April 30, 2012

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) allows private corporations, security firms, and the government to peek into and share your online information without you ever knowing about it or having any legal recourse against it. These intrusions are so severe that the Obama administration has threatened to veto the version of this bill that passed the House of Representatives last week.

We recounted last week how social networking giant Facebook has recruited elite D.C. lobbyists to push this law in Washington. The Center for Responsive Politics’s OpenSecrets blog notes another interesting fact about the push for this new spying law. The chief sponsor of the bill in the House, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) has received $175,000 from organizations (largely corporations) who have lobbied on the bill. That’s 15 percent of his total campaign dollars he’s raised this cycle. The top two donors among this group is the defense contractor SAIC ($20,000) and Koch Industries ($14,500).

Another indication of the collective influence of backers of CISPA is the amount of money individuals or PACs affiliated with the organizations have given to key lawmakers on the issue. Last week we reported that the bill’s original sponsor, Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), had received $104,000 from groups that lobbied on the bill. With new campaign finance reports filed since that story, OpenSecrets.org data now shows that Rogers has received at least $175,000 from organizations that have lobbied on the bill. That’s about 15 percent of the total $1.1 million he has reported raising this election cycle. The top two groups: defense contractor SAIC (whose PAC has given Rogers $20,000 this election cycle) and Koch Industries (whose PAC has given Rogers over $14,500.)

Educating Americans about bad proposed laws like CISPA is important. But we have to look at the big picture. As long as Members of Congress have to dial for dollars as a part of a corrupted campaign system, their donors will be demanding terrible laws like CISPA.