Big Companies, Special Interests Hire Private Congressional Delegations to Lobby Government http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/05/big-companies-special-interests-hire-private-congressional-delegations-to-lobby.html

In all, 43 different companies, organizations and special interest groups last year employed at least three former congressmen as registered federal lobbyists, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates. Together, they spent hundreds of millions of dollars last year lobbying the federal government on a spectrum of issues, from the highest of profile -- health care reform, financial regulatory reform -- to the comparatively obscure -- technical taxation matters, lithium-ion battery cells, digital television converter boxes.They likewise represented a number of disparate industries and concerns, from fossil fuels to electricity generation, health care to tobacco, shipping to banking, motor vehicles to railroads.

But those differences didn't prevent these corporations and special interests from displaying an only slightly-less-than-universal unwillingness to divulge details, however small, about the practical benefits of using former congressmen to lobby current congressmen. Or about what issues they worked on. Or whether they’ve been successful by their employer’s measure.“We never comment on any of our lobbying activities or lobbying expenditures,” Joy Sims, senior communications director for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, told OpenSecrets Blog."We are not going to comment -- it's just not something we comment on,” said Dan Whitten, vice president of strategic communications for America's Natural Gas Alliance.

“We’ll just go with no comment,” said Stephen Cohen, a Goldman Sachs spokesman.Margaret Mitchell-Jones, a spokeswoman for defense contractor Northrop Grumman, noted that “Northrop Grumman is fully compliant with all regulations governing federal lobbying reports and the filing of said reports with the government.” She then added: “We do not comment on consultants who work for the corporation or the services that are provided to the corporation by its consultants.”And Jennifer Wall, a spokeswoman for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), stated in an e-mail that her company doesn’t “talk about our lobbying strategies publicly, but I can tell you that we work with many different partners and stakeholders who share our mission of advancing patient health and innovation and protecting U.S.-based biopharmaceutical jobs.”