A Clue! A Clue!
In my post this morning on Republicans, gas and oil interests and Cobell v. Norton, I speculated that Abramoff and his cronies probably had their mitts all over the Trust Fund case, and all we really needed was to start to look. Well, here's an interesting find, from Indianz.com, back in October, 2003:
GOP votes in House beat challenges to trust fund rider.
Friday, October 31, 2003The House narrowly approved the Department of Interior's $20 billion spending bill on Thursday over objections to a provision that limits a court-ordered accounting of the Indian trust.
Last evening, the chamber rejected two challenges to the package. Indian Country advocates fought to send the bill back to a conference committee for further work, and when that failed, to reject it entirely.
The roll call against final passage of H.R.2691 underscored the influence of the Congressional Native American Caucus, a bipartisan group of 111awmakers.(*) Lobbying efforts by the members and staff of the caucus contributed to the 216-205 vote, a 51 percent to 49 percent split in the Republican-controlled House.
But the Republican-Democrat alliance was fractured when Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Resources Committee, withdrew support for the effort to send the bill back to the conference committee. His backing was needed to bring other Republicans on board.
Pombo still voted against passage of the bill even though it contained wildfire funds for his state. But Indian advocates considered the motion to recommit extremely crucial because they knew they would lose some Democrat support on final passage.
On the other hand, they knew almost all Democrats supported the recommit. With the help of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, 92 percent of Democrats voted "yes" on the motion. But only seven Republicans did.
Congressional aides and lobbyists outside of Congress said Pombo initially supported the motion to recommit. A letter distributed on Wednesday within the House, in fact, indicated that he and other prominent Indian Country supporters -- including Reps. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) and Dale Kildee (D-Mich), the co-chairs of the Native American Caucus -- would fight to send the bill back to the conference committee.
His stance changed later in the day after he met with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas. Pombo's staff confirmed the meeting but downplayed suggestions that he was pressured to change his mind.
Hmmm...wonder what led him to change his mind, and what contributions ended up in his bank account shortly thereafter.