November, 04 2010, 01:00pm EDT
Who Owns the Next House Committee Chairmen?
A new set of Republican lawmakers is poised to take over House appropriations, authorization and oversight committees on Capitol Hill. The Center for Public Integrity has investigated the likely incoming chairmenand analyzed their campaign contributors, earmark histories and political leanings.
WASHINGTON
A new set of Republican lawmakers is poised to take over House appropriations, authorization and oversight committees on Capitol Hill. The Center for Public Integrity has investigated the likely incoming chairmenand analyzed their campaign contributors, earmark histories and political leanings.
Most are Caucasian males. They tend to be more conservative than the average House Republican and enjoy deep ties to the industries they will soon oversee. Some have former staffers turned lobbyists who could return to seek influence before the lawmakers' committees. And several are among Capitol Hill's most prolific in procuring earmarks for projects in their districts.
The Center's analysis focused on members likely to lead the House panels on appropriations (including the defense subcommittee), armed services, budget, education and labor, energy and commerce, financial services, homeland security, natural resources, oversight and government reform, transportation and infrastructure, and ways and means.
Eight of the 14 committee-chair candidates received the majority of their campaign funds since 2007 from special interest PACs, including:
- Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, a possible candidate for the Energy and Commerce committee chairmanship, who has received 70 percent of the $4.8 million he raised since 2007 from PACs. He is also the top House recipient of campaign cash from the oil industry since 1999.
- Rep. David Camp of Michigan, the top contender for the Ways and Means Committee that controls taxes and spending, who received a whopping 79 percent of the $6.5 million he collected in the last two elections from PACs.
As well, timber and paper giant Weyerhaeuser Co. was the top PAC contributor to Washington Rep. Doc Hastings, the presumptive chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.
The detailed Center analysis taps multiple public and proprietary information sources to create a better of picture of what America can expect from the new crop of House committee chairmen.
Read and link to the Center story, "The Chairmen: New House Leaders Have Familiar Ties to Business, Revolving Door."
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern. The Center is non-partisan and non-advocacy. We are committed to transparent and comprehensive reporting both in the United States and around the world.
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"Instead of fighting the rising cost of healthcare, gas, or groceries, this Congress prioritized rewarding the wealthy and well-connected military-industrial complex," said Defense Spending Reduction Caucus co-chairs.
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Despite the Pentagon's repeated failures to pass audits and various alarming policies, 81 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted with 200 Republicans on Wednesday to advance a $883.7 billion annual defense package.
The Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025, unveiled by congressional negotiators this past Saturday, still needs approval from the Senate, which is expected to vote next week. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday that he plans to vote no and spoke out against the military-industrial complex.
The push to pass the NDAA comes as this congressional session winds down and after the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced last month that it had failed yet another audit—which several lawmakers highlighted after the Wednesday vote.
Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairs and co-founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, said in a joint statement, "Time and time again, Congress seems to be able to find the funds necessary to line the pockets of defense contractors while neglecting the problems everyday Americans face here at home."
"Instead of fighting the rising cost of healthcare, gas, or groceries, this Congress prioritized rewarding the wealthy and well-connected military-industrial complex with even more unaccountable funds," they continued. "After a seventh failed audit in a row, it's disappointing that our amendment to hold the Pentagon accountable by penalizing the DOD's budget by 0.5% for each failed audit was stripped out of the final bill. It's time Congress demanded accountability from the Pentagon."
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Several of the 124 House Democrats who voted against the NDAA cited those "culture war" policies, in addition to concerns about how the Pentagon spends massive amounts of money that could go toward improving lives across the country.
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