he former Florida lawmaker’s first post-congressional lobbying client, American Task Force Argentina, is tied to New York venture capitalist Paul Singer, whose firm’s employees contributed heavily to Mack’s unsuccessful 2012 Senate campaign. The task force has aggressively pursued payment from Argentina since the country’s 2001 debt default.

Congressman-turned-lobbyist Connie Mack is taking up a cause close to him — for a fee.

The former Florida lawmaker’s first post-congressional lobbying client, American Task Force Argentina, is tied to New York venture capitalist Paul Singer, whose firm’s employees contributed heavily to Mack’s unsuccessful 2012 Senate campaign. The task force has aggressively pursued payment from Argentina since the country’s 2001 debt default.

As USA TODAY has previously reported, Mack championed the issue in Congress.  In November 2012 — after the elections — a House subcommittee headed by the Florida Republican approved a measure to force Argentina to repay U.S. investors billions in principal and interest.

Singer, who is among American Task Force Argentina’s backers, has been a prominent figure in the efforts to recover the funds. Argentina owes his companies more than $1 billion, according to court records. His quest for full repayment gained international attention in 2012 when his hedge fund, Elliott Management, got the government of Ghana to seize an Argentine naval vessel docked there.

Elliott Management employees donated $39,000 to Mack’s failed campaign for the Senate, the biggest bundle of contributions to Mack from a single firm’s employees.

Mack’s Florida-based firm, Mack Strategies, formally registered to lobby on behalf of the task force last week and indicated that he would continue to work on the international financial tug-of-war, specifically pushing a bill to “hold medium and wealthy nations accountable for the repayments of their debts to U.S. creditors.”

Mack’s new lobbying client was first reported by The Hill newspaper.

Under a one-year cooling-off period for former House members, Mack could not register as a lobbyist before January. His filing indicates he began working on the group’s behalf Jan. 28.

He does not have to disclose how much he is earning from the task force until later this year. (Last year, the group spent more than $1 million on federal lobbying, according to a tally by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.)

Mack did not immediately return a telephone call.

http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2014/03/18/ex-rep-connie-mack-again-goes-to-bat-for-paul-singer/