Help Identify Health Care Lobbyists on the Hill
Don't let the 80s hue of this photo fool you into thinking you're looking at a scene from years ago. It was taken last week by a National Public Radio photographer covering a June 17 congressional hearing on health care reform. The hearing was one of many happening on the Hill as committees began reviewing draft health care legislation. NPR has uploaded the pic to its Web site and is asking its audience to identify attending lobbyists.
Health care lobbying is big business. So far this year, more than $1.4 million has been spent each day lobbying Capitol Hill on health care, according to a report (PDF) released Wednesday by Common Cause, a nonpartisan government watchdog group. That's a 73 percent increase since 2000.
We think NPR's call-out is a great idea; so much so that we are asking you -- our readers and members of the ProPublica Reporting Network, our citizen journalism initiative -- to send NPR names and numbers if you've got 'em.
Shortly, we plan to launch a ProPublica Reporting Network blog where, in addition to updates about our projects, we'll promote open investigations hosted by other newsrooms and independent media outlets. Got something you'd like us to share with our network? E-mail me.
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1 comments
MrMark
June 28, 2009, 6:15 p.m.
This is a great idea. I too saw this story on the NPR site and wondered why there were only a few of the many assembled interested parties identified. Still, I thought it an interesting way to highlight the role of those at the table whom the media generally doesn’t report on, and now this story on ProPublica can add much to our understanding of just who has voice in our democracy, and who are left only with a ‘comment’ button.
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