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Bank of America, Bailout in Hand, Continues Lobbying Efforts
WASHINGTON - As Bank of America faces intensifying congressional oversight during the nation's worst economy since the Great Depression, the company has spent more than $1.5 million lobbying on Capitol Hill.
Bank of America. the recipient of $45 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, has worked to sway lawmakers on more than two dozen pieces of legislation in both the House and Senate. Bank of America. the recipient of $45 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, has worked to sway lawmakers on more than two dozen pieces of legislation in both the House and Senate.
The Charlotte, N.C., company wants flexibility on spending the bailout funds and also wants to fend off restrictions on executive compensation, home mortgage lending and credit card fees.
The bank also is lobbying on a consumer rights bill, on student lending issues, on a bill that would've allowed bankruptcy judges to alter mortgages and on a proposed federal regulatory oversight agency.
Bank of America's lobbying spending since January pales next to the $2.3 million it spent in the first half of 2008.
"We're cutting expenses across the company, including lobbying expenses," said Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton.
It hasn't said when it plans to pay the TARP money back, though Chief Executive Ken Lewis told analysts last week that he hopes it would be "sooner rather than later."
The company spent $800,000 on lobbying from April to June, according to its own records filed with the U.S. Senate. That's up from $660,000 in the first three months of the year.
Norton said that number increased because the company did more internal analysis of the various issues in Washington.
According to Senate records, outside lobbying firms hired by Bank of America spent $60,000 in the second quarter, down from $90,000 in the first three months.
Critics say that until the bank and other financial institutions repay taxpayers' money from TARP funds, they should steer clear of spending money to spread influence.
"They should not be allowed to lobby," said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonprofit advocacy group that accepts neither public nor corporate dollars.
"As long as they hold on to a very substantial portion of public funds, and are publicly owned essentially, they should not be using any of their funds for lobbying purposes or campaign contributions," Holman said. "And you'll find Bank of America is doing both."
The bank and its employees have given $127,000 in campaign contributions in the first half of this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan Washington group that tracks political spending.
Other financial institutions receiving TARP funds also are lobbying federal lawmakers. Among them, Citigroup spent $3 million so far this year, and Goldman Sachs spent $1.3 million.
Norton, the spokeswoman, said the bank's accountants keep taxpayer funding separate from the private dollars it uses on lobbying expenses.
"We don't use TARP funds," Norton said. "We're very sensitive to the issue of using government funds."
Bank of America and Lewis have come under repeated fire from Washington recently.
Senators questioned Lewis about executive compensation and whether he is doing enough to get loans out the door at Bank of America.
This spring, a House oversight panel began investigating the bank's $50 billion purchase of Merrill Lynch, which closed last winter, probing whether Lewis was wrongly threatened over the pending deal or whether he improperly withheld information from shareholders.
Last week, Bank of America reported second-quarter profits of $2.4 billion - its second straight profitable quarter - despite ongoing losses from failed loans.
9 Comments so far
Show AllIf BofA has the funds to lobby congress, they should be ineligable to recieve TARP funds. There are those of us out there loosing our cars and homes with no jobs or health insurance and we don't have the luxury of a federal bailout. When us regular people say we are broke we mean we have NO money, not no money in our checking acct. and we don't want to use our savings!
Is lobbying a business expense that can be written off like traveling and entertaining? Could a large entity such as Bank of America continue to function and make profits without lobbying?
The genius of the wizards who gave us TARP never ceases to amaze me! So glad they are here to save us!
"The Charlotte, N.C., company wants flexibility on spending the bailout funds and also wants to fend off restrictions on executive compensation, home mortgage lending and credit card fees."
This is nothing but economic warfare against the citizens of this country. To this date, we still don't know how these TARP funds are being used. What we do know is that the banksters are spending millions on Capitol Hill to make sure that the public is kept in the dark.
And to make matters worse, according to Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), "U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 TRILLION to bail out financial companies and bolster the economy."
Geightner, Summers and Bernanke need to be replaced with people who understand the concept of "accountibility"!
No fair!
Lobbying/bribing congress is only alowed if your predatory corporation is successfully ripping people off by making a profit. If you're on the government dime, you're cutting into the congressional take. Tut-Tut. Don't do that or the government whore house will throw a hissy fit.
Did you know that $45,000,000,000 could provide $50,000 of mortgage relief for nine hundred thousand people?
I wonder what made our government think that BOA is a better risk than 900,000 Americans.
"We don't use TARP funds," Norton said. "We're very sensitive to the issue of using government funds."
-- Sure, and I don't breathe the air over here, but the air over this way.
AGG wrote of 900,000 Americans could be helped out for around $50,000, and I don't know what the $45bn that he or she refered is about yet, but I suppose it's mentioned in the article, which I haven't yet read.
Anyway, however, if what the following article says is true, then $50,000 for 900,000 mortgage owners or mortgagees is not quite enough; "$80,000 for every American citizen" is needed, instead. Imo, "every American" includes children. In total, then, over 300 million persons. Not 900,000.
"Cost Of Bailout Hits A Whopping $24 Trillion Dollars",
by Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com, July 21, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14466
QUOTE:
According to the watchdog overseeing the federal government’s financial bailout program, the full exposure since 2007 amounts to a whopping $23.7 trillion dollars, or $80,000 for every American citizen.
The last time we were able to get a measure of the total cost of the bailout, it stood at around $8.5 trillion dollars. Eight months down the line and that figure has almost tripled.
The $23.7 trillion figure comprises “about 50 initiatives and programs set up by the Bush and Obama administrations as well as by the Federal Reserve,” according to the Associated Press.
In testimony which will be delivered to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee tomorrow, Neil Barofsky, the inspector general for the TARP, will tell Congress that “the Treasury Department has repeatedly failed to adopt recommendations aimed at making the TARP program more accountable and transparent.”
According to Barofsky, taxpayers are in the dark as to who has received the money and what they are doing with it.
As we have repeatedly highlighted, the destination of some $2 trillion in TARP funds was the subject of a lawsuit filed by Bloomberg late last year after the Fed refused to disclose the recipients. The suit is still ongoing as Bloomberg attempts to discover names of private financial institutions that received the money.
The American people will ultimately pick up the tab as their dollar is devalued because the Fed lends the money from its own balance sheet or essentially just prints more money, as a San Francisco Chronicle article explained last year.
END QUOTE
See the documentary film, "The Money Masters", www.themoneymasters.com or view at Google.
QUOTE, CONTINUED:
Wages will not keep pace with inflation and if we add to the equation the raft of new taxes being introduced by the Obama administration, the consequences are clear – another lowering of the living standard for millions of middle class Americans.
END QUOTE
Note that 900,000 isn't a million, yet, and this article is talkng about million[s].
QUOTE:
Meanwhile, Henry Paulson, one of the chief architects of the bailout and the man who committed financial terrorism by threatening the Congress with martial law and food riots if they didn’t pass the initial TARP package, brazenly pockets $200,000 in Goldman Sachs profits tax free while handing out billions in ill-gotten gains to his bankster buddies, all this after he pulled a bait and switch by changing the entire focus of the bailout from buying up toxic debt to giving money directly to financial institutions.
We dread to think what the bailout figure will be in another eight months. Will it triple again to $70 trillion dollars? How about $100 trillion dollars?
END QUOTE
Ouch!
QUOTE, CONTINUED:
The only thing that can bring an end to the wanton looting is Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Fed, which has received overwhelming support in the House but is being blocked by the bought and paid for traitors in the Senate who would rather see a continuation of the grand larceny rather than real accountability and transparency.
Watch a CNBC discussion of the $24 trillion figure below.
END QUOTE
There are links in the article, but not for the CNBC discussion, so people wanting that will need to go to the original copy of this above article.
Ron Paul's bill? Sure. I came across the following article last week about this bill.
"Every Single Republican Congress Member Has Now Co-Sponsored Bill to Audit the Fed... Democrats, Its Up To You",
July 16, 2009
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/07/every-single-republican-congress-member.html
QUOTE:
Ron Paul announced today:
(indented, the quote) All 178 Republican members of the House have now signed on as cosponsors of [the] Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207.
With a total of 271 cosponsors, Democrats must put pressure on another 19 Democratic co-sponsors in order to bring it to the magic number of 290 ... so that it will be veto-proof by Obama.
Please call your Democratic and Independent representatives and urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 1207!
And everyone, please call your senator and ask them to support S. 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009.
There is a huge campaign to keep the Fed's shenanigans hidden (and see this). It will take every single one of us calling congress to make it happen.
This is not a partisan issue - every single Democrat and Independent should support Fed transparency.
END QUOTE
There are several links in that article, also.
Money talks.