How To Dig Up Lobbying & Lobbyist Info - Part 1

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 13:04:55 PM PST

Meet the Lobbyists: Federation of American Hospitals

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Jul 12, 2009 at 00:32:22 AM PDT

So what did they lobby on with that $900,000? A price transparency amendment to a health care bill that would mandate states to provide a system to have pricing information for hospitals and healthcare providers available to the public; the SCHIP program; the stimulus; Obama's health care reform; HR 1776, a bill that would link quality measures to payments for inpatient services; a ban on physicians referring patients to hospitals that they own shares in; funding for emergency medicine for undocumented immigrants; the budget; proposed changes to the TRICARE payment system; and the Employee Free Choice Act.

Here are their lobbyists...

Revolving Door Profile: Jen Daulby Kaleta

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 14:11:13 PM PDT

Staffer and lobbyist get engaged
Jen Daulby, 29, counsel for the House Agriculture Committee, accepted a marriage proposal from her boyfriend, Ed Kaleta, on the Speaker's Balcony last month.

Kaleta, 32, is a lobbyist for Humana. The couple have been dating for a year and a half. They met while Daulby was a legislative assistant for Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Kaleta was a lobbyist for Caterpillar. Kaleta lobbied Daulby on a labor issue, and one thing led to another. They plan to wed in August 2006.

Daulby began working for uber-asshole Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) as a legislative assistant in 2002. In 2003, she went to work for the House Ag Committee, where she stayed as a legal counsel until 2005. She went to work for Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) from 2005-2006. And... then she went to work as a lobbyist for Monsanto, which is where she works now.

During the first quarter of this year, she was involved in lobbying on biotech acceptance, getting preferential treatment for crop insurance for biotech crops, the Employee Free Choice Act, S.560 (a bill that would require the DOJ to review agriculture mergers), phosphate mining, the Waxman-Markey bill, the "Glyphosate Stewardship Program" (what's that??), several free trade agreements, and pressuring foreign countries to accept biotech.

Meet the Lobbyists: International Franchise Association

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 03:29:00 AM PDT

Obama White House Appoints Former Monsanto Lobbyist to FDA

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jul 07, 2009 at 22:35:57 PM PDT

The FDA just announced the appointment of Michael Taylor as a Senior Advisor to the FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg.

Taylor previously worked at the USDA from 1976-1981 as a staff lawyer. He left government to work at King & Spaulding, a law firm representing Monsanto.

He returned to government - this time to the FDA - for a stint as Deputy Commissioner for Policy from 1991-1994. According to Marion Nestle in Food Politics:

[At the FDA] he was part of the team that issued the agency's decidedly industry-friendly policy on food biotechnology and that approved the use of Monsanto's genetically engineered growth hormone in dairy cows. His questionable role in these decisions led to an investigation by the federal General Accounting Office, which eventually exonerated him of all conflict-of-interest charges.

In 1994, he moved over to the USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service to serve as Administrator until 1996. Then it was back to King & Spaulding for a little bit, and - in 1998 - over to Monsanto, where he was a senior lobbyist (Vice President for Public Policy).

Most recently, beginning in 2000, he was a fellow for Resources for The Future, serving as Research Professor Of Health Policy at George Washington University. Until this week, that is. Resources for Our Future is quite corporate funded with members of its Board of Directors from BP, Chevron, and DuPont.

And now he's back at the FDA. Great. Thanks Obama. Really.

Revolving Door Profile: Beth Johnson

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jul 07, 2009 at 18:00:15 PM PDT

Beth Johnson is a lobbyist for the other NRA - the National Restaurant Association. She began her career with much more benign jobs, as a nutritionist for the food labeling division of the FDA and as a registered dietitian at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.

Apparently that was a little too wholesome for her, so she left government to become associate director for food policy at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Then she went back into government, this time for the Senate Agriculture Committee, as a senior professional staff member coordinating policy for nutrition, farm credit, and livestock. She left the Senate in 1998 to serve as vice president of PR firm Fleishman-Hillard, Inc. There, she worked with food and agricultural clients, until 2002.

In 2002, she returned to the USDA. She worked for six years as a senior advisor to the Secretary on food and health-related programs. In 2008, Secretary Mike Johanns named her Chief Assistant to Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner and Deputy Chief of Staff at the USDA. When Obama came into office, she left and went to lobby for the National Restaurant Association. (Mike Johanns, by the way, is now the junior senator from Nebraska and he sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee, where Johnson once worked... amazing how these things all come full circle, huh?)

No Lobbyists in Obama Administration...Maybe.

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 29, 2009 at 20:00:00 PM PST

(a)  participate in any particular matter on which they lobbied within the 2 years before the date of their appointment;

(b)  participate in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls; or

(c)  seek or accept employment with any executive agency that they lobbied within the 2 years before the date of their appointment.

While it's been called a ban on lobbyists, it doesn't look like much of a ban, does it? But it DOES look like ethics rules, and I'm glad about that. Let's look at a few new Obama hires or prospectives who have a bit of lobbying in their recent pasts.