Bloomberg takes a hard look at the lobbying fight over financial regulatory overhaul and concludes that despite last week’s passage of a financial regulatory overhaul package by the House, the banks won — simply by not losing as…
Here’s a good game for a rainy Sunday.
Several credit card companies have launched a new Web site designed to help struggling card users manage their debts amid the economic downturn. The site includes tips to avoid penalties and links to access counseling services. But the fan favorite has to be an interactive tool allowing consumers to calculate the minimum installment required to pay off balances within a given time frame. It’s worth a whirl.
Bowing to intense lobbying pressure from the mortgage industry, the U.S. Senate killed a bill Thursday to allow bankruptcy judges to modify loan terms on primary residences the way they can on second homes, yachts, cars and other pieces of property.
U.S. Sen. Mark Udall voted to give financially-pinched homeowners trapped in overvalued mortgages, while his counterpart Sen. Michael Bennet sided with the Scrooge McDucks of the mortgage banking set.
There are reasons to dismiss earmark-reform crusader and Arizona Republican Rep. Jeff Flake. For one, his name is Jeff Flake. He also has biggish blond hair and every couple of weeks he introduces another resolution calling for investigation into earmark corruption, each one killed the moment it hits the floor. He trotted out his last one on April Fool’s Day. It too died straight away. Speaker Pelosi has basically mocked him as an unserious reformer or showboater or both.
But Flake and his growing list of lawmaker-supporters won’t go away, partly because he’s right on this.
If Capitol Hill lawmakers were playing a high stakes game of chicken with the banking industry over your credit score, guess who just blinked?
Mike Lillis, congressional reporter for our sister site The Washington Independent, examines the winners and losers in the latest setback on credit card reform to rein in outrageous rate hikes and hidden fees.
Focus on the Family’s new top lobbyist Tim Goeglein is setting up shop in Washington, D.C. — a first for the Colorado Springs ministry and evangelical publishing empire.
The disgraced ex-Bush administration political operative and former top aide to Karl Rove has his work cut out for him as the influence of the religious right wanes in a Democratically-controlled White House and Congress.
Hidden penalties, sudden interest rate hikes, and deceptive language are just a few of the questionable tactics used by credit card companies to extract money from increasingly stressed consumers. Now, some on Capitol Hill are trying to regulate the more abusive practices.
With bills actually moving through both houses of Congress, the credit card lobby is finding itself on the defensive, and turning out in force to oppose the legislation.
A legislative panel on Wednesday recommended that a former lobbyist for the Colorado Chiropractic Association (CCA) be formally scolded for trying to sway a freshman Republican to vote for Rep. David Balmer (R-Centennial) in a leadership election in December. An ethics watchdog group praised the committee’s recommendation but renewed calls for a criminal investigation into vote-buying allegations and asked legislators to mandate ethics training for professional lobbyists.
U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) has issued a statement insisting campaign contributions have nothing to do with appropriations requests, despite mounting evidence that the lobbying firm PMA secured lucrative government contracts for its clients by orchestrating a series of campaign donations to lawmakers, including Lamborn.
Republican Rep. Jeff Flake from Arizona is making a name for himself rooting out earmarks to indict the professionalized “pay-to-play” culture of Congress. His Web site tracks the fruits of his investigation so far, listing earmarks tied to clients of embattled big-time lobbying firm PMA, which doled out campaign contributions to members of Congress across the country, including Colorado’s Ed Perlmutter, Mark Udall and Doug Lamborn. This morning Flake had an op-ed in the New York Times on the unspooling scandal.
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