WASHINGTON — New York’s senators have received more campaign contributions from the hedge fund-industry than all but one other member of Congress, according to a new report.
Sen. Charles Schumer, who sits on the committee that plans to craft legislation regulating hedge funds and other parts of the financial industry, has collected $36,200 so far this year, the Center for Responsive Politics found.
That amount is second only to the $49,750 pulled in by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
The campaign for New York’s junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, has pocketed $21,200 so far this year from hedge fund employees and political organizations.
The securities and investment industries have already donated $180,050 to Schumer and $168,350 to Gillibrand this year, making New York’s Democratic senators the top two recipients of campaign cash from those sectors.
President Obama last week proposed a broad overhaul of regulations on the financial industry.
Hedge funds are all but guaranteed to be subject to more government oversight as Congress tries to clamp down on the kinds of transactions that are blamed for the financial crisis and implicated in some cases of fraud.
Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon said that the senator wrote more than a year ago that the government must tighten rules on hedge funds.
“Senator Schumer has strongly supported tighter regulation of hedge funds in the past, and he still does,” Fallon said.
Gillibrand’s spokeswoman, Bethany Lesser, said her boss “advocates for accountability and oversight of hedge funds.”