Scott Pruitt’s confirmation hearing last week involved some pointed visual props. Making the case that Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general who is President Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is cozy with the energy sector, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) held up a chart full of boxes and arrows. All the organizations listed on… Continue Reading
Inauguration Day means that it’s political party time in its most festive sense. While the soon-to-be President Donald Trump is only expected to appear at three official inaugural balls, some two dozen others are also planned for the weekend he takes the oath of office. You may get a chance to drink bourbon, “Tip our hats…
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Among the inaugural festivities and protests this weekend, spare a thought Saturday for the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee ruling — a decision that has left a deeper footprint with every election cycle. After the 5-4 decision, which freed corporations and unions to make unlimited independent political expenditures,…
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Last week, the Senate voted down an amendment to allow importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Most Republicans voted no; most Democrats voted yes. One who bucked his party, though, was New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D), the on-the-rise progressive who’s been mentioned as a possible contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. As a result, multiple…
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Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s Treasury nominee, became a far wealthier man in 2015 when CIT Group spent $3.4 billion to buy up OneWest, a bank Mnuchin chaired. The deal was helped along by supportive letters written by 14 nonprofits that had received a combined $5.95 million from OneWest’s charitable arm in the years before and after the sale, as POLITICO has reported.…
The Hollywood liberal has been a stock figure in American politics for decades. Conservative politicians have long denounced or mocked the alleged political influence of musicians, TV stars, and Golden Globe recipients. While the entertainment industry does indeed lean well to the left, though, most of that money comes from producers and media magnates, not…
The Federal Election Commission on Tuesday sent its harshest letter yet to Donald Trump’s campaign committee, outlining violations that include accepting large donations from anonymous sources, taking contributions above the legal limits, failing to file reports of last-minute contributions and more. It wasn’t the first such admonishment of the Trump campaign by the agency; he…
Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has come under fire for buying and selling shares companies in the health care industry whose fortunes he could affect through his perch in Congress, and for intervening with regulators on behalf of some of his donors in the…
Chinese e-commerce megalith Ali Baba Group set a record for the world’s largest initial public offering in late 2014, raising a mind-blowing $25 billion. Since then, the company has stepped up its Washington presence. In 2015, for instance, it spent $410,000 on federal lobbying — but that increased to $640,000 in just the first three-quarters…
The Office of Congressional Ethics was saved from the landfill — where House Republicans had tried to bury it — by public outcry and a couple of tweets from President-elect Donald Trump. But few noticed a sentence that did make it into the package of House rules changes passed Tuesday, making it more difficult to access…
We will be closed until January 3rd. If you are a reporter with an urgent press question, please email [email protected] Happy Holidays from OpenSecrets.org
Boy, has 2016 been a whirlwind adventure. If you’re like us, you have tabs and tabs of unread stories that caught your eye during the workday, but haven’t had time to dive into yet. Now that the holiday break is upon us, we’ll finally have the time to sink into that comfy chair by the…
For some 2016 candidates, there was a lot of sharing during the campaign season — more than ever before. It wasn’t due to an epidemic of altruism, though; in fact, it might have been quite the reverse. The sharing was between candidates and the super PACs devoted to promoting them. An OpenSecrets Blog analysis found…
With control of the Senate and possibly the House at stake — or so it seemed until close to Election Day — the word went out from the Democratic and Republican parties to lawmakers: If you’re not running this time, or if you’re sitting on a pile of cash, share the love. Priority races were…
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