http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080403/ap_on_go_co/congress_defense_investments
Lawmakers heavily invested in defense
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
Thu Apr 3,
WA****NGTON - Members of Congress have as much as $196 million collectively
invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning
millions since the onset of the Iraq war, according to a study by a
nonpartisan research group.
Not all the companies in which lawmakers invested are typical defense
contractors. Cor****ations such as PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson &
Johnson have at one point received defense-related contracts, notes the
re****t
by the Wa****ngton-based Center for Responsive Politics.
The center's review of lawmakers' 2006 financial disclosure statements
suggests that members' holdings could pose a conflict of interest as they
decide the fate of Iraq war spending. Several members earning money from
these
contractors have plum committee or leader****p assignments, including
Democratic Sen. John Kerry, independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman and House
Republican Whip Roy Blunt.
The study found that more Republicans than Democrats hold stock in defense
companies, but that the Democrats who are invested had significantly more
money at stake. In 2006, for example, Democrats held at least $3.7 million
in
military-related investments, compared to Republican investments of
$577,500.
Overall, 151 members hold investments worth $78.7 million to $195.5
million in
companies that receive defense contracts that are worth at least $5
million.
These investments earned them anywhere between $15.8 million and $62
million
between 2004 and 2006, the center concludes.
It is unclear how many members still hold these investments and exactly
how
much money has been made. Disclosure re****ts for 2007 aren't due until
this
May. Also, members are required to re****t only a general range of their
holdings.
According to the re****t, presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John
McCain
did not re****t any defense-related holdings on their filings; Hillary
Rodham
Clinton did note holdings in such companies as Honeywell, Boeing and
Raytheon,
but sold the stock in May 2007. All candidates three are members of the
Senate.
Earning dividends from companies tied to the military "could be
problematic"
for lawmakers who oversee defense policy and budgeting, noted the center's
Lindsay Renick Mayer. Avoiding every company with a military contract,
however, would not be easy for an investor.
"So common are these companies, both as personal investments and as
defense
contractors, it would appear difficult to build a diverse blue-chip stock
****tfolio without at least some of them," Mayer wrote
Kerry, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is
identified as earning the most — at least $2.6 million between 2004 and
2006
from investments worth up to $38.2 million.
Spokesman David Wade said Kerry, who staunchly opposes the war in Iraq, is
one
of many beneficiaries of family trusts that he doesn't control. Wade also
noted that Kerry does not sit on the Appropriations Committee, which has
direct control of the defense budget.
"He has a 24-year Senate record of working and voting in the best
interests of
our men and women in the military, not of any defense contractors," Wade
said.
Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental
Affairs Committee and a member of the Armed Services Committee, held a
considerably smaller share at $51,000. A spokesman said the senator, who
sup****ts continued operations in Iraq, is "careful to make his policy
decisions based only on what is best for the country."
A spokesman for Blunt, R-Mo., a senior member of House GOP leader****p who
held
at least $15,000 in Lockheed Martin stock in 2006, said the insinuation
that
lawmakers' votes might be affected by their ****tfolios is "offensive."
Like
Lieberman, Blunt has been a fierce sup****ter of the war.
"I don't pretend to speak for other offices, but I am fairly certain that
no
member would consider their personal finances when voting on issues as
im****tant as sending our men and women in uniform into harm's way," said
Blunt
spokesman Nick Simpson. The Lockheed Martin stock was given to Blunt's
wife by
her mother, he said.
___
On the Net:
Center for Responsive Politics' Capital Eye:
http://www.capitaleye.org/inside.asp?ID342
2008 The Associated Press.
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