Budd received thousands of dollars from Wall Street, then helped them rip off North Carolinians
Yesterday, Lever News reported that Ted Budd has been caught in yet another pay-to-play scandal, this time blocking a measure that would have prevented big banks and credit card companies from charging extra fees on consumers, which ultimately would cost North Carolinians nearly $500 million.
Budd blocked this key cost-reduction measure just days within receiving tens of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions from big banks and predatory lenders that benefit from these extra fees.
This kind of corruption and greed is not new for Budd. He’s been caught:
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Taking thousands from Big Oil companies just a day before voting against a bill that would stop their gas price gouging.
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Getting thousands of dollars from Big Pharma the same day he voted against a bill to lower prescription drug costs for North Carolina families.
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Voting against a bipartisan bill to reduce crime and gun violence after the NRA spent nearly $200,000 to elect him.
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Cashing checks from the financial services industry and payday lenders just weeks after voting to roll back consumer protections against Wall Street and payday lenders.
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Going on exotic vacations to Oslo and Miami paid for his dark money allies.
Read for more from Lever News: Ted Budd Aided Donors Trying To Bypass Predatory Lending Laws
Julia Rock
10/17/22
Key Points:
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North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Ted Budd used his congressional office to press federal regulators to let financial institutions evade his own state’s prohibitions against predatory lending, despite warnings from local watchdog groups that the move would cost North Carolina borrowers almost a half billion dollars.
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The lawmaker’s pressure campaigns coincided with influxes of cash from Wall Street donors, according to an extensive review of federal records by The Lever. Budd also helped those same finance industry donors try to gut rules preventing them from hammering North Carolina small businesses and consumers with debit card fees.
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Now, more donor rewards for Budd are on the way: Wall Street cash is flooding into North Carolina to boost his Senate campaign as new polling shows that Budd and his Democratic opponent Cheri Beasley are in a dead heat ahead of the election next month. The outcome could determine which party controls the upper chamber next year, and whether Budd is vaulted into an even more powerful position to help his Wall Street benefactors deregulate the financial system.
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The swing-state candidates are vying to replace Republican Senator Richard Burr, who is retiring following a federal probe into his infamous $1.6 million stock dump days before COVID-19 sent markets tumbling. Rather than offering voters an anti-corruption candidate to clean house from that stench of scandal, Republican leaders coalesced behind a Senate nominee who has flagrantly pushed his donors’ agenda, even as it has enabled the financial industry to prey on citizens of his home state.
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Since being elected as a small-business champion in 2017, Budd has left a lengthy paper trail of his work on behalf of banks. At public hearings, in House floor speeches, and in letters to federal agencies, he has helped finance industry lobbyists press for legislation to allow banks to charge higher fees to retailers and hounded regulators to allow banks and lenders to bypass state interest rate regulations.
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“It’s very clear that Budd is on the list of Republicans on the committee who will sign those letters written by the industry itself, calling on regulators to lay off,” former Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), who fought to regulate banks and predatory lenders, told The Lever. “There’s real money that comes with being willing to sign those letters.”
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Last week, the American Bankers Association — a lobbying group that represents the nation’s largest financial institutions — announced a new ad campaign to promote Budd’s Senate candidacy. At the same time, a pro-Wall Street super PAC called Club For Growth Action has spent $9 million on ads this cycle boosting Budd’s Senate campaign and attacking his opponents. Club for Growth’s political action committee (PAC) is also Budd’s top source of campaign cash this election cycle.
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The group has raised more than $258,000 in individual donations for the candidate, and contributed $2,850 from its PAC, according to data from OpenSecrets. Budd has also received more than $360,000 from individuals employed in the lending and financial services industries.
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[In 2017], Republicans were attempting to use their new governing trifecta to repeal major provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, a law designed to better regulate the financial industry after it caused the global recession.
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But one provision in the statute posed a tricky political issue. The so-called “Durbin amendment,” written by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), set a cap on debit card swipe fees — the fees that banks charge stores when a card is used to make a purchase.
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Retailers and banks are both major GOP donors, and some Republicans wanted the Durbin Amendment to remain on the books.
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But not Budd.
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As a local retailer, Budd had campaigned as a small businessman and was financially backed by major retailers, including $10,000 from Lowe’s and $3,000 from AT&T. On the swipe fee issue, however, he sided with the banks.
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Budd’s work on behalf of the banks was backed by the Electronic Payments Coalition, a lobbying group for major banks and other lenders, which ran radio ads in Budd’s district praising his position on the bill.
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The group lists the Durbin Amendment as a key issue. When the Electronic Payments Coalition’s executive director left the organization following year, Budd said in a statement, “Molly is an exceptional leader that knows how to get things done. Her leadership brought the Electronic Payments Coalition tremendous success, and I know that she’s going to achieve the same level of excellence at American Airlines.”
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Between May and August 2017, Budd received thousands in contributions from the corporate PACs of multiple banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Capital One, BNY Mellon, and Morgan Stanley, as well as the PACs of bank lobbying groups like the Financial Services Roundtable, the American Financial Services Association, Securities Industry And Financial Markets Association, the Independent Community Bankers Of America, and the Mortgage Bankers Association.
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And in 2018, the American Bankers Association bought political ads for the first time ever — spending six figures boosting Budd. One ad featured Kelley Earnhardt Miller, CEO of the car racing team JR Motorsports, praising Budd for having “the business interests at heart when he’s working on policy.”
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The American Bankers Association ran ads for him again in 2020, and announced a new ad for Budd last week.
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The congressional battle over swipe fees was just the beginning of Budd’s work on behalf of banks.
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After Republicans lost control of the House in 2018, Budd pivoted to successfully pressuring regulators to allow banks and consumer lenders to set up convoluted schemes to bypass state interest rate laws — including those in North Carolina. Once again, his requests to regulators coincided with influxes of campaign cash from banks and predatory lending institutions.
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So in 2019, Budd and the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee Rep. Patrick McHenry (R) — a fellow North Carolina lawmaker — led a letter to bank regulators demanding they prioritize codifying rules allowing lenders to evade state usury laws.
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That letter came amid a flood of cash from the bank and lending industries. In September 2019 alone, individuals gave $13,500 in earmarked contributions via the Club for Growth Action PAC.
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Just a few days after Budd sent the letter, he received a maximum individual contribution of $2,800 from Royce Everette, the president of a North Carolina-based consumer lending company, Time Investment Company. That firm was a founding member of the state’s consumer lending trade association. (Time Investment Company also donated $25,000 to Club for Growth Action this election cycle.)
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Everette’s mother and co-owner of the firm, Gail Blanton, gave $1,000 on the same day. Budd also received $2,000 from the American Financial Services Association PAC, a consumer lending lobbying group with which Everette was involved.
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Budd also received contributions that month from the PACs of Citigroup ($4,000), Discover ($1,000) Wells Fargo ($3,000, from the employee PAC), Regions Financial ($3,000), UBS ($5,000), Morgan Stanley ($2,500), and Quicken Loans ($2,000), among other financial institutions with a potential interest in OCC rulemaking on the issue.
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Even after helping his lending industry donors win that fight to evade state usury laws, Budd continued his push on behalf of lenders to block regulations around interest rates.
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In April 2020, weeks after Congress passed the CARES Act stimulus legislation to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Budd led a letter to Trump regulators requesting they ensure payday lenders were eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program, which was meant to provide forgivable loans to small businesses to keep their employees on payroll, rather than laying them off.
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The same day Budd sent his letter, Everette once again gave Budd $2,800, and three of his family members donated $500 each. Budd also received $2,000 from the Bank of America PAC that day and $500 from OneMain Financial, the nation’s largest subprime lender. The American Financial Services Association PAC donated $2,500 the following week, as did the American Bankers Association.
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