Patton Boggs

===

carbon tax bs

ref clc

https://www.climatedocket.com/**2018/10**/09/exxon-carbon-tax-climate-liability/

 Savage

Exxon has announced it will pledge $1 million to Americans for Carbon Dividends, an advocacy campaign that backs a carbon tax plan, but one that would be coupled with rollbacks to environmental regulations and:{ ending climate liability suits:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

The Baker-Schultz Plan—named for its lead authors, former secretaries of state James A. Baker III and George P. Shultz—:{proposes:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: a gradually rising carbon tax, with 100 percent of the proceeds paid to Americans in a monthly dividend. It was unveiled last year by the:{Climate Leadership Council:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, a nonprofit policy institute founded by author and policy entrepreneur Ted Halstead.

The council’s founding members include Exxon and other oil and corporate giants—among them, BP, Shell, Johnson & Johnson—as well as former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former fed chairmanBen Bernanke.Greg Bertelsen, the council’s senior vice president, called Exxon’s donation a significant step in U.S. climate policy.

“It represents the first time an oil and gas oil major has made a significant contribution in support of a campaign to put a price on carbon,” said Bertelsen, who formerly served as senior director for energy and resources policy for theNational Association of Manufacturers.

In return for what is a modest tax, the Baker-Schultz plan also calls for the rollback of greenhouse gas emissions regulations and an “end to federal and state tort liability for emitters.” That means the federal government would no longer have the ability to regulate climate pollutants and courts would have no role in determining whether industry should pay for impacts already caused by fossil fuel-driven global warming.

Kert Davies, director of the Climate Investigations Center, said it’s significant that when the plan was launched, no corporate members were involved publically.

“The most interesting thing to me is how Exxon has been behind this the whole way but was intentionally hidden from view,” Davies said.

“Are they shy? No, they know the optics,” he added.

Americans For Carbon Dividendsis:{co-chaired:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by former Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and John Breaux (D-La.), whose lobbying firm**:{was hired:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:** to promote the plan. And according to its:{website:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, its communications is being led by Richard Keil, a former senior media relations advisor for Exxon.Keil is listed as a managing director for Hill+Knowlton, the firm that once represented tobacco companies as they tried to escape liability for the devastating health effects of smoking.

Exxon’s announcement came a day after the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued:{ a landmark report:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: warning that climate change is a much more dire and immediate problem than previously thought. In the report, scientists call for “unprecedented” action that would be needed to combat the effects of climate change.

To prevent catastrophic climate change, carbon emissions must be reduced by 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050, the report says. The use of renewable energy to generate electricity must increase from about 20 percent today to about 67 percent by 2050. It also calls for a robust carbon tax, large enough to raise the cost of fossil fuels to drive down their use and raise enough money to offset their detrimental impact on the climate.

“A price on carbon is central to prompt mitigation,” said the report’s authors. They estimate that to achieve needed emissions reductions, the price per ton of carbon dioxide pollution must range from $135 to $5,500 in 2030, and from $690 to $27,000 per ton by 2100.

:{A recent study:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by the University of Massachusetts found a carbon tax would have to reach $200 a ton to change consumer behavior and to keep low-income consumers from absorbing a disproportionately high amount of the costs.

The Baker-Schulz Plan starts the tax at $40 per metric ton, far below what the studies say would significantly reduce emissions. The plan does not specify how much it will rise or how the increases will be determined.

Bertelsen said that’s a detail that will be worked out over time by the council’s founding members, which in addition to the oil giants includes corporate giants P & G, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsico, and Exelon. Bernanke, Bloomberg and former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman are also founding members, along with the environmental organization The Nature Conservancy.

When asked repeatedly whether founding members would reconsider their stance on climate litigation, Bertelsen would only say that the Council is focused on solving the climate problem and transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

Exxon spokesman Scott Silvestri :{told Bloomberg:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: that applying a uniform cost across the economy is consistent with Exxon’s principles on how to manage the risk of climate change. He said the company has consistently backed a carbon tax that returns proceeds to the public and not the government, but Exxon :{has also long supported organizations:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: like the American Legislative Exchange Council that have lobbied vigorously against carbon taxes of any kind.

Under the plan, U.S. taxpayers would benefit from monthly dividend payments, but none of the proceeds would help cities and states pay the skyrocketing costs of climate mitigation and adaptation.

Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy and chief climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he remains skeptical and suggested the oil giant lay out a plan for bringing company-wide carbon emissions to net-zero by mid-century. That would be consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement that Exxon also says it supports.

“I’ll take ExxonMobil claims of support for a carbon dividend seriously when it stops providing far larger sums to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other lobbying groups that oppose the same climate policies,” Frumhoff said.

==

https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/how-radical-republicans-and-the-trump-administration-are-killing-american-workers/

dc report

Reuters reporters Julia Harte and Peter Eisler have assembled a powerful investigative article on how “the Trump administration’s plan to weaken the beryllium rule offers a case study in the renewed power businesses can wield in the regulatory process.”

OSHA’s standard to protect workers from the disabling and deadly effects of beryllium exposure was issued in the waning days of the Obama administration. Exposure to beryllium dust causes chronic beryllium disease and lung cancer.Symptoms include difficulty breathing/shortness of breath, weakness, fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, joint pain, cough and fever. Over time it may lead to disability and death.

OSHA had been working on a new standard to update its seriously outdated beryllium standard for 20 years, and it was an agreement between the main beryllium producer Materion and the United Steelworkers that enabled OSHA to push the new standard over the line before Trump took office. The labor-industry agreement reduced the Permissible Exposure Limit, added “ancillary provisions” requiring exposure monitoring, training, medical surveillance and other provisions, and covered general industry (e.g. manufacturing) worker. OSHA also added protections for construction and maritime workers who are mainly exposed during the process of abrasive blasting using ground coal slag to remove rust and paint from ships and other structures.

The Trump administration’s plan to weaken the beryllium rule offers a case study in the renewed power businesses can wield in the regulatory process.

Exposure to beryllium dust has devastating health effects on exposed workers like Wardell Davis who was an abrasive blaster with a Norfolk, Va., shipbuilding contractor:

Then 24 years old, with no high school diploma, Davis had for years bounced between part-time jobs. The contractor, he says, promised better pay for the grueling labor of blasting the hulls of U.S. Navy ships with coarsely ground coal particles to remove rust and paint. He recalls the fog of dust created as workers fired the crushed coal – a residue from coal-fired power plants – against the ship bottoms from high-powered hoses, moving through the tented blasting area in respirators and protective suits.

A year later, Davis found a better job with a plumbing and heating company. He became a father, but still found time to hit the YMCA most days for a swim, a lifelong passion. Then, in 2011, he began struggling to hold his breath under water; soon, he couldn’t hold it at all. He was dogged by a persistent cough, sweats and nausea.

In 2014, doctors at Norfolk’s Sentara Hospital found a “black foreign material” in his lungs. Davis successfully filed a disability claim for “pneumoconiosis/silicosis and/or interstitial fibrotic disease caused by exposure to abrasive blasting dust.” Four years and three biopsies later, Davis survives on a single lung.

Unable to work, he lives on disability payments, and has brought suit against abrasives manufacturers and safety equipment providers he alleges failed to protect him. They deny responsibility for his failing health.

“If I ever would have thought that this would have happened to me, I would’ve never ever worked there,” he told Reuters, his words punctuated by coughs. “Ever.”

The Reuters article describes the fierce industry opposition to the part of the standard that covered construction and maritime industries, not because the regulated industries themselves had strong objections (they could use safer alternatives to coal slag), but because the sellers of coal slag feared devastating effects on their sales as shipyards and construction sites moved to safer alternatives for abrasive blasting.

In June 2017, OSHA issued a proposal rolling back protections for construction and maritime workers. As I wrote then:

Today’s proposal keeps the new PEL, but removes the “ancillary provisions” for construction and shipyard workers. The ancillary provisions would have required employers to provide exposure monitoring, regulated areas (and a “competent person” in construction), a written exposure control plan, personal protective equipment (PPE), and work clothing, hygiene areas and practices, housekeeping, medical surveillance, medical removal, and worker training for construction and shipyard workers exposed to beryllium from abrasive blasting using coal slag compounds that contain beryllium.

Without the benefits of the air testing and health monitoring requirements, the exposure limits for beryllium – are meaningless.

As the Reuters article explained, the new proposal ignored the benefits of the rule and significantly weakened protections:

The protections would cost affected industries nearly $12 million a year, or about $1,000 per worker, according to the 2016 cost-benefit assessment. That analysis, a mandated component of the rule-making process, put the savings to society from averted deaths and illnesses at nearly $28 million, yielding a net economic benefit of about $16 million a year.

Without the benefits of the air testing and health monitoring requirements, the exposure limits for beryllium “are meaningless,” said David Michaels, who headed OSHA for seven years under Obama.

“If there’s no air testing or disease surveillance, there’s no way to know how much exposure workers are getting or who may be getting sick,” said Michaels, who now teaches at the George Washington University School of Public Health.

The changes were unprecedented in OSHA’s almost 50-year history. According to Deborah Berkowitz, OSHA’s former chief of staff, now working for the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit workers rights group, “Never in OSHA’s history has the agency decided to roll back worker protections for a carcinogen.”

And as I explained in the article, OSHA’s “argument ran against decades of OSHA protocol, which held that if significant risk of exposure to a hazardous substance cannot be completely eliminated, “ancillary provisions” are necessary beyond existing protective equipment, said Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary of OSHA under Obama.”

Who Was Behind The Attack on Worker Protections?

All of the above is fact. But why did OSHA decide to upend these protections? And here we get to the ability of powerful business concerns to reduce badly needed worker protections.

Leading the charge to weaken worker protections was Congressman Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), chair of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections until Democrats took over the House of Representatives this month. Byrne had met with two abrasive manufacturers Mobile Abrasives Inc and Harsco Minerals, who were members of an industry group, the Abrasive Blasting Manufacturers Alliance (ABMA). Byrne wrote to the White House Office of Management and Budget, asking them to weaken the worker protections.Much of Byrne’s letter was taken word-for-word from comments submitted by the ABMA’s lobbying firm, Squire Patton Boggs.

The plot thickens further:

A former Former Patton Boggs senior partner Mark Cowan, a lobbyist who served on Trump’s Labor Department transition team, also became involved. On March 7, Cowan, who served as deputy head of OSHA under former President Ronald Reagan, attended a meeting at the Labor Department, where Squire Patton Boggs lobbyists asked agency lawyers about OSHA’s plans for the beryllium rule. Cowan later wrote an essay arguing that, thanks to existing safety rules, the workers “were never threatened by beryllium exposure to begin with.”

On May 15, Harsco employees and Cowan attended another meeting at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. Seventeen days later, OSHA announced a second delay in the rule’s implementation. And on June 27, OSHA announced its proposal to revoke the safety requirements entirely.

Both Byrne and Robert Wittman (R-Va.), then-chairman of a House subcommittee overseeing Naval programs and infrastructure had received significant campaign contributions from the Shipbuilders Council of America and the Associated Builders & Contractors.

The abrasive blasters and the other industry associations argue that existing protections are sufficient, and no abrasive blaster has ever been diagnosed with beryllium-related disease.

But not so fast, say Harte and Eisler. It turns out that:

No one is officially checking for such illnesses, say dozens of occupational health specialists and worker safety advocates interviewed by Reuters

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/10/new-role-for-trump-adviser-and-former-lawmaker-lobbyist-for-syrian-opposition/

New role for Trump adviser and former lawmaker: lobbyist for Syrian opposition

Paperwork filed this week indicates that current Donald Trump campaign senior adviser and former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), now of lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs, has become a registered lobbyist for the High Negotiations Committee of the Syrian Opposition 

... read more.

==

Count former House SpeakerJohn Boehner as the latest not-quite-a-lobbyist.

For nearly a decade, the number of registered lobbyists has slipped each year. This summer, the figure finally dipped below 10,000 — the lowest it’s been since the Center for Responsive Politics began keeping track in 1998. And that drop in lobbyists has been accompanied by a dropoff in revenue, painting a numerical picture of an industry seemingly in pronounced decline.

But the numbers ignore the hearty portion of Washington’s influence industry engaged in what’s sometimes referred to as “shadow lobbying,” unreported to the agencies that gather quarterly filings from those trying to bend federal policy in their clients’ favor.

That’s where, from all appearances, Boehner — who’s barred from having lobbying contacts with his former colleagues until he’s been out of office a year — could be a great fit.

Lobbying giant Squire Patton Boggs, currently the sixth highest-earning lobbying firm in the nation with over $9 million in billings in the first halfof this year, announced this week that Boehner will be joining the firm as a strategic adviser on global business development in the public sector. After representing Ohio for almost a quarter century, the last four of those as speaker, Boehner resigned from the House last October after struggling to resolve conflicts between conservative and centrist elements of his Republican party.

From riches to…less obvious riches

Lobbying was very much a growth industry in the early years of the millennium — revenue doubled from 1998 to 2007, and the number of registered lobbyists grew more than 40 percent. But 2008 brought a reversal that has only continued: The most recent count puts the number at just over 9,700, compared to the 2007 peak of more than 14,800. Revenue topped out at $3.5 billion in 2010, while the 2015 figure was $3.2 million. The trend line for 2016 points to another modest decrease by year’s end.

What happened?

The recession and its aftermath are typically blamed, bringing tighter wallets all around. Another factor often mentioned is worsened congressional gridlock — if bills are less likely to be passed, organizations may not invest in trying to make that happen.

But many experts insist there’s not less lobbying going on. It’s just that much of it is unreported.

Increased regulation is one reason. In 2007 — the year the number of registered lobbyists peaked — Congress passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which required lobbyists to disclose far more information about their work and included measures to slow the “revolving door” between government and the influence industry.

The legal definition of “lobbyist” remained the same: An individual must register if more than 20 percent of his/her working time is spent advocating to government officials; other guidelines exist around income and contacts with executive and legislative branch personnel. But with a new disclosure regime, and new sanctions for violators, some lobbyists began claiming their work did not meet the threshhold and unregistered.

Until HLOGA passed, “there was no downside to being a registered lobbyist — the best practice was to err on the side of over-registration,” said Caleb Burns, a partner specializing in lobbying law at the Washington law firm Wiley Rein. “Being a lobbyist now has serious potential legal consequences.”

President Barack Obama clamped down further. In his first full day in office, Obama signed two executive orders and three presidential directives curbing the work that former lobbyists could do in his administration — including on federal advisory boards and commissions, areas previously open to those in the influence game.

The orders “had a chilling effect” on the industry, said Paul Miller, president of the National Institute for Lobbying and Ethics. “It caused people to think, ‘I’ve got to find a way around this.'”

Thus the proliferation of the shadow lobbyist. People who have unregistered in each year since 2007 include those whose jobs have changed, or those who might not have needed to register in the first place but were playing it safe. But they also include those who do their fair share of lobbying work, but classify it as something different.

A 2013 study by OpenSecrets.org found that more than 46 percent of lobbyists who were registered in 2011 but not 2012 were still with the same employer, suggesting that they were continuing to contribute to lobbying efforts while avoiding the reporting limits. Industry leaders suspect this has become increasingly common in recent years.

And some, including former lawmakers, don’t have to unregister, since they never registered to begin with.

“There’s a very easy way to define yourself as a strategic adviser or someone else who, quote, ‘doesn’t lobby’… and get away with this,” said James Thurber, founder and former director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. He cited what is frequently referred to as the Daschle loophole, named for former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle (D), who lost his re-election bid in 2004 and pushed through the revolving door to become a “senior policy adviser” at the law and lobbying giant Alston & Bird. After holding similar titles at several other firms and doing work that looked and sounded much like lobbying over more than a decade, Daschle recently registered as a lobbyist for the first time.

Then there are those who aren’t simply traditional “walk the halls” lobbyists who deliberately maneuver around reporting thresholds, but also people taking advantage of the ways in which technology has opened up the influence industry, Miller noted. Advocating for legislation via electronic communications, think tank support, social media and survey research often overlaps signficantly with old-school lobbying — and much, if not most, of that goes unreported.

“There are too many people doing this job and not registering,” Miller said.

Using a broad definition of shadow lobbying that includes the above activities, “there can be maybe twice or three times” the industry-reported 2015 revenue of $3.2 billion, Thurber said.

Boehner won’t be the only former lawmaker at Squire Patton Boggs, whose extensive client list includes firms ranging from Airbus and Amazon to Wake Forest University and Walton Enterprises: Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) have been there since 2005 and 2010, respectively; they are both registered lobbyists. Boehner’s former top advisors David Schnittger and Natasha Hammond are there, as well, as “senior policy advisers.”

Boehner’s new employment was announced just days after tobacco giant Reynolds American announced he’d be joining its board.

Patton Boggs, which was among the top three earners in the industry every year from 1998 until its 2014 merger with Squire Sanders, has long been a K Street revolving door hub, boasting a big concentration of former occupants of congressional office buildings. And it’s no surprise to see that firm or others snatch up newly available former lawmakers, who can command the highest billing rates when clients ask for their help. Of the 75 House members and senators who left the Hill at the end of the 113th Congress, at least 48.8 percent went to work for lobbying firms.

What’s ahead

Many are trying to anticipate how the next president will interact with the industry — particularly whether or not she/he will keep Obama’s restrictions, and how much their repeal might actually matter. Obama has issued waivers to allow certain former lobbyists to take positions, so it’s not as though the revolving door was slammed shut.

A new president trying to staff an administration from a limited pool of qualified individuals might not want to deal with the restrictions, which have unquestionably complicated the process. The head of the nonprofit helping the presidential transition process has urged Obama to rescind the provisions himself to remove the burden from his successor.

Donald Trump‘s views on the issue remain muddy, although some of his campaign staffers, like Paul Manafort, his campaign chairman, certainly have worked in the influence industry. But there has been “a decent amount of speculation” in the lobbying world that a Clinton presidency would bring a repeal, Burns said. Clinton, after all, is staffed by people with strong connections to the industry — such as her campaign chair, John Podesta, who helped found one of Washington’s top lobbying firms. His brother, Tony, still is chairman of the Podesta Group and has bundled funds for Clinton.

Still, even if the next administration proves kinder to lobbyists, it’s not necessarily likely that many will come out of the shadows, said Wright Andrews, a lawyer-lobbyist of nearly four decades who is best known for representing the subprime mortgage industry in the early 2000s.

“That’s the way the game is played, unfortunately,” Andrews said.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/09/boehner-joins-the-not-quite-a-lobbyist-ranks/

==

ref

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000067299&year=2016

Mars Inc $390,000 - Food & Beverage

CF Industries $300,000 - Agricultural Svcs

Gazprombank $300,000 - Commercial Banks

Nissan North America $300,000 - Automotive

Takata Corp $260,000 - Misc Transport

Daybrook Holdings $240,000 - Fisheries & Wildlife

Transportation Institute $240,000 - Sea Transport

Wake Forest University $220,000 Wake Forest University Health Sciences Education

Space Exploration Technologies $210,000 - Defense Aerospace

Ad Hoc Coalition for Fair Access to Credit $200,000 - Finance/Credit

AECOM Global $180,000 - Construction Svcs

Association of American Railroads $180,000 - Railroads

FedEx Corp $180,000 - Air Transport

National Assn of Broadcasters $180,000 - TV/Movies/Music

Airlines for America $170,000 - Air Transport

California Steel Industries $170,000 - Steel Production

Airbus Group $160,000 - Air Transport

Amazon.com $160,000 - Internet

Nexus Services $160,000 - Misc Services

NLMK Inc $160,000 NLMK Pennsylvania Steel Production

Prudential Financial $160,000 - Insurance

Royal Dutch Shell $160,000 Shell Oil Oil & Gas

Sanderson Farms $160,000 - Poultry & Eggs

US Home Corp $160,000 Lennar Ventures Home Builders

Children's Tumor Foundation $120,000 - Human Rights

Denver Regional Transportation District $120,000 - Misc Transport

Hammack, Barry et al $120,000 - Lawyers/Law Firms

Huntington Ingalls Industries $120,000 - Misc Defense

LHC Group $120,000 - Health Services

Neustar $120,000 - Internet

UnitedHealth Group $120,000 - Health Services

University of Miami $120,000 - Education

GVW Group $110,000 Autocar Trucking

Amer Assn of Responsible Auto Lenders $100,000 - Finance/Credit

City of Baton Rouge, LA $100,000 - Civil Servants

City of Cincinnati, OH $100,000 - Civil Servants

City of New Orleans, LA $100,000 - Civil Servants

City of Portland, OR $100,000 - Civil Servants

Equinix $100,000 - Electronics Mfg/Eqp

North Carolina Biotechnology Center $100,000 - Pharm/Health Prod

Transurban Group $100,000 - General Contractors

AT&T Inc $90,000 - Telephone Utilities

Guggenheim Partners $90,000 - Securities/Invest

M1 Group $90,000 - Securities/Invest

Policy & Taxation Group $90,000 - Misc Issues

City of Las Vegas, NV $80,000 - Civil Servants

City of Mesa, AZ $80,000 - Civil Servants

City of San Diego, CA $80,000 - Civil Servants

City of San Jose, CA $80,000 - Civil Servants

Goldman Sachs $80,000 - Securities/Invest

Miami-Dade County, FL $80,000 - Civil Servants

Universities Space Research Assn $80,000 - Education

Aon Hewitt $60,000 - Business Services

Cerberus Capital Management $60,000 Dyncorp International Misc Defense

Chatham Area Transit Authority $60,000 - Misc Transport

Developmental Pathways $60,000 - Unknown Business

Jefferson County, CO $60,000 - Lobbyists

Metropolitan State University of Denver $60,000 - Education

Northeast Ohio Areawide Coord Agency $60,000 - Civil Servants

Ohio University $60,000 - Education

Salt Lake Community College $60,000 - Education

Teijin Twaron USA $60,000 - Food Process/Sales

Walton Enterprises $60,000 - Retail Sales

AO Smith Corp $50,000 - Misc Mfg/Distrib

Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico $50,000 - Non-Profits

Leon County, FL $50,000 Leon County Board of County Commissioner Civil Servants

Para la Naturaleza $50,000 - Non-Profits

City of Commerce, CO $40,000 - Civil Servants

City of Greenville, SC $40,000 - Civil Servants

Denver Water $40,000 - Unknown Business

Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance $40,000 - Chemicals

LiveWell Colorado $40,000 - Human Rights

Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling $35,000 - Misc Issues

Duke Energy $30,000 - Electric Utilities

Fenicia Bank $30,000 - Unknown Business

Institute of Internal Auditors $30,000 - Accountants

Klamath Basin Sustainability Coalition $30,000 - Environment

Los Angeles 2024 Exploratory Committee $30,000 - Unknown Business

Managed Funds Assn $30,000 - Securities/Invest

Solar Energy Industries Assn $25,000 - Misc Energy

Verified Voting $25,000 - Misc Issues

Al-Mawarid Bank $20,000 - Unknown Business

American Water Works Assn $20,000 - Misc Energy

IBL Bank SAL $20,000 - Unknown Business

Independent Colleges & Univ of FL $20,000 - Education

MEAB sal $20,000 - Commercial Banks

YRC Worldwide $20,000 - Trucking

Florida Admiralty Trial Lawyers Assn $10,000 - Lawyers/Law Firms

Security Industry Assn $10,000 - Business Services

Sunrise Estate Development $10,000 - Unknown Business

University of Georgia $10,000 - Education

Bella Group $0 - Unknown Business

City of Boise, ID $0 - Civil Servants

Cleveland Maritime Group $0 - Unknown Business

Mexichem Fluor Inc $0 - Chemicals

University of Florida Student Government Assn

==

tommy:

spy mag:

tommy boggs trying to get $ for guate gov (death squads) promised land reform plan that afternoon, fail

:{

}:

---

1992 dec

==

http://cloudfront-files-1.publicintegrity.org/legacy_projects/pdf_reports/THETORTURERSLOBBY.pdf

With the fall of communism and the end of the Cold War, nations such as Nicaragua, Angola and

the Eastern European countries, once caught in the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union,

have begun the long hard march toward democracy. Indeed, the world celebrates this tide of democratic

freedom and self-determination. Yet. oppression and human rights abuses persist around the globe.

Consider Guatemala, the homeland of this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchu, a

human rights activist who fled her country in the mid 1980s. Security forces tortured and murdered most

of her family for their efforts to gain respect for the rights of Guatemala's indigenous population. Menchu

does not know if she will return to live in Guatemala now that she has won the Nobel. She continues to

receive death threats.

In November 1989. Diana Ortiz, an American nun teaching in Guatemala, was kidnapped, taken to

a secret detention center, tortured and raped. A few months later, Michael DeVine, an American who was

an innkeeper in rural Guatemala, was abducted, tortured and executed by members of Guatemala's security

forces. The human rights situation has not substantially improved in Guatemala -- last year, hundreds of

political executions were reported.

Although the U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala was recalled, and U.S. military aid and commercial

arms sales to Guatemala were suspended in December 1990, the country was given nearly $91 million in

U.S. assistance in fiscal year 1991.

To keep those dollars flowing in, and to refurbish its dismal human rights image, Guatemala spent

more than $650,000 for Washington lobbyists and public relations experts. No one in Washington received

more money from Guatemala than Patton, Boggs and Blow, the powerful firm that took in $220,000 from

Guatemala in 1991. One of its assignments: prepare a status report on the Michael DeVine murder.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/tommy-boggs-110985.html

April 12, 2012 2:31 PM

In just the last few months, Bidzina Ivanishvili, one of the world's richest men with an estimated $6.5 billion fortune, hired a small army of PR consultants and lobbyists in Washington, including at least 7 of Washington’s most prominent firms. And though Ivanishvili built his business empire in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, he is, for the moment at least, a man without a country, having renounced his French and Russian citizenship and having been stripped of his Georgian citizenship, where dual citizenship is not allowed.

Politico reports today that the firms working for the billionaire businessman – includingPatton Boggs, National Strategies, Downey McGrath and a slew of others – have not filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the 1938 law that regulates efforts to influence U.S. policy on behalf of a foreign government or political party, raising a number of legal questions about the lobbying campaign.

Many more questions surround the goals of the billionaire’s Washington activity. Late last month, Rep. Jim McDermott, the Washington Democrat who stood shoulder to shoulder with Saddam Hussein on the eve of the U.S. invasion, submitted a resolution filled with praise for Ivanishvili and dripping with scorn for the current Georgian “regime,” which has been unstintingly pro-American and boasts the largest non-NATO contingent serving alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Ivanishvili’s business interests may tell part of the story. The billionaire is the single largest private investor in Russia’s state-owned gas giantGazprom. He also holds a major stake in the Russian oil company Lukoil. And he owns a bank and has massive real estate holdings in Russia. Not surprisingly, Ivanishvili has offered praise for Putin and his version of “democracy.”

Ivanishvili’s partners in Georgia have been even more strident in calling for an end to the country’s efforts to join NATO and solidify its place in the community of Western democracies.

The firms that have been enlisted in the effort have a history of working for unsavory regimes, including Patton Boggs, which also represents Beijing’s interests in Washington.

Still, at least one firm stands out as an odd choice. Peter Mirjianian Public Affairs, led by the Democratic strategist of the same name, is well known for representing Armenian interests in town, including the Armenian Church of America and the Armenian National Committee of America.

==

wiki

Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr., known as Tommy Boggs (September 18, 1940 – September 15, 2014), was an American lawyer and lobbyist, based in Washington, D.C.^[2]

Boggs was the son of Thomas Hale Boggs (1914–1972), a United States Representative from Louisiana's 2nd congressional district from 1941 to 1943 and again from 1947 until his death in 1972,^[3] and Lindy Boggs (1916-2013), her husband's successor in the 2nd congressional district from 1973 until 1991 and thereafter U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican under U.S. President Bill Clinton.^[4] His siblings included journalist and news commentator Cokie Roberts (born 1943), and Barbara Boggs Sigmund (1939-1990), who served as the mayor of Princeton, New Jersey.^[5]

Boggs, a Democrat, began his legal practice in his native New Orleans, Louisiana and later moved to Washington, D.C. to become a lawyer and lobbyist in the nation's capital. He joined the law/lobbyist firm of James R. Patton, Jr., which today is known as Squire Patton Boggs. Boggs was the firm's senior partner.^[5] With Patton Boggs, he was known for lobbying on major issues including:

• The American Bankers Association to repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act^[6]
• Litigation against Chevron for environmental issues in Ecuador^[6]
• The $1.5 billion federal bailout of Chrysler in 1979^[5]

In 1970, Boggs unsuccessfully ran for the United States House of Representatives from Maryland's 8th congressional district against incumbent Republican Gilbert Gude.^[7] The district is currently represented by the Democrat Chris Van Hollen. Boggs represented dozens of corporations, trade associations, and state and foreign governments. In 2013, The American Lawyer magazine named Boggs one of the "Top 50 Innovators in Big Law in the Last 50 Years." The National Law Journal termed him one of the most influential lawyers in the nation.^[5]

Death

Boggs died of an apparent heart attack September 15, 2014 at the age of 73.^[5] Former U.S. Senator John Breaux of Louisiana, who worked for Boggs' firm after leaving the Senate in 2005, said: "He was one of the smartest men I’ve ever known and one who had an abiding commitment to seeing how government works and explaining it to others."^[5]

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opensecrets ranks  #1 patton boggs http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/

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rev dr

CRP’s **revolving door**data, which we will continue to update, shows that 42 of the 75 who left Capitol Hill at the end of the last Congress or sometime during that two-year term are currently employed — 18 of them by lobbying firms or law firms that also lobby.

They include, among others, former Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who lost his bid for re-election and is now a “strategic advisor” at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck; Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), one of only two incumbent GOP House members to lose his seat in the 2014 Republican wave and now a senior adviser at Kelley, Drye & Warren; and Reps. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who were both poached by powerhouse firm Squire Patton Boggs. Matheson retired, while Kingston lost his bid for a Senate seat to David Perdue (R).

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Akin Gump Tops First Quarter, Squire Patton Boggs Still Feeling the Pinch

While K-Street business was down in the first quarter of the year, the biggest firm in the influence industry posted its best first quarter going back several years. By far the majority of firms saw either no growth or declined compared to the previous quarter, though, and at least one is notable for its continued decline — a slow fall from grace for the previous No. 1. The top five lobbying firms in the first quarter of both 2015 and 2014 saw just a little shuffling ... read more.

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http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/sludge-match-chevron-legal-battle-ecuador-steven-donziger-20140828

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http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/patton-boggs-chevron-ecuador-106448.html

Patton Boggs: Will it Still be King of the Hill in Lobbying, Despite Departures?

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Washington powerhouse lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLP's announcement last week that 17 partners were leaving the firm came on top of news in March that 65 lawyers and staff were being laid off, including almost two dozen in the Washington office.

Whether this is enough to dislodge the firm from its spot atop the list of high-earning lobbying firms is unclear. Since 2002, the firm has annually reported more revenue from lobbying than any other on K Street, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of disclosure forms.

Since 1998, when CRP records start, the firm has reported being paid $496.1 million, more than $96 million more than the next biggest firm. For the first quarter of 2013, that dominance has continued, withPatton Boggs earning $10.1 million. The next closest firm was Akin Gump at a relatively distant second with $7.9 million reported in the quarter.

But despite retaining its first place position, those numbers show a decline from previous years. CRP data shows 2013's first quarter to be the slowest such period the firm has had in the last three years. In 2010, it earned $10.4 million in those three months, according to disclosure reports, and in both 2011 and 2012 it reported earning more than $12 million in the first quarter.

The number of lobbyists working for the mega-firm has also declined. In the first quarter of 2010, the firm had 100 registered lobbyists working for clients. In the fourth quarter of that year, it peaked at 105. In the first quarter of 2013, however, only 92 registered lobbyists were listed.

Those numbers actually track closely with the measurable decline in recent years in the reported spending on lobbying as well as the number of registered lobbyists. Overall, a recent CRP analysis showed, the amount spent on lobbying at the federal level in the first quarter of 2013 was a full 16.7 percent lower than 2010's first quarter figure. And the total number of lobbyists has shrunk from 14,845 at its peak in 2007 to just 12,411 in 2012.

The impact of Patton Boggs' recent layoffs and departures won't show up until the firm files its second quarter report, which is due in July.

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Patton Boggs LLP — 11 Clients

If you’re a city, county, or municipal organization seeking a share of the revenue stream that acap-and-trade systemmight create — like San Diego or King County, Washington — then international law firm Patton Boggs is the place to go. Patton Boggs represented 10 local governments in the first quarter, in addition to chemical manufacturer INEOS.Nearing a half-century old, Patton Boggs has been the King of K Street since it eclipsed Cassidy & Associates as the highest-paid lobbying firm in 2003,according to the Center for Responsive Politics.Patton’s pair of municipally-minded climate lobbyists: Tanya DeRivi, a former adviser to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and Marek Gootman, a former adviser on community development policy and intergovernmental affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Patton_Boggs

Patton Boggs is a general practice law firm and high-powered lobbying firm, associated with Qorvis Communications. In addition to their Washington DC headquarters, they maintain offices in Anchorage, Dallas, Denver, Northern Virginia, and Doha, Qatar.

History

According to its website, "Patton Boggs was among the first national law firms to recognize that all three branches of government could serve as forums in which to achieve client goals... Founded in 1962 by James R. Patton, Jr., and joined soon after by George Blow and then Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr., we have maintained our strong concentration in international and trade law with over 200 international clients from over 70 countries. Patton Boggs, for example, has participated in the formation of every major multilateral trade agreement considered by Congress. But we have evolved beyond our roots to become a full-service firm with a national presence in every major area of legal representation, and have developed our business law expertise -- secured transactions, public offerings, financial services, and the like -- into our largest practice area today."^[1]

International work

In October 2008, Patton Boggs "signed a $350K six-month contract with India to serve as its public policy representative on issues coming before Congress and the Administration." The firm reports to Ronen Sen, India’s Ambassador to the U.S. ^[2]

In October 2004, Patton Boggs secured a $22,000-a-month contract with the government of Kuwait, "to win Congressional passage of the U.S.-:{Kuwait F:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:ree Trade Agreement," reported O'Dwyer's PR Daily. As part of the contract, the firm will "advise Kuwait about its current image among U.S. policymakers, prepare economic/policy briefing materials and set up meetings with government officials." The O'Dwyer's story noted, "Kuwait scored political points in the U.S. for its role of launching pad for the invasion of Iraq. Jordan was awarded an FTA with the U.S. last year."^[3]

In August 2004, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reported that the company had won a $400,000 contract with the government of Cameroon to represent it with the U.S. Congress, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. The account team will be headed by Joseph Brand, O'Dwyers reported.^[4]

In 2003, Patton Boggs started an "Iraq Reconstruction" practice area, noting: "Early estimates on the total value of reconstruction-oriented contracts from such organizations as USAID and the Army Corps of Engineers exceed $4 billion... Despite the scope and number of opportunities for contractors, competition will be strong, and regulations governing contract bidding and award present distinct challenges for companies hoping to compete for and win U.S. government contracts for reconstruction projects... Patton Boggs has represented many companies seeking and eventually winning contracts for infrastructure reconstruction in the wake of hostilities and regime change. The firm has also represented business enterprises that provide technical assistance to governments in other important realms of regime change, including transformation of state-run economies to market-based, and related efforts to privatize state-owned enterprises." The successful examples the firm cited was winning the contract to rebuild "the most difficult segment of the George W. Bush Kabul-Kandahar Highwayin Afghanistan" for a major U.S. construction company.^[5]

In November 2002, "the House Committee on Government Reform, which is investigating reports of American children kidnapped and held in Saudi Arabia, has issued subpoenas to the Kingdom's top lobbying firms Qorvis Communications, Patton Boggs and the Gallagher Group demanding they turn over their PR and lobbying records," reported O'Dwyer's PR Daily. "The Saudi Embassy claims those documents are protected under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as 'archives and documents of the mission.'" Committee head Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) rejected that argument, noting that the Vienna Convention is "intended to protect foreign diplomats but has no application to American citizens 'who choose to sell their services as public relations/lobbying mouthpieces for foreign interests'."^[6]

U.S. work

Patton Boggs has lobbied on behalf of the dietary supplement company Metabolife International. According to Associated Press, "Patton Boggs earned millions helping project reassurances to Congress and its customers that Metabolife products were safe. Patton Boggs attorneys helped prepare carefully worded responses to regulators. Between 2001 and this year, Metabolife paid Patton Boggs $1.8 million to lobby Congress."^[7]

Patton Boggs' work for Metabolife has resulted in legal scrutiny: "One former and four current Patton Boggs attorneys were subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in San Diego, court documents say. Prosecutors allege company founder Michael Ellis lied about Metabolife's safety record in a 1998 letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which documents say Patton Boggs attorneys helped draft. ... In mid 2002, Patton Boggs lobbyist Lanny Davis wrote a senator whose subcommittee was investigating Metabolife that the company had received only 78 'unproven, anecdotal allegations' of strokes, heart attacks, seizures and deaths." Company documents released just one week later revealed that the number of health complaints actually numbered in the thousands.^[8]

In April 2002, members of congress objected to a video prepared by Patton Boggs promoting exploration for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, hosted on the U.S. Interior Department's web site. The Department's distribution of the video was in apparent violation of a law forbidding federal agencies to engage in PR activities "designed to support or defeat legislation pending before the Congress." The Department is becoming "a cinema house for lobbyists," says Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey. "The Interior Department should not be spreading oil company propaganda any more than the Department of Energy should be promoting Enron stock," he said. "It's not their job."^[9]

Personnel

• :{Tommy:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}: Boggs
• John Breaux
• Mark Cowan
• Benjamin Ginsberg
• Frank Wisner^[10]

Past and present clients

Patton Boggs' more than 170 registered lobbyist employees serve a long and diverse list of clients. Some of its past and present clients include: (cited source applies to all preceding unmarked clients)

• Angola ^[11]
• Cameroon ^[12] (Sub re'd)
• Campaign for a U.S. - Afghanistan Partnership
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Egypt^[13]
• Haiti ^[14]
• India ^[2]
• Kuwait ^[15]

- Metabolife International ^[16]

- Pakistan

• Peru
• Philippines
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Sri Lanka
• Venezuela
• Abbott Laboratories
• Boston Scientific Corporation
• HCR-Manor Care, Inc., Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., Omnicare, Inc. on Medicare/ Medicaid;
• Arvesta Corporation, The Climate Council, National Grid USA, United Technologies Corporation and W. R. Grace & Company on the Superfund program;
• Arrow Electronics, CH2M Hill, DTE Energy, FirstEnergy Corporation and Los Angeles, California's Department of Water and Power on nuclear energy;
• Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
• George **Soros**'s Open Society Institute
• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.^[17]

Contact info

Patton Boggs, LLP2550 M Street NWWashington, DC 20037-1350Phone: 202-457-6000Fax: 202-457-6315Email: info AT pattonboggs.comWebsite: http://www.pattonboggs.com

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Antitrust Modernization Commission
• CAFTA
• George Soros
• Lobbying firms
• NAFTA

References

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "PB Inks India Pact," O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), October 15, 2008.
3. ↑ [2]
4. ↑ [3]
5. ↑ [4]
6. ↑ [5]
7. ↑ [6]
8. ↑ [7]
9. ↑ [8]
10. ↑ Robert Fisk, US envoy's business link to Egypt, Independent, 7 February 2011.
11. ↑ [9]
12. ↑ [10]
13. ↑ Robert Fisk, op. cit.
14. ↑ [11]
15. ↑ [12]
16. ↑ [13]
17. ↑ [14]

External resources

External articles

• Seth Hettena, "Washington lobbying firm drawn into probe of Metabolife," Associated Press, October 16, 2004.
• "PB Pushes for Kuwait," O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd.), October 15, 2004.
• Julie Gozan, "The Torturers' Lobby", Multinational Monitor, April 1993.
• The Center for Public Integrity, "Expenditures to individuals and organizations affiliated with Patton Boggs from Republican Governors Association", 2003.
• Tim Mazzucca, "Patton Boggs picks unlikely spot for international debut", Washington Business Journal, August 29, 2003.
• The Center for Responsive Politics, "Patton Boggs LLP", 1999-2000 election cycle contributions.
• Felice Wagner, "Patton Boggs' Rain Man: An Interview with Mark Cowan", March 16, 2004.
• “Cameroon picks Patton Boggs”, O’Dwyers PR Daily, August 25, 2004.
• Schema-root.org: current news feed for Patton Boggs
• "Patton Boggs Backs Nukes For India", O'Dwyers PR Daily, June 19, 2006. (Sub req'd).

Categories: Nuclear PR | Law firms | Lobbying firms | United States

Study Reveals Link Between Diesel Exhaust And Cancer

Lee Fang 3.9.2012

High-powered businessmen and lawyers conspiring to suppress government reports about how pollutants cause cancer for potentially thousands of workers — it sounds like a throwback to the tobacco wars, or something in the movies. But this type of thing happens every day in Washington, D.C. in ways that are often obscured from the public and the press.

Earlier this month, a major government study was released that shows that diesel exhaust causes lung cancer among miners. According to Nature magazine, the study identifies “sharply higher cancer rates in workers exposed to high levels of diesel exhaust.”

This landmark study had been suppressed for two decades; a ruling from the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals finally allowed its release. Although the study had been in the works since the early nineties, mining interests hired a small army of lobbyists to prevent the study from ever seeing the light of day.

Industry groups used a myriad of strategies to try to snuff out the science on diesel exhausts:

– Mining interests formed the “Mining Awareness Resource Group,” a front that deployed the K Street lobbying firm Patton Boggs to argue in court against the release of the study. The effort tied the study up in courts for years.

– Mining lobbyists recruited Congressmen John Kline (MN) and Tim Walberg (MI) to pressure government agencies to share the results of the study with industry groups and Congress instead of the public. See the lawmakers’ letter to the National Cancer Institute here.

– The Engine Manufacturers Association, a lobbying association, in a brazen attempt to politicize the science, pressured Congress to review the study and authorize its publication before it could be released.

John Morris, a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity, has chronicled the lobbying battle over the diesel exhaust study.

The documents released by the Pentagon do not show any quid pro quo between commentary and contracts. But some analysts said they had used the special access as a marketing and networking opportunity or as a window into future business possibilities.

John C. Garrett is a retired Marine colonel and unpaid analyst for Fox News TV and radio. He is also a lobbyist at Patton Boggs who helps firms win Pentagon contracts, including in Iraq. In promotional materials, he states that as a military analyst he “is privy to weekly access and briefings with the secretary of defense, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other high level policy makers in the administration.” One client told investors that Mr. Garrett’s special access and decades of experience helped him “to know in advance — and in detail — how best to meet the needs” of the Defense Department and other agencies.

In interviews Mr. Garrett said there was an inevitable overlap between his dual roles. He said he had gotten “information you just otherwise would not get,” from the briefings and three Pentagon-sponsored trips to Iraq. He also acknowledged using this access and information to identify opportunities for clients. “You can’t help but look for that,” he said, adding, “If you know a capability that would fill a niche or need, you try to fill it.“That’s good for everybody.”