House Minority Leader John Boehner in the Washington Examiner today:

The trial lawyer industry is, of course, a major source of campaign cash for the Democratic majority, which has happily accommodated the industry’s agenda. At the behest of the trial lawyer lobby, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has stonewalled a bipartisan national security bill needed to allow U.S. intelligence personnel to listen in on conversations involving al Qaeda terrorist operatives.

The bill passed the Senate with a lopsided bipartisan vote and appeared destined for the president’s desk. But then the trial lawyer industry — which opposes the bipartisan bill because it prevents patriotic companies from being sued after cooperating with the government’s terrorist surveillance efforts — called in its chits. House Democratic leaders have subsequently refused to allow the bipartisan bill to see the light of day.

The relationship manifested itself again this week when housing legislation was considered by Congress. Tucked into the housing bill was a $35 million taxpayer-funded slush fund for trial lawyers seeking to cash in on the housing downturn. The bill, if enacted into law, would “require that [$35] million … be used for grants to state and local legal organizations with experience in foreclosure law.” A bill portrayed as an effort to help struggling homeowners was used to line the pockets of the Democratic majority’s trial lawyer allies, courtesy of American taxpayers and homeowners truly in need of help.