Today's lesson focus is on interest groups or lobby groups. By the end
of class you will know what they are, how they operated and be able to
identify the particulars of their influence.
Go to www.opensecrets.org
click on lobbying on the left hand side of the page.Read
click on ranked sectors. Read and look at all the different sectors. Click around.
click on top spenders. Read and look around.
post a one paragraph comment on the blog explaining one specific
interest group and their influence/ interest on a particular bill.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNorthrop Grumman was all for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 bill, being the second largest supporter. I know that Northrop Grumman manufactures military ordinance like fighter jets and bombers. If they were to be for the bill, they would be able to bring in some income to their company because the government would need to buy some of their products. The corporation can't survive without selling some military equipment to protect or serve the country.
ReplyDeleteAT&T lobbied for the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 which enhances the security and resiliency of the cyber and communications infrastructure of the United States. I can understand why AT&T is interested in it because it is there to make our cyber security better.
ReplyDeleteThe ASPCA has lobbied for the Canine Members of the Armed Forces Act. This legislation would provide opportunities for military dogs to be adopted. Such examples would be government funding and acceptance of other means of donating for the ASPCA.
ReplyDeleteExxon Mobil lobbied for the Cyber Security Act of 2012. This bill helped address many cyber security issues and as well as enhancing and strengthening cyber security for research. I think that Exxon will be for this bill because it could help protect them for what ever research that they may be doing in their industry so that they could gain an upper hand against their competitors. It would also help against hackers that could hack their system and learn valuable information about their company and anything that they are doing. However, if they were for it, it failed because the bill was not passed by congress.
ReplyDeleteThe Do-not-track-online act of 2011 was sponsored and lobbied by 85 representatives from major telecommunication companies. The bill included representatives from major home and wireless phone services. I think its good major companies are fighting for privacy for their customers. It shows all that money you pay just to get in contact with someone is actually going towards something that will benefit the little guy. - Brad Benson
ReplyDeleteThere are a total of 35 lobbyists representing the American Medical Association. They have about 26 issues on Medicare/Medicaid, 5 issues with Pharmacy, and 3 issues with Tobacco. The AMA is also for bills such as The Online Pharmacy Safety Act, National Diabetes Clinical Care Commission Act, and The Medicare Patient Empowerment Act
ReplyDeleteAT&T's lobby group is voting on a bill to protect children from child pornographers. Which protects children from pornography recruiters. People stalking them and trying to gain access to them through internet and much more. AT&T are against this situation so they voted to lobby against it.
ReplyDeleteIssues for Planned parenthood are health issues, budget, religious problems, and civil rights. They have 13 lobbyists representing. The total expiditures is $1,860,644. Planned parenthood are basically trying to make things more affordable for women.
ReplyDeleteThe World Wildlife Fund has Multinational Species Conservation Funds act. This act enables the ability to protect many of the worlds endangered species. The bill has been reauthorized as of January 3, 2013. It was introduced to the House the same date. The reason this is being fought for is self explanatory. They'd like for future generations to see the animals and not look them up in a book or on the internet. They'd like for generations to be able to see a live animal instead of a skeleton in a museum. They don't want animals now to end up like the dinosaurs.
ReplyDeleteWhen looking at the lobbying site, i was suprised to see that AT&T was one of the top spenders in the government. I did not know that there was any important issues with phone companies. They have lobbied for many different bills that support cyber protection. One of them specifically, is the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. It is being passed to help get more security on cyber devices. Also they have supported wireless tax bills, location privacy protection acts, and other things that can be lined to wireless carriers. I was interested in this group because my phone is an AT&T phone and i was interested on what my family's money was supporting.
ReplyDeleteBoeing had lobbied for a bill called Cyber Intelligence sharing and protecting act of 2011. They would be for this bill because some of the stuff they do is very top secret and need to stay behind closed doors without anyone getting there hands on it and only allow certain things out. this bill just helps keep all stuff safe under the company.
ReplyDeleteThe National Cable and Telecommunication association is for the Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011. The bill will amend the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and introduce additional provisions to govern the collection and use of teen's personal info online. This lobby group has already spent $18 million in lobbying already so I wonder how much more they will spend lobbying this bill.
ReplyDeleteAARP is very interested in The transportation reauthorization, MAP-21. The AARP's interest include the increasing in funding for public transit and special needs para-transit services, promotion of older driver and pedestrian safety, expanding adoption of planning and design features to better accommodate all road way users and strengthening connections between transportation and land use to adopt complete streets which allows all users to drive safely and conveniently.
ReplyDeletei found google to be a big lobbyist company they have 120 lobbyist for their company. they spend around $300,000 on average to pay their lobbyists. They lobbied against the SOPA bill, which wants to stop the online piracy and illegal downloads. Google would not benefit from SOPA because of all the information and illegal sites you can find on Google that make the company money
ReplyDeleteI think AT&T is for the Fair Telephone Billing Act of 2012. The Fair Telephone Billing Act of 2012 is a bill that prevents unauthorized third-party charges on wireline telephone bills. I think they would lobby against that because if someone is adding on to their bill, the customers will try to look for someone who charges less.
ReplyDelete