FEC to NRCC: Show me the info - Watchdog group to press FDA over conflict rules - Reagan scores big - Scientists lobby nuke agency - Venn2 launches Presented by Philip Morris International

SHOW ME THE INFO: The FEC is in a spat with the National Republican Congressional Committee for what it appears to believe is the committee’s failure to properly disclose its financial donors. But it’s the FEC itself that isn’t disclosing the exact nature of the row, turning the situation into something akin to a two-way telephone conversation where only one party is heard.

In a letter dated Aug. 1, NRCC Treasurer Keith Davis tells FEC Senior Campaign Finance Analyst Laura Sinram that “in accordance with our recent discussion” he believes his committee’s disclosure procedures “are in compliance with the best efforts and donor identification provisions of commission regulations.”


Davis continues: “The committee reports all information as it is provided by the donors. For those donors who choose not to provide the occupation and employer information, the committee (within 30 days of receiving the contribution) sends the required follow-up letter, which asks the donor again to provide the information, and again advises the donor of the committee's obligation under federal law to report the information.”

The FEC had no comment on the matter, with commission spokeswoman Mary Brandenberger telling PI that “information about the conversation would not be part of the public record.”

The NRCC, for its part, did not return calls for comment.

PARTY ON: Ohio University and the University of Georgia, which the Princeton Review named the No. 1 and 2 party schools, aren't leaving their reputation inside the Beltway to on-campus keggers. Both schools are spending big time on downtown representation. Patton Boggs reported billing Ohio University $120,000 during the first six months of 2011. The University of Georgia reported spending $190,000 on lobbying over the same time period with McKenna Long and Aldridge and lobbyist Robert Redding on retainer.

SPEAKING OF PARTIES … It’s time to get raging mad snockered today, right?! After all, the nation’s financial future is saved! The debt ceiling has not fallen earthward into little debt-y bits upon our heads, but rather, been raised even higher! Crisis: averted. So, uh … why does everyone seem so glum, from the politicos who cut the deal, to folks far from Washington who’ve been out of work for months, to the lobbyists here in D.C. who’ve seen their business stagnate of late?

Regardless, let us be your economic doldrums elixirs by sending us a news tip and other scuttlebutt, to which we’ll reply with a cheery “thanks!” (You may even see it in PI the next day.) Reach Anna at [email protected] and Dave at [email protected]. We’re on the twitters, too, at @davelevinthal and @apalmerdc.

YOU'RE INVITED: Join POLITICO tomorrow for our POSTGAME Report: Inside the Debt Deal. The Huddle's Jonathan Allen, Carrie Budoff Brown and Jake "Fast Break" Sherman, refereed by POLITICO's Chief Deputy Managing Editor Craig Gordon, will give a LIVE behind-the-scenes look at the stunning debt deal the defined summer 2011. Report starts at 8 a.m. at PJ Clarkes(1600 K St. NW). RSVP here: http://bit.ly/qJybhp

EXCLUSIVE … WATCHDOG GROUP TO PRESS FDA OVER CONFLICT RULES: The nonprofit Project On Government Oversight tells PI that it will send a letter Wednesday to the Food and Drug Administration demanding that it not loosen its conflict of interest rules for scientists serving on FDA advisory panels. In recent months, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, have argued that the administration can’t find enough non-drug industry experts to serve on the panels, which help shape the agency’s decisions.

“The facts at this time do not support the public statements that there are not qualified people to serve on these panel,” POGO investigator Paul Thacker tells PI. “All agencies are under pressure to loosen regulations to make industry happy. This isn’t acceptable.”

The FDA could not immediately be reached for comment. The agency’s website lists 49 different advisory committees and panels that it uses “to obtain independent expert advice on scientific, technical and policy matters.”

POGO acknowledged that some agencies may have more difficulty than others in recruiting experts. “If that’s the case, they should work with people — POGO, Public Citizen, university experts — to identify qualified people,” Thacker said. “The only people who are qualified are the people who are being paid off by the drug industry? That’s ludicrous.”

REAGAN SCORES BIG: Campaign contributions are usually used to score political points, but the late President Ronald Reagan Library Foundation received some of the largest PAC contributions this year, according to recent LD-203 reports. General Electric, a prolific campaign contributor, reported doling out $2.5 million to the presidential library. Edison International gave the foundation another $425,000 and Triwest Healthcare Alliance contributed $300,000 to the foundation.

HONORING BOEHNER: The price of getting a college degree has certainly gone up, but The Ohio State University reported a larger than normal fee for giving Speaker John Boehner an honorary doctor of public service this year. The university reported spending $407,560 on its LD-203 report as an honorary expense for holding the graduation where Boehner served as commencement speaker. The cost was certainly due to more than just Boehner — the university was careful to report that about 70,000 people attended the event where 9,700 students graduated.

The Ohio State University isn't leaving its fate up to honoring Boehner. The school reported spending $100,000 on lobbying during the first six months of 2011.

SCIENTISTS LOBBY NUKE AGENCY TO MOVE FASTER ON SAFETY: The Union of Concerned Scientists is prodding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to quickly implement a series of safety recommendations for U.S. power plants in the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuke disaster. “If the NRC commissioners need more time to sort out the lessons of Fukushima, there should be a moratorium” on the licensing or relicensing of domestic nuclear reactors, says Lisbeth Gronlund, a physicist and co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’s global security program.

Scott Burnell, the NRC’s spokesman, tells PI that the commission is in the process of reviewing safety recommendations but has no plans to institute a moratorium. Current licensing practices will continue “in a manner that protects public health and safety,” he said.

Through June 30 this year, the Union of Concerned Scientists has spent $167,006 on federal lobbying efforts.

SUPERCOMMITTEE = 'DIRTY DOZEN': Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti's Alex Vogel takes PI's prize for best description of the so-called supercommittee. “The 12 members of the supercommittee are going to be lobbied so hard in the next four months, they will be known as the ‘Dirty Dozen.'" Read more here: http://politi.co/pG7Jq3

WHERE’S THE BEEF? On video, it is. Forget the "Bachelorette.” Put down the remote and forgo “30 Rock.”

You know, like we know, that the true must-see TV of the week is “Cattlemen to Cattlemen” — sadly, “Jersey Shore,” “Highlander” and “Bull Durham” were already copyrighted — where the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association will detail the “beef industry’s efforts to expand trade opportunities” and “also feature a discussion among industry leaders about trade opportunities in key Asia-Pacific nations.” Watch here: http://bit.ly/dmTm9Y

The show is part of a sustained lobbying and PR effort by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which federal records indicate has spent more than $2.4 million since 2005 to lobby the federal government on a variety of issues affecting its business interests.

VENN2 LAUNCHES: Communications firms Venn Strategies and Blue Line Strategic Communications are joining forces to launch a joint venture, Venn2 Communications. The new firm will be led by Democratic strategist Michael Meehan and Stephanie Silverman. Venn Strategies's President Penny Lee will serve as president at Venn2 Communications. Blue Line staffers Kerry Symonds, Erin Grandstaff, Katie Rutherford, Chloe Etsekon and Charlie Patterson will join the new firm.

One key missing face in the new venture: Blue Line co-founder David Di Martino. Di Martino started his own strategic communications shop, DD Media, in May. Di Martino's firm specializes in energy and environment, financial services and senior executive profile management.

CONVINCING CONGRESS TO STAY PUT: Until Congress passes a funding extension for the Federal Aviation Administration, members better not leave D.C. for August recess. That’s the message from the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, which represents 32 different transportation unions. About 4,000 federal workers are on furlough, and thousands of construction workers may be out of work, because Congress has not passed a reauthorization bill.

“If Congress packs up and goes home for the summer without passing a clean extension of the FAA bill, these workers won’t be able to provide for their families, and the aviation system will lose $1.5 billion in revenues that it will never recoup,” Transportation Trades Department AFL-CIO President Edward Wytkind wrote in a letter to Congress obtained by PI.

Many other transportation interests have been bombarding Washington with lobbying efforts of late, including the Gina Marie Lindsey, the head of Los Angeles International Airport, who arrived in D.C. last night to urge Congress to resolve the issue, reports California’s Daily Breeze.

But it may be for naught. As the Washington Post’s Ashley Halsey III writes today, “Congress appears ready to head off on summer vacation without resolving” the funding issue.

OKUN REGISTERS FIRST CLIENTS: From Morning Tech's Tony Romm — NBC-Universal vet Bob Okun, who started the O Team after leaving his post as head of lobbying — has nabbed the National Association of Broadcasters and Comcast as early clients. Okun will tackle issues like cybersecurity and spectrum reform, according to recently filed disclosure reports.

TRANSITIONS: Porter Novelli has hired Sean Smith, the former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs, as a senior vice president specializing in international crisis communications … Waterways Council today appointed Mike Toohey, a former assistant secretary of transportation during the early 1990s, as the organization’s president and chief executive.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF CANDIDATE: Some presidential candidates announce their presidential runs during dramatic speeches, as part of energetic rallies or even via Twitter. Aaron Leon Ammann of Spokane Valley, Wash., announced his on ruled notebook paper: http://bit.ly/pTzUy4

RECENT REGISTRATIONS: (Firm: Client)

Woosley and Associates: Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina, Quakerdale.

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CORRECTION: A previous version of POLITICO Influence misstated what organization gave the Ronald Reagan Library Foundation $425,000. It was Edison International, not Edison Electric Institute.

Follow us on Twitter Theodoric Meyer @theodoricmeyer