Lawmakers who upheld NSA spying got double defense industry cash

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From: Fern...@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, July 28, 2013 8:10:11 PM
Subject:  Lawmakers who upheld NSA spying got double defense industry cash

 

Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double
 the Defense Industry Cash
Wired.com
 http://tinyurl.com/nhzzu3r

 

The numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday,
the house voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA’s phone-spying
dragnet. It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as
much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence
industry as the 205 “yes” voters.

 

That’s the upshot of a new analysis by MapLight, a Berkeley-
based non-profit that performed the inquiry at WIRED’s request.
The investigation shows that defense cash was a better predictor
of a member’s vote on the Amash amendment than party
affiliation. House members who voted to continue the massive
phone-call-metadata spy program, on average, raked in
122 percent more money from defense contractors than those
who voted Wednesday to dismantle it.

 

Overall, political action committees and employees from defense
and intelligence firms such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, United
Technologies, Honeywell International, and others ponied up
$12.97 million in donations for a two-year period ending
December 31, 2012, according to the analysis, which MapLight
performed with financing data from OpenSecrets. Lawmakers
who voted to continue the NSA dragnet-surveillance program
averaged $41,635 from the pot, whereas House members
who voted to repeal authority averaged $18,765.

 

Of the top 10 money getters, only one House member —
Rep. Jim Moran (D-Virginia) — voted to end the program.

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