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Here we go with the revolving door. The Sunlight Foundation has completed a study of how the US Chamber of Commerce is using former government officials as part of their lobbying team on financial regulation.
According to second quarter lobbying disclosure reports, the Chamber currently employs, directly or through outside lobbying firms, thirty-four lobbyists registered to lobby on financial regulation. Nineteen of those thirty-four are former government officials. Lobbyists with prior work in government are well-suited to quickly get results as they have established relationships with important actors on Capitol Hill and in the Executive Branch.
Sadly, this is standard practice in Washington. But one of these lobbyists caught my eye:
John Michael Gonzalez is one of the nineteen former government officials hired to lobby with the Chamber of Commerce. Up until this year, Gonzalez was the chief of staff to Financial Services Committee member Melissa Bean (D-IL; from the Chicago suburbs -ed.). Bean is currently pushing to remove a provision from the Consumer Financial Protection Act that would allow states to craft stronger consumer protections. The move is backed by national banks and trade groups like the Chamber of Commerce. Bean has received over 40% of her 2009 campaign contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate sector.
Gonzalez works for the lobbying firm Peck, Madigan, Jone, & Stewart Inc. His company bio specifically hightlights his relationship with the Chamber when working for Bean, “Mr. Gonzalez successfully planned and executed a winning re-election strategy, raising $4.3 million and earning the most support of any incumbent from the US Chamber of Commerce.”
Now that’s something to shout from the hills. “She’s made more from the Chamber of Commerce than anyone!”
Bean’s pre-emption amendment would basically nullify tough state regulatory laws against mortgage predators by making the Consumer Financial Protection Agency the ceiling for regulation and not the floor. She’s actually trying to do this in the name of reform by misrepresenting the views of Congressional Oversight Panel head Elizabeth Warren:
In a dear colleague letter signed by six Democrats who have also received large sums of money from Wall Street this year — Rep. Jim Himes ($326,623), Rep. Ed Perlmutter ($123,350), Rep. Jon Adler ($140,717), Rep. Suzanne Kosmas ($103,311) and Rep. Gary Peters ($134,553) — they misrepresent a statement from an academic paper Warren wrote in 2008:
“In an era of interstate banking, uniform regulation of consumer credit products at the federal level may well be more efficient than a litany of consumer protection rules that vary from state to state. The problem is not in the federal preemption; it is in the failure of federal law to offer a suitable alternative to the preempted state law.”
However, Warren has been clear that she supports the legislative approach backed by President Obama that would allow states to regulate banks and has said, when asked by Bean’s office and others, that she opposes Bean’s amendments.
Warren came out with a statement earlier today responding to Bean’s letter saying:
“The CFPA should be able to set basic safety regulations — a floor — and states should be able to go beyond that floor if they choose. The CFPA will play a critical role in rebuilding a secure Middle Class, but no regulator is perfect. It is important that states have the chance to protect their citizens when federal enforcement is inadequate and to serve as a front-line defense against new threats.”
Gonzalez would be barred from lobbying Bean specifically, but could lobby the Financial Services Committee on which she sits. I am seeking comment on all of this from Congresswoman Bean’s office.
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David – a horrifying, if unsurprising, story.
One little point – yes, I could go google her, but – remember, you’re writing for those of us who don’t know about this person yet – what state and district does Melissa Bean represent? I presume she’s a Congressperson, but you didn’t tell us in your story. I don’t mean to sound like a curmudgeon complaining about bloggers who don’t have editors, but really, it’s kind of important – ought to be in your first mention of Ms. Bean. Who is she?
Sorry, I will update: she’s a Democrat from Illinois’ 8th Congressional District (Chicago suburbs)
when is this smirking cow up for re-election?
And the SEC – or someone to whom they report – just hired a 29 year-old Goldman Sachs investment banker, Adam Storch, to head the SEC’s new Enforcement Division. Fox, meet henhouse.
Mr. Storch’s lengthy, career is comprised of five years work at Goldman. See here and here . The building janitor has more independence, experience and people management skills. Mr. Storch’s is exactly the Wunderkind background least likely to build trust and confidence at new agency or between it and its institutional sponsors, its Congressional funders, and the targets Mr. Storch’s team are meant to watch over.
It’s enough to make one think that’s not what they want to achieve. I guess if you can’t defeat regulation and reform before it spills out of the bottle, turn it sour before the public can lap it up. Did someone say George Bush had left office?
Northern Illinois Crystal Lake my old District Rumfelds old district Conservative very Conservative.
She is an improvement over Phil Crane.
Background David Duke got more votes than Jesse Jackson did for President. Alcohol use per Capita in the County of McHenry which is much of the district used to lead the whole state still might. These people will be hurt by the drop in real estate prices they have nice neighborhoods, good schools and good credit many of them got in the real estate game and now have lost.
Real Estate Republicans run the County think of them as the Corporate Wing of the GOP. There has been some anti abortion GOPers moving in though.
Before Melissa Bean there was no real Democratic anything in the county for decades as I recall. The antiwar movement and the environmentalists are getting bigger though.
The local Papers are to the Right of the Chicago Tribune.
To get an idea how in the pocket of the GOP the local media is look at Ex GOP state Rep Cal Skinner
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/campaign2002/656850/posts
It was not until after he lost election did the newspapers report his first wife left him she accused him of being a child molester. Then she mysteriously left the country taking her child before the trial started and was never seen again.
If that fact had been reported before he never would have won election in the first place! But the local GOP papers kept it quiet.
Thats is how in the tank the local news is in Melissa’s District.
Don’t hate me, but I agree with the idea that the federal law should be the toughest or should over-rule state law. Without one over-riding law the financial firms would have to spend a lot on ensuring their compliance with (perhaps) 50 state laws all different. Remember, one of the problems with healthcare insurance is that they have to deal with 50 states and varying laws and many can’t compete nationally.
Let’s not create another 50-state mess with financial firms the way the private healthcare insurers have state monopolies.
I agree but as long as the GOP guts federal agencies from doing anything that messes with their gravy train the states have to protect themselves.
The IL-8th went for Obama by 13 points.
Crystal Lake is in the 16th district (http://www.comportone.com/getparent.html?cpo/comty/il-city/crystallake/index.html,cpo/navi1.htm)
I have lived in Bean’s district for 19 years. She is a moderate Democrat who might be considered a semi-Blue Dog. The earlier posts that mentioned that she was one of the first Dems elected here in a long time for a National office. I have differed with her views on several issues, but she is a Democrat in many issues. She is better than her predecessor, Phil Crane, but Congress must stop these lobbyists.