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Introduction
In the modern era of politics, it is said that the scandal isn't the illegal behavior the
true scandal is what's legal.
Thats because todays political corruption does not take the form of cash bribes being
handed to legislators under the table in exchange for their votes on particular issues.
Instead, todays corruption is more subtle.
Todays corruption takes the form of donations coming from the coffers of special
interests going into the campaign accounts of elected officials, in an indirect but wellunderstood exchange for access to the officials office or legislative support.
#!
Source: The Federal Election Commission and the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.!
$!!
2. As of late, Congressman Marino has rapidly increased the amount of money he has
accepted from special interest PACs. In his most recent report he filed with the Federal
Elections Commission, covering just May and June, Congressman Marino disclosed
$116,650 in donations from PACs, more than he has raised from PACs in any other two
month period of his political career. In all, 64% of Congressman Marinos contributions
in May and June came from PACs.
3. Over half (56%) of Congressman Marinos donations from PACs came from 128
organizations that can be shown to have stood to benefit from Congressman Marinos
legislative actions ($503,078). This figure includes:
! $133,150 from 26 PACs whose affiliates have lobbied on or otherwise
publically advocated for bills Congressman Marino authored.
! $234,750 from 64 PACs whose affiliated corporations belong to trade
organizations that lobbied on or otherwise publically advocated for bills
Marino authored.
! $205,178 from 52 PACs whose affiliates have repeatedly lobbied on issues
and bills that fall under the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual
Property, Courts, and the Internet, which Marino sits on.
! $256,678 from 46 PACs whose affiliates have repeatedly lobbied on issues
and bills that fall under the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on
Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies, which
Congressman Marino also sits on.
Source: The Federal Election Commission and the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
4. While most of Congressman Marinos PAC donors are affiliated with corporations or
other economic interests, 10.8% of Congressman Marinos total PAC donations came
from other congressmen or from lobbying firms ($69,000 and $28,500, respectively).
%!
Methodology
Links of political influence in Washington are notoriously difficult to trace. One might
reasonably assume that no corporation or special interest would donate to a member of
Congress unless it expected some legislative action or other favor in return but it is
nearly impossible to definitely prove any connection between the groups that donate and
the actions a member takes.
This report takes a simple but powerful approach. There are two basic ways in which
members actions can benefit a special interest: through the bills they introduce, and
through other actions on the committees and subcommittees they sit on. Because of this,
the groups that can most easily be shown to stand to benefit from a particular members
actions are those that have publically supported bills s/he introduces, and those with a
vested interest in issues dealt with by the committees and subcommittees s/he sits on.
This report goes through all 267 PACs that have contributed to Congressman Marino and
identifies those that meet one of these two criteria: advocating for a bill Congressman
Marino has authored or that lobbies on issues relevant to a subcommittee Congressman
Marino sits on.
A PAC is defined as advocating for a bill if it a) reported itself as lobbying on the bill in
question, b) published or signed a statement supporting the bill, c) is a member of a trade
organization that lobbied on the bill or a trade organization that published or signed a
statement supporting it. It is important to include trade organizations such as America's
Natural Gas Alliance or the Health IT Now Coalition in this definition, because
companies in the same industry often consolidate their lobbying efforts behind trade
organizations while continuing to donate separately. A member of a trade organization
that supports a particular bill is highly likely to stand to benefit from that bill as well.
A PAC is defined as lobbying on issues relevant to a subcommittee if, over multiple
reporting periods, it has reported itself as lobbying on issues or bills under the jurisdiction
of that subcommittee. This report examines PACs with interests in the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Courts, and the Internet and the Homeland
Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security
Technologies, even though Congressman Marino sits on a total of six subcommittees.
The results are necessarily incomplete because this report is not exhaustive. Were
the report to go through every bill Congressman Marino has cosponsored, each
amendment he has offered, all votes he has taken, each committee he sits on, and money
Super-PACs may expend independently on his reelection, it could almost certainly find
many more connections between Marinos donors and legislative activity. The figures
included in this report simply represent the most obvious stories and the clearest linkages.
The criteria rely on no subjective judgments, and the results could be reproduced by
anyone. All of the figures that comprise the reports findings are calculated in the
Appendix.
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(!!
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Source: The Federal Election Commission and the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Conclusion
This report is intended to raise important questions based on verifiable facts and publicly
available information; it is not intended to offer conclusive answers with regard to the
Congressmans legislative activity or to suggest any unlawful behavior.
Indeed, Congressman Marino very well may be able to justify the legislative activity in
question on its own merits, independent of the campaign contributions he has received.
But that would be beside the point.
The financing of our elections and the functioning of our political process in such a
fashion should be unacceptable. Citizens should not have to question the motivations of
their representatives, although they may disagree with their actions. The appearance of
corruption can be just as poisonous to our democracy as corruption itself, as public trust
and confidence in our institutions decline, so too does active civic participation.
There is a better way, and it can start when voters head to the polls on November 4th.
Because no matter how powerful the special interests become in Washington, the
most powerful force in our government remains the votes of the people.
*!!
"+!
(H.R.1587)
(H.R.2641)
(H.R.2641)
(H.R.2641)
(H.R.2641)
(H.R.1752)
!
""!
(H.R.3239)
(H.R.3239)
(H.R.1587)
(H.R.4069)
(H.R.5179-84)
(H.R.2641)
"#!
(H.R.4069)
(H.R.2641)
!
"$!
"%!
!
"&!
"'!
!
"(!
")!
Donated to Marino?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Donated to Marino?
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Appendix C: Notes
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i
See: https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/iacp.siteym.com/resource/resmgr/CCH_2014/CCH_2014_Ask_Document_for_Su.pdf?hhSearchT
erms=%224069%22
ii
Committee for a Responsive Politics, https://www.opensecrets.org/cmteprofiles/
iii
See: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/284350/congress-censors-internetnathaniel-botwinick
iv
http://www.politicspa.com/rep-marino-to-remain-co-sponsor-of-sopa-will-try-toamend-the-bill/30949/
v
For a list of SOPA supporters, see: Smith, Lamar United States House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee List of Supporters H.R. 3661, the "Stop Online
Piracy Act"
vi
See: http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/news/2014/04/reps-chu-andmarino-call-for-support-of-the-songwriter-equity-act.aspx
vii
Committee for a Responsive Politics,
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cycle=2014&cmte=C00228296
viii
GE: http://www.gelighting.com/LightingWeb/na/resources/understanding-rare-earthmetals.jsp
Cardinal Health: http://extww02a.cardinal.com/us/en/distributedproducts/ASP/H216034.asp?cat=laboratory&mfr=Corning
Honeywell: https://www.alarmgrid.com/products/honeywell-944tre
L-3: http://www2.l-3com.com/aoc/products/r_tfc.htm
DuPont: http://www2.dupont.com/Dimethyl_Sulfate/en_US/uses_apps/other.html
ix
http://www.kidneycarepartners.org/images/hr4814-onepager.pdf
!
"*!