The House narrowly passed campaign finance restrictions on 527 non-profit groups, which can currently accept unlimited donations from individuals, according to the Washington Post. 527 groups became a powerful force on the Democratic side in the 2004 election in the wake of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform's restrictions on giving to campaigns committees and political action committees. Billionaire donor George Soros donated $27 million to Democratic 527 groups during the 2004 election cycle setting an all-time record for individual giving. Republicans also benefited from Robert Perry, a Texas homebuilder, pumping $4.5 million into the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Republicans turned Soros into a bogeyman and have aimed to curb Democratic spending by limiting contributions to these 527 groups since the election. Seven Democrats sided with the Republicans while 18 Republicans, mostly from the conservative Republican Study Group, sided with the Democrats. The Post notes the contradictory behavior by both sides in the debate,

Republicans, who had adamantly opposed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, called for expansion of the measure's ban on soft money to cover the 527 committees. The House bill would limit to $5,000 a year the amount an individual could give to a 527 committee active in federal elections and $25,000 to a committee engaging in partisan voter registration. It would prohibit all corporate and union contributions.

 

Organizations such as Common Cause, Democracy 21 and Public Citizen, past legislative adversaries of the GOP, were allied with Republicans in yesterday's floor fight. Democrats had the backing of a long list of conservative leaders opposed to regulation, including Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and Paul M. Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation.

Bloomberg notes that the bill stands a test in the Senate as Democrats may filibuster. The legislation would also allow “political parties to spend unlimited amounts in coordinated efforts to support their candidates for federal offices. Republican Party committees had $76 million in the bank as of Feb. 28, and Democratic committees had $53 million.”

• House Republicans stripped 527-reform out of a proposed lobbying reform bill, according to The Hill.

• In a sign of the seriousness of the case against him, Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), under investigation for alleged bribery in an African telecommunications deal, is selling his Capitol Hill house, according to Roll Call.

• Speaking of selling houses, the Washington Post reports that Rep. Jim Ryun is denying that he got a sweetheart deal when the U.S. Family Network sold him their Capitol Hill house at well below market value.

• Knight Ridder reports that the Pentagon has investigated itself for spending money “like Paris Hilton at a shoe sale” and found its “prime vendor” purchasing program “sound, even though it overpaid millions of dollars for common kitchen items.” The program “paid $20 a piece for plastic ice cube trays that previously had cost 89 cents and $81 each for coffee makers that it bought for years for $29.”

• The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Jack Abramoff will be sentenced today in a Florida court.

• The Washington Post follows up on the report issued by the Minority Office of the House Committee on Government Reform on contracting abuses by the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root. According to the Post, “Pentagon auditors have challenged $45 million worth of company costs, out of $365 million in charges that were reviewed. … In one case, the government's contracting officials reported that KBR attempted to inflate its cost estimates by paying a supplier more than it was due. In another, KBR cut its cost estimates in half after it was pressed on its true expenses. In a third, KBR billed for work performed by the Iraqi oil ministry.”

• The Government Accountability Office released a report warning that, “Incentives for oil and gas companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico will cost the federal government at least $20 billion over the next 25 years,” according to the New York Times. The government could also lose “$80 billion in revenue … over the same period if oil and gas companies won a new lawsuit that seeks a further reduction in their royalty payments.” The GAO notes that “the Interior Department, which runs the offshore leasing program, had never carried out a ‘robust’ cost-benefit analysis of the original program or of incentives added in the last five years.”

• Raw Story reports that a biography of Jack Abramoff prepared by his lawyers as a plea for leniency states that the lobbyist is ashamed of the profanity used in a 1980s anti-communist movie he produced titled “Red Scorpion.” Abramoff, however, is not ashamed of making the movie in South African-occupied Namibia or from using money and assistance provided by the apartheid regime of South Africa. Cast and crew members also allege that many of them were never paid for their work.

• The Cincinnati Post reports that, “A federal appeals court Tuesday ordered a Washington congressman [Rep. Jim McDermott (D)] to pay West Chester Republican John Boehner $700,000 for leaking an illegally taped phone conversation between Boehner and then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.”

• The head of the Environmental Protection Agency was the featured speaker at a Colorado fundraiser for Rep. Rick O’Donnell (R-CO). The Denver Post reports that, “The guests included representatives from El Paso Natural Gas, the Colorado Mining Association and the Colorado Petroleum Association. El Paso and member companies of the two associations have activities that come under federal environmental regulations.”

• The revolving door continues to spin as TNR’s The Plank reports that former Senator Howard Baker, who, until last year, was our ambassador to Japan, has registered to lobby for “Toshiba Corporation on ‘Consultations with eh [sic] appropriate members of the Executive and Legislative branches of the federal government, and the applicable agencies on CFIUS and antitrust matters, all related to Toshiba Corporation's acquisition of Westinghouse Electric Company.’”

• The Hill reports that House Republicans have vowed to pass campaign finance laws restricting donations to 527-organizations.

• The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that the investigation into the bribery allegations against Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) is moving along as a Virginia court has subpoenaed records from “a law firm where one of the congressman's daughters once worked”. The judge also delayed the sentencing of Jefferson’s former aide Brent Pfeffer, who pleaded guilty to “aiding and abetting the solicitation of bribes” and implicated Jefferson as demanding bribes from technology firms.

• According to the Associated Press, Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO) and the Missouri House Democratic Congressional Committee are being fined for “various campaign finance violations.” The State Ethics commission found that the committee “failed to file proper financial reports and mixed money with another campaign committee” during the 2002 campaign and the Carnahan “signed checks for the committee that he wasn't authorized to.”

• Barbara Bush’s donation to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund was earmarked for her son Neil’s technology firm Ignite!, according to the Houston Chronicle.

• Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) is warning his constituents that earmarks are under attack and that Alaska risks losing its share of federal money, according to the Associated Press.

• Bloomberg reports on the attempt to attach 527-reform to the lobbying and ethics reform legislation.

• Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times goes down to the Duke Cunningham auction and exposes what Cunningham bought with all of that dirty money. Morrison is disappointed: “You sell out your career, your reputation and your freedom, and this is your asking price?”

• Wonkette reports on Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas’ (R-CA) expensive private travel. Thomas took a trip to Beaver Creek, CO for an AEI forum that cost, in travel expenses alone, $27,233. I know that the airlines are going bankrupt but who knew that they were charging the price of a car for a round-trip flight to Beaver Creek. Thomas also took a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland on the dime of the Ripon Educational Fund (a Republican organization that is run by lobbyists) that cost $18,702, which included an “Edinburgh Military tattoo”. Are tattoos included in the proposed gift and meal ban?

• Think Progress reports that John McCain’s (R-AZ) attempt to attach 527-reform legislation to the lobbying and ethics reform bill would wind complicating and potentially killing off the reform bill: “Even pro-reform activists, who endorse tough new restrictions on 527 organizations, have testified that the 527 debate should be handled separately. They argue that dragging in 527-related provisions would complicate and undermine the lobbying reform effort."

• Josh Marshall is counting the number of politicians seeing their careers ending due to the Abramoff scandal: “So far I've got Ralph Reed, Conrad Burns, Katherine Harris and Bob Ney. Tom DeLay is another obvious contender. But that's muddled by the fact that his own independent crimes appear to have brought him down first. Who am I not thinking of?”

Lobbying and ethics reform may be causing fissures in the Republican caucus, but they are coming together around a campaign finance reform that targets independent ‘527’ organizations. The Washington Post reports, “As part of the House GOP proposals, ‘527’ organizations that operate independently of the political parties would no longer be allowed to collect unlimited sums from individuals. … Instead, the groups would be governed by federal campaign finance laws that would restrict such giving to a total of $30,000 from individuals per year.” ‘527’ groups, named after the section of the tax code that governs them, “heavily aided Democrats in the 2004 elections” with such groups as MoveOn and others accepting millions of dollars in donations from small numbers of donors. While Democrats tend to use ‘527’s more than Republicans the group Progress for America, which is closely tied to the White House, helped push the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito and waged a campaign against Iraq war protester Cindy Sheehan.

Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA) has insisted that his 527 campaign finance reform bill should not be folded into a lobbying reform package as is being suggested by Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and other Republicans.  The co-sponsor of Meehan’s 527 reform, Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), has sided with Meehan stating, “If 527 reform is going to turn the debate on cleaning up lobbying into partisan bickering, I’d prefer to see an up-or-down vote on two clean bills.”  Meehan and Shays also fear the Republican leadership will include language from another 527 reform proposed by Representatives Mike Pence (R-IN) and Albert Wynn (D-MD) because it could prove a “Trojan horse for gutting the McCain-Feingold law.”