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Were Bailout Funds Used to Plot Against Employee Free Choice? |
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This week, we learned that shortly after the approval of billions in bailout funding for major banks, at least two bailout recipients were involved in a conference call for lobbyists and Big Business figures plotting to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.
Now, a coalition of five major government-reform groups is asking Congress to fulfill its duty of overseeing the bailout funds and making sure they aren’t being used for political purposes like fighting the freedom to form unions.
In a letter sent to Congress today, leaders of Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG, Change Congress, Democracy Matters and Public Campaign asked for an investigation into whether taxpayer dollars are being spent on political influence-peddling.
This story may be the tip of the iceberg. That’s why we’re calling for Congress to investigate whether Bank of America, AIG, or other recipients of billions in bailout money used taxpayer dollars to send “large contributions” to any political organizations.
We don’t know exactly who made political donations and to whom or if any laws were broken as a result of the conference call, but raising funds to defeat the pro-worker bill was clearly a central focus of the call. Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus said that business leaders who did not give money to anti-Employee Free Choice Senate candidates “should be shot,” and at least one participant on the call, according to Huffington Post, recommended that those taking part give major donations to anti-union corporate front groups like the ones led by lobbyist Rick Berman.
At one point, another individual on the call suggested that participants send major contributions to Berman’s organization as a way of affecting the election without violating the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. “Some organizations have written checks for $250,000, $500,000, some $2 million for this,” said the man, likely Steven Hantler, the director of free enterprise and entrepreneurship at Bernie Marcus’ Marcus Foundation.
Bank of America and other recipients of bailout billions need to be held accountable for what they do with those funds. The taxpayers whose money is flowing to major corporations need to know that, in the midst of a devastating economic crisis, their resources aren’t being used for influence-peddling and political disinformation campaigns.
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Are Corporations Using Bailout Money To Fund Political Campaigns and to Defeat the Employee Free Choice Act?
Dear Members of Congress,
We were shocked to learn yesterday that Bank of America hosted a call in which political activists and business officials were urged to funnel millions of dollars of political contributions to vulnerable members of Congress so they would vote against Employee Free Choice Act. This influence-peddling session took place three days after Bank of America received $25 billion in federal bailout funds.
According to the story reported in The Huffington Post on January 27:
Participants on the October 17 call — including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG — were urged to persuade their clients to send “large contributions” to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.
… Donations of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to Republican senatorial campaigns were needed, they argued….”If a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to [former Sen.] Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out their goddamn jobs,” [Home Depot Co-founder Bernie] Marcus declared.
This story may be the tip of the iceberg. That’s why we’re calling for Congress to investigate whether Bank of America, AIG, or other recipients of billions in bailout money used taxpayer dollars to send “large contributions” to any political organizations.
Congress has a responsibility to oversee the $700 billion bailout of the financial services sector. That means making sure that these taxpayer funds are used transparently, and in ways that benefit regular people — not special interests.
The public was recently outraged to discover that bailed-out companies spent millions redesigning executive offices and buying new corporate jets. Spending millions to buy off members of Congress would be much worse. As taxpayers and voters, we need a thorough investigation into how bailout money is being spent and whether it’s being used to buy political influence.
This incident also starkly demonstrates the need to fundamentally reform the way we fund our congressional elections. In our current system, special interests believe they can buy policies from Congress through campaign contributions, and the public believes this as well. Wall Street companies routinely spend millions in campaign contributions and lobbying to resist oversight of the practices that led to the current economic crisis.
Ultimately, we’ll ask lawmakers to pass fundamental reform of congressional campaigns and end pay-to-play politics. Obviously, everyone’s point of view, regardless of politics, should be considered. But Congress needs to focus on arguments that make sense, not arguments that raise campaign dollars.
In the short term, given the prospect that some companies may have used taxpayer bailout money to buy influence and affect political campaigns, we ask for an immediate investigation, including public hearings. The public deserves to be fully informed about whether this is how bailout money is getting spent.
Thank you for your time and consideration, and we look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
David Arkush, Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division
Lisa Gilbert, Democracy Advocate, U.S. PIRG
Lawrence Lessig, Co-Founder, Change Congress
Joan Mandle, Executive Director, Democracy Matters
Nick Nyhart, President, Public Campaign
CC:
Elizabeth Warren, Chair, Congressional Oversight Panel
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Rep. Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader
Rep. John Boehner, House Minority Leader
Rep. Edolphus Towns, Chair, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Rep. Darrell Issa, Ranking Member, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Rep. George Miller, Chair, House Committee on Education & Labor
Rep. Buck McKeon, Ranking Member, House Committee on Education & Labor
Rep. Barney Frank, Chair, House Financial Services Committee
Rep. Spencer Bachus, Ranking Member, House Financial Services Committee
Rep. Louise Slaughter, Chair, House Rules Committee
Rep. David Dreier, Ranking Member, House Rules Committee
Sen. Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader
Sen. Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader
Sen. Dick Durbin, Senate Deputy Majority Leader
Sen. Jon Kyl, Senate Deputy Minority Leader
Sen. Edward Kennedy, Chair, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Sen. Michael Enzi, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Chair, Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs
Sen. Susan Collins, Ranking Member, Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs
Sen. Max Baucus, Chair, Senate Finance Committee
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee
Sen. Chuck Schumer, Chair, Senate Rules Committee
Sen. Bob Bennett, Ranking Member, Senate Rules Committee
For More Information on EFCA please visit our website and blog
http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
http://www.FreeChoiceActNow.Org
http://www.LaborUnionResources.Org
CHANGE CONGRESS ASKS YOU TO JOIN THE DONOR STRIKE!
http://change-congress.org/letter-to-congress/?partner=letter
No one should EVER shop at Home Depot or bank at Bank of America.
Jim Ellenberger
President
AFL-CIO Retirees Association
I work 22.5 hours/week @ $9.00/hour cleaning bathrooms for Benchmark Assisted Living, Inc. We want a union to represent us in collective bargaining. We get Section 8 housing, food stamps, fuel assistance, state health insurance, free school meals– we work hard for our money and Benchmark makes the government support us!! Now–the government’s (our) $ is fighting against our need for housing, heat, food, health insurance that we buy for ourselves!! We work and we want to pay our own bills–we need the Employee Free Choice Act.
Stop these bailed out, greedy, unconscionable, unethical criminals from dishonestly using our money against us. Big business interests and the Chamber of Commerce conspire against us.
We demand transparency with all bailout transactions.
We need our elected officials to work on our behalf–
We can’t fight alone.
M
I wrote a little tidbit about Home Depot back in August
Home Depot needs unions, the Employee Free Choice Act and a labor relations firm
Hope I’m not the one who got their former CEO to seek out Rick Berman’s anti-humankind services.
Speaking of Berman, seems even his kid hates him