Is
your member of Congress serving you, or serving himself? Many lawmakers, when
they approach retirement, begin negotiating with lobbying firms to
receive multimillion dollar salaries after
they leave office. In some cases, a Senator or Representative will slip
language into a bill or write an earmark that benefits a special interest, and
when they leave Congress, a big paycheck is waiting for them from the very same
company.
While
the process of public officials going to work for lobbying firms is often
called the “revolving door,” we think this issue deserves more emphasis and
urgency. With members of Congress secretly manipulating the laws we must all
live under, and then receiving lavish rewards, so they can live lavish
lifestyles, we call that Backdoor Bribery.
Yesterday,
we published a report detailing the
problem, and revealed that the lawmakers-turned-lobbyists we profiled received
up to a 1,452 percent raise on average.
Congressman Billy Tauzin (R-LA), for instance, made $158,100 as
a lawmaker his last year in office. He went on to make nearly $20 million the
next few years as a drug company lobbyist — after he wrote the law in Congress
that prevents Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices for seniors (a
rule that costs taxpayers billions). And Backdoor Bribery occurs on both
sides of the aisle. It was reported earlier this year that
Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA) earmarked hundreds of thousands of dollars in
special projects before retiring, then began a lobbying job that counts his
earmark recipients as clients.
Members
of Congress owe their loyalty to the people they represent, not to big
companies offering them future riches. We need to stand up against this abuse
of our democracy.
Today,
the editors of Republic Report are sending a letter to the 34 members of
Congress who have already announced they are retiring this year, asking them to
at a minimum disclose to the public if they are currently negotiating with a
private interest for a future job. They should make such discussions available
on their congressional website, if they are still writing the laws we live
under. Take a look at a sample copy of our letter:
Right
now, members of Congress officially earn $174,000 a year. Officially. But
that's not their real salary. As numerous media reports and first-hand accounts
have shown, the way that many elected officials really make money is to secure
high-paying lobbying jobs after leaving Congress, often with the very firms or
companies for whom they have done legislative favors while still in office.
It's what you might
call Backdoor Bribery—and we
need your help to stop it.
So
for instance, former Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd got a 762% raise
after he retired from the Senate to work at the movie industry association.
Based on available information, the
average raise for a member of Congress who becomes an influence-peddler is
1452%.
It's
so bad that some current members of Congress, whose retirement is still 10
months away, are already negotiating
with lobbyists right now for jobs.
This
is outrageous. There are 34 current members of Congress who have announced they
are leaving office. We're sending a letter to each of them, asking them to tell
the public who is offering them jobs and who they are negotiating with. The
American people have the right to know: Who are members of Congress really
working for?
Sign
the letter here, addressed to the retiring members of Congress, and
we'll deliver the petition with your name on it to their offices. Over the
course of the next few weeks, we'll be doing follow-up work to get them to tell
us who might be offering them backdoor bribes. And forward this email to your
friends. Facebook it. Tweet it out.
It's
supposed to be our government, not the lobbyists. Let's make it ours. Click
here to sign the letter.
Sincerely,
Lee
Fang Republic
Report
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