Lisa Gilbert, TexPIRG’s democracy advocate in Washington, D.C., reports that influence peddling is still a growth industry in our nation’s capital, even in an economic downturn. Large corporate donors are attempting to influence hot button issues such as health care, energy, and financial reform through their contributions.

By mid-year, the insurance and real estate sectors had already given $23.8 million in campaign contributions to political parties and candidates for federal office, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

TexPIRG is building support for legislation to curb corporate spending on electoral campaigns. Legislation TexPIRG helped to draft is currently being considered in Congress, and 77 members in the House of Representatives have already agreed to sponsor it. The legislation would help to curb the influence of corporate dollars in part by establishing a matching system for small donations by citizens.

We have the technology to use existing state and federal databases to proactively register eligible voters in a way that takes far fewer resources and is more accurate than large registration drives.

So why is Texas still using a pen-and-paper process that leads to errors and incomplete or duplicate registrations? The systems in place in most states can be intimidating for first-time voters, and they place a heavy workload on election officials just prior to Election Day.

According our research, modernizing our voter registration system could have eliminated more than $33 million in wasted spending during 2008. Many local and state election officials nationwide have put their support behind principles we’ve outlined to modernize voter registration.

This summer, our public health advocate in Washington, D.C., Liz Hitchcock, submitted testimony to Congress that repeats our call for an increase in safety standards at chemical facilities that use potentially dangerous chemicals, such as KIK international in Houston.

The legislation we’re backing would require the implementation of safer technologies and alternatives at high-risk facilities and would increase government oversight at those plants, potentially saving thousands of lives in the event of an accident or terrorist attack.

“Congress should not allow unnecessary risk to American communities when we know there are commonsense ways to make these facilities safer,” said Hitchcock in her testimony. “There should be no further delay in passing this already long overdue protection.”