Do you
consider the restrictions on grassroots
lobbying among the “most significant” parts of the bill?
Bradley A.
Smith
Professor of
Law
Capital University Law
School
Columbus, Ohio
This is
day-old news about the lobbying
reform legislation, but similar the discussion of the bill on soft
money
in Internet campaign advertising (HR 1606), there has not been much
discussion
about what happened on the Hill yesterday about the lobbying reform
bill, so I
thought I would offer a brief update.
For the
last two weeks, the Senate had
been rushing head-long into reforming lobbying and ethics rules and
legislation. Last week, two bills were sent to the floor from two
separate Senate committees. Sen. Trent Lott's Rules committee approved
S. 2349,
which restricted earmarks in appropriations and other bills, banned
gifts
(except meals) from lobbyists, prohibited favoritism in hiring
practices (K
Street project), and enhanced various disclosure requirements for
travel.
The Senate
Homeland Security Committee,
chaired by Sen. Susan Collins, approved its own lobbying reform bill
(S. 2180)
that primarily enhanced disclosure requirements for campaign
contributions by
lobbyists, grassroots lobbying, gifts and travel. A provision to create
an
independent ethics agency to monitor compliance was deleted from the
bill.
Both bills
were combined into one
package, introduced on the Senate floor on Wednesday as S. 2349. An
intense
floor battle was expected, as some 35 amendments were going to be
offered
addressing mostly the conduct (rather than disclosure) of lobbying
activity,
including amendments to ban privately-sponsored travel, prohibit all
gifts from
lobbyists, slow the revolving door by prohibiting retiring public
officials
from conducting any lobbying activity during the cooling off period
(rather
than just prohibiting them from picking up the telephone and calling
their
former colleagues during the cooling off period), and establishing an
independent ethics agency.
All of this
came to a screeching halt on
Thursday, when Sen. Schumer introduced an unrelated amendment to end
the Dubai
Ports deal. Sen. First did not want Democrats to stake out a claim to
ending
the ports deal and so called for a cloture vote.
The cloture
vote created a lose-lose
situation for comprehensive lobbying reform. If approved, most of the
significant amendments, like the independent ethics agency, would also
be
deemed non-germane and struck from consideration. If not approved, Sen.
First
would pull the bill from consideration on the floor.
The latter
lose-scenario occurred. Unless
First and Schumer work out a deal, Senate consideration of lobbying
reform will
be on hold. The debate next moves to the House, where we start all over
again.
Craig Holman, Ph.D.
Public Citizen
215 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
TEL: 202-454-5182
FAX: 202-547-7392
Holman@aol.com