House Passes Lobbying Bill

More than a year after the Jack Abramoff scandal brought lobbying and ethics reform to the forefront of the political arena, the House finally passed a new lobbying reform bill yesterday, amid internal strife and multiple accusations from Republican leaders that the bill is a watered-down version of the bill that passed through the Republican House last year. H.R. 2316, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, passed by a vote of 396-22, after the minority won two key victories in shaping the bill they criticized as too weak to affect the lobbying and ethics problems on Capitol Hill.

The Democratic leadership brought up two separate lobbying bills yesterday, including H.R. 2317, the Lobbying Transparency Act, which amends the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to require registered lobbyists to file quarterly reports on contributions bundled for certain recipients. House Republicans were able to amend the bill to require lobbyists to disclose whether they had bundled donation checks for political action committees. The amendment passed 228-192. Republicans were then able to attach the bill as an amendment to H.R. 2316, the larger lobbying overhaul bill.
The bill is now ready to go to conference with S. 1, the lobbying reform package the Senate passed at the beginning of the year. Under the two bills, lawmakers would have to reveal negotiations for private-sector jobs while still serving in Congress and would have to recuse themselves from any legislation where there could be a conflict of interest with potential employers. The lobbying provisions affect only activities involving Congress. They would not apply, for example, to former members who wanted to lobby the administration or state governments. The House bill would double the civil penalties for violating the disclosure rules, from $50,000 to $100,000; the Senate bill would permit fines of up to $200,000.
The biggest difference between the two versions is the Senate’s proposed two-year lobbying ban by former members of Congress. The House rejected a similar provision in the Judiciary Committee markup May 17th, and House members are unlikely to embrace anything beyond the current one-year “cooling off” period before members can cash in and lobby their former colleagues on Capitol Hill.
Resources:
Martin Kady II, “House Passes Lobbying Overhaul,” CQ Today, May 24, 2007.
Author: SAS