Spotlight on Congress

May 30, 2017 - The House of Representatives voted to eliminate a permit requirement for pesticides last week, as sponsors of the measure received 12 times more in campaign contributions from the agricultural chemical industry than the bill’s opponents.

May 22, 2017 - Former U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been working for a major oil and gas company as it has sought to limit political damage after a deadly explosion near one of its Colorado wells, according to a spokesperson for Colorado Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper and emails obtained by International Business Times and MapLight.

May 17, 2017 - Days after a gas line linked to an Anadarko Petroleum well ignited a deadly home blast in Colorado, the company’s chief executive said the “terrible tragedy has left all of us with heavy hearts.” But even as investigators were picking through the wreckage, the company moved to fight a new bill that would have forced it to tell Colorado homeowners how close they live to oil and gas operations.

May 11, 2016 - The nation’s tax lobbying industry, already the second-largest source of arm-twisting activity on Capitol Hill, could see its biggest payday in more than three decades if President Donald Trump’s plan to slash corporate taxes is taken seriously by lawmakers.

Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

May 4, 2017 - A MapLight analysis of campaign contributions found that members of the House Financial Services Committee who voted for the the Financial CHOICE Act received almost 80 percent more money during the 2016 election cycle from commercial banks and holding companies than representatives who voted against it.