‘Political Football: Centers for Disease Control in NFL’s Pocket, Too, on Concussion Issue’ … today at Beyond Chron
October 14, 2011‘Flowery Al Davis Tributes Downplay Dark Side of His Oakland and Raiders Legacy’ (full text)
October 15, 2011
In my Beyond Chron column published earlier today, I reported that the National Football League gave the CDC Foundation $150,000 for the “Heads Up” program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The NFL is the only private donor in the history of the program, which CDC had been self-funding at around $200,000 a year.
I raise the question of whether this information fatally compromises the CDC plan to empanel experts and design national school sports concussion guidelines, at the prodding of New Jersey’s Senator Robert Menendez and Representative Bill Pascrell.
I posed the question directly to Senator Menendez and Congressman Pascrell’s offices. Here are their responses:
[none]
*****
I am pleased to note, however, that at least neither Menendez nor Pascrell has made the lists of recipients of campaign contributions from the NFL’s political action committee, the Gridiron PAC. (As always, a tip of the hat here to public records assembled under one roof by the Center for Responsive Politics, http://opensecrets.org.)
Here’s the list of federal legislative beneficiaries of NFL largesse during the 2012 campaign reporting cycle:
SENATE
| Ayotte, Kelly A (R-NH) | $5,000 |
| Begich, Mark (D-AK) | $5,000 |
| Blumenthal, Richard (D-CT) | $1,000 |
| Blunt, Roy (R-MO) | $5,000 |
| Brown, Sherrod (D-OH) | $2,500 |
| Casey, Bob (D-PA) | $5,000 |
| Corker, Bob (R-TN) | $5,000 |
| Hatch, Orrin G (R-UT) | $5,000 |
| Johnson, Ron (R-WI) | $5,000 |
| Lee, Mike (R-UT) | $5,000 |
| Manchin, Joe (D-WV) | $5,000 |
| McCaskill, Claire (D-MO) | $10,000 |
| Nelson, Ben (D-NE) | $5,000 |
| Nelson, Bill (D-FL) | $5,000 |
| Rubio, Marco (R-FL) | $5,000 |
| Snowe, Olympia J (R-ME) | $5,000 |
| Tester, Jon (D-MT) | $5,000 |
| Whitehouse, Sheldon (D-RI) | $5,000 |
| Wicker, Roger (R-MS) | $5,000 |
HOUSE
| Becerra, Xavier (D-CA) | $1,000 |
| Bono Mack, Mary (R-CA) | $5,000 |
| Brown, Corrine (D-FL) | $1,000 |
| Carson, Andre (D-IN) | $1,000 |
| Chabot, Steve (R-OH) | $5,000 |
| Clay, William L Jr (D-MO) | $1,000 |
| Cleaver, Emanuel (D-MO) | $1,000 |
| Coble, Howard (R-NC) | $1,000 |
| Cooper, Jim (D-TN) | $1,000 |
| Cummings, Elijah E (3-MD) | $2,000 |
| Davis, Danny K (D-IL) | $1,000 |
| Doyle, Mike (D-PA) | $1,000 |
| Fudge, Marcia L (D-OH) | $1,000 |
| Gingrey, Phil (R-GA) | $1,000 |
| Gonzalez, Charlie A (D-TX) | $1,000 |
| Goodlatte, Bob (R-VA) | $5,000 |
| Hoyer, Steny H (D-MD) | $5,000 |
| Kinzinger, Adam (R-IL) | $1,500 |
| Kline, John (R-MN) | $5,000 |
| Lewis, John (D-GA) | $1,000 |
| Matsui, Doris O (D-CA) | $1,000 |
| McCarthy, Kevin (R-CA) | $5,000 |
| Pelosi, Nancy (D-CA) | $1,000 |
| Pitts, Joe (R-PA) | $1,000 |
| Quigley, Mike (D-IL) | $1,000 |
| Richmond, Cedric L (D-LA) | $1,000 |
| Rooney, Tom (R-FL) | $5,000 |
| Runyan, Jon (R-NJ) | $3,000 |
| Schiff, Adam (D-CA) | $1,000 |
| Schultz, Debbie Wasserman (D-FL) | $5,000 |
| Sessions, Pete (R-TX) | $1,500 |
| Smith, Lamar (R-TX) | $5,000 |
| Stearns, Cliff (R-FL) | $1,000 |
| Towns, Edolphus (D-NY) | $1,000 |
| Watt, Melvin L (D-NC) | $1,000 |
Irv Muchnick