In Congress, relatives lobby on bills before family members
Source: washington post
In 2007, in the wake of the biggest lobbying scandal in decades, Congress limited the ability of family members to lobby their relatives in the House or Senate. But it declined to ban the practice entirely.
Since then, 56 relatives of lawmakers have been paid to influence Congress. More than 500 firms have spent more than $400 million on lobbying teams that include the relatives of members, according to a Washington Post analysis of disclosure forms.
The Post analysis shows that the interests of lawmakers and their relatives have overlapped to varying degrees on bills before Congress. In the past six years, for example, 36 congressional relatives including spouses, children, siblings, parents and in-laws have been paid to influence 250 bills passing through their family members congressional committees or sponsored by the members.
All of this is legal under the rules Congress has written for itself.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/in-congress-relatives-lobby-for-bills-before-family-members/2012/12/29/a54adce2-4301-11e2-9648-a2c323a991d6_singlePage.html
DCKit
(18,541 posts)They're just trying to keep an eye on them and prevent them from screwing the pages.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)A company hires a "lobbyist" or appoints to its board a person who just coincidentally happens to be the wife or husband of a member of Congress. And lo and behold, the company's fortunes improve as laws are passed that favor it.
PSPS
(13,599 posts)Influence peddling used to be a crime back when our government wasn't the corrupt illegitimate thing it is now.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)When will the People get a lobbyist of our own?
Tempest
(14,591 posts)And he didn't see any conflicts of interest.
We are slowly but surely getting to the same point in our history as the French experienced from 1787 to 1799.