News in Brief: A Washington Roundup

The top five student-loan corporations devoted a combined total of $60 million to political spending over the past three election cycles, including $49 million on lobbying, according to a recent report by a watchdog organization.

The lobbying by the lending organizations came from both in-house staff members and outside firms, according to "Lending a Hand," a report released last month by the Higher Education Project of the State Public Interest Research Group, based in Washington.

Included in that spending was nearly $5 million in "soft money" campaign contributions over those three federal election cycles—leading up to the 1998, 2000, and 2002 elections. Amounts rose from $1 million in 1997-98 to $1.7 million in 2001-02. Soft-money contributions—which were severely restricted in a campaign-finance law passed earlier this year—are the unlimited donations given to national political parties,...