Very telling report that is a year old, but I filled in some of the details of the Last year and added more links and commented on the extraordinary number of dots converging in late 2019 into 2020, almost like it was planned....
AN OPENSECRETS REPORT
— By Karl Evers-Hillstrom and Dan Auble, Aug. 19, 2020
As Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) negotiated the legislative response to the COVID-19 pandemic, their former aides lobbied them on behalf of deep-pocketed companies.[I want to note the date, the events of the last 378 days, and Trump owns what he owns, he could have put a halt to the whole thing, the thing being...the vaxx, because THAT is what this whole s*#t show has been about from the start! DC]
Over 1,000 clients dispatched lobbyists with close ties to the White House or congressional leaders through the first half of 2020. About 40 percent of those clients reported lobbying on issues related to the pandemic.
Pharmaceutical companies that received massive windfalls from the federal government to swiftly develop COVID-19 vaccines, deployed Washington insiders. So did firms tasked with producing ventilators, and businesses in hard-hit industries angling for government aid. Companies that had not lobbied during the Trump administration — or ever before — signed contracts with K Street firms.[ The ever before part could, I say could have nefarious implications, if viewed in a certain manner of association, (all emphasis-bolding and underlining not related to links is done by blogger) DC]
The vast majority of these clients are businesses or trade associations, which make up nearly 90 percent of lobbying spending this year. The success of revolving door lobbyists indicates that powerful interests saw former aides to top officials as their best chance to influence high-level negotiations that mostly sidelined rank-and-file lawmakers.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed over 170,000 Americans as of mid-August. Tens of millions have lost their jobs, and expanded unemployment benefits recently expired. As government rescue loans run out, thousands of companies — including hard-hit small businesses — are making those layoffs permanent. Millions more face the prospect of homelessness, with Congress failing to extend the eviction moratorium included in the initial stimulus package.
During the early stages of the pandemic, leaders of both parties came together to pass the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which delivered aid to businesses, hospitals and unemployed workers, among its many provisions. Overall lobbying spending reached an all-time high in the first three months of 2020 as powerful companies scrambled to get their voices heard in high-level negotiations. House Democrats passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act in May, drawing another chorus of lobbying activity. Republicans refused to vote on that legislation in the Senate but did not pass their own stimulus bill.[ in reality they added 2.2 trillion fake ass dollars tax on the American Peoples backs, governments should not be allowed to make contracts they themselves cannot deliver on at the time of the contract. dc ]
Over 4,400 clients reported lobbying on issues related to COVID-19, and near-record numbers of clients reported lobbying on the two biggest bills meant to address the crisis.
As the nation grapples with an unparalleled health crisis, Republican and Democratic leaders are unable to agree on the solution. President Trump this month signed a series of executive orders, including one that aims to extend unemployment benefits, but it's unclear when that money will reach individuals or how much money they will get. Both the House and Senate left Washington without a deal in place.[ Who knows who will be here, or if there will even be a country in 2022 when these vermin are next up to cheat in their election, but we the people in every single state in America would be far better off, if every single seated member up for election in 22 was voted OUT of congress. People have to be mind controlled to keep these people in power. Think about how that last paragraph ended, were they thinking of you and me, or were thinking about the corporations that own them/ DC]
Lobbying spending broke records in the first quarter, but it declined to its lowest level since Trump took office in the second quarter from April through June as legislation stalled. Lobbying by the energy & natural resources sector dropped by 21 percent year-over-year after energy companies lost out in the first stimulus package. Every major sector cut its lobbying spending with the exception of the health sector, which was bolstered by new lobbying activity from hospitals, drugmakers and other healthcare firms.
Despite this drop, every top K Street firm — each of which employ former aides to Trump or congressional leaders, or former lawmakers — actually increased their revenue in that period. [his idea of making America great 'again', let me know when you locate that first time, because I have searched high and low, and while for the most part the American people have been great, this has never been the case of Washington D.C, in fact the majority of problems that the American people have suffered from, have their origin in that cesspool. The State does not care for us, people... and this has never been more apparent then now. The ACLU does not speak for me with their latest horses*$t about 'civil liberties and forced vaxx by a state that does not represent me! DC ]
The bump in revenue can be partially attributed to companies hiring lobbyists for the first time. More than 1,400 clients that had not previously lobbied during the Trump administration hired lobbyists during the first half of 2020. Over one-third of those clients reported lobbying on issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[The timing on this, when you look into planning the event which we now know dates back to at least 2015 on the trap, which predates Trump's election, makes me suspicious of the whole three ring circus of 2017-18 and 19, then this onslaught of 'new clients' in what turned out to be Trump's last year, which now I can say looks like part of the plan to me. That plan involves the U.N. I am sorry to say D.C]
Ballard Partners led the way, bringing in 39 clients that are new to lobbying. Florida power player and Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard didn't lobby on the federal level until after Trump took office. Now he represents 123 clients — more than any other lobbyist — and his firm has catapulted its way into the top 10 highest paid firms by increasing its revenue every year.
Ballard chaired Trump's joint fundraising committee in 2016 and served as vice chairman of Trump's inaugural committee, and he's tasked with raising money for the president's reelection effort and the Republican National Convention. His extensive ties to Trump make him one of the go-to lobbyists for anyone attempting to influence executive branch policy.
His new clients included TL Management, a nursing home company owned by Trump donor Eliezer Scheiner. The company received over $27 million in COVID-19 grants and loans despite allowing poor living conditions amid the pandemic. TL Management spent $165,000 lobbying Congress and the Trump administration in the second quarter after never hiring lobbyists before. [that's a damn good return on your investment there folks, wait to you see whats coming, like reels on a slot machine, the stink lurks from that link. DC]
Ballard had his share of high-profile clients before the pandemic hit, including Amazon, Boeing, GEO Group, H&R Block, Uber Technologies and Laboratory Corp of America.
Top Leadership Lobbyists
Top Leadership Lobbyists
His services were particularly helpful for General Motors when Trump ordered the carmaker to produce ventilators for the U.S. government. General Motors lobbied the White House with Ballard and Pam Bondi, former Florida attorney general and one of Trump's lawyers during the impeachment trial. The company also hired former Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.), a former Trump campaign and transition team aide, and paid him $50,000 in the second quarter to lobby the president's office on "implementation of the Defense Production Act relating to the emergency mass production of ventilators for COVID-19 treatment." [ That's a real pisser, when we consider what we found out about the trap and ventilators, like more harm then any good if any DC]
Trump invoked the Defense Production Act in late March to spur General Motors to start producing ventilators and went to Twitter to accuse the company of ripping off the government. However, Trump did little to enforce the order and later reversed course and praised the carmaker. In early April, General Motors signed a $490 million contract with the federal government to produce ventilators. Its partner in the expansive operation, Ventec Life Systems, hired lobbyists this year for the first time since Trump took office, and spent $230,000. [Speaking of General Motors, a company built on a business plan that failed, and by all natural rights should no longer exist, and after getting bailed out on our dime in 2009, they get a half billion dollar contract for something it turns out not needed except in Bothell Washington, outside Seattle, Michigan and Washington, interesting states given how those states have 'been' in the 'news', as told by the MSM, clearly lines drawn politically speaking, but it sure looks like the good old boy system to me, however they choose to identify for the public, I can not see a left or right, all I see is the system, and nothing changed from 2016 to 2020, it's not called the Military Industrial Complex by mistake, the last word is meant to mislead the mind into looking at it as a 'deep' subject, but if one looks at it objectively, it is easy to identify the people and entities involved in the destruction of Life here on Earth. They are CLEARLY part of the world, and seek our death as they understand life, If someone is trying to tell you, How you should live your Life at Present, understand they are NOT a Free Spirit, and do not belong here on the Earth at this time. DC ]
General Electric's healthcare units, which received a $64 million contract to build ventilators, spent $230,000 on lobbying through the first half of the year after spending $40,000 through all of 2019. The parent company employs lobbyists tied to Trump, McConnell and Pelosi. AdvaMed, the leading trade association for medical device companies, retains lobbyists who previously worked for Trump and each of the top four congressional leaders. AdvaMed has consistently advocated against use of the Defense Production Act for ventilators, a measure Trump has mostly avoided.
Vaccine manufacturers also attempted to make inroads with the White House as they pushed for government contracts.
Before Maryland vaccine developer Novavax received a $1.6 billion federal government contract in July to fast-track a COVID-19 vaccine, it increased its lobbying spending five-fold in the second quarter to dispatch lobbyists from Faegre, Drinker et al to the White House. Its team included Sarah-Lloyd Stevenson, a former Trump administration official who advised the White House's Domestic Policy Council. The lobbying filing said Stevenson did not lobby executive branch officials. [Novavax is an interesting link for two reasons, given the size of the contract, these eyes and ears have not heard much in the 'media' when compared to Pfizer and Moderna. Could this be because of their different approach toward shall we say looking at things. If I am reading this information correctly about Novavax and their technology, this has to be the company that has 'the isolated virus', the spike protein, how did they know which one was the spike protein, without possessing the virus ? https://www.novavax.com/our-unique-technology dc ]
Trump ran on a promise that he would "drain the swamp." In his first month in office, Trump banned administrative aides from lobbying their agency for five years after they leave the administration. However, those rules are barely enforced and many former aides have skirted the rules by becoming shadow lobbyists, leaving the revolving door free to keep spinning. Meanwhile, the Trump administration cabinet is filled with several former lobbyists. [pattern developing here dc]
Inovio Pharmaceuticals terminated its lobbying contract with McGuireWoods LLP at the end of 2019, but it picked the firm back up in the second quarter to deploy Robert Wasinger, former White House State Department liaison. Wasinger reported lobbying Congress on "advocacy and education for development of the Coronavirus vaccine" but did not report lobbying the executive branch. In June, the Pentagon signed a $71 million contract with the Pennsylvania biotech firm for vaccine devices. [Inovio Pharmaceuticals is an American biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of synthetic DNA products for treating cancers and infectious diseases.[key words folks..... synthetic DNA commercialization, or stealing your DNA for profit. ... https://www.inovio.com/dna-medicines-technology/ dc ]
The lobbying ban doesn't apply to Trump campaign aides. Trump campaign adviser David Urban has seen his firm American Continental Group increase its revenue every year since Trump took office. Urban picked up a handful of new clients in the second quarter, including Lyndra Therapeutics and Zoom Video Communication, which made its first foray into lobbying amid the pandemic.
Barry Bennett, senior adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign, saw his firm's revenue skyrocket this year. He brought in a new client in Arcturus Therapeutics, which pushed its COVID-19 vaccine to the White House in its first ever lobbying campaign. However, the firm dropped its lobbying spending from $30,000 to less than $5,000 in the second quarter as other companies scored prized vaccine contracts under the government's "Operation Warp Speed" program. [another cashing in the last year....A.T. one of those according to the mysterious analysts of Wall St horses$$t clients hoping to get eaten up by bigger fish dc ]
Almost all of the companies that have received contracts under the program deploy lobbyists that worked for Trump or congressional leaders. The program itself is overseen by Moncef Slaoui, who previously led GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine department. GlaxoSmithKline — which hired former Trump administration official Neal Patel as a lobbyist last year — received a $2.1 billion government contract to deliver a COVID-19 vaccine along with fellow pharmaceutical giant Sanofi. [and is anyone keeping track of the B's that are being put on our tab, by a government, I see close to 7 with the two below with Pfizer, and remember these folks in Washington DC are talking trillions in the beginning with their 'Act'....and I can take that in more ways then one. dc ]
Pfizer received a $2 billion contract under the program to deliver 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine. As one of the biggest industry players, the firm retains lobbyists closely tied to the president and congressional leaders. They include Jeff Miller, vice chairman of Trump's inaugural committee and a well-connected fundraiser who has bundled millions of dollars for Trump's reelection campaign. His firm Miller Strategies didn't exist until Trump took office. Yet it rakes in more money each year, and Miller's firm had its best quarter from April through June with $3.4 million in revenue. [well I couldn't resist and Jeff Miller is quite clear about what he thinks Miller Strategies are about here.....Miller Strategies, LLC is a full-service government relations firm dedicated to effective strategy and advocacy, and uniquely positioned to help clients ...the way its done in Washington forever.... https://www.millerstrategies.com/ dc ]
Miller also lobbies for the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, the industry's trade group that routinely ranks among the top lobbying spenders each year. Both pharmaceutical giants also hired Benjamin Howard, a former White House official. Howard brought in major clients in his first year as a lobbyist, including the National Governors Association which spent $90,000 in the second quarter to lobby for the first time since 2017. [ will say it again, covid has been tracked back to 2015, 2020 is looking darker and darker with every paragraph, and I do not mean in the sense of a stolen election. You have to be blind to miss all these flags pointing toward prior knowledge of events to Trump. dc ]
In addition to dispatching Trump-tied lobbyists, Pfizer and its trade group also deploy former aides of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Both retain Dean Aguillen, former senior adviser to Pelosi, and Pfizer also hired Shanti Ochs Stanton, former special assistant to Pelosi.[ Stanton runs a propaganda mill called Subject Matter here... https://teamsubjectmatter.com/ dc ]
Stanton was part of a team of lobbyists working for ApiJect Systems, a little known medical device company that received a $138 million government contract in May to deliver COVID-19 vaccines. Having never lobbied before, ApiJect Systems hired Stanton and others at her firm, Subject Matter, in April. [ApiJect turns up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ApiJect_Systems It starts with this bit of news here... from Fierce Pharma.... https://www.fiercepharma.com/drug-delivery/apiject-snares-590m-government-loan-for-gigafactory-to-produce-billions-pre-filled and a year and now 5 months later,we have this.... https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/trump-administration-awarded-firm-1-3-billion-make-covid-vaccine-n1263872 notice that number is a lot higher then the reported 138 million in August 2020, in this report you are reading and now for some of the fine print from the second link above...'The cash will fund the construction of a multi-facility campus in Triangle Park, North Carolina"...Apiject is a to be company in Triangle Park https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article253729028.html, which is an all together different thing then a 'system' from a company, which from the looks of things is in question depending on ones perspective. Then at least to me, the source of the loan in the second link, gives off huge red flags with these critters...https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are#:~:text=U.S.%20International%20Development%20Finance%20Corporation%20(DFC)%20is%20America's%20development%20bank.&text=DFC%20also%20provides%20financing%20for,human%20rights%2C%20and%20worker%20rights. starting with their words..." DFC partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today.", reading that has me wondering about a half billion $$ deal in North Carolina. because the last time I checked North Carolina was not part of the developing world. Founded in DECEMBER of 2019, 'The United States International Development Finance Corporation is the development finance institution of the United States federal government, '....https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are This one stinks and needs more research into the timing of it's creation by the guilty, sure seems lt's serving a different purpose then the one stated, just cannot get past the growing group of dots gathering in late 2019 and throughout 2020 to foreknowledge of Covid by the administration. dc ]
Nadeam Elshami, former Pelosi chief of staff, lobbies for several pharmaceutical giants including AbbVie, Amgen, Eli Lilly & Co, Purdue Pharma and Roche Holdings. With 68 clients, Elshami ranks among the top lobbyists. Elshami, former White House aide Chris Cox and former Trump administration official Emily Felder are three of the 68 lobbyists who worked with Johnson & Johnson, which inked a $1 billion deal with the federal government to deliver its COVID-19 vaccine.[hired guns everywhere,some for more then one and another B. on our bill, with another of the old boys network.... https://www.jnj.com/ dc ]
Elshami works with Brian McGuire, former chief speechwriter for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump administration official, at Brownstein, Hyatt et al. Taking in more than $23 million so far this year, the powerhouse K Street firm is on track to have its best year ever. The firm picked up 33 clients that had not lobbied during the Trump administration. The National League of Cities hired lobbyists for the first time since 2007 in the second quarter and dispatched Elshami and McGuire to lobby their former bosses as cities unsuccessfully appealed Congress to get additional aid[they can't give these guys everything, $23 million is not chump change, the cities? oh well maybe next time! dc ]
Akin, Gump et al, the top lobbying firm with $25 million in 2020 revenue, also deploys a team of former aides to Pelosi and McConnell. Arshi Siddiqui, former Pelosi senior policy adviser, picked up new clients in the second quarter including the Cruise Lines International Association, which paid $50,000 to lobby Congress for assistance to the ailing industry. Siddiqui also lobbied on behalf of US Physician Partners. The coalition of physician staffing groups shelled out $320,000 to Siddiqui's firm to ensure a fix to "surprise" medical bills that was left out of stimulus packages. Democrats' proposal barred these last minute bills for COVID-19 treatment but not for other medical procedures. [ this comes as no surprise that these critters are playing a large part in the narrative about covid, not at all .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akin_Gump_Strauss_Hauer_%26_Feld
Medical device giant Abbott Laboratories picked up Siddiqui and her coworker Brendan Dunn, a former McConnell policy adviser, in the second quarter. The firm paid $40,000 to monitor COVID-19 legislation. Dunn is one of three former McConnell aides representing KKR & Co, a powerful private equity firm that has strongly opposed a fix to "surprise" medical bills. Hospitals owned by private equity giants such as KKR, Apollo Global Management and Cerberus Capital Management received a massive windfall from the government in the form of low-interest loans meant for struggling healthcare facilities. Brownstein, Hyatt's Carmencita Whonder, former aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, lobbied for both KKR and Apollo. [KKR & Co, do not seem like the type to play nice... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg_Kravis_Roberts this right here tells you who these peope are and what they are about. https://www.propublica.org/article/investors-extracted-400-million-from-a-hospital-chain-that-sometimes-couldnt-pay-for-medical-supplies-or-gas-for-ambulances dc ]
Former McConnell aides represent some of the most influential and powerful clients in COVID-19 talks. Dunn and Hunter Bates, former McConnell chief of staff, both represent the US Chamber of Commerce for Akin, Gump. The top lobbying spender each year, the big-business group pushed McConnell to include many of its top priorities — including a measure to shield businesses from lawsuits over COVID-19 — in his stimulus proposal unveiled last month. John Abegg, who served as McConnell's chief counsel for nearly two decades, also lobbies for the Chamber. [the big business group they are talking about is not the Chamber of Commence, remember it's these critters https://www.akingump.com/en/ and look who's side they chose with the covid pys.op, not us folks dc]
Kyle Simmons, former McConnell chief of staff, lobbies for pharmaceutical giants and powerful airlines that received specified aid in the CARES Act. He also lobbied for the American Health Care Association, a trade group representing nursing home companies that has reportedly pushed for liability protections like those that McConnell proposed. Hazen Marshall, former McConnell policy director, launched a firm last year that quickly attracted pharmaceutical companies and brought in $1.2 million through the first half of 2020.
Manufacturing giant 3M deployed Marshall and former Pelosi aide Anne MacMillan to lobby Congress over measures in the stimulus proposals. The Minnesota company has raked in a half-billion dollars from government agencies to produce millions of masks and other equipment.
Former aides to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also pulled in major clients. Emily Murry, former McCarthy policy adviser and Ways & Means Committee health aide, represents numerous high-profile pharmaceutical companies. Those include AstraZeneca, which received a $1.2 billion government contract to provide a COVID-19 vaccine. Primary care provider One Medical lobbied for the first time in the second quarter, paying $60,000 to hire Murry and other lobbyists at Tarplin, Downs & Young. They lobbied Congress and the White House over the HEROES Act and relief funds for healthcare providers created by the CARES Act. [that covers at least 10 B's, and who knows where else in that CARES ACTS...yeah about who? The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, is a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill passed by the 116th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020, in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Almost afraid to look at this Cares Act, the thing I would note right off that from the original bill, the people lost 200 Billion in direct payments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARES_Act dc ]
John Stipicevic, former McCarthy deputy chief of staff, represented 48 clients through the first half of the year. His new second-quarter clients included American Airlines Group and the new-to-lobbying Hazmat TSDF.[ fancy for recycling and waste, garbage dumps.. Hazmat TSDF. dc ]
These former aides of congressional leaders represent a fraction of the revolving door lobbyists who influenced government policy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Some lobbyists didn't work for Trump but had other connections that likely helped them find clients. For example, Wayne King served as deputy chief of staff to then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). Shortly after Meadows took the White House chief of staff position and took over stimulus negotiations on behalf of Trump, King registered as a lobbyist and took on four clients, including the American Associated Pharmacies and the American Pharmacy Cooperative, both first-time lobbying spenders. [these folks are into it up to their eyeballs.. https://rxaap.com/ along with this crowd.. https://www.apcinet.com/ dc ]
Then there are shadow lobbyists who do not register as lobbyists, but their connections still make their firms attractive to clients. For example the lobbying arm of law firm Michael, Best & Friedrich has already brought in more money this year than in any previous years. It's run by former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, but he has not registered as a lobbyist. [shout out to opensecrets.org, hope my commentary added to this well written report dc ]
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/reports/covid-19-lobbying-and-revolving-door
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