Senate Democrats and Republicans broke a difficult stalemate last night and approved 96 to 2 expansive legislation to curtail the influence of lobbyists, tighten congressional ethics rules and prevent the spouses of senators from lobbying senators and their staffs.
The Senate legislation, hailed by proponents as the most significant ethics reform since Watergate, would ban gifts, meals and travel funded by lobbyists, and would force lawmakers to attach their names to special-interest provisions and pet projects that they slip into bills. Lawmakers would have to pay charter rates on corporate jets, not the far-cheaper first-class rates they pay now.
The House earlier this month approved similar language as part of an internal rules change. But other portions of the Senate-passed measure would carry the weight of law and would have impacts far beyond the Capitol. The House would have to pass comparable legislation for those provisions to take effect.
One of those legislative provisions would force lobbyists to publicly disclose the small campaign donations they collect from clients and "bundle" into large donations to politicians. Bundling is a way for lobbyists to contribute far more money to candidates and thus wield more influence than they could by making individual contributions, which are currently limited to $2,100 per candidate for each election cycle. Lavish gatherings thrown by lobbyists and corporate interests at party conventions would be banned.
Former lawmakers would no longer be able to engage in any lobbying activity for two years after they leave office. And, in most cases, the lobbyist spouses of senators would no longer be able to take advantage of their family status to influence the colleagues and staffs of their husbands and wives. The only exception is for spouses who had been lobbying for at least one year before their husband or wife was elected.
"This is the toughest reform bill in the history of this body as relates to ethics and lobbying, so everyone here tonight, when they vote on this, should vote proudly," said Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). "This is historic."
James Thurber, a professor of political science at American University, did not go that far, but he said the impact of the Senate bill would be substantial: "It will change lawmakers' behavior and lobbyists' behavior as well, and it will bring more transparency to lobbying."
I'll be honest, I don't know if this latest ethics reform package will do any good here. One thing I've learned about the corrupting influence of money on congresscritters is that money is like water, flowing down a path of least resistance into the congresscritters' pockets. The money will get through--it is just a question of how.
Still, at least this is something.
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