Are companies that bribe using the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to weaken anti-bribery laws?

Is it just a coincidence that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform has been pushing to have the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act weakened when many of the institute's board members are from companies that had violated or been suspected of violating said Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? That's the question Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) are asking in the wake of revelations about Walmart'a company with executives on the board of the Institute for Legal Reform'engaging in extensive bribery in Mexico.

Staff on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where Waxman and Cummings are the ranking Democrats, found that 14 of the institute's 55 board members between 2007 and 2010 "were affiliated with companies that were reportedly under investigation for violations or had settled allegations that they violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."

Among those companies: Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

That 14-out-of-55 figure may even be an understatement, the lawmakers write, as privately held companies aren't required to report potential violations or investigations. For instance, Koch Industries has had a representative on the institute's board since 2007, the congressmen note, and has reportedly engaged in bribery abroad.

The Huffington Post calculated last year that a mere eight members of the Chamber -- not all board members of its legal reform arm -- had altogether paid nearly $1 billion resolving FCPA charges in the last seven years.

The Chamber thinks companies shouldn't be liable for bribery committed by their foreign subsidiaries or committed in the past by companies they've acquired, would make it much more difficult to charge a company in bribery committed by its employees, and wants the definition of "foreign official" clarified in the law so that potential bribers might know which officials they can and cannot safely bribe.

With this kind of approach to laws about how they're supposed to interact with officials in foreign countries, no wonder companies like Walmart act under the assumption that they can violate the rights of workers around the world with impunity.