Special interests gave millions to budget panel

The 12 lawmakers appointed to a new congressional supercommittee charged with tackling the nation's fiscal problems have received millions in contributions from special interests with a direct stake in potential cuts to federal programs, an Associated Press analysis of federal campaign data has found.

The newly appointed members — six Democrats and six Republicans — have received more than $3 million total during the past five years in donations from political committees with ties to defense contractors, health care providers and labor unions. That money went to their re-election campaigns, according to AP's review.

Supporters say the lawmakers were picked for their integrity and experience with complicated budget matters. But their appointments already have prompted early concerns from campaign-finance watchdog groups, which urged the lawmakers to stop fundraising and resign from leadership positions in political groups.

The congressional committee, created as part of the debt limit and deficit reduction agreement enacted last week, is charged with cutting more than $1 trillion from the budget during the coming decade. If the committee doesn't decide on cuts by late November — or if Congress votes down the committee's recommendations — spending triggers would automatically cut billions of dollars from politically delicate areas like Medicare and the Pentagon.

The lawmakers represent a large swath of political ideology and geography, but they have some things in common: They received more than $1 million overall in contributions from the health care industry and at least $700,000 from defense companies, the AP found. Those two industries, especially, are sensitive to the outcome of the committee's negotiations because the automatic spending cuts could affect them most directly.

The committee's co-chairs — Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas — each received support from lobbyists and political committees, including those with ties to defense contractors and health care lobbyists. Hensarling's re-election committee, for instance, received about $11,000 from Lockheed Martin and $8,500 from Northrop Grumman.

Companies like Lockheed rely heavily on government contracts: More than 80 percent of Lockheed's net sales during the first six months of 2011 came from the U.S. government, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records. And in SEC filings two weeks ago, Northrop expressed concern of a "material adverse effect" on its finances had the debt ceiling not been raised.

The other panel members are Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.; Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; and Rob Portman, R-Ohio; and Reps. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.; Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.; Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; and Michigan Republicans Dave Camp and Fred Upton.

The AP's analysis shows the extent to which special interests have directly supported the 12 members during their tenures in Congress, including support from agriculture businesses ($600,000) and labor unions ($580,000). Big checks also came in from the banking and insurance industry.

The extent of potential conflicts could be even greater than the AP's analysis shows. The AP measured contributions from industry PACs to lawmakers' election committees. But it didn't capture amounts from independent expenditures, such as donations, from defense executives and their families or money given to leadership political committees.

Even still, influence can extend beyond direct campaign contributions. Senate records show that Murray, also the chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was named in so-called honoree payments of more than $1 million from lobbyists since 2008. Such honoree contributions are sent to groups associated with members of Congress or for events held in their honor.

Murray spokesman Matt McAlvanah said Thursday that the senator "has made a career out of standing up for working families and against special interests. And that's reflected in her personal story, her votes and the policies she has championed."

Already, even as the final appointments to the committee were announced Thursday, watchdog groups said the panel members will be under remarkable pressure from outside interests. Public Campaign, one such group in Washington, said establishing the committee "will make it cheaper for Wall Street, tax-dodging corporations and special-interest lobbyists to influence the spending cuts and revenue debate in Washington as the focus shifts to just 12 members of Congress."

Bob Edgar, president of the advocacy group Common Cause, said that "with the public already disgusted with Washington in the wake of the debt-limit debacle, it's vital that people have confidence that supercommittee members are thinking about the nation's best interests, not positioning their party or worrying about how their decisions appear to donors."

Public Campaign also called on Murray to step down immediately as head of the Democratic campaign committee.

The White House called such complaints "silly criticism."

"Elected members of Congress are responsible: They take an oath, they are responsible to serve their constituents and their country," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters this week. "We expect every member on the committee to take that responsibility seriously."

22 debt bill protesters arrested

U.S. Capitol Police arrested 22 protesters Monday for disrupting the House of Representatives' debt-ceiling debate.

Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said the noisy protesters in the visitors' gallery were taken into custody about 3:20 p.m. EDT and cited with "disruption of Congress," The Wall Street Journal reported.

The protesters expressed disapproval of corporate tax breaks that were not eliminated in the compromise deal worked out by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama, the newspaper said.

The House later passed the deficit-cutting and debt ceiling-raising measure. The Senate is to take it up Tuesday.

U.S. budget-debt votes set with 1 day left

Congressional leaders said they hoped to pass a compromise bill by Monday night to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and cut spending $2.4 trillion, averting default.

The bill, worked out largely between Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, provides for an initial $917 billion in spending cuts over 10 years followed by another $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in cuts that a special joint congressional committee would be charged with finding through a tax overhaul and changes to safety-net programs, the congressional leaders and White House said.

No one speaking Sunday night said they liked the bill -- in fact, virtually every politician said they would have preferred something different -- but the compromise "will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America," President Barack Obama said.

U.S. Treasury officials have said the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling had to be raised by Tuesday or the government could run short of money to pay its bills, including payments to veterans, contractors and Social Security recipients.

"Is this the deal I would have preferred?" Obama said Sunday on national TV. "No."

But the deal also ensures "we will not face this same kind of crisis again in six months or eight months or 12 months," Obama said. "And it will begin to lift the cloud of debt and the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over our economy."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told House Republicans in a conference call Sunday night: "If I wrote this myself, it would look different. But I wouldn't agree to it or put it on the floor if it violated our principles or would hurt the economy," Republicans who participated in the call told The Washington Post.

Boehner hailed "the courage of all of you for helping us take this giant step forward," the participants told the Post.

"It shows how much we've changed the terms of the debate in this town," The Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying.

In pressing Tea Party conservatives to support the compromise, he said voting against it would lead to a "job-killing default" that would further hurt the bleak employment picture, The New York Times reported.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats might be reluctant to rally behind the bill.

"I look forward to reviewing the legislation with my caucus to see what level of support we can provide," she said in a statement.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he knew "this agreement won't make every Republican happy -- it certainly won't make every Democrat happy either."

But "the American people demanded compromise, and today they got it," he said, adding he was "relieved" leaders from both parties reached a compromise that ended "this dangerous standoff."

McConnell, R-Ky., said the measure provided a framework to "ensure significant cuts [are made] in Washington spending -- and we can assure the American people tonight that the United States of America will not for the first time in our history default on its obligations."

Asian stock markets responded favorably to the deal, with the Nikkei 225 stock index up nearly 2 percent in late-afternoon trading and the U.S. dollar rising against the Japanese yen and the euro.

McConnell and Reid said they planned for a Senate vote as soon as Monday afternoon. If the measure passes as expected, it would move to the House, which could vote as soon as Monday night, Boehner told GOP lawmakers in the conference call.

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