According to the source, more than $5 million in $800,000 has been allocated to the 84 members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees responsible for preparing the annual defense budget.
The analysis found that individuals and political committees who raise or spend more than $1,000 to influence the outcome of a federal election (PAC) associated with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics each made generous contributions to political campaigns, associations and parties in the 2022 election cycle.
These large contractors have raised more than $765 billion from the federal government from 2016 to 2021, including more than $704 billion from the Department of Defense.
The 25 members of the Senate Armed Services Committee raised one million 200,000 of the five million 200,000 dollars all senators received from the defense sector during the 2022 election, when only six members of that body ran in last year’s midterm elections.
That half-dozen lawmakers said they received a total of just over $423,000 during the election cycle.
Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., received $198,961; more money than any other member of its Defense Sector Committee was allotted in the previous calendar.
Kelly lobbied for and secured a $25 billion increase in the National Defense Authorization Act in 2021 to partially fund “the development of new technology to maintain our competitive advantage,” he told Politico.
The outlet also addressed the case of conservative Mike Rogers, who introduced the 2021 revenue-raising amendment of the bill and spearheaded the Republican Party’s effort to pass a Democrat amendment to increase the defense budget by $37 billion to increase, historically high from $858 billion in 2022.
According to OpenSecrets, he received more money from the defense sector than any other member of Congress in the past election cycle.
Additionally, one-third of the $13.7 million made available to members of the House of Representatives during the midterm elections went to members of the Armed Services Committee.
The 58 members of that panel said they received an average of $79,588, three times the average of $26,213 reported by other representatives over the same period.
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