Financial services
The
expected new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep.
Barney Frank, D-Mass., won't be a new face to the industry."He's a
liberal who understands markets," said Floyd Stoner, chief lobbyist for
the American Bankers Association, an influential trade group.
Known
for his rapid-fire speech and sharp quips, Frank has said he will make
affordable housing and soaring executive compensation among his
priorities as chairman. The committee oversees banking, securities,
insurance, and housing issues.
In
a statement Wednesday, Frank said it was too early to outline his
plans. But Charlotte Democrat Mel Watt, who serves on the committee,
said Frank could work to tighten regulation on predatory lending and
reform affordable housing programs.
In
2004, Frank tangled with Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. over job
cuts during the bank's FleetBoston Financial Corp. acquisition. But
Watt said the banking industry shouldn't be expecting a confrontational
relationship.
"He's
not out to kill the financial institutions," said Watt, who could end
up running one of the panel's subcommittees, depending on the choices
of more senior Democrats. "He's trying to find a good balance between
consumers and the financial industry."
Both
Bank of America and Wachovia made $2,000 political action committee
donations to Frank in the latest election cycle, according to the
nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Stoner,
the lobbyist, said the financial services industry favors a national
predatory lending standard, as opposed to varying state laws, but
remains concerned about any additional regulatory burden. Many of the
industry's issues are nonpartisan, he added, such as a dispute over the
ability of banks to provide real estate brokerage services.
"They are fights with other industries," Stoner said.
On
the Senate side, Richard Shelby, R-Ala., would likely stay chairman of
the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee if Republicans
maintain control. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., could take over the
panel if Democrats prevail. -- Rick Rothacker
Energy
Duke
Energy Corp. said Wednesday it was bracing for proposed legislation in
Congress to regulate carbon emissions, a greenhouse gas implicated in
global warming and health problems.
The
Charlotte-based utility, the largest in the state with more than 2.1
million customers, said it wasn't sure how the Democratic victory would
affect future legislation.
This
session Duke and lobbyists will be dealing with Rep. John Dingell,
D-Mich., the likely new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee. The current chairman is Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, a
President Bush ally.
Duke
and its employees gave lopsided donations to Republicans in federal
races this election cycle -- 82 percent of the $371,900 total,
according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Electric
utilities as a whole and their employees gave the most to Barton,
$212,000, and the seventh-most to Dingell, $106,000.
Dingell
would likely direct the debate on regulating gas emissions. That might
include a tax on carbon emissions or expanding a pollution
credit-trading system to allow companies to buy the right to pollute
from other companies that pollute less.
Duke said it would be pushing for a national standard for regulating carbon emissions.
Dingell,
who could not be reached by the Observer, has served in the leadership
post before. Some of his recent comments have tended toward the
conservative view that global warming might not exist. He has said it
might be pointless to develop carbon emission standards when other
developing countries, such as India and China, pollute more.
Tom
Shiel, spokesman for Duke Energy, said the company's top goal is for
the national standard so individual states don't come up with their own
rules. North Carolina came up with its own standard for dealing with
sulfur dioxide, a component of acid rain, with the 2002 Clean
Smokestacks Act. The law has cost Duke hundreds of millions in
pollution control technologies.
Piedmont
Natural Gas Co., a Charlotte-based utility, said it would push for
legislation to allow the company to search for natural gas in protected
areas. Companies are prevented from drilling in some East Coast
off-shore areas and parts of the West, considered environmentally
fragile, said David Trusty, spokesman for the company.
Similar
bills to allow for the exploration passed the House and Senate last
session. But Congress recessed for elections, leaving the legislation
in limbo before a negotiating committee could be appointed to come up
with a final version.
"The
main thing we want is the same today as it was yesterday," Trusty said.
"We're really talking about access to domestic sources of natural gas."
The
natural gas pipeline industry and its employees as a whole gave $1.67
million this election cycle, with 72 percent of it to Republican
candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The
energy industry won a victory last year with passage of the Energy
Policy Act of 2005, which provides for millions in incentives for
nuclear and alternative energy sources. -- Christopher D. Kirkpatrick
Defense spending
House
Democrats vowed Wednesday to re-examine U.S. policy in Iraq and tighten
oversight of the Pentagon, signaling a shift, if not a curtailment, in
military spending.Rep. David Price, a Raleigh-area Democrat who sits on
a defense appropriations subcommittee, anticipates "more probing
questions to be asked about major weapons systems."
He said more money likely would tilt toward pay and benefits for troops.
Pundits
and even President Bush saw Tuesday's vote as a referendum on the Iraq
war. The midterm elections claimed a slew of pro-war Republicans and
the job of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, an architect of the 2003
invasion who resigned Wednesday.
The
government needs to refit tanks, Humvees and other workhorse military
gear with updated technology and spare parts, said Brad Curran,
industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan in San Antonio.
"That's
expensive," he said. "And it will come from mostly space-based systems"
and possibly a delay in next-generation fighter jets.
Charlotte-based
Goodrich Corp. has expanded its space systems and related military and
commercial businesses, which could feel a Democrat pinch. Yet the
company last month also grabbed a contract extension worth a potential
$16 million to deliver landing parts for the U.S. Air Force's giant C-5
cargo jets.
Last
year, Curtiss-Wright Controls in Gastonia, which makes aerospace
components for the military, won a contract to help with the F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter, a cutting-edge stealth fighter plane under development.
It could be the nation's biggest military aircraft procurement.
General
Dynamics' Armaments division in Charlotte this year was competing for a
potential multibillion-dollar anti-terrorism contract to protect the
nation's airliners from shoulder-launched missiles. Critics, however,
say such systems would be too expensive to deploy.
But
the company last month secured a contract potentially worth $27.6
million to supply the military with M2HB 12.7mm machine guns.
The three companies declined or could not be reached for comment.
Prudential
Equity Group analyst Byron Callan said he doubts there will be a "major
change" to defense spending. But there may be a "reordering," which
could curtail growth expectations for some of the larger defense
companies after 2007, he wrote in a note Wednesday. -- Mike Drummond, Bloomberg News
Telecom
Federal
regulators should delay ruling on AT&T Inc.'s $83 billion purchase
of BellSouth Corp. until next year so the new Congress can examine the
deal, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's top Democrat said
Wednesday.
John
Dingell of Michigan said the Federal Communications Commission should
hold off until the committee he expects to chair can "take a very hard
look" at the deal to see if "the public interest is being served."
"There's
going to be a different tone when companies come into town," said Mark
Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America. "The
Democrats don't need to pass legislation. All they need to do it ask
hard questions in hearings about (mergers) and it can change how these
commissions function."
FCC
approval is the last regulatory hurdle for San Antonio-based AT&T
to complete the largest-ever U.S. phone company combination with
BellSouth, the Carolinas' dominant phone provider.
The
FCC delayed a Nov. 3 vote on the transaction after two Republican
commissioners and two Democrats deadlocked on what, if any conditions
to impose on the deal.
Dingell's
request means that Carolinas television viewers might need to wait
longer to have a new video service provider to compete with cable and
satellite companies. AT&T has promised to start offering video
service soon after the merger is completed, originally expected by
year's end.
A
new N.C. law that starts Jan. 1 no longer requires video service
providers to get approval from local governments, a move designed to
help AT&T enter the market faster. A similar law in South Carolina
went into effect in May.
The phone companies still hope for speedy approval.
"Eighteen
state commissions and the U.S. Department of Justice have carefully and
fully examined our merger and found that it is in the public interest,"
AT&T and BellSouth said in a joint statement. "Additionally, we
have put forth a set of unprecedented conditions unrivaled by any other
communications provider in a merger proceeding."
-- consumer writer andrew shain, Bloomberg news and the associated press contributed
Textiles
The
textile industry anticipates more support from a delegation of
Democrats expected to be less bullish on trade agreements. The
industry, once a Carolinas bedrock, has blamed free trade for tens of
thousands of jobs lost to lower-wage foreign workers.The number of N.C.
textile and apparel workers has plunged to 81,000 from 230,800 a decade
ago. In South Carolina, industry employment has slid beneath 40,000
from 109,800.
China's
immense textile industry poses the greatest threat. The U.S. industry
fought hard for limits on imports from China after quotas expired in
2005. Those limits expire in two years.
Heightened
pressure on China issues such as currency manipulation could pay off
for textiles, said Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of
Textile Organizations.
Furniture,
another longtime N.C. industry, also has struggled with import
competition. American Home Furnishings Alliance members differ on trade
but generally agree on issues such as stopping foreign competitors from
pirating designs.
"There may be a little more scrutiny ... from the Democratic congress," said the High Point group's lobbyist, Russ Batson. -- Stella M. Hopkins
Transportation
Democratic
control of Congress could thwart efforts to relax restrictions on the
foreign ownership of airlines flying inside the United States.
Currently,
a foreign-owned airline can't transport local passengers within the
United States, though the GOP had been sympathetic to relaxing those
rules -- possibly paving the way for a foreign-owned airline to operate
domestically, just as US Airways does or any other American carrier.
"That's going to be on hold," said airline consultant Robert Mann. -- Steve Harrison
Consumers
Some
consumer advocates said they are hopeful a Democratic-dominated
Congress will pass some improved protections."We're are going to see a
new area of marketplace accountability," said Jim Guest, president of
Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. "This wasn't
just about the war. Voters were asking, `Are you looking out for the
interest of the average American?' "
Guest
said Consumers Union would push Congress to help seniors who can end up
temporarily paying full price for drugs under the Medicare prescription
plan, improve enforcement efforts by the Consumer Product Safety
Commission and boost government fuel standards for cars.
A
few advocates worried that little will change with just two years
before the presidential election. "I read (House Democratic leader)
Nancy Pelosi's statement about what the Democrats would do (in power)
and saw nothing about consumers," said Rob Thompson, consumer advocate
for the N.C. Public Interest Research Group. "It's about lobby reform
and the war in Iraq." -- Andrew Shain
| Company |
Totals |
Democrat |
|
Republican |
|
| |
2004 |
2006 |
2004 |
2006 |
2004 |
2006 |
| Bank of America Corp. |
$2.4 million |
$1.6 million |
47% |
43% |
52% |
57% |
| Wachovia Corp. |
$1.24 million |
$593,644 |
24% |
21% |
75% |
79% |
| Duke Energy Corp. |
$542,620 |
$371,900 |
22% |
18% |
78% |
82% |
| *Goodrich Corp. |
$72,000 |
$71,500 |
48% |
33% |
52% |
67% |
| *Nucor Corp. |
$82,250 |
$113,500 |
28% |
32% |
72% |
68% |
| *Lowe's Cos. Inc. |
$2,000 |
$4,000 |
0% |
0% |
100% |
100% |
-- * Includes only contributions from PACs SOURCE: Center for Responsive Politics
Campaign Donations
Charlotte-area
Fortune 500 companies and their employees increased the percentage of
their political giving to Republican candidates in federal races during
the 2006 election cycle. Nucor, however, increased the percentage it
gave to Democrats, who scored a political victory Tuesday.
