LegiStorm: Transparency's Sidekick

The wife of Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) received some unwanted attention yesterday from The Hill newspaper, which pointed out that he has gone to bat for a bank outside his district that his wife previously worked for.

Luckily, spousal employment is a matter of public record, and LegiStorm maintains the financial disclosures of all members of Congress and their staff. In our own review of Rep. Gutierrez's disclosures, we were interested to see that his wife Soraida has since switched jobs and now works for another financial house, Ramirez and Co. Indeed, she's a registered lobbyist for them with the State of Illinois.

Potentially even more interesting is how Ramirez describes the access they are afforded by having Soraida on their payroll. In Soraida's bio, the company describes her as an "active participant in her husband's career in public service."

Former congressional aide Kevin Ring secured a hung jury in a corruption trial yesterday by claiming that showering gifts on members of Congress and their staff is the normal way of doing business in Washington. So how many precious gifts have been disclosed by congressional aides? Precious few, it turns out.

Our review of thousands of disclosures of congressional staff reveals only a handful of gifts that have been disclosed in recent years. Congressional rules require disclosure of all gifts greater than $50 and bans many kinds of gifts.

A common reason stated for receiving gifts has been for a wedding. When Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) staffer Richard Boykin got married in 2006, he received several gifts, including $500 from one of his boss's campaign contributors and $500 in china from long-time and well-known lobbyist Bernie Robinson (although Boykin did not disclose him as such). Gifts from lobbyists are banned by House rules.

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.

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.

Spring is in the air and earmarks are flowing to the well-connected. The Hill newspaper illustrates that point this morning with a tale of how a New Jersey congressman has requested approximately $40 million in earmarks for clients of a lobbying firm managed by his former chief of staff.

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development subcommittee, has made 12 earmark requests for entities represented by Winning Strategies, the firm managed by his former chief of staff, Donna Mullins.

Three of the earmark requests, totaling $9 million, went to generous campaign donors. Winning Strategies was one of Frelinghuysen's top five campaign donors in the last election, with Mullins donating $13,600 since 2003. The Hill finds that neither Frelinghuysen nor Winning Strategies appear to be breaking any rules in their actions, but notes that the requests demonstrate the importance of the revolving door in the lobbying process. As Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense told The Hill, "People with very tight connections are able to deliver for their clients." Frelinghuysen says that his earmark requests serve the interests of his constituents. His office would not comment on the relationship between the congressman and Winning Strategies.

In what has lately seemed like a near-weekly occurence, another guilty plea has been entered with the Jack Abramoff scandal.

Today it was Ann Copland, a former aide to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who pleaded guilty to accepting gifts from lobbyists in return for legislative favors. Court documents in the case revealed Copland asked for tickets to several events from lobbyists linked to Abramoff, even complaining that there were no hot dogs in the suite provided for a Baltimore Orioles game.

You can see Copland's salary history, the privately-funded trips she disclosed and her personal financial disclosures on LegiStorm.

About a month after his name was linked to the Jack Abramoff scandal, former staffer Fraser Verrusio was charged today for accepting a free trip from lobbyists in 2003.

Verrusio and fellow former staffer Trevor Blackann accepted a free trip to New York to attend the 2003 World Series. Blackann and two lobbyists who worked for Abramoff at the time - James Hirni and Todd Boulanger - have already pled guilty to charges of corruption related to the trip.

Verrusio, a former staffer to Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), had been linked to the scandal last months when reports surfaced that he was the staffer referred to in court papers as "Staffer D" but no charges were filed until today.

The Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal won't die.

Yesterday, it was reported Kevin Koonce, a former staffer to Commerce Secretary nominee Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), is the person referred to in court documents as "Staffer F." The documents detail charges relating to a lobbyist providing Staffer F gifts in exchange for preferable legislative treatment. Koonce has not been formally charged with any wrongdoing.

The report follows two other news items relating to Abramoff in recent days. Last week, lobbyist Todd Boulanger, a former congressional aide and Abramoff associate, pled guilty to illegally providing congressional staffers gifts in return for favorable treatment for his clients.

Nearly three years after lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and fraud, the scandal is still playing out.

Thursday, former congressional staffer Trevor L. Blackann pleaded guilty to charges he failed to report gifts he received from lobbyists on this tax returns.

Among the more than $4,000 in gifts received was a trip to New York City for the opening game of the 2003 World Series. Blackann admitted to knowing the trip was paid for by lobbyists. The court documents do not identify the lobbyists in question, but the Department of Justice issued a release calling the case part of the investigation into the lobbying activities of Abramoff. Blackann also did not report the trip to Congress.