McCain Investigating Defense Earmarks - Roll Call

McCain Investigating Defense Earmarks - Roll Call: "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who led the Senate’s investigation of disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is gearing up to tackle defense earmarks next — with a particular focus on the PMA Group, the now-defunct lobbying powerhouse.

McCain confirmed Thursday that he has launched an investigation into earmarks and sole-source defense contracts through the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on which he serves as ranking member. He said he has also engaged some staff on the Armed Services Committee to work on the investigation.

McCain said he was not yet ready to discuss the substance of the investigation but said: “It’s not specifically PMA — it’s broader. ... [But] as you know I have been deeply concerned about PMA and all of their activities. It has been well-known for some time we’ve been looking at the PMA earmarks.”

A McCain staffer said the earmarks investigation began in August, though it is still in its preliminary stages.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Financial Management, confirmed that the subcommittee is working on a bipartisan investigation of earmarks but said: “I’m not aware that it is anything in anywhere near final form. It is a work in progress.”

Staff members have apparently reached out to collect information from firms that have been publicly linked to PMA and earmarks, and they have conducted informational interviews.

The subcommittee investigators have not yet issued any subpoenas, and Carper and McCain have not decided whether it will be necessary to do so, said sources familiar with the investigation.

PMA was one of the top 20 firms in lobbying revenue when it was raided by the FBI at the end of 2008, apparently as part of a Justice Department investigation of improper campaign donations and earmarks.

PMA and its clients for years had been major donors to Members of the House Appropriations Committee, and its clients reaped hundreds of millions of dollars worth of earmarks, particularly in Defense appropriations bills."