The next two weeks will see several events benefiting members of Congress who sit on the finance and banking committees of the House and Senate. These events are scheduled to be hosted by organizations and lobbyists representing the two industries with some of them are registered to lobby on bills pending before these committees.

The National Association of Realtors will be hosting a “Meet & Greet Lunch” for Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., on June 3 at their Washington offices. The event will be the third such event for the NAR in a month. On May 5 the realtors held a meet and greet for Rep. Robert Dold, R-Ill., and for Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., on May 26. All three Republicans are freshmen and all are members of the House Financial Services Committee. Although the invitations to these particular events don’t ask for contributions, the NAR has donated to two of the three congressmen in the 2010 campaign season, and one of those also received a contribution from the organization this year. Rep. Huizenga received $10,000 from the NAR in 2010, while Rep. Dold received $5,000 in 2010 and $1,000 this year. According to House lobbying disclosure records, the NAR has lobbied on four bills this year co-sponsored by the three Republicans, although not necessarily in support of those bills.

On the Senate side of things, Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee member Sen. David Vitter, R-La., will be honored at an event on June 8 hosted by a couple of banking lobbyists. On the same night that his colleague Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is holding a low dollar “10th Annual Crawfish Fest,” Sen. Vitter will be the beneficiary of a dinner at the Rupli Townhouse where the donations will range from $2,500 to $5,000. The event will be hosted by Doyle Bartlett, Camden Fine & Tim Rupli. Fine is a lobbyist for the Independent Community Bankers, an organization that has donated thousands to the Vitter campaign over the last seven years, most recently in 2009.

Recent lobbying reports show that Rupli’s lobbying firm which works on behalf of Network Prepaid Card Association, Independent Community Bankers, and the Meta Financial Group lobbied on S. 575, the “Debt Interchange Fee Study Act of 2011,” which has been referred to Vitter’s committee.

On the final two days of the Wall St. reform conference, committee members Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. and Ed Towns, D-N.Y., have each planned fundraising lunches at the home of Tim Rupli, a lobbyist for the financial industry.

Today at noon, soon after the committee began its work at 10 a.m., it’s Rep. Ed Towns’ turn to fundraise at Rupli’s New Jersey Ave. townhouse, a very popular party spot for lawmakers which was featured in a 2008 USA Today article. The invitation to Towns’ lunch asks $500 from individual donors and $1,000 from PACs. Towns will be there, his press secretary said. “If it doesn’t impact his work, and he knows that better than anybody, I’m sure he’ll make an appearance [at the fundraiser]….He’s a big boy, he knows what he’s doing,” Julian Phillips said.

Yesterday, at noon, before the committee opened just after 1:00, Gutierrez had planned a lunch at the Rupli Townhouse, where donors could attend for between $500 and $2,500. However, that lunch, for some reason, was moved to La Lomita Dos, a downtown Mexican restaurant. The congressman planned to at least stop by, his press secretary said.

Among several financial industry groups that Rupli represents, one of his clients is the Community Financial Services Association, a payday loan industry group still hoping for a loophole in the final bill, the Wall Street Journal reported. CFSA paid Rupli’s firm $240,000 in the first quarter, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. CFSA and the $42 billion payday loan industry has been lobbying against the series of bills attempting to regulate the payday industry since last year.

As chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Gutierrez introduced the Payday Loan Reform Act of 2009 last year. He got flack from consumer groups, who said the bill was too weak. Later he vowed to reject any contributions from the payday industry, saying, “I want to avoid even the appearance that there is a conflict, so I will not be accepting any contributions from the payday loan industry.”

Keep in mind that, Rupli may not have been present at the Gutierrez lunch — it could be held at his pad without him. (Rupli was listed as a host to the Towns’ lunch).

Towns, as chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has less conference committee responsibility than Guiterrez, who sits on the Financial Services Committee. Most votes are voted on by the financial services and banking members, without the outside conferees, said Kurt Bardella, press secretary for Rep. Darrell Issa, R- Calif.

CFSA hasn’t contributed to Gutierrez’s campaign this cycle, but it gave $2,000 to Towns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Rupli has contributed $2,400 to Gutierrez and $1,000 to Towns this cycle, according to CRP.

But another Rupli client is a big Gutierrez backer: the Independent Community Bankers of America, which lobbied against the Durbin amendment to regulate debit card swipe fees. ICBA is Gutierrez’s biggest donor this cycle, at $10,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

ICBA spent $4.75 million lobbying last year, including over $400,000 on Mr. Rupli’s services, according to CRP.

Finally, there is another Rupli client that has a stake in financial reform: the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association. The group scored a victory this week; in a compromise reached on the “swipe fees” amendment, prepaid cards were exempted from regulation. Russell Simmons is celebrating.

An investigation of lobbying by payday lenders published today by the Huffington Post investigative fund uses Party Time invitations to help tell the tale, highlighting the role of prolific partier and lobbyist Tim Rupli.

Rupli’s townhouse is the site of at least 94 parties since 2008, writes investigative reporter Keith Epstein, and “beneficiaries of the fundraisers have included members of the House Financial Services Committee.” Rupli lobbies for the Community Financial Services Association, a trade association representing payday lenders.

The $42 billion-a-year payday lending industry is lobbying hard to avoid new regulation in federal financial reform legislation now being debated in Congress. In addition, payday companies are fighting some 100 pieces of legislation aimed at safeguarding borrowers from high interest rates and from falling into excessive debt that are under consideration in state capitals across the country, reports Epstein.