• The Heritage Network
    • Resize:
    • A
    • A
    • A
  • Donate
  • lobbyists

    Medicaid Expansion May Be Forced into Law in Montana

    The states play an important role in protecting citizens against this flawed federal health care law–from challenging the health care law before the Supreme Court, to resisting efforts to establish Obamacare exchanges or expand a failing Medicaid program, to offering alternative proposals that will ensure citizens are not left abandoned … More

    Lobbyists Continue to Enjoy White House Access

    President Obama’s has repeatedly promised to rein in the influence industry’s role in federal policymaking and access to top federal officials. But the president’s actions consistently belie his rhetoric, as a recent review of White House visitor logs demonstrates. “[T]he lobbying industry Obama has vowed to constrain is a regular … More

    Education Union Lobbyists Game the System in Illinois

    No such thing as a free lunch? Not if you’re a union lobbyist in Illinois. As the Chicago Tribune reported: Two lobbyists with no prior teaching experience were allowed to count their years as union employees toward a state teacher pension once they served a single day of subbing in … More

    5 Transparency Ideas for the New Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction

    Upon taking control of the U.S. House in January, Republicans implemented sweeping reforms to make the People’s House more transparent and accessible. Now they’ll have a chance to bolster their good-government credentials with the newly created Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Twelve lawmakers from the House and Senate will … More

    Congressional Staffers to Hold Pay-for-Access Fundraiser on Tuesday

    From a March 16, 2006, DCCC press release: Today, it became clear that Republicans will never support meaningful lobbying reform because playing by the rules simply does not compute. Jessica Simpson’s rejection of an invitation to an NRCC fundraiser because she thought it was wrong to lobby for her Operation … More

    Headlines from the Obama Dependency Economy

    Politico, April 22nd 2010: New energy powers up lobbying – “Alternative energy used to be just a speed bump on K Street. In 1998, the entire sector spent only $2.4 million lobbying the federal government … In 2009, alternative energy spent $30 million on lobbying, 12 times its 1998 amount.” … More

    Climate and Rent-Seeking

    Data show 2009 was a record year for lobbying on energy issues.  1747 clients (firms and groups) hired lobbyists to work in the area of energy and nuclear power. This is a stunning 93 percent increase from 2006. This increase may be stunning, but it isn’t surprising.  With literally trillions … More

    Not Everyone Won the Cap and Trade Lobbying Battle

    The cap and trade bill introduced by Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Edward Markey (D-MA) and passed in the is 1,427 pages and includes much more than a cap and trade system to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. We’ve been detailing these economically harmful provisions in our cap … More

    Today’s Calamity: Cap and Trade is a Lobbyist’s Dream Come True

    Under the Waxman-Markey cap and trade program, businesses that emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases must obtain allowance permits from the federal government for every ton of carbon emissions they produce. The government issues fewer allowance permits in each subsequent year to decrease overall emissions, so the permit price … More

    Why are Businesses Helping to Shape a Cap and Trade Bill That will Inevitably Hurt Them?

    Someone please answer that question. Let’s start with this: a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds that food and energy demand will outpace production to meet those needs over the next several years. The need for greater energy and food production and the jobs that could be created from … More