House Passes Ethics Bill

07/31/2007

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
July 31, 2007


The House gave final and overwhelming approval today to a landmark bill that would tighten ethics and lobbying rules for Congress, passing it on to a Senate that is under a new ethics cloud after yesterday's FBI raid on Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-Alaska) house.

The 411-8 vote in the House should give the ethics overhaul the momentum it will need to hurdle Senate conservatives, who have complained bitterly that Democratic leaders weakened provisions disclosing so-called "earmarks,"--funding for lawmakers' pet projects.

Those conservatives, led by Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Ok.) are expected to block immediate consideration of the bill, and force a vote to end their filibuster. But after the lopsided House vote, Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), asked, "Isn't it legitimate to ask the Republicans how they really want to proceed?"

The new lobbying bill would for the first time require lawmakers to disclose small campaign contributions that are "bundled" into large packages by lobbyists, and it requires lobbyists to detail their own campaign contributions, as well as payments to presidential libraries, inaugural committees and charities controlled by lawmakers.

All earmarks included in bills and conference reports -- and their sponsors -- would have to be identified on the Internet at least 48 hours before votes, and earmarks dropped into final conference reports negotiated by the House and Senate could, for the first time, be voted out of a bill at the last minute.

Secret "holds" in the Senate, which allow a single senator to block action without disclosing his or her tactics, would end. Members of Congress would no longer be allowed to attend lavish convention parties thrown in their honor. Gifts, meals and travel funded by lobbyists would be banned, and travel on corporate jets would be restricted.

"These are big-time fundamental reforms," said Fred Wertheimer, president of the open-government group Democracy 21.

But some conservatives are complaining bitterly about the weakening of earmark disclosure rules that had passed the Senate in January. An explicit prohibition of trading earmarks for votes was dropped by House and Senate Democratic negotiators.

A prohibition on any earmark that would financially benefit lawmakers, their immediate families, their staff, or their staff's immediately families was altered to say that the banned earmark would have to advance a lawmaker's "pecuniary interest." Critics say that would mean the benefit would have to be direct, but would not apply to a project that benefited a larger community, including the lawmaker.

In the final deal, committee chairmen -- not the Senate parliamentarian -- would determine whether a bill complied with earmark rules.

"Earmarks have been the currency of corruption and, unfortunately, this lobbying reform bill does not adequately address that problem," declared Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a longtime critic of pet projects.

DeMint single-handedly blocked the calling of a formal House-Senate conference to negotiate the final deal, forcing Democrats to hammer out the compromise on their own. It was passed today in the House under fast-track procedures that prohibited amendments but required a two-thirds majority for approval -- a threshold that was easily met.

Now, Reid must get it through the Senate without amendment, using a parliamentary tactic that has been roundly criticized by Republicans in the past as strong-arming. But in this case, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appears to have given his tacit assent, a snub of some of his own party's conservatives, who had gone around his back to block negotiations.

It may be even more difficult for Republicans to block the measure with their senior senator, Stevens, under a cloud of suspicion. FBI agents raided the powerful senator's house yesterday, looking for evidence in a long-running probe of the Alaska energy firm, Veco, and its efforts to bribe Alaska lawmakers. Veco allegedly helped pay to add a new first floor to Stevens' formerly one-story home, but Stevens says he paid all the renovation bills he received.

"We all know Ted Stevens as a good man, a tireless advocate for improving the quality of life in Alaska -- a decorated veteran and a true patriot of our country," Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said this morning. "He's asked us to await all information during this investigation, and I will, while I'm standing by our longest-serving colleague."

Earlier this year, the homes and business interests of Reps. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) and John Doolittle (R-Calif.) were searched, and Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) was indicted on corruption charges.