Big Oil had quite a day in Washington yesterday. Rex Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil CEO, was sworn in as the new Secretary of State, despite the fact that he has literally no experience in official diplomacy or foreign policy. The final vote was 56 to 43 , with literally every Republican in the Senate supporting the nomination -- including those who scoffed initially after Donald Trump announced Tillerson's nomination last year.

Just a few hours before the vote, Politico published an interesting piece about Tillerson personally having lobbied Congress during the Wall Street reform effort, urging lawmakers to reject a provision that "required drilling and mining companies to disclose any payments they make to foreign governments."

Tillerson reportedly argued at the time that forcing oil companies to disclose such payments "would put them at a competitive disadvantage. He also explained that the provision would make it especially difficult for Exxon to do business in Russia, where, as he did not need to explain, the government takes a rather active interest in the oil industry."

That, of course, was in 2010, when there were sizable Democratic majorities in both chamber of Congress, and when the ExxonMobil CEO's pleas were largely ignored. The Wall Street reform legislation passed anyway, the provision was included in the bill, and some other countries soon after followed our lead and approved similar disclosure requirements for oil companies.

Vox noted yesterday what's become of this provision in the law.