The Heritage Foundation had denied for years their lobbying.
Interesting before scenerio 501 (c) 3 group the Heritage Foundation creates a action group to lobby filed no record of lobbying on their taxes but if you search under the lobbyist who did file the clients they worked with they show the Heritage Foundaton. As so happen it happen for several years involving more than lobbyist but according to Heritage Foundations for all those years they did not lobbying. Lobbyist are usually required to register and so while the Heritage Foundation may have refused for years to file their taxes revealing lobbying, the lobbyist they used did disclose this information.
It is only until 2011 Heritage Foundation documented actual lobbying, and the only reason for that is they created another a 501 c 4 group in 2010, Heritage Action for America. It still is a question mark of all the years of not telling the truth they create a 501 c 4. It’s quite the joke a 501 c 3 group creating another group to lobby. Are you kidding me and the Heritage Foundation should be taxes are my first thought. The group was founded created in April 2010 and launched in July 2010 to be used against President Barack Obama by Heritage President Ed Feulner which is currently stepping down and being replaced by Jim DeMint. Jim DeMint recently retired his role as Senator for South Carolina to step into this position. Currently Mitch McConnell receives an income and retirement fund from the Heritage Foundation but they don’t mention that either. For a 501 c 3 group that’s not supposed to be involved in politics it’s interesting how they are paying a seated Senator, and gets another one to leave.
Some Prior Blogs on the Heritage Foundation:
Political activity Section 501(c)(3) organizations are subject to limits or absolute prohibitions on engaging in political activities. Interesting, that’s all the Heritage Foundation does. The Heritage Foundation lists itself as a 501(c)(3) organization. How does a group that is really not supposed to be involved in politics and limited form lobbying create a tax-exempt 501 (C)(4) group under your foundation to lobby in the hopes you can get away with lobbying when you doing it in the past years ago befor you even created a this group in 2009? The Heritage Foundation being a 501 (C)(3) organization had been nothing but politics for years.
“501(c)(3) — Religious, Educational, Charitable, Scientific, Literary, Testing for Public Safety, to Foster National or International Amateur Sports Competition, or Prevention of Cruelty to Children or Animals Organizations”
Charities, religious, literary, scientific, etc. can file as 501(c)(3), some how the Heritage Foundation doesn’t fit in the same category. On the Heritage’s Foundation website they write a blog called the ‘Obama’s Arrogant Authritarianism’ in response to the President’s recess appointee (allowed by the Constitution), Richard Cordray Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Sounds like politics to me, and besides the bureau is set up to protect the consumer, I wonder who the Heritage Foundation is protecting?
How does a 501(c)(3) organization (that is tax-exempt) think they can turn around and create a 501 (c)(4) organization (tax-exempt at that too) to try to go up and around the laws you were breaking anyway?
A 501 (c)(4) organization also means the donors do not have to be listed.
Information found while researching Opensecrets I was able to locate these two lobbyist that show they worked for the Heritage Foundation.
In-spite the Heritage Foundations denial of lobbying over the years they have used lobbyist and two in particular that I’ve found are Frederick A “Tripp” III Baird and Cleta Mitchell. Frederick A Tripp has been involved with the Heritage Foundation for well over a decade. He is was listed as a lobbyist for the Heritage Action for America in 2010 and 2011. Prior to working at the Heritage Foundation he worked at JC Watts Companies. He left JC Watts Companies to work for the Heritage Foundation in 2001. The Heritage Foundation show nothing in their taxes that they paid for a lobbyist.
Cleta Mitchell of Foley & Lardner LLP is also listed as a lobbyist for the Heritage Foundation.
http://www.foley.com/cleta-mitchell/
Cleta Mitchell is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Foley & Lardner LLP and a member of the firm’s Political Law Practice. With more than 30 years of experience in law, politics and public policy, Ms. Mitchell advises corporations, nonprofit and issue organizations, candidates, campaigns, and individuals on state and federal campaign finance law, election law, and compliance issues related to lobbying, ethics and financial disclosure. Ms. Mitchell practices before the Federal Election Commission, the ethics committees of the US House and Senate and similar state and local enforcement bodies and agencies.
Ms. Mitchell has extensive experience on the federal lobbying and ethics law enacted by Congress in 2007, having taught dozens of seminars on the subject since its passage. In 2008, Ms. Mitchell authored The Lobbying Compliance Handbook, published by Columbia Books, Inc.
Ms. Mitchell represents numerous candidates, campaigns and members of Congress, as well as state and national political party committees. She has served as legal counsel to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee. Ms. Mitchell served as co-counsel for the National Rifle Association in the Supreme Court case involving the 2002 federal campaign finance law.
Ms. Mitchell has testified before Congress on numerous occasions related to election law, campaign finance and lobbying and ethics laws, and is a frequent speaker and guest commentator on political law.
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