Lawmakers’ committee assignments and industry investments bely conflicts of interest

The disclosure reports covering 2009 will be made public in the coming days. But because lawmakers still use a pen-and-paper method of reporting, it will be months before the information is entered into a database by the Center for Responsive Politics and then made available for analysis by The Post.

While many lawmakers have no investments in sectors under their oversight, some congressional committees had notably high concentrations of such holdings, The Post's analysis shows.

The patterns are important because committee chairmen and ranking members have more power than their colleagues to raise questions, hold hearings and push through targeted legislation that in some cases governs the industries in which they have investments.