FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Angela Bradbery, Public Citizen (202) 588-7741; Dave Levinthal, Center for Responsive Politics (202) 354-0111

WASHINGTON — Lobbyists for the financial services industry enjoy longstanding ties to the members of Congress who were named this week to the conference committee on financial reform legislation, according to a joint analysis of available data released today by Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics.

At least 56 current industry lobbyists previously served on the personal staffs of the 43 members of Congress named Wednesday to the conference committee, according to the study, available here: ConferenceKlatchReport.pdf. Notably, these figures do not include 59 lobbyists who served on either the Senate or House of Representatives banking committee but never worked directly for a member. Those lobbyists were enumerated in a report published in early June by Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics.

The financial services industry’s links to the Senate’s representatives on the panel are particularly extensive. Collectively, 41 industry lobbyists once worked on the legislative staffs of the committee’s 12 senators. And each senator once employed at least one current lobbyist.

The chairman and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), employed the most industry lobbyists – eight each. At least seven current financial services lobbyists once served as chief of staff to a member of the conference committee.

“Lobbyists with these sorts of connections can have a profound effect on the outcome of legislation,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. “Their knowledge extends not only to the issues, but, perhaps more importantly, to their former bosses’ cell phone numbers.”

Added David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, “The American people want reform, not a reunion. Given industry’s deep connections to lawmakers on the conference committee, it’s critical that Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has committed to make the conference process the most transparent in history. Now the public can crash what ordinarily would be an insider affair and make sure lawmakers hear from the American people, not just Wall Street lobbyists.”

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Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org .

The nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics is the nation’s premier research group tracking money in federal politics and its effect on elections and public policy. For more information, please visit www.opensecrets.org/about .



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]

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