The Current Congress on Lobby Reform - How weak can they get?!

House Judiciary Committee Passes Trimmed Version of Lobbying Bill
By Elizabeth Williamson, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 18, 2007; Page A21

In a tense session yesterday, a key House panel haggled its way to a final version of a lobbying disclosure bill seen as a key test of Democrats' will to force the Washington influence game into the open.
The final bill lost two measures in the Judiciary Committee that congressional watchdogs and freshmen who won their seats on an ethics-reform pledge coveted. First to go was a provision that members and top staffers wait two years after leaving Congress, double the current time, before lobbying. Also eliminated was a requirement that lobbyists who orchestrate grass-roots communications efforts report their work. But a third big change survived in a separate bill, requiring that lobbyists who deliver bundles of campaign checks to members report the arrangement. Both bills will be voted on next week.

The opening blow came from Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. The Michigan Democrat kicked off debate with an amendment striking the bill's "revolving door" requirement, the two-year waiting period for lobbying.
Conyers said he feared the rule would hurt members' ability "to attract and retain top-flight staff."
Conyers's move was the result of a settlement reached in hours of caucus meetings this week. Faced with heavy rank-and-file resistance to the key measures, top Democrats, led by the caucus chairman, Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), and Rep. Martin T. Meehan (Mass.), labored to substitute less objectionable restrictions that would achieve similar results. When the revolving-door rule would not fly, the pair offered language requiring that members negotiating for post-congressional jobs recuse themselves publicly from issues affecting the industry they would be working for. That measure passed yesterday.
The new rule "begins the clock on the revolving door when you're here." Emanuel said. "Two years versus one, that's symbolism. What we got is [change] where the rubber meets the road."
Some members expressed surprise at the intense resistance to changes Democrats have been publicly backing for months.
"I have to admit I'm a little disappointed, but encouraged by the fact that we're continuing to make progress," said Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio), who in November won the seat vacated by Robert W. Ney, the Republican who pleaded guilty to corruption charges stemming from the scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Since his arrival, Space has worked to galvanize Democratic freshmen behind stronger ethics measures.
"I felt a particular responsibility to restore the faith that people lost in the institution," he said. "My take on the pushback is it was not motivated by any kind of intention to keep a good thing going . . . or maintain this cozy relationship. People were concerned that you have to be very careful how to craft this stuff" to avoid "something more damaging than it is effective."
Meehan, who backed the bill's strictest reporting requirements, had two amendments defeated yesterday. The first would have required that lobbyists who orchestrate grass-roots mail and telephone campaigns report their involvement; and the second would have banned lobbyist-paid parties for individual members during presidential nominating conventions.
"I'm disappointed that my amendments weren't accepted because I think they would have made a strong bill that much stronger," Meehan said. "Potentially there will be another opportunity on the floor."
The revolving-door provision was sacrificed, insiders say, as part of a deal to preserve the "bundling" bill, championed by Meehan and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).
"When you're trying to get reform legislation passed, you need to make decisions," Meehan said. "I don't think we could have passed a two-year cooling-off period." The compromise requiring recusal, he said, "was great."
"I hope the bill will be strengthened by amendments during floor debate and by Senate negotiators in conference," Craig Holman of advocacy group Public Citizen said in a statement.
Holman and others praised the main bill's requirement that lobbyists report campaign contributions, events honoring members, and the names of each member contacted, quarterly, rather than twice yearly, and that the information be posted on the Web within 48 hours of receipt by the House. Another measure requires that "stealth coalitions" reveal their special-interest backers, except for nonprofit groups. The bill would double civil penalties to $100,000 for "knowing and corrupt" violations of rules, including House and Senate bans on lobbyist-provided gifts and travel, and it would add a criminal penalty of up to five years' imprisonment.