Report Finds Pattern of Wall Street Influence-Peddling in Washington

As Wall Street firms shed employees and cut lending in a time of global economic recession, one category of spending by America's major banks that has yet to be reduced, according to an Americans for Campaign Reform report: lobbying the federal government. Lobbying disclosures filed with the government this week confirm that many of the banks that benefited from $350 billion in taxpayer funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) continued to invest millions of dollars in government lobbying and campaign contributions in the fourth quarter of 2008.

"In a year of bad investments, Wall Street continued to strike gold in Congress. Millions of dollars in campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures helped to ensure that the interests of Wall Street were well represented in government, while taxpayers footed the bill," said Dan Weeks, president of Americans for Campaign Reform. "Bringing greater accountability to the policymaking process will be an ongoing concern as President Obama and Congress work to reform our nation's financial system."

Recent analysis by Americans for Campaign Reform finds that Wall Street companies have spent significantly to gain influence among public officials in Washington over the last twenty years. The report, "Wall Street Money in Politics" illustrates how major financial institutions have gone beyond lobbying and contributed substantially to the federal election campaigns of members of both major political parties.

Key findings include:

* Individuals and PACs in finance, insurance, and real estate have contributed over $2 billion to federal campaigns since 1990, the largest single industry by a factor of two
* Members of the U.S. House and Senate raised an average of $191,152 and $1,297,681, respectively, in industry contributions for the 2008 elections
* Nine of the top ten House recipients of Wall Street contributions in 2008 served on the powerful Financial Services (6) or Ways and Means (3) committees
* The top ten Senate recipients of Wall Street contributions in 2008 were either candidates for President or members of the Commerce, Banking, Finance, and Budget committees, or in Senate leadership.

"Our research shows that recent actions by the administration and Congress to limit misuse of taxpayer dollars by Wall Street only touch the tip of the iceberg. When politicians responsible for writing America's financial regulations rely on substantial sums of campaign contributions from affected industry groups, their independence as regulators is undermined," Weeks said. "Only by severing the link between special interest money and elected officials through Fair Elections campaign finance reform can we restore integrity to the policymaking process in time to prevent future crises."

Introduced by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the Fair Elections Now Act would establish a citizen-driven alternative to federal campaign finance. Under the proposed law, qualifying candidates who raise only small donations from their constituents would receive competitive matching funds to run for public office. A similar measure introduced by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) would update the longstanding public funding system for presidential elections.

Americans for Campaign Reform, the bipartisan group led by former Senators Bill Bradley, Bob Kerrey, Warren Rudman, and Al Simpson, is working with Members of Congress, concerned citizens, and national allies from the Sierra Club and the National Council of Churches to the League of Women Voters and the NAACP to advance the Fair Elections Now Act in 2009. "Wall Street Money in Politics" is part of a series of ACR reports tracking the influence of major campaign contributions on the policymaking process.

The full report can be viewed online at http://youstreet.org/sites/default/files/Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Wall%20Street%20Money%20in%20Politics.pdf.