Here's a recap of Public Campaign and Public Campaign Action Fund's (PCAF) work from September 19-September 23, 2011.

That’s the message a prominent Washington, D.C. lobbyist told the New York Times today when asked what he’s telling his clients about how to influence the members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or “supercommittee.”

Our friends at Brave New Foundation have teamed with Alternet and Salon to document how the Democrats on the "supercommittee" have actually received far more defense industry campaign cash than the Republicans serving on the committee.

It's been a whirlwind end of the summer. Here's a recap of Public Campaign and Public Campaign Action Fund's (PCAF) work from August 19-September 16, 2011.

FROM THE BLOG:

The American Petroleum Institute (API), the oil industry’s trade association, held a press call today urging deficit reduction “supercommittee” members to let oil companies “do our thing,” which includes maintaining their wasteful taxpayer subsidies.  

Two lobbyists for API have previously served as aides to members of the supercommittee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) was asked yesterday if he would join Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in giving up fundraising for his own campaign while serving on the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, or “supercommittee.”

“He currently does not have plans to cease fundraising,” his office responded.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said today that he was giving up fundraising while doing work on the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the “supercommittee.” He told the Boston Globe he was going to stop fundraising, “because I don’t want people to think that I’m being leveraged by contributions.

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or "supercommittee," will meet today for the first time, beginning a three month process to reign in the nation's deficit. Considering the flurry of fundraisers some members of the committee are lining up, they better make the most of their time.

Q: Some watchdog groups have called for a moratorium on fundraising for the 12 lawmakers on the committee that will recommend the cuts, to keep the process free of special influence. What do you think about that?

A: "Personally, I've canceled a bunch of events."

A study released today by the Institute for Policy Studies showed that 25 out of 100 of the top earning CEO's were actually paid more in compensation than their company's paid in federal taxes.