Wall St. Cash Still Flooding Congress

Here’s a shocker: As lawmakers in Washington continue crafting a bill to crack down on Wall Street, their efforts to rake in donations from the financial services industry show no sign of stopping. Bloomberg News reports today that, in looking at fundraising calendars for House Democrats and Republicans and Senate Republicans, there have been at least 20 scheduled fundraisers for politicians held by finance lobbyists or organized with financial industry donors in mind. Lawmakers, then, are walking the finest of lines, claiming to support new financial reforms while wooing representatives of an industry fighting many of those same new rules.

Bloomberg cites the case of Rep. John Adler, (D-NJ). Last month, Adler said in a statement, “Our families demand accountability for Wall Street’s actions and Congress must stand up to special interests and deliver.” But this week, Adler will host a “financial services dinner” with a minimum contribution of $1,000. In a similar conflict, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a leading GOP figure on financial reform for months and member of the Senate banking committee, is scheduled to attend a fundraising dinner tomorrow that is co-hosted by Bank of America, the country’s largest bank and a major lobbying force on financial reform.

These kinds of events, of course, part and parcel of the finance industry’s efforts to blunt new reforms. To wit: In 2010, finance, real estate, and other business sectors have contributed $70 million to members of Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Those same interests have spent more than $260 million on lobbying Congress. All told, that’s $330 million—or 6,600 times more than the real median household income in the US—to sway Washington lawmakers and see things their way.

While several spokespeople for congressmen said these types of events don’t “color” the way they vote on bills and amendments, there’s no denying the obvious conflict of interest with lawmakers taking Wall Street’s money at the same time they’re rewriting how the financial markets function. “How hard are you going to be on somebody who’s handing you money?” Bill Allison with the Sunlight Foundation told Bloomberg.