Donald Shaw

Oil and gas lobbying groups are reaching new highs in their Facebook ad spending as they organize people across the country to lobby their senators and representatives against climate and tax provisions in the Democrats’ reconciliation bill.  Since August 11, when the Senate passed a resolution authorizing itself to fast-track a reconciliation bill, the American […]

In 2007, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) was an original cosponsor of a bill that would have closed a tax loophole that lets investment fund managers pay the lower capital gains tax rates on the income they earn from the fees they charge their clients. The capital gains tax rates […]

This week, a Texas bill took effect that bans physicians from performing or inducing an abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, something that typically occurs about six weeks after conception. There is an exception for medical emergencies, but no exceptions for women who have been raped or are victims of incest.  Most women […]

Earlier this year, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) became an original co-sponsor on a bill to declare that meat and poultry from all state-inspected slaughterhouses can be shipped throughout the country to be sold by grocery stores. Under current law, only meat and poultry from federally-inspected plants and facilities in a handful of states whose inspection […]

In December 2020, Ritu Khanna, the wife of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), divested from several weapons companies after Sludge published an article revealing that her fortune included defense contractor stocks worth as much as $376,000. The stock sales were celebrated by the anti-war group Code Pink, which had run a campaign calling on Khanna to […]

It’s no shock that most members of Congress, over half of whom are millionaires, don’t want to stop themselves and their spouses from being allowed to trade corporate stocks and derivatives while they hold public office. Just 8 percent of the House and 3 percent of the Senate are co-sponsoring bills to ban congressional stock […]

Democratic establishment favorite Shontel Brown defeated progressive Nina Turner and several other candidates in a Democratic Ohio special election primary on Tuesday night, virtually guaranteeing her a seat in Congress. Brown received 37,666 votes, while 33,420 people cast their ballots for Turner.  Turner, a former delegate to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, raised more than twice […]

Chairman Joe Courtney has received $237,000 from General Dynamics' PAC and employees over his House career.

Saving the planet from a climate change tipping point that will trigger social collapse and widespread human death from fires, floods, and starvation requires urgent global action. Oil companies are not going to voluntarily stop extracting and burning fossil fuels for profit, so it’s up to politicians and regulators to step in and stop them.  […]

Several companies that said they were indefinitely pausing their PAC donations after January 6 are confronting the reality of wanting to help re-elect pro-business allies to Congress and are back to supporting Republicans who objected to certifying 2020 presidential election results.  Of the six senators who voted in favor of sustaining Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) […]

Days before the House of Representatives took its first votes on legislation to break up big technology companies, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi exercised a call option and bought 4,000 shares of stock in Google parent Alphabet, worth nearly $5 million.  The Alphabet investment was disclosed this morning in a periodic transaction report […]

ExxonMobil CEO and chairman Darren Woods said yesterday he was “shocked” that one of the company’s lobbyists was caught in a Greenpeace sting video saying that the company is being disingenuous when it publicly claims to support policies like a carbon tax to address climate change.

Despite Charles Koch's rebrand as a bridge builder, his company's PAC keeps supporting 2020 presidential election result objectors.