A Home Financing Firm Offered Its Customers Amazon Gift Cards If They Submitted Testimony To A Pennsylvania House Committee
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A home financing firm offered its customers Amazon gift cards if they submitted testimony to a Pennsylvania House committee ahead of a hearing on a bill the company opposed.
The offer, made in a February email by Palo Alto-based company Point to its users and viewed by Spotlight PA, has upset the committee’s legislators, who argue it calls into question the firm's argument.
“It's an outrageous corruption of our legislative process to offer a financial inducement for testimony, and on top of that, to not disclose it,” said state Rep. Arvind Venkat (D., Allegheny), who is sponsoring legislation to regulate the firm and its products.
State Rep. Tim Twardzik (R., Schuylkill), a co-sponsor of the proposal, added in his own comments Wednesday that the offer was “pay to play.”
Pennsylvania has lax ethics laws overall. And the appearance of paid, professional lobbyists before lawmakers is a constitutionally protected and normal part of the legislative process at all levels of government.
But lobbyists, Venkat noted, must disclose who pays them. And Point is not yet registered to lobby the General Assembly, according to state records. The customers, whose testimony was included within a packet of meeting materials, only present themselves as citizens and homeowners and do not reference the payments.