02-09-2002
LOBBYING: K Street For February 9, 2002
This Corporate Group Ran Out of Gas
Corporate America's most conservative mouthpiece on global warming-Global
Climate Coalition-recently closed its doors after 12 years of fighting
against international controls on carbon dioxide emissions and other
pollutants. The GCC represented 15 trade associations, including the
American Chemistry Council Inc., the American Farm Bureau Federation, the
American Petroleum Institute, and the National Mining Association. Frank
Maisano, who served as GCC's spokesman, says the group was
"deactivated" because it had succeeded in persuading the U.S.
government not to adopt the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. "We
feel like we've achieved our goal," Maisano says of the protocol,
which calls on industrialized countries to cut their emissions of
greenhouse gases. During his election campaign, George W. Bush pledged to
control carbon dioxide emissions. But once in office, Bush reversed
course, pulling out of international talks on the Kyoto Protocol and
pushing voluntary efforts to cut domestic greenhouse emissions.
Environmental advocates note that the GCC had lost key corporate
supporters in recent years because a growing number of major companies
adopted more-moderate stances on global warming. In 2000 alone, several
big companies pulled out of the coalition, including General Motors Corp.,
DaimlerChrysler Corp., Ford Motor Co., BP Amoco, and Shell Oil Co.
Potholes for Highway Lobbyists
Highway industry lobbyists are mobilizing to try to restore $9 billion in
road construction spending that the Bush Administration proposes slashing
from the fiscal 2003 budget. Bush wants to pare road-building programs
from $33 billion to $24 billion next year. The concrete-and-asphalt folks
say that their fight is about more than cuts in the next fiscal year; it's
also about the size of the next federal highway bill. Highway advocates,
such as the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, have
been dreaming about a huge reauthorization that will begin late next year.
The association has already proposed a six-year, $300 billion bill-at a
minimum. By contrast, the six-year 1998 highway bill-the largest public
works bill in U.S. history-came in at $218 billion. Lobbyist Peter
Loughlin of the Associated General Contractors of America says it is much
harder to increase spending to $50 billion annually from a level of $20
billion a year, as opposed to $50 billion from $30 billion. So, says
Loughlin, getting that $9 billion back is imperative.
Green Lobbyists Spread Yucca Fallout
Environmental activists at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service
and at Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Project are
blanketing Capitol Hill with copies of a report by the Energy Department
inspector general. The report slams the department for hiring the law firm
Winston & Strawn for advice on the proposed nuclear-waste repository
at Yucca Mountain, Nev. At the same time it was advising Energy, the
Chicago law firm was lobbying Congress on behalf of the Nuclear Energy
Institute, an industry trade group that supports the waste repository.
"Clearly, the DOE has failed to exercise necessary oversight of its
contractors, resulting in an apparent pro-industry bias in the
agency's" actions, say 22 environmental and other organizations in a
letter that is also being distributed by the activists to every
congressional office.
They're Firing Back at the NRA
With the National Rifle Association in its sights, a new political and
lobbying group called the Violence Prevention Campaign hopes to get
involved in election efforts and legislative battles on Capitol Hill. The
group is raising funds with an eye toward running gun issue ads during the
fall races, according to Joe Sudbay, the group's political director, and
it hopes to eventually have an annual budget of about $1.5 million. The
Violence Prevention Campaign will lobby for bills such as those introduced
by Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, D-R.I., and Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, D-N.J.,
that would institute health and safety regulations for the firearms
industry. Sudbay quips that his group hopes to earn the same attention
from the NRA that the pro-gun lobbying powerhouse recently accorded to
another well-known gun control organization with which the prevention
campaign is affiliated, the Violence Policy Center. The NRA's magazine
recently cited the Violence Policy Center as "probably the most
effective and most untruthful anti-gun rabble-rousers in
Washington."
Financial Firms Look to Feds, Not States
The Financial Services Roundtable, which represents 100 of the largest
companies in the banking, insurance, and investment sectors, is putting
its lobbying muscle behind the Financial Privacy and National Security
Enhancement Act. When CEOs from the group were in Washington in January
for their annual get-together, they met with President Bush, Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and several top Administration officials.
They also visited with the bill's sponsor, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. The
legislation would set a moratorium on new state financial-privacy laws and
would start a federal effort to craft uniform national standards. The
companies argue that current laws give states too much leeway to pass
their own limits on the sharing of financial data. "The result is
that 50 states do it 50 ways," said roundtable President Steve
Bartlett. "The Ney bill is essential for economic rationality."
During meetings with homeland security Director Tom Ridge and FBI Director
Robert Mueller, the CEOs also discussed how today's privacy restrictions
can harm law enforcement efforts.
Margaret Kriz, Mark Murray, Shawn Zeller, Peter H. Stone, Louis Jacobson
National Journal
