Secondary mortgage market giant Fannie Mae, fighting off congressional attacks over the last year, has used its newly formed political action committee to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions into the campaign funds of key congressional leaders.
In just the last eight months, Fannie Mae's new PAC has made more than $150,000 in contributions to top congressional leaders, then at least as much again to those key lawmakers' leadership PACs, according to records filed with the Federal Elections Commission and reviewed by The Credit Union Journal.
Since February, campaign contributions went to: Keep Our Majority PAC (House Speaker Dennis Hastert) $5,000; Americans for a Republican Majority PAC (House Majority Leader Tom DeLay), $5,000; Rely on Your Beliefs Fund (House Majority Whip Roy Blunt) $5,000; Volunteer PAC (Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist) $5,000; Defend America PAC (Senate Banking Chairman Richard Shelby), $5,000; Leadership PAC 2004 (House Financial Services Chairman Michael Oxley) $7,000; Growth and Prosperity PAC (House Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Spencer Bachus) $5,000; PAC to the Future (House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi) $2,500; and AmeriPAC (House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer), $5,000, among others.
Leadership PACs allow interests like Fannie Mae to contribute the maximum allowable $10,000 to an individual lawmaker's campaign fund, then again to his or her leadership PAC, which that lawmaker can use for a wide variety of purposes, including contributions to allied candidates.
Ed Roberts can be contacted at eroberts
