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thelever.com
26 January 2026
Trojan horse. House Democrats just helped their GOP colleagues advance a bill establishing a taxpayer-supported corporate lobbying committee within Wall Street’s top regulatory agency, whose only purpose would be to give an even greater voice to pro-corporate and big business concerns. Several of the lawmakers pushing the bill are heavily funded by businesses overseen by the regulator, including investment giants that have been sued by the agency.
- In 2024, The Lever revealed how conservative, pro-business groups lobbied lawmakers and regulators to establish these pro-corporate advisory boards.
Advice nobody asked for. The Public Company Advisory Committee Act of 2026 passed the House Financial Services Committee on Jan. 22 with nine Democrats’ support. The bill would establish a 10- to 20-member “Corporate Executive Advisory Committee” to provide the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the federal agency that regulates the nation’s stock markets, with “advice on its rules, regulations, and policies” and other matters.
- Members would be appointed by SEC commissioners and would have to be either senior executives, trade association representatives, investment bankers, attorneys, or other professionals who provide advice to public companies. Notably missing from the committee? Anyone focused on consumer protection.
Partially funded by you. Introduced by Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), the legislation originally proposed using taxpayer funds to cover luxury travel accommodations and other related costs for the executives sent to Washington, D.C. to advise the SEC. Those provisions were eventually struck, but according to Jon Golinger, an attorney at the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen, taxpayers would still foot other costs associated with the lobbying committee, such as dedicated government staff to support it.
Favors all around. Lucas’ top campaign contributors in the 2024 election include Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm heavily invested in cryptocurrencies that routinely faces SEC scrutiny; SpaceX, a rocket company owned by Elon Musk, who has had multiple legal battles with the commission and called it “unconstitutional”; and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin, which was involved in a 2023 Amazon shareholder lawsuit over alleged anticompetitive practices.
- Meanwhile, the campaign committee and leadership PAC of Democratic Rep. Brittany Peterson (Colo.), the bill’s co-sponsor, accepted roughly $342,000 in donations last election cycle from the securities and investment industry, through business’ PACs and employee contributions. ///
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