If the financial oversight legislation isn’t going to actually oversee financial companies, why does it exist? To attract campaign contributions, of course… According to an analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (a nonpartisan group), 14 congressional “freshmen” serving on the House Financial Services Committee raised 56% more in campaign contributions than other freshmen. And most freshmen on the panel are currently in re-election battles.
“It’s definitely not accidental,” said Melanie Sloan, the director of the ethics group. “It appears that Congressional leaders are deliberately placing vulnerable freshmen on the Financial Services Committee to increase their ability to raise money.” One representative on the Financial Services Committee, John Adler (D-NJ), is an unknown freshman in Congress. But he raised more than $2 million for his re-election, the most of any freshman. Coincidentally, investment firms and insurers were his largest contributors.