LegiStorm: Transparency's Sidekick

When Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) bowed out as President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Commerce Department, he cited political differences as his reasons for the move, insisting "nothing about the vetting process played any role in this decision." Two weeks later, though, the Associated Press broke a story that might have become an integral part of the vetting process: that Gregg had secured earmarks to fund the redevelopment of a defunct Air Force base in his home state even as he and his brother, Cyrus Gregg, were investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate in the area. "I am absolutely sure that in every way I've complied with the ethics rules of the Senate both literally and in their spirit relative to any investment that I've made anywhere," Gregg told the AP.

Not mentioned in that story is something that we stumbled across in reviewing the handful of Senate personal financial disclosures released so far this year: a day before the AP's story saw print, Sen. Gregg filed an amendment to his financial disclosure pertaining to 2001, revealing further unpublicized ties linking the senator and his brother in business affairs that have received indirect assistance from federal money.

The amendment corrects Sen. Gregg's earlier filing which made no mention of his ownership stake in Photran LLC, a crystal manufacturing company co-founded by his brother, Cyrus Gregg. The amendment indicated that Sen. Gregg's stake was more than $100,000. Gregg's failure to mention Photran in the filing covering 2001 appears to have been an oversight, since he did disclose the tie the following year.

Photran was a spin-off company of another crystal manufacturing company called Saphikon, which was also owned by Cyrus Gregg. As of 2008, Saphikon had received at least one grant from the New Hampshire Innovation Research Center (NHIRC). The NHIRC receives the money to fund these grants in part through National Science Foundation grants that Sen. Gregg supported bringing to New Hampshire. In 2005, the building that houses the NHIRC was renamed "Gregg Hall" to honor Sen. Gregg's work in securing over $266 million for UNH during his career in the Senate.

Photran and Saphikon parent company Saint-Gobain Corp. have been actively employing Washington lobbyists since 2005. These lobbyists have worked with senators and representatives in an effort to get federal funding for their transparent-crystal body armor added to defense appropriations bills. In 2009's Senate Defense Appopriations Bill, the Secretary of Defense is directed to "provide congressional defense committees a report assessing body armor and related research", specifically in regards to the "enhancement of protection and weight reduction." One of Saint-Gobain's claims about its crystal armor is that it weighs forty to sixty percent less than body armor currently in use.

This post is part of our occasional series "Storm Tips," in which we highlight interesting items we stumble across in our raw records.