Government for Rent
How Special Interests Finance Governors to Pursue Their Climate Policy Agenda
Snippets:
Executive Summary
FROM SEPTEMBER 12 TO 14, 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown (D) will host a “Global Climate Action Summit,” an official state event using public positions and taxpayer resources to make climate change an issue of greater political concern before the 2018 elections.1 This three-day event is budgeted at $10 million, provided by “strong support from individuals, foundations, governments and businesses. Supporters will be able to engage Summit leaders”—e.g., elected office holders—“and shape an event that will catalyze [government] climate action worldwide.” Open record productions reveal that this summit is part of an enormous climate industry that funnels donor money through nonprofit organizations to staff up politicians’ offices. This is done off the books, and the nonprofits take a handsome percentage for serving as middlemen. The September event is just one component of a sprawling enterprise that underwrites “support functions” for politicians to advocate the parties’ aligned policy agenda.
The bigger-picture questions remain: Are the donors going to such lengths to avoid 1) directly placing consultants in governors’ offices or 2) giving the money to do so directly to those offices, because they are barred from such placement? If so, why is this permissible? Or is the effort creating middlemen all merely due to appearances? Why do we find participants misleading or telling outright falsehoods when questioned about what we have found?
And the biggest issue of all is, does this represent government for hire?
This paper details how this activist donor network provides off-the-books staff members and consultants for governors, both ad hoc for this Summit and as a going concern, while using middlemen nonprofit organizations to administer the funding—to work for and promote politicians who in turn support the donors’ climate agenda.
Topics Covered:
Overview of the Off-Books Climate Industry
Privately Funded Government
I. MODEL A—DONOR-FUNDED IN-HOUSE STAFF
II. MODEL B—PRIVATELY FUNDED OUTSIDE “SUPPORT FUNCTIONS”
The “Secretariat”—Good “Parking” if You Can Get It
U.S. Climate Alliance Secretariat Support Memorandum of Understanding
August XX, 2017
Relationship between the Secretariat Support Organization and the U.S. Climate Alliance
The Secretariat’s Beauty Contest
DONOR-FUNDED OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS FOR GOVERNORS
Staffing Up the Summit
Money, Ego, and Influence: Too Much Donor Cash?
Further “Support Functions”— Activist-Run Listserv “Safehouses”
Governor Jerry Brown's September Summit turns up in planning documents obtained through public records requests as a milestone event for nearly every Secretariat-run activist group, whether it’s USCA, Michael Bloomberg’s “America’s Pledge,” “We Are Still In,” or others. Reasons for this include the desire—made clear in the Climate Briefing Service memo—to finally make climate a major election issue in the United States, courtesy of activist donors, if through the use of public office. Open record productions, as revealed in this paper, uncover enough about these two models of off-the-books governance to demand immediate legislative oversight—at the state and federal levels—to determine the propriety and legality of this use, and the means of funding the use, of public offices. Legislatures and inspectors general should promptly inquire whether the perceived gaps in the laws are real and, if so, remedy that immediately. If the supposed authority to engage in this practice is imagined, and this violates state law then that, too, calls for remedy.
Read the full article here:
https://cei.org/governorsclimatescheme