, CPI reporters mine the records for stories. Here's a look at some of their coverage.
Marina Walker Guevara and Bob Williams write: "An oil company controlled by the government of China bankrolled one of the most intense, multipronged lobbying blitzes in recent memory in a bid to take over U.S. petroleum giant Unocal this summer." The failed bid is only one of many lobbying efforts by the Chinese. "Since July 1997, the Chinese and Hong Kong governments and government-controlled companies and organizations have spent at least a combined $19 million lobbying the U.S. government," the story finds. And the lobbying isn't limited to politicians. "Records show that lobbyists and PR specialists gave tours to congressional staffers in Hong Kong. They wined and dined U.S. representatives to push for permanent Normal Trade Relations status for China. And they reached out to reporters from newspapers across the ideological spectrum, from ‘The Washington Times’ to ‘The New York Times’."
Tracking the influence of pharmaceutical companies in trade policy, reporter M. Asif Ismail writes that "The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents 67 parent companies and subsidiaries that develop and make prescription and over-the-counter drugs, listed contacts with the government's top officials overseeing international trade agreements on more lobbying reports than it did for contacts with the Food and Drug Administration, which directly oversees the industry's products." And the lobbying efforts are getting results. "Intellectual property protections and removing price controls on pharmaceuticals imposed by foreign governments have topped the industry's agenda. Its heavy lobbying appears to have paid off."
CPI researcher Elizabeth Brown traces the impact of lobbyists on federal regulatory agencies, finding that "many of the federal offices responsible for overseeing the integrity of American democracy are among the more than 200 agencies lobbied during the past six years—agencies such as the Federal Election Commission, the Office of Government Ethics and the GAO, which serves as the investigative arm of Congress." Lobbyists also target the government watchdogs. "The Office of Government Ethics—the body charged with preventing conflicts of interest on the part of government employees—also feels the pressure of special interests. Although the agency was lobbied considerably less than the GAO and the FEC, four groups reported contacting the agency to advance their agenda during the past six years. Most recently the Senior Executives Association, an association of current and former high-level government employees, lobbied the OGE for a change in—what else?—lobbying laws."
According to a story by Bob Williams and Stephen Henn, "at least 123 of Washington's top lobbyists occupy the same ethical gray area now threatening to bring down high-profile influence peddler Jack Abramof." These registered lobbyists who also sit on the board of 501(c)3 non-profit organizations can "help set policies for the groups and are privy to inside information about the non-profits—including their sponsorship of congressional travel."
