LegiStorm: Transparency's Sidekick

A pro-Israel lobbying group has found a loophole in the rules limiting the ability of lobbying groups to pay for congressional travel - a loophole large enough that they are one of the leading sponsors of such travel.

The American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF) paid for more than 50 lawmakers and staff of both parties to travel to Israel in August, according to the trip disclosures in LegiStorm's database. Travelers included House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

AIEF is the fundraising arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, an influential lobbying group. Despite tough rules forbidding congressional travel paid for by lobbyists, AIPAC gets around the ban by having its nonprofit arm pay for the trips.

A staffer to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) was sentenced to three years of probation for stealing nearly $7,000 from the office account, according to the Associated Press.

The executive assistant, Caroline Valdez, forged her boss's name on a $6,000 bonus check. She also used the office credit card for pizza, groceries and airline tickets.

The judge ordered her to get counseling, saying she seemed to have a problem telling the truth.

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) has been under fire recently amid allegations that real estate assets listed on his 2008 personal financial disclosure were omitted from his 2009 disclosure.

The assets are also at the center of another controversy for the former NFL quarterback regarding a potential conflict of interest.

Several real estate development companies are listed as having $0 in value. A note says the companies no longer have any assets; "however, no money was paid or rec'd by Shuler." Shuler did list partnership stakes in The Highlands Property Group LLC and Shuler Properties LLC worth between $1 million and $5 million each. According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, the development companies were folded into the Highlands Property Group LLC.

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) has found himself in the role of a de facto spokesman for the crucial Blue Dog coalition in the House during this summer's health care debate. With increased attention, however, comes increased scrutiny.

Ross sold his business at an inflated price to a pharmacy chain whose owner is a campaign contributor and has strong views on the health care debate in Washington, according to an investigation of his personal financial disclosures by ProPublica appearing in this morning's Politico. 

The Arkansas-based pharmacy chain USA Drug, with more than 170 stores in five states, bought Holly's Health Mart in 2007 for between $1 million and $1.67 million, according to Ross' financial disclosure reports for that year. The total includes $420,000 for the property itself. But local officials assessed the property at only $263,000, and an appraisal by ProPublica in August valued the property even lower.

A handful of GOP congressional staffers attended a conference earlier this month organized in part by an evangelical leader who has faced controversy based on statements that he doesn't believe it is wrong to stone gay people to death.

The conference was sponsored by Faith and Law, a congressional staffer organization, as well as a group called Fieldstead and Co. - also known as the Fieldstead Institute. On its web site, Fieldstead and Co. describes its mission as managing  "various philanthropic programs as part of a Christian worldview."

The company's reclusive founder is Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson Jr., a multimillionaire philanthropist, mass transit enthusiast and hybrid car owner. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America. He has donated millions of dollars to organizations that promote his causes, such as seeking to disprove the theory of evolution and maintaining that climate change is not caused by humans.

Do lawmakers fare better in the stock market than average citizens? The answer is yes, according to a story that aired yesterday on American Public Media's "Marketplace."

Using the personal financial disclosures of some top lawmakers, reporter Stephen Henn illustrated how those on Capitol Hill can use general information about the condition of the economy to their advantage when it comes to investing - even when they may be the only ones privy to that information. 

Georgia State University business professor Alan Ziobrowski told Henn, "Senators make significant abnormal returns." Ziobrowski arrived at this conclusion after examining the personal financial disclosures of hundreds of lawmakers, using them to analyze thousands of stock transactions going back 15 years. His conclusion? "They just outperform the average." He told Henn in the same interview that the portfolios of members of Congress perform even better than those of corporate insiders. "We have every reason to believe they are trading on information the rest of us don't have," he said.

We've added a small feature that should make it easier for our users to stay on top of members' financial disclosures.

You can now see the member disclosures we've most recently added to our database. Even though most lawmakers file their financial disclosures each year on the May 15 deadline, to be released publicly the following month, dozens receive extensions and file later in the year. Members also file amendments to their disclosures throughout the year. Usually these amendments make very minor corrections to the disclosures, but occasionally they can be wholesale changes, such as one Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) filed recently.

We've added a link to the most recent member disclosure on our financial disclosures home page, or you can follow the link above. The recently added disclosures include late-filing senators and some recent amendments. We've also expanded our disclosures by adding past reports that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) filed when he was a candidate.

Before he became a politician, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) made at least $1 million a year salary as a comedian and author, according to his financial disclosure he filed when he first ran for the U.S. Senate. But Franken's first full financial disclosure as a sitting senator doesn't provide any insight into how much money he continues to take in royalties from television, film and book products.

The personal financial disclosure forms require all members of Congress to disclose any outside income. Franken appears to have gotten around that requirement because his income comes to a corporation, Alan Franken Inc., of which he is listed as president and joint owner.

The disclosure lists Alan Franken Inc. as "a multi media Professional Services Corporation including but not limited to writing, acting, producing and personal appearances in all film/video/digital/TV formats and all print media." Franken's stake in this corporation is listed between $500,000 and $1 million, and he does not report receiving any income from it in 2008.

The chief of staff to Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), whose outburst during President Obama's health care address to the nation earlier this week surprised many, took a pause in his government duties over the past two years and worked as a health care lobbyist.

W. Eric Dell served as Wilson's chief of staff from 2001 until the end of 2006. In 2007 and most of 2008, he represented clients including Cedaron Medical Inc, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and the Doctors Company while working for the Keelen Group. In 2008, he came back to work for Congress, once again as Wilson's chief of staff.  

According to his financial disclosures, Dell made over $300,000 in 2007 and 2008 as a lobbyist. In lobbying disclosures bearing his name, he is reported to have worked on issues "related to medical malpractice reform," and "issues pertaining to reducing the costs of quality healthcare." One of the first bills Dell lobbied on after leaving Rep. Wilson's office was Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-Okla.) 2007 Universal Health Care Choice and Access Act.

LegiStorm has now doubled its availability of legislative earmarks, adding $19.9 billion worth of so-called "pork barrel" projects from the 2009 fiscal year to its searchable database.

The earmark data is courtesy of the Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), a non-partisan group which scoured bills in Congress looking for the spending provisions, finding 11,286 in all. Earmarks are controversial because they are spending directed at a specific organization or purpose but do not undergo the usual competitive process.

Proponents say only elected representatives know best what their constituents need. Critics call them wasteful and corrupting, pointing to burgeoning scandals and even criminal charges aimed at some of the more seedy practices in this growth industry.