WASHINGTON – The House voted overwhelmingly yesterday to make lawmakers disclose more details of their efforts to fund pet projects and raise money from lobbyists, responding to a spate of recent scandals.
The Democratic-drafted legislation followed cases that sent two Republican lawmakers and a big-time lobbyist to prison and saw a House Democrat charged with bribery.
Senate leaders hope to give the measure final passage this week, even as the chamber's most senior Republican faces questions about Monday's federal raid of his home as part of a bribery investigation in Alaska.
The bill, which the House passed 411-8, would require lawmakers to disclose those lobbyists who raise $15,000 or more for them within a six-month period by “bundling” donations from many people. The requirement would cover party-affiliated campaign committees as well.
Lawmakers would be barred from accepting gifts, including meals and tickets, from lobbyists and their clients.
Members of the Senate seeking targeted spending projects, or “earmarks,” would have to publicize their plans 48 hours before the Senate votes on the proposals. They would have to certify that they and their families would receive no direct financial benefit.
The House made similar changes to its rules governing earmarks in January.
Self-styled watchdog groups noted that the bill was less stringent in some respects than were earlier versions. But they hailed it as a major leap by an institution generally loath to police itself.
“These are big-time fundamental reforms that will end the secrecy surrounding the multiple ways in which Washington lobbyists use money to curry favor and gain access and influence with members of Congress,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of the nonprofit organization Democracy21.
Common Cause, another nonpartisan group, said the bill “should change the way business is done in Washington by shining the light on the often mutually dependent relationships between lobbyists and members of Congress.”
The bill would require former senators and top aides to wait two years before directly lobbying Congress. Ex-House members would have to wait one year. An earlier Senate version would have banned all lobbying activities for two years, not just direct contacts with lawmakers.
The measure also would require senators, and candidates for the Senate or White House, to pay charter rates for trips on private planes. House members and candidates would be barred from accepting trips on private planes.
In addition, the legislation would end secret “holds” in the Senate, which allow a single senator to block action without disclosing that he or she has done so.
Members of Congress also would no longer be allowed to attend lavish parties thrown in their honor at political conventions. And lawmakers convicted of bribery, perjury and other crimes would be denied their congressional pensions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted the Senate would pass the bill this week, even though it requires 67 votes in the 100-member chamber because it would change Senate rules.
The “landmark legislation” will combat the “culture of corruption developed in the last number of years here in Washington,” Reid told reporters in a Capitol hallway where, moments earlier, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens had refused to answer questions about Monday's search of his home by federal agents.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said he will fight the bill because it “guts key earmark reforms.” He noted that, unlike a previously adopted version, it would allow the majority party's leaders – rather than the Senate parliamentarian – to rule on whether earmark disclosure requirements have been met in bills reaching the Senate floor.
Dissident senators would not be able to challenge the leadership's ruling, but they could try to strike an unreported earmark by offering an amendment.
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., said some Republicans think a nonpartisan “third party or parliamentarian” should rule on such disclosure matters, but he stopped short of saying he would oppose the bill.
Liberal-leaning groups said the less-than-perfect bill is far better than nothing. “There is no credible excuse to oppose this legislation,” said Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center.
The legislation marks Congress' most far-reaching reaction to scandals involving former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., and former Republican Reps. Randy “Duke” Cunningham of Rancho Santa Fe and Bob Ney of Ohio.
Abramoff, Cunningham and Ney are in prison for corruption that in some cases involved congressional earmarks. Jefferson was indicted in June on federal charges of racketeering, money laundering and soliciting more than $400,000 in bribes in connection with years of trying to broker business deals in Africa.
Reform advocates said the bill's main achievement involves greater disclosure of lobbyists who “bundle” campaign donations to lawmakers by soliciting checks from numerous people. Under current disclosure laws, their efforts often go undetected, but the lawmakers are well aware of the help they received.
Earlier versions of the bill would have required lobbyist-bundlers to disclose their contributions to federal candidates. But many lawmakers preferred to control such reports themselves.
Reps. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad, Bob Filner, D-San Diego, Susan Davis, D-San Diego, Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and Darrell Issa, R-Vista, voted for the measure.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
