Lobbying

Airport Security Companies Form Trade Association

by Laura Miller — October 21, 2001 - 11:00pm

Within 48 hours of the attacks on the World Trade Center, airport security companies formed their own trade organization, the Aviation Security Association, retained a former transportation department official to lobby for them, and hired international PR giant Burson-Marsteller. According to the Holmes Report, in the past month, B-M has designed a website for the association, written position papers that were distributed to Capitol Hill, sponsored meetings with congressional staffers, and set up editorial board meetings.

Main Source: 
The Corporate Crime Reporter, October 15, 2001; The Holmes Report, October 22, 2001

Cigarette Companies Continue Lobbying in Washington

by Laura Miller — October 20, 2001 - 11:00pm

Big tobacco continues to pour money into lobbying Congress according to a story published in the Winston-Salem Journal. "Each day that Congress meets, the nation's four largest cigarette manufacturers spend more than $100,000 pushing their agenda on Capitol Hill." Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. spent $44.2 million lobbying Congress in two and a half years ending June 30, according to reports filed by corporations and lobbying firms with the U.S. House and Senate.

Main Source: 
Winston-Salem Journal, October 21, 2001

How the Airlines Stymied Aviation Security

by Sheldon Rampton — October 14, 2001 - 11:00pm

In the wake of the government's multi-billion-dollar bailout of the airline industry, Public Citizen has compiled a report showing how airlines used aggressive lobbying and campaign contributions to turn the Federal Aviation Administration into its accomplice as it fought for years to stall, scale back and ignore specific security recommendations made by a 1996 presidential commission.

Main Source: 
http://www.citizen.org/congress/regulations/issue_areas/faa/articles.cfm?ID=6215

Drunk With Power

by Laura Miller — October 14, 2001 - 11:00pm

"US lawmakers are finally moving the return of the three-martini lunch ... to the front of the national agenda," PR Week reports with considerable satisfaction. "Unsure whether the best way to help their country is to offer pro bono work or to send hefty checks to relief agencies, flacks may put themselves to good use by revisiting their glory days, and by being the first to the trough," it states.

Main Source: 
PR Week, October 15, 2001

Paris Demonstrators Confront Corporate Greenwashers

by John Stauber — October 8, 2001 - 11:00pm

The following news release is from the Alliance for a Corporate-Free United Nations: "At 8.30 this morning in Paris, France, activists from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, England, Germany, Denmark, Nigeria and Spain gathered outside the headquarters of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris to protest against the first meeting of the Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) group.

Main Source: 
Alliance for a Corporate-Free United Nations

The Wartime Opportunists

by Sheldon Rampton — October 1, 2001 - 11:00pm

Corporate interests and their proxies are looking to exploit the September 11 tragedy to advance a self-serving agenda that has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with corporate profits and dangerous ideologies. Fast track and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. A corporate tax cut. Oil drilling in Alaska. Star Wars. These are some of the preposterous "solutions" and responses to the terror attack offered by corporate mouthpieces.

Main Source: 
TomPaine.com, October 2, 2001

Coke Hires Lobby Firm to Protect School Vending Machines

by Laura Miller — September 23, 2001 - 11:00pm

Coca-Cola has hired the lobbying firm Holland & Knight to ward off Federal restrictions on vending machines in schools, reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy has introduced a bill that would prohibit schools participating in the national school lunch program from selling soda and candy. Leahy was critical of soda manufacturers for pushing their products at children in a "captive market." He also cited a study linking soda consumption to child obesity and diabetes.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, September 24, 2001

Pakistan Hires Former Congressman

by Laura Miller — September 17, 2001 - 11:00pm

Pakistan hired former Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-Texas, to advise the country on matters regarding its national security. According to O'Dwyer's PR Daily, Wilson is receiving $30,000 a month for his work. As head of the Appropriations Defense subcommittee, Wilson traveled 14 times to Afghanistan and Pakistan during the 1980s, and sponsored secret U.S. appropriations for the Afghan rebel forces in 1982.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, September 18, 2001

Campaign Helps Put Brakes On Offshore Tax Haven Crackdown

by Laura Miller — July 29, 2001 - 11:00pm

The efforts of the 30-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to reform "tax haven" countries such as Liechtenstein and the Cayman Islands are being countered in the U.S. by a lobbying campaign run by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity. Capitol Hill veteran Andrew Quinlan, who also works for the Swiss Investors Protection Association, heads the Center.

Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2001 & July 30, 2001

PR Empire Owns Barbour, DC's 'Most Powerful Lobbyist'

by John Stauber — July 28, 2001 - 7:02am

Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, "illustrates the synergistic relationship between lobbying and fundraising," said a July 23 article in the New York Times. His firm has been named by Fortune magazine as the number one lobby firm in the Capital, and Barbour is also the man in charge of raising money for Republican Senate campaigns. The New York Times noted that "Two years ago, Mr.

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