Bill Owens and Lobbyists Meet for Money This Morning
It wasn’t too long ago that Democrats were working hard to help Bill Owens gain a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. What have they gotten in return? Not much. Most recently, Congressman Owens voted to extend the worst abuses of the Patriot Act without reforming the law at all.
Still, it’s not fair to say that nobody is getting anything of worth from having Bill Owens in Congress. Take, for example, the lobbyists of Hogan & Hartson. They’re getting a great deal from Owens this morning.
At 8:00 this morning, Representative Owens is going to walk into the offices of Hogan and Harston. Inside, he’ll meet people representing corporations and political action committees. Those people will have money that they’ve brought in exchange for the privilege of meeting with Owens.
What will the clients of Hogan and Harston get in exchange for helping Bill Owens grab money for his re-election campaign in this way? Hogan and Harston is a federally registered lobbying firm that did more than 18 million dollars worth of work attempting to influence Congress on behalf of corporate clients last year. Those clients include insurance companies, pharmaceuticals firms, crude oil enterprises and mining companies.
Will Bill Owens represent the interests of these companies, or the interests of his constituents? It’s perhaps too soon to get a full idea of what sort of approach Owens wants to take in using his power in Washington D.C., but he certainly has moved quickly from his special election to Congress into a cozy relationship with the lobbyists who represent the dysfunctional status quo in our nation’s capital.
