Wall Street Banks Contribute More Than Twice as Much to Members Voting Yes on Dodd-Frank Rollback

Dec. 17, 2014 – On December 13th, the Senate passed the 2015 federal budget (H.R. 83) by a vote of 54-40, appropriating more than $1 trillion for federal agencies. The House passed the 1,600 page bill on December 11th. 

One of the most controversial measures included in the bill is a provision that rolls back part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The provision, originally written by Citigroup lobbyists, allows entities insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to trade complicated financial instruments known as custom swaps, a type of derivative. Under Dodd-Frank, banks were forced to “push-out” their custom swaps to subsidiaries not insured by the FDIC.  Just four banks, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, control more than 90 percent of the banking industry's swaps market.

Campaign Contributions to Congress: MapLight analysis of campaign contributions from the political action committees (PAC) of the top four banks, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase to Senators and Representatives of the 113th Congress, from January 1, 2013 - November 24, 2014. Data source: FEC.

• PACs of Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, banks representing more than 90 percent of the swaps market, gave, on average, 2.6 times more money to members of Congress who voted 'YES' ($9,576) than to those who voted 'NO' ($3,726).
   
• PACs of Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, banks representing more than 90 percent of the swaps market, gave, on average, 3.1 times more money to Democratic members of Congress who voted 'YES' ($10,674) than to those who voted 'NO' ($3,398).

• PACs of Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, banks representing more than 90 percent of the swaps market, gave, on average, 2.1 times more money to Republican members of Congress who voted 'YES' ($9,108) than to those who voted 'NO' ($4,388).

Top 10 Members of Congress Who Voted 'YES' and Received Campaign Contributions from the PACs of the Four Banks:

Campaign Contributions to Members of the Senate: MapLight analysis of campaign contributions from the political action committees (PAC) of the top four banks, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase to Senators of the 113th Congress, from January 1, 2013 - November 24, 2014. Data source: FEC.

For more information about contributions to members of the House of Representatives voting for the measure, view our earlier post here.

Lobbying: MapLight analysis of lobbying spending by the top four banks, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase, during the 113th Congress.

• Since January 1, 2013, the top four banks have spent a combined $30.7 million lobbying Congress and federal agencies.
   
• In the first three quarters of 2014, the four banks spent $13.1 million on lobbying.
   
• In 2013, the four banks spent $17.6 million on lobbying.

To view a company's full lobbying profile, click on the company link above or click here to access MapLight's lobbying database.

Campaign Contributions Methodology: MapLight analysis of campaign contributions to members of the House and Senate voting on H.R. 83 from top banks (Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase) from recently available FEC data as of December 15, 2014 for the period 1/1/2013-11/24/2014.

Lobbying Methodology: MapLight analysis of federal lobbying disclosure filings from the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. Lobbying totals represent money paid by an organization to each lobbying firm for services on all issues. Organizations report total lobbying expenses as a lump sum, which includes both in-house lobbying expenses and amounts paid to (and reported by) lobbying firms that they employ. MapLight calculates a given organization's in-house lobbying expenses by subtracting the total income reported by the lobbying firms that it employs from the company's total reported expenses. In general, filers may round their spending and expenses to the nearest $10,000, and we treat the designation of "Less than $5,000" as a value of $0. MapLight updates its lobbying database daily to capture amendments. Full reports are due on the 20th day of January, April, July, and October.

MapLight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that tracks money's influence on politics.