Center for Responsive Politics – American Federation of Government Employees Local 704

The $360 Billion Gorilla in the Sequestration Debate

February 11, 2013

The debate surrounding Pentagon sequestration—the planned reductions to Pentagon spending scheduled to go into effect in March—is raging.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said the spending reductions would lead to the U.S. becoming “a second rate power.” Chairman of the House Armed Service Committee, Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), said, “It’s going to start costing lives.” Continue reading

Sep 13, 2012

Lockheed Campaign Cash Has Flowed to Members of House Panel Probing F-22 Problems

By JACOB WASHKURAK, JOHN PARKER and BEN FREEMAN

When members of a House subcommittee convene today for a hearing on the troubled F-22 stealth fighter, they’ll have more in common than just an interest in the mysterious symptoms that caused some pilots to declare the plane unsafe to fly earlier this year.

All but one of the 25 subcommittee members have received contributions in the current election cycle from individuals or political action committees associated with Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor on the F-22, according to a Project On Government Oversight (POGO) analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The one exception, Pennsylvania Republican Todd R. Platts, is retiring from Congress. In a 2010 op-ed piece, he said that as always his campaign was being funded solely by contributions from individual citizens and that he refused to accept contributions from special-interest groups. There are no records of his ever having accepted any funds from employees of Lockheed Martin during his congressional career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Continue reading “Lockheed Campaign Cash Has Flowed to Members of House Panel Probing F-22 Problems”