Thursday, August 20, 2009
Figuring out which foreign governments or corporations are lobbying Congress, and how much they’re spending, has been difficult to do using data published by the Department of Justice. But now, thanks to the Sunlight Foundation and ProPublica, records filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) are more easily accessible through their Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker.
A review of FARA records from 2008 and a portion of 2007 by the two watchdog groups found more than 280 lobbying firms collected $87 million in fees for representing 340 foreign clients, including governments, government-controlled organizations, political parties, separatist groups and a handful of for-profit firms. It was also discovered that several former members of Congress have been lobbying on behalf of foreign interests, including Republican Bob Dole (Taiwan and Montenegro) and former House Appropriations Chairman Robert Livingston (Turkey and others).
According to the Sunlight Foundation and ProPublica, the 10 most active foreign countries lobbying Congress are:
1. United Arab Emirates ($10,914,002)
2. United Kingdom ($6,105,200)
3. Japan ($4,231,656)
4. Turkey ($4,185,248)
5. Iraq ($3,708,368)
6. Morocco ($3,337,392)
7. Saudi Arabia ($3,308,285)
8. South Korea ($2,941,004)
9. Netherlands ($2,694,604)
10. Equatorial Guinea ($2,408,168)
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Opening the Window on Foreign Lobbying (by Anupama Narayanswamy and Luke Rosiak, Sunlight Foundation, and Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica)
Adding it up: The Top Players in Foreign Agent Lobbying (by Anupama Narayanswamy and Luke Rosiak, Sunlight Foundation, and Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica)
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