Firms ramp up lobbying against financial overhaul plan

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats' decision to move ahead with financial overhaul legislation this week has prompted a last-ditch lobbying campaign by major banks and business groups, which fear political winds have shifted against them amid widespread public anger over the excesses of Wall Street.

The efforts represent an escalation of the multimillion-dollar lobbying effort against the proposed overhaul, which would create an agency to protect consumers and give the government power to wind down large, troubled firms.

Many top Wall Street firms, including JPMorgan Chase and beleaguered Goldman Sachs, have also ramped up contributions to GOP lawmakers who have united to oppose the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has set a test vote on the financial overhaul bill for Monday, but acknowledged the timetable could slip if bargaining with Republicans proved fruitful. Republicans say they don't agree the bill would end government bailouts and want to keep negotiating. Without agreement, Democrats would need 60 votes to move forward in the Senate. They have 59 votes.

The opposition campaign prompted sharp words last week from President Barack Obama, who in a speech to Wall Street titans decried the "furious efforts of industry lobbyists" to derail the legislation. "I'm sure that some of these lobbyists work for you," Obama told the crowd in Manhattan Thursday.

In one typical event last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington's largest business group and lobbying force, brought 25 chief executives to Capitol Hill to plead their case with individual lawmakers. The executives argued against key elements of the legislative package, including measures that could limit the size of banks and clamp down on the largely unregulated world of derivatives trading.

The Business Roundtable, which represents chief executives, organized a similar "fly-in" by 20 leaders of member corporations, such as IBM and Boeing.

The group has nearly doubled the pace of its lobbying this year compared with 2009, spending at the rate of $25,000 a day during the first quarter, disclosure records show.

More than 2,500 lobbyists are registered to represent the finance, insurance and real estate sector, which is dominated by banking interests.

Hundreds more work on behalf of other industries that fear the impact the legislation might have on their interactions with the financial markets, according to lobbying disclosure data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Disclosures filed last week show the top 25 firms in the commercial banking industry spent more than $11 million on lobbying during the first three months of 2010, up 5 percent from a year earlier.

Firms including Goldman, Wells Fargo and Credit Suisse Securities have significantly boosted spending on Washington lobbying this year, the records show.