Big Money for Congressional Black Caucus

The New York Times continues a critical examination of the Congressional Black Caucus and related organizations. As we have mentioned, Mississippi's own Bennie Thompson is involved in multiple ethics investigations related to his actions connected to these groups. Thompson serves as Chairman of the Board of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute.

When the Congressional Black Caucus wanted to pay off the mortgage on its foundation’s stately 1930s redbrick headquarters on Embassy Row, it turned to a familiar roster of friends: corporate backers like Wal-Mart, AT&T, General Motors, Coca-Cola and Altria, the nation’s largest tobacco company.

Soon enough, in 2008, a jazz band was playing at what amounted to a mortgage-burning party for the $4 million town house.

Most political groups in Washington would have been barred by law from accepting that kind of direct aid from corporations. But by taking advantage of political finance laws, the caucus has built a fund-raising juggernaut unlike anything else in town.

It has a traditional political fund-raising arm subject to federal rules. But it also has a network of nonprofit groups and charities that allow it to collect unlimited amounts of money from corporations and labor unions.

From 2004 to 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus’s political and charitable wings took in at least $55 million in corporate and union contributions, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

The caucus says its nonprofit groups are intended to help disadvantaged African-Americans by providing scholarships and internships to students, researching policy and holding seminars on topics like healthy living.

But the bulk of the money has been spent on elaborate conventions that have become a high point of the Washington social season, as well as the headquarters building, golf outings by members of Congress and an annual visit to a Mississippi casino resort.

In 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation spent more on the caterer for its signature legislative dinner and conference — nearly $700,000 for an event one organizer called “Hollywood on the Potomac” — than it gave out in scholarships.

At the galas, lobbyists and executives who give to caucus charities get to mingle with lawmakers. They also get seats on committees the caucus has set up to help members of Congress decide what positions to take on the issues of the day. Indeed, the nonprofit groups and the political wing are so deeply connected it is sometimes hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

“The claim that this is a truly philanthropic motive is bogus — it’s beyond credulity,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, a nonpartisan group that monitors campaign finance and ethics issues. “Members of Congress should not be allowed to have these links. They provide another pocket, and a very deep pocket, for special-interest money that is intended to benefit and influence officeholders.”

But caucus members have attracted increasing scrutiny from ethics investigators.

All eight open House investigations involve caucus members, and most center on accusations of improper ties to private businesses.

Elsie L. Scott, chief executive of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, acknowledged that the companies want to influence members. In fact, the fund-raising brochures make clear that the bigger the donation, the greater the access, like a private reception that includes members of Congress for those who give more than $100,000.

“They are trying to get the attention of the C.B.C. members,” Ms. Scott said. “And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. They’re in business, and they want to deal with people who have influence and power.”

In 2007, it retained Zahra Buck, a former aide [salary here] to Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and a caucus member, to help expand a lobbying campaign.

Remember that this is not the first Thompson aide to benefit from this big money. The website TPMMUckraker reported in December that another Thompson staffer had been paid by lobbyists to conduct events honoring Thompson, while still a federal employee being paid by taxpayer dollars to work for Thompson.

Everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, use big money to advance their agendas. But not everyone represents a district so poor as Thompson does, or pretends to humbly stand up for the poor against corporate interests like Thompson does, and then milks the corporate interests like Thompson seems to be doing.

Now an investigation into Bennie Thompson's Tunica event

Brian Perry at the Madison County Journal covers the investigation of Bennie Thompson broken by the Washington Post that we discussed here and here. Perry and the DDT appear to be the only print media in Mississippi covering this story. But we did hear Sid Salter talking about it on his radio program yesterday and again today.

But Perry's column also brings up another investigation, this one broken earlier this week by the New York Times into a Congressional Black Caucus event hosted in Tunica and apparently funded through corporate sponsors through the Congressional Black Caucus Institute of which Bennie Thompson is the Chairman of the Board. Perry mentions in his blog that the New York Times also editorialized on the investigation yesterday quoting the Ethics Committee Chairman as saying that if nonprofits like the Congressional Black Caucus Institute

are being used “as a pass through” for corporate players, then “that is a fraud.” It looks that way to us. So who will fix it?

If your answer is the House Ethics Committee, don't hold your breath.

DDT: Thompson puzzled by investigation

Our fellow blogger and captain of Franks Tanks at The Great Red Spot notes that Mississippi's journalists have not picked up on Saturday's front page story from the Washington Post on an investigation involving Bennie Thompson. We mentioned it here.

But the Delta Democrat Times has broken the Mississippi silence.

According to the DDT - "Ethics investigation of Homeland Security puzzling to Thompson"

Another investigation on Bennie Thompson

Y'all Politics picked up this item from the Washington Post that reports Bennie Thompson is under scrutiny for credit card related hearings: Homeland Security panel faces ethics scrutiny after credit card hearing

At a hearing in late March, the nation's credit card companies faced the threat of expensive new rules from an unlikely regulator: the House Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).

The committee had never before dealt with credit card issues, but Thompson warned Visa, MasterCard and others that Congress might need to impose tighter security standards costing millions of dollars to protect customers from identity theft.

Behind the scenes, some of Thompson's staffers sensed a different motive -- an attempt to pressure the companies into making political donations to the chairman, according to several former committee staffers.

Now the House ethics committee is investigating the propriety of the committee's operations, and whether its members' interactions with companies compromised its work. Within a few weeks of the hearing, Thompson collected $15,000 in donations from the credit card industry and its Washington-based lobbyists, a Washington Post analysis shows. No legislation on card security has been introduced.

Several former committee staffers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have told The Post that the credit card hearing was one of several committee actions that caused staff concerns because of their consideration of potential donors and contractors friendly to Thompson. The current ethics inquiry was prompted this summer, according to an ethics document obtained by The Post, when a former committee aide alleged she was fired after complaining to her bosses that a lobbyist made improper requests of staff members.

"That's incorrect," [Thompson] said of the suspicion. "We do hearings all the time -- sometimes we are able to generate legislation earlier, and sometimes we have to [build] a public record."

He added that he has never been told of staff complaints about his hearings and was not aware that a committee staffer said she was fired for raising objections about inappropriate lobbyist requests.

"I would assume if discomfort was there with the staff they would have shared it, " he said. "I have not heard this."

Committee staff director Lanier Avant, who also serves as the congressman's chief of staff, said the credit card hearing was prompted by a data breach at a payment company, Heartland Payment Systems, that compromised the credit information of millions of customers.

Sarah Dufendach, a vice president at Common Cause, said the House ethics committee should take the staffer's allegation against her former boss seriously, especially because Thompson's office has had a number of staff departures. She questioned whether credit card security was a top committee priority, given terrorism threats and the need to plan for pandemic flu.

"You have to wonder: Did this take precedence over everything else that was on your committee's plate?" she said. "Homeland Security is not a committee that should be wanting for things to have hearings on."

Joshua Levy, an attorney for the fired staffer, Veronique Pluviose-Fenton, declined to comment.

At this point, let us insert these observations from the Hot Air Blog:

No one doubts that identity theft is a major issue, but jurisdiction for that would be with the Judiciary and Finance committees. Homeland Security’s jurisdiction includes national security, immigration, and emergency response, not normal legal matters. Even the corollary between identity fraud and immigration fraud would have more to do with Judiciary, and certainly that issue’s impact on credit-card regulation would be the purview of Finance.

Small wonder Thompson’s staffers wondered what Thompson wanted with this issue. It smells like a shakedown attempt. Thompson had no business threatening to impose credit-card regulations in the name of national security. One also has to wonder how much free time the HSC has under Thompson’s leadership. Have they completed visa reform before starting on Visa-card reform? Has Thompson done anything to focus on American border control before trying to control American Express?

Now, back to a few more items of interest from the Washington Post story, which really should be read in full.

Thompson's committee has been roiled by turnover this year, with at least 10 staff members resigning or being fired, according to congressional payroll records. Former and current staffers said many departures came after employees objected to committee operations. Many blame the staff turmoil on Avant, a 30-year-old Thompson confidant. Avant played a role in planning the March 31 credit card hearing, hosted by the subcommittee on cyber-threats.

Avant said politics have not guided his committee decisions. "I've never asked anything that they would be uncomfortable with," he said. "I ask people to come to work and work hard, to help our members do the best they can to oversee the department."

Legislation never surfaced. Avant said that the hearing helped inform lawmakers and the public about the issue, and that the committee might consider legislation at a later date.

In April and May, donations of $250 to $1,500 came in from lobbyists registered to represent Visa, American Express, MasterCard, Heartland and the National Installment Lenders, among others, as well as from the American Bankers Association political action committee.

Much more in the Post piece than we should quote here, be sure to read it. Also, as readers here know, the House Ethics Committee is also reviewing Bennie Thompson's behavior on another item.