Supercommittee rakes in corporate donations. By Justin Elliott

Friday, Oct 7, 2011 2:49 PM 13:48:39 PDT Salon

Supercommittee rakes in corporate donations

A military contractor and a pharmaceutical giant are among those writing checks to protect their business interests

By Justin Elliott

Reps. Xavier Becerra and Dave Camp (Credit: Mike Theiler / Reuters)

Topics:Campaign Finance

Deep-pocketed corporate interest are writing big checks to members of the supercommittee, the group of 12 senators and members of Congress who have been tasked with coming up with a plan to cut over $1 trillion from the budget in the next decade.
Ten members of the committee got $83,000 from some of the biggest corporate donors in the country in the three-week period in August that is covered in the latest federal election filings, according to a new analysis by the Sunlight Foundation.

$10,000 of the total came from the political action committee (PAC) of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Another $8,000 came from the military contractor Lockheed Martin. Also on the list of donors: Goldman Sachs and Comcast. These are corporations seeking to protect lucrative government contracts.
The supercommittee faces a Nov. 23 deadline to come up with a budget cuts package that will then get an up-or-down vote in the House and the Senate.
The biggest recipient of big donor contributions on the committee was Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), with $28,500. The biggest recipient on the Democratic side was Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), who took in $15,000.
Remember, these are preliminary numbers. It’s going to be a lucrative few months for those lucky enough to have been appointed to the supercommittee.

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Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustin More Justin Elliott