While the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) debate in the US House of Representatives has been delayed until at least sometime in February, the US Senate is still scheduled to hold a vote on January 24 on the similar Protect IP Act (PIPA). Despite a number of US Senators pulling their support of PIPA and urging that the vote on the bill be delayed, the Majority Leader of the US Senate, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, is insisting that the vote be carried out as scheduled.
Now the non-profit political watchdog web site OpenCongress.org has revealed that Senator Reid has received the most money in campaign donations from the various special interest groups that are supporting SOPA and PIPA. The site claims that Reid has received a total of $3,502,624 from those groups. That number is well ahead of the number two and number three Senators on the list, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. Schumer and Gillibrand are two of the official sponsors of PIPA.
By contrast, Senator Reid only received $339,226 from special interest groups that publicly oppose PIPA and SOPA, according to the web site.
Special interest groups throwing money at politicians for campaign donations is nothing new, of course. However, Senator Reid's massive campaign donations from these pro-PIPA groups may be part of the reason why he still wants the bill to be voted on next week, even as other Senators are trying to distance themselves from PIPA.
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