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This evening's music features blues saxophone player Eddie Shaw. Enjoy!

“Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.”

-- Alan Moore

News and Opinion

Failed state follies. Nancy Pelosi needs an appointment with torches, pitchforks, tar and feathers.

Nancy Pelosi's Power Grab Destroys Democracy

This week, with at least some members of Congress expected to be in Washington and a fourth phase of coronavirus relief legislation on the horizon, the House of Representatives needs to make remote voting a priority. This is not simply a public safety issue — as has been argued in the New York Times — it’s also about being able to wield Democratic power. Democrats are not, as Vox’s Ezra Klein recently asserted, “governing from the minority.” Rather, they are failing to govern even the House of Representatives, where they hold an ample majority.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has dragged her feet on the issue, using Congress’s lack of remote voting arrangements to shore up her influence over legislation and effectively shackle progressive members of the Democratic caucus. As long as it is impossible to meet in person, progressives in Congress are effectively powerless, and House Republicans, though the minority party, have veto power over the chamber’s legislation.

Instead of instituting rules allowing for the House to hold committee hearings and vote remotely when the House was last in session in March, Pelosi has spent the last two months running the House through “unanimous consent” procedures. This is exactly what it sounds like: A measure can be blocked if any present member offers objection. By doing so, she ceded substantial control to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The House has historically been ruled by the majority with an iron fist. Democrats should be setting the terms of the debate by passing bold bills as a negotiating tactic. Just look at the CARES Act — the third phase of coronavirus relief that passed in March. Pelosi could and should have had the House approve a simple, popular, progressive relief package that, for example, offered even more generous unemployment benefits, canceled student debt, and paid everybody in the country $2,000 per month through the duration of the crisis and then dared the Senate not to pass it. She didn’t because under unanimous consent, anything more liberal than what the Senate passes will be blocked by Republicans. ...

We need a relief package that bails out regular people, puts stringent conditions on any public funds distributed to the corporate sector, and protects our electoral process by guaranteeing that all citizens can safely vote by mail in November. Progressive Democrats have leverage to fight for a just recovery, if only Pelosi will allow them to use it.

Is this the "Rooseveltian" plan that we were told to expect? It's just more "Pelosian" bullshit.

'No Excuse for This': House Dems Unveil 1,815-Page Bill That Would Bail Out Corporate Lobbyists But Omits Key People-First Priorities

House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a sprawling 1,815-page, $3 trillion coronavirus relief package that spurns many of the key demands of progressive activists and lawmakers while including proposals that immediately provoked backlash, such as a tax cut for the wealthy and a provision that would allow corporate lobbying organizations to take part in federal small business loan program.

Formally titled the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, the bill (pdf) would provide $1 trillion in additional funding for state and local governments, extend beefed-up unemployment benefits through January of next year, authorize an additional round of one-time $1,200 stimulus payments for adults earning up to $75,000 per year, expand federal nutrition benefits, provide $25 billion for the U.S. Postal Service, establish a hazard pay fund for frontline workers, and increase spending on Covid-19 testing.

While there is much in the bill that progressives support, observers who combed through the nearly 2,000 pages of legislative text were quick to highlight sections and omissions that they deemed unacceptable.

The bill, which the House is expected to vote on as early as Friday, does not contain recurring direct cash payments, a paycheck guarantee, cancellation of rent and mortgage payments, or expansion of Medicare to cover the rapidly growing number of unemployed and uninsured Americans.

The legislation does, however, propose an expansion of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) eligibility to include corporate lobbying organizations—which aggressively pushed for the change—and a bailout for landlords.

"Democratic leadership has had plenty of input from progressive thinkers over the past couple of months. They just care more about the input from corporate lobbyists," tweeted HuffPost senior reporter Zach Carter. "There is just no excuse for this."

Instead of expanding Medicare as progressives recommended, the HEROES Act "funds approximately nine months of full premium subsidies for the existing health insurance program COBRA, which allows laid-off or furloughed employees to stay on their health insurance plans," Vox's Ella Nilsen and Li Zhou reported.

Progressives have vocally criticized the COBRA proposal as a mere subsidy to the private insurance industry that would not be nearly as beneficial or cost-effective as the emergency Medicare expansion proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).

Jayapal, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, pushed hard for the inclusion of her Paycheck Guarantee Act but was rebuffed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has wielded near-unilateral authority over the negotiating process as lawmakers remain in their home districts due to Covid-19 fears.

As an alternative to Jayapal's ambitious paycheck guarantee proposal, which would have provided companies with direct payroll grants to keep workers employed, the newly unveiled legislation proposes an expansion of the Employee Retention Tax Credit.

Even as the legislation fails to meet demands that progressives characterized as basic steps toward ensuring economic security and public health, the House Democratic leadership has signaled that they're willing to negotiate down even further as talks over the stimulus package continue.

"Democrats acknowledge that their behemoth proposal, whose summary alone is 90 pages, is more of a talking point than legislation that they expect to become law," Politico reported.

Krystal Ball: Pelosi rolls the left, they meekly protest

Senate Staffer Warns Congress 'Sleepwalking Toward a Gut-Wrenching, Painful Failure' on Covid-19 Relief

A senior Democratic Senate staffer wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread Tuesday morning that he has "never been so dejected" by the state of policymaking on Capitol Hill and warned that Congress is "sleepwalking toward a gut-wrenching, painful failure" as it refuses to advance solutions that match the scale of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic disaster.

"As an economic staffer in Congress, I'm worried we're about to watch a slow-motion train wreck," wrote Charlie Anderson, a senior adviser to Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). "More than 80,000 Americans are dead. Unemployment is at Great Depression levels. Yet, Congress appears prepared to massively undershoot what's needed."

Anderson, who works on economic and tax policy, ripped the Republican Party for its "appallingly destructive" behavior during the crisis—including its push for legal immunity for corporations and cynical complaints about the rising deficit—and voiced fear that Democrats are likely to continue offering inadequate solutions "in the hope of appearing more 'reasonable.'"

"If Dems start at half a loaf, Republicans will cut that in half (or more) too," Anderson said. "Due to 'cost concerns' we risk underdoing unemployment benefits, housing, food assistance, healthcare."

"Congress appears to be on its way to passing a half-assed bill that underachieves on public health, families/workers, state/local governments, businesses," Anderson continued. "I hope I'm wrong, but this feels inevitable. I don't see how the dynamic changes much. I see Republicans becoming increasingly dug in around cost concerns that make very little sense. The cost of insufficient action is devastating. I don't know what else to say."

THREAD: As an economic staffer in Congress, I’m worried we’re about to watch a slow-motion train wreck.

More than 80,000 Americans are dead.

Unemployment is at Great Depression levels.

Yet, Congress appears prepared to massively undershoot what’s needed. 1/

— Charlie Anderson (@EconCharlie) May 12, 2020

Anderson's assessment came just hours after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters Monday that he and his Republican colleagues have "not yet felt the urgency of acting immediately" on another coronavirus stimulus package, even after a Labor Department jobs report found that a record 20.5 million people in the U.S. lost their jobs in April. ...

House Democrats, meanwhile, are preparing to introduce a coronavirus stimulus package as soon as this week that is reportedly expected to include an expansion of federal nutritional assistance and Medicaid, additional funding for states and hospitals, $25 billion for the U.S. Postal Service, and another round of direct payments to U.S. households.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) promised that the Democratic relief package will be "Rooseveltian." According to Axios, the Democrats' bill is expected to contain around $1.2 trillion in proposed spending—just over half the size of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act.

"I can't get over Axios calling $1.2 trillion 'whopping,'" Dan Riffle, former policy adviser to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), tweeted on Monday. "That's smaller than the first stimulus, which we all recognize wasn't enough."

"If this was going to be 'Rooseveltian' as advertised (i.e. on the scale of the Great Depression) it would need to be ~$9-10 trillion," Riffle added.

As Covid-19 Devastates Navajo Nation, Doctors Without Borders Dispatches Team to Battle Outbreak

As the virus continues to lay bare systemic inequities in the United States, Doctors Without Borders has sent a health team to the Navajo Nation, which has been hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The international group typically sends health professionals to conflict zones around the world during medical disasters and the coronavirus pandemic marks the first time it has dispatched teams within the U.S.," The Hill reported Tuesday.

A nine-person team was sent in April to help the tribe and will stay until at least June, the medical group, known by its French acronym MSF, told the outlet.

The head of MSF's U.S. Covid-19 response team, Jean Stowell, put the reason for the rare dispatch in stark terms. From CNN:

When asked why their teams were sent to the area to assist, Stowell said the organization has helped in epidemics around the globe and has been "providing support to people who have been excluded from healthcare and emergency response."

"Historically, the Navajo Nation has not received the same attention and resources as other communities in the U.S., and that has made it particularly difficult for them to respond to this unprecedented epidemic," Stowell said.

New data shows the virus continuing its devastating toll on the community.

The Navajo Nation said Monday that there have been 3,204 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 102 deaths as it continues its state of emergency.

Reporting Tuesday from the Associated Press highlights the crisis further:

If the Navajo Nation were its own state, it would have the highest per capita rate of confirmed positive coronavirus cases in the country, behind only New York. In the states it spans, the number of cases and deaths among people who are Native American, on and off the reservations, is disproportionately high.

[...]

The virus hit like a tsunami in mid-March, and smaller medical centers quickly were overwhelmed. Health problems that make Covid-19 more deadly, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, are all much more common among Native Americans than the general U.S. population.

"I watched the trends very, very early, and quite frankly, I was very concerned," Loretta Christensen, chief medical officer for the Navajo Nation at the federal government's Indian Health Service, told NBC News last month. "We deal with a tremendous amount of health disparities out here, which leave us with a very vulnerable population."

"You're telling people, 'Wash your hands for 20 seconds multiple times a day,' and they don't have running water. Or you're saying, 'Go buy groceries for two or three weeks and shelter in place and don't come out,' but people can't afford groceries for two or three weeks," she continued. "So it's just a setup for frustration and concern by the population here."

Carolina Batista, the physician medical team lead, told local KOAT News that the group is "trying to visit as many facilities around the reservations as possible, speaking with the leaders, speaking with the medical teams that are working very hard on the ground to address the needs of the populations here."

Chris Hayes Says MSNBC Is Controlled By RUSSIA!

US message to Britain in bilateral trade talks: it's us – or China

The US government has been privately pressing the UK in bilateral trade talks to make a choice between the US and China. The US is seeking to insert a clause that would allow it to retreat from parts of the deal if Britain reaches a trade agreement with another country that the US did not approve. The proposed clause made no mention specifically of China, but is seen by British diplomats in Washington as intended to be a lever to deter closer UK-China relations.

It had been seen by the UK as equivalent to the public pressure the US had been placing on Britain not to reach an agreement with Huawei to provide the UK’s 5G telecoms network.

Most of the controversy concerning the US-UK trade talks has so far focused on the prices of medicines, food standards and a digital tax.

The proposed clause is based on article 30 of the US-Mexico-Canada agreement that locks out non-market economies. Although the UK does not formally oppose such clauses, British diplomats are worried that in the current context it would give the US extensive and unbalanced leverage over UK policy towards China.

Ryan Grim Exclusive: Uncovering another sweetheart stock deal for GOP senator

Another greedy senaturd timed the market. Full details at the link or in the video above.

David Perdue Got Sweetheart Deal That Grew North of $6 Million After Election to the Senate

David Perdue, after his election to the U.S. Senate, was granted a lucrative compensation package by a financial technology firm that would grow to be worth more than $6 million, according to a review of congressional financial disclosures and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. After his tenure as CEO of Dollar General, Perdue, a Georgia Republican, was appointed to the board of directors of the financial marketing firm Cardlytics in 2010. For his service on the board, which lasted until the end of 2014, he was granted a total of 300,000 stock options, according to filings with the SEC.

Perdue nearly lost out on the value of the options by winning the Senate seat in November 2014, as options typically expire not long after a board member or employee leaves the company, and the company had not yet gone public, meaning Perdue couldn’t exercise his options. Perdue couldn’t remain as a compensated director on the board as a sitting senator without creating illegal conflicts of interest. But the company altered the terms of the compensation package so that Perdue could still benefit even after he was elected to the Senate. According to SEC filings, the firm extended the period he was able to exercise the options all the way out to 2020 and 2022. The company went public in 2018, with time still left on the clock for Perdue to exercise his options.

The options were priced generously. Perdue was able to buy his two chunks of shares for $2.36 and $4.44. In February, the stock topped out above $98. ...

Perdue serves on the powerful Senate Banking Committee and has worked to roll back regulations that govern firms like Cardlytics. He also serves on the Securities, Insurance, and Investment Subcommittee, which more directly overlaps with firms like the Atlanta-based Cardlytics, and has sponsored legislation that would be to the firm’s benefit.

Chuck Todd CAUGHT Deceptively Editing Video & Lying

Baltimore Sun looks to non-profit status to stay afloat amid coronavirus threat

The Baltimore Sun has just won the Pulitzer prize for local reporting, despite years of job cuts and as the coronavirus pandemic appears set to ravage the nation’s journalism sector even more. But now as media experts warn the coronavirus is an “extinction-level event” for news organizations, a coalition of Baltimore-based philanthropists is hoping to turn the Sun into a non-profit, and avoid that fate.

Behind the scenes a local group is hoping to buy the 183-year-old newspaper in an attempt to free the Sun from further downsizing and cement its future. The Baltimore Sun is owned by Tribune Publishing. Alden Global Capital, a New York-based hedge fund infamous for purchasing, then gutting, newspapers across the US, owns a 32% stake in Tribune Publishing.

“The Sun is one of the most important civic institutions that really belongs to everyone in Baltimore,” said Matthew Gallagher, president and chief of the Goldseker Foundation, one of the leaders of the “Save our Sun” effort which hopes to buy the newspaper.

“It’s an incredible platform for keeping the public informed, for sharing news and information, for provoking civic discussion. And we think that if it was controlled and in local hands that were really focused on its long term viability and vitality, that it would be very important to the city’s future.” The Goldseker Foundation, along with the Abell Foundation, represent $400m in endowed assets, Gallagher said. Gallagher would not comment on the state of negotiations with Tribune, but said the groups had been in contact with the Sun’s owners.

The Sun won its most recent Pulitzer in spite of long-running efforts by its owners to reduce the size of the newsroom. In 2009 the Sun lost a third of its newsroom staff, and continued downsizing through to November 2018, when the newspaper offered buyouts to journalists.

Naomi Klein on How Healthcare Industry & Silicon Valley Plan to Profit from Coronavirus Crisis

Fauci: There's ‘No Guarantee’ We'll Ever Have an Effective Coronavirus Vaccine

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that scientists are still a long way from effective treatment for coronavirus — and warned there’s “no guarantee” that doctors will ever be able to develop an effective vaccine. "There’s no guarantee that the vaccine is actually going to be effective,” Fauci said during remote testimony to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tuesday morning, saying he was hopeful that scientists would be able to find an effective vaccine for COVID-19 but couldn’t guarantee that would happen.

Fauci, the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who is helping to lead the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, used his first congressional testimony since the pandemic hit to temper unrealistic hopes about a return to normalcy.

As the hearing began, he warned HELP Committee Chairman and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) that there’s almost no chance that scientists will develop a treatment or vaccine for the disease by the fall. “The idea of having treatment available or a vaccine to facilitate the reentry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far,” he warned, arguing that the only real way to have school systems and other large institutions reopen was large-scale testing and contact tracing to be able to catch cases before they turn into outbreaks.

Federal Whistleblower Says Boss Pushed Him to Purchase Drugs That Hadn’t Been Tested in Humans

In November, Rick Bright, then head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was asked to spend millions of taxpayer dollars purchasing a drug that was presented as a “miracle cure” for viral diseases. BARDA, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for purchasing treatments, vaccines, and other medical products to protect the U.S. during public health emergencies. And the drug could be “a great asset to national security,” as one of the drug’s developers, George Painter, told Bright at the time.

But as Bright detailed in a whistleblower complaint filed last week, he didn’t think that BARDA should purchase the drug, known as EIDD-2801. A trained virologist who has decades of experience in government disaster preparedness, Bright had reason to worry that EIDD-2801 might be dangerous. The antiviral hadn’t undergone basic safety testing in humans, as is typically required of drugs that BARDA purchases. And similar drugs in the same class had caused serious reproductive problems in animals, with animals exposed in the womb born without teeth and with partially formed skulls.

Bright stood his ground, according to the complaint, which alleges that he was forced out of his job in April because of his resistance to pressure that BARDA purchase EIDD-2801 and other drugs pushed by industry consultants. Because of his insistence that the drug needed to be proven safe before he would discuss its purchase, the issue was temporarily tabled at the end of last year.

The episode shines a light on the muddy intersection of the pharmaceutical industry and government. It also underscores how longstanding greed and business concerns seem to have shaped the office tasked with equipping the U.S. to confront public health crises. Bright is scheduled to testify before a House committee on Thursday.

Twitter announces employees will be allowed to work from home ‘forever’

Twitter will allow its employees to work from home “forever”, chief executive officer Jack Dorsey said in a company-wide email Tuesday. A spokesperson from Twitter confirmed the decision to the Guardian, saying the company was “one of the first companies to go to a work-from-home model” due to Covid-19, but does not anticipate being one of the first to return to its offices.

“We were uniquely positioned to respond quickly and allow folks to work from home given our emphasis on decentralization and supporting a distributed workforce capable of working from anywhere,” the company said in a blogpost. “The past few months have proven we can make that work. So if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen.” ...

“When we do decide to open offices, it also won’t be a snap back to the way it was before,” the company said. “It will be careful, intentional, office by office and gradual.”

Elon Musk Is Offering Tesla Workers a Deal: Violate California's Stay-at-Home Order or Don't Get Paid

Elon Musk is opening his Tesla plant in Fremont, California — and he’s telling workers to violate the state stay-at-home order or forgo their paychecks and benefits.

“If you do not feel comfortable coming into work, you can stay home and will be on unpaid leave,” an email, obtained by The Guardian, from Tesla’s management to its workers read. “Choosing not to report to work may eliminate or reduce your eligibility for unemployment depending on your state’s unemployment agency.”

Though Musk has tried to sell his workers on the idea that getting back to making cars is “so cool” and an “extremely honorable” task, per an email to staff obtained by BuzzFeed News’ Ryan Mac, not all the workers are thrilled about potentially putting their health at risk in order to make Musk’s cars.

Tesla workers told The Guardian that they feel that management is using intimidation tactics in order to get them back on the job by threatening to cut their pay and unemployment benefits if they don’t show up.

Musk announced on Monday that he’d be reopening the company’s enormous manufacturing plant in Fremont, where some 10,000 people work, in spite of the fact that the county has asked him not to. The company put forward a reopening plan — which doesn’t guarantee that everyone working at the plant will be provided PPE.

Kyle Kulinski and Krystal Ball respond to Biden vote shamers

'It's all rigged': Trump foreshadows how he could undermine presidential election

Donald Trump falsely accused Democrats of trying to “steal” Tuesday’s special election in California amid the Covid-19 pandemic by adding a polling place in one of the most diverse sections of a district. But the county actually added the polling location at the request of the area’s Republican mayor.

In a move that could foreshadow his approach to November’s presidential election, Trump said Democrats were deliberately adding one of the few polling locations over the weekend in Lancaster, a city North of Los Angeles, where it was likely to benefit Democratic voters. “They are trying to steal another election. It’s all rigged out there. These votes must not count. SCAM!,” he tweeted.

The election is expected to take place largely by mail, common in California, and the state mailed a ballot to all registered voters in the district. Still, there will be some opportunity for in-person voting. But though Democrats complained that the lack of a polling location in Lancaster would harm minority voters, officials added the additional location after R Rex Parris, the city’s Republican mayor, requested it. ...

The California accusations underscore how the president could take advantage of the way voting procedures are rapidly changing in response to Covid-19 and question the legitimacy of election results in November. While Trump has long railed, without evidence, that elections are tainted by voter fraud, the increased focus on vote-by-mail amid the pandemic could offer a new thread for him to pull on to undermine confidence in elections this year. Several studies have shown voter fraud is not a widespread problem.

Krystal and Saagar react: AOC promotes 'Dem unity' with Biden task force

Microplastics discovered blowing ashore in sea breezes

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of mismanaged waste could be blowing ashore on the ocean breeze every year, according to scientists who have discovered microplastics in sea spray.

The study, by researchers at the University of Strathclyde and the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées at the University of Toulouse, found tiny plastic fragments in sea spray, suggesting they are being ejected by the sea in bubbles. The findings, published in the journal Plos One, cast doubt on the assumption that once in the ocean, plastic stays put, as well as on the widespread belief in the restorative power of sea breeze.

Around 359m tons of plastic was manufactured globally in 2018, and some studies suggest as much as 10% of it ends up in the sea each year.

Steve Allen, a PhD candidate at Strathclyde who co-led the study, said: “Sea breeze has traditionally been considered ‘clean air’ but this study shows surprising amounts of microplastic particles being carried by it. It appears that some plastic particles could be leaving the sea and entering the atmosphere along with sea salt, bacteria, viruses and algae.”

The “bubble burst ejection” of particles in sea fog or spray, described by Allen as “like soda in a glass when it hits your nose”, is a well-known phenomenon. But the new study is the first time microplastics have been shown to be ejected from the ocean.

“We keep putting millions of tonnes of plastic into the ocean every year,” said Allen. “This research shows that it is not going to stay there forever. The ocean is giving it back to us.”

'Disaster Capitalism at Its Worst': Report Details Big Oil's Efforts to Cash In on Coronavirus

Recent lobby filings from major oil and gas paint a picture of "disaster capitalism at its worst."

So declares a report (pdf) released Tuesday by Friends of the Earth (FOE) showing how Big Oil is working to make sure the legislative response to the coronavirus crisis is beneficial to the industry.

"Big Oil is wasting no time exploiting the coronavirus for profit," FOE senior policy analyst Lukas Ross said in a statement.

For the report, the environmental advocacy group analyzed over 100 filings from the first three months of 2020 and found that at least 11 oil and gas companies and industry trade groups reported lobbying on tax issues in the first Covid-19 relief package, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Tax cuts were big on the industry's wish list. In addition to efforts by specific oil and gas companies, the report says that major industry associations—The American Petroleum Institute (API), the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), and The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM)—indicated they lobbied "directly around tax issues" in the economic package.

And they were rewarded.

From the report:

At a cost of $13.39 billion to taxpayers, the CARES Act temporarily raises the interest deduction cap for 2019 and 2020 from 30% to 50% of income. Even more expensive, the CARES Act allows net operating losses from 2018, 2019, and 2020 to be deducted against income taxes paid over the last five years—at a cost to taxpayers of $88 billion over the next two years.

Those actions, says the report, "disproportionately benefit companies facing losses and companies with substantial debt burdens—which today describes oil and gas more than any other sector."

Big Oil also lobbied for access to the $454 billion so-called "corporate slush fund" that was included as part of CARES Act. The report notes that fracking trade industry association IPAA specifically lobbied the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) around the CARES Act. A federal agency tasked with regulating banks, the OCC is empowered to waive lending caps for banks.

The industry also lobbied to reduce or suspend the royalty payments fossil fuel companies are required to pay state and federal government for drilling on public lands. One company that engaged in that effort is Murphy Oil. The company "has lobbied directly for offshore royalty relief," says the report.

The oil and gas companies also lobbied for the carbon sequestration tax credit known as 45Q, which has overwhelmingly gone to a small handful of companies. A report released last month following a U.S. Treasury Department Inspector General investigation also found fossil fuel companies improperly claimed nearly $1 billion in the tax credits.

FOE's report shows fossil fuel companies lobbied to keep benefiting from that tax credit. Baker Hughes and Occidental Petroleum lobbied directly for it, while ExxonMobil paid accounting firm Ernest and Young to lobby on its behalf, says the report.

House Democrats Denounced for Covid-19 Relief Bill That Leaves 'Door Wide Open' for Fossil Fuel Bailouts

Climate action advocacy groups on Tuesday blasted Democratic congressional leadership for introducing a 1,815-page, $3 trillion coronavirus relief package that fails to close loopholes for fossil fuel corporations that are lobbying for federal bailouts under the cover of the pandemic.

Activists expressed frustration that House Democrats' Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act does not include provisions from the recently introduced Resources for Workforce Investments, not Drilling (ReWIND) Act that would prevent the Trump administration using Covid-19 relief funding to bail out the oil and gas industry.

Greenpeace USA senior climate campaigner John Noël said in a statement Tuesday that the HEROES Act neither closes fossil fuel industry loopholes from Congress' last coronavirus package—enacted in March—nor provides "the certainty that all relief will be steered to the front lines of the crisis and not to failing oil companies with direct access to the president."

"Oil and gas lobbyists have thrown the book at Congress asking for tax breaks, additional subsidies, and loans," he added. "Congress needs to shut the door in their faces and focus on providing relief directly to people in the crosshairs of this crisis."

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

HEROES Act Delivers a Win to the Health Insurance Industry

Guaidó’s Contract on Venezuela’s President Mirrors Trump Administration Bounty

BlackRock Begins Buying Junk Bond ETFs for the Fed Today: It’s Already at Work for the Central Bank of Israel

Religious Freedom Demands That Women Be Denied Birth Control, Trump Administration Tells Supreme Court

Supreme court grills Trump lawyers over president's unreleased tax returns

Saagar Enjeti: Pelosi bill is an ABOMINATION of woke politics and elite bailout

Krystal and Saagar discuss Facebook's new un-elected censorship board with Matt Stoller

Tucker Carlson and Saagar mock Dem lobbyist bailout bill

Krystal and Saagar: New inflation numbers show stupidity of deficit hawks

A Little Night Music

Eddie Shaw & The Wolfgang - Stoop Down, Baby

Eddie Shaw & Hubert Sumlin - Sitting On Top Of The World, My Baby's So Ugly, Out Of Bad Luck

Eddie Shaw & The Wolfgang - Rock This House

Eddie Shaw and The Wolf Gang - Operator

Eddie Shaw - Little Red Rooster

Eddie Shaw & the Wolfgang - 300 Pounds Of Joy

Eddie Shaw - Blues Dues

Eddie Shaw - Dunkin' Donut Woman

Eddie Shaw & the Wolf Gang - Lowcountry Blues Bash 2012

Eddie Shaw Interview