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ITAA's PAC Plans To Feed House Speaker Hastert

27 Apr 1999, 3:36 PM CST
By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes.
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A.,

There's only one good way to keep your head above tricky legal water
in Washington, D.C., and that's to publicize it when you plan to try
to raise a wad of cash for your favorite public official. That's the
tack the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is
taking. The high-tech lobbying group today said its political action
committee (PAC), known as NetPAC, will hold a fundraiser dinner for
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

An ITAA official told Newsbytes that the PAC hopes to raise at least
$35,000 at the event tonight.

"Speaker Hastert gets IT," said ITAA President and NetPAC Director
Harris Miller. "And the high-tech community is getting to understand
the political process better. The people who have come to support
Speaker Hastert today realize that he has championed technology
interests in the past and they want to express their thanks."

Miller also said that this is "first exclusively high-tech" fund
raising event for Hastert since he replaced the short-lived Bob
Livingston, R-La., as speaker after the resignation of Newt Gingrich,
R-Ga.

The ITAA official said Hastert was crucial as the Chief Deputy Whip in
the 105th Congress to getting plenty of IT legislation passed in the
House of Representatives.

ITAA officials were unavailable for comment on how much cash the PAC
was attempting to raise for Hastert.

The ITAA said that NetPAC supports candidates for office "who work to
further the issues critical to information technology industry through
financial contributions."

Attendees tonight include America Online Inc. [NYSE:AOL] Senior Vice
President for Government Affairs George Vradenburg; former Hastert
Chief of Staff Peter Vroom; Jim deChaine, Vroom's partner in the IT
consulting business Legislative Solutions; Litton PRC's Len Pomata;
Harris Miller; Grant Thornton's Hank Steininger; EDS VP of Government
Affairs John Lacopo; Weber-McGinn's Jimmy Hazel; and Federal Sources'
Tom Hewitt.