Key lawmakers profiting from war

When General Petraeus testified yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was speaking to a group heavily invested in the war effort. That's according to a new report from the Center for Responsive Politics, which examined federal lawmakers' personal financial holdings -- and discovered that the elected officials charged with overseeing war are staking their personal fortunes on its continuation:

According to the most recent reports of their personal finances, 151 current members of Congress had between $78.7 million and $195.5 million invested in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5 million in 2006. In all, these companies received more than $275.6 billion from the government in 2006, or $755 million per day, according to FedSpending.org, a website of the budget watchdog group OMB Watch.

The minimum value of Congress members' personal investments in these contractors increased 5 percent from 2004 to 2006, but because lawmakers are only required to report their assets in broad ranges, the value of these investments could have risen as much as 160 percent -- or even dropped 51 percent. It is also unclear how many members still hold these investments, since reports for 2007 are not due until May 15, 2008. In 2004, the first full year after the Iraq war began, Republican and Democratic lawmakers -- both hawks and doves -- had between $74.9 million and $161.3 million invested in companies under contract with the Department of Defense.

The lawmaker with the most money invested in companies with DOD contracts is Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), with a stake somewhere between $28,872,067 and $38,209,020. Among Southern lawmakers, the leader is Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.), who holds between $9,232,037 and $37,105,000 in DOD-related investments. Other Southerners among the top 10 DOD-invested lawmakers are Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) at $2 million, Rep. Kenny Ewell Marchant (R-Texas) at $1,163,231, and Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), between $1,000,001 and $5 million.

Kerry holds a special responsibility for war oversight as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Members of that committee and the Armed Services Committee had between $32 million and $44 million invested in companies with DOD contracts, and between $3 million and $5.1 million invested in firms engaged directly in war-related work such as weapons manufacturing.

As for the leading presidential candidates, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) had stock in several defense companies but sold it in May 2007, while Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) reported no such holdings. The Center also found that while Democrats had more money invested in DOD contract holders than Republicans in 2006 ($3.7 million compared to $577,500), more Republicans than Democrats held stock in actual defense companies (28 compared to 19).

Among the experts cited in the report is Cheryl Smith, executive vice president of Trillium Asset Management, an investment firm that emphasizes social responsibility. While noting that some of the defense contracts would be in place even if there weren't a war, Smith recommended that lawmakers who want to take a stand against the war avoid investing in companies with weapons contracts. She also offered suggestions on where lawmakers might invest instead:

Smith ... said that lawmakers who plan to divest could consider putting that money into community rebuilding, such as in hurricane-damaged New Orleans, or alternative energy projects to reduce U.S. dependence on oil. "There's a lot of opportunities to make a double statement by taking [the funds] from one place and putting them into another," she said.