Some of Big Oil’s most loyal defenders raked in plenty of campaign cash from the nation’s most profitable oil companies even while they voted to protect taxpayer handouts to those same companies. U.S. House members who supported these unnecessary handouts received a total of $1.2 million from the political action committees (PACs) of the top U.S. oil companies in the first six months of 2011, according to Public Campaign Action Fund analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). That means a whopping 94% of House oil PAC money recipients in the first 6 months of 2011 voted to keep these wasteful subsidies. Got influence? We’d say Big Oil certainly does.
Here are the facts:
- Almost all of the cash provided by these PACs to House members or their leadership PACs went to those who voted to keep the oil subsidies—roughly $1.2 million compared to $45,000 to those who voted to end the subsidies and $19,000 to the two members that did not vote.
- Of the 170 House members who received oil PAC money in the first half of the year, 94% (or 159 members) sided with the oil companies.
- The top three members of the House Republican caucus received nearly $100,000 in big oil cash in the first half of the year. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) received $35,000, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) took in $32,500, and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) received $29,000. No member of House Democratic leadership has received oil PAC money in 2011.
- In the Senate, 90% of campaign contributions went to oil subsidies supporters--$209,000 compared to $22,000. Of the 30 Senate recipients of oil industry PAC money, 26 voted to keep the subsidies.
This is why congressional approval ratings are in the toilet. People don’t believe that a member of Congress is on their side when he or she takes big money from oil companies, and then approves billions in taxpayer handouts. No wonder Americans are outraged.
And PAC contributions only begin to tell the story about the influence of this industry. Contributions from individual staff and executives of oil companies to Members of Congress, as well as the companies’ expensive and expansive lobbying efforts, continue to paint a picture of the stranglehold Big Oil has on our nation’s decision makers.