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PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: This sounds promising. Reps. look to cut ties between earmarks, donations: T?

By Glenn Reynolds

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: This sounds promising. Reps. look to cut ties between earmarks, donations:

Two reform-minded Democrats will introduce a bill Wednesday to address the growing controversy around the corruptive influence of earmarks and campaign donations from the companies that receive them.

Reps. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who are in their second terms, are co-sponsoring a measure that would prevent lawmakers from taking campaign contributions from entities for which they have requested earmarks, as well as the entities lobbyists and employees.
The members are among more than two-dozen Democrats who have supported a resolution anti-earmark crusader Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has offered seven times in the past two months. The measure would force the ethics committee to investigate the nexis between campaign contributions from embattled PMA Group lobbyists and its employees and the earmarks lawmakers? requested for PMA clients.

PMA Group shut down after the FBI raided its Northern Virginia offices last year and is reportedly investigating fraudulent campaign donations from so-called straw donors. The firm had showered millions of dollars in campaign donations on members of Congress and its clients received hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks in return.

PMA beneficiaries include John Murtha, Jim Moran, and Pete Visclosky.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).