The House passed the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007, (H.R. 1281) to prohibit deceptive practices in federal elections, making it a felony to knowingly communicate false election information to prevent another person from voting. BNA Money and Politics ($$) reports that "the new House bill did not reflect GOP concerns about voter fraud, no one voiced opposition to the measure during a brief debate on the House floor June 25.

On May 24, the House adopted H.R. 2316, the lobbying and ethics bill (aka, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, in a lop-sided 396-22 vote. The Senate passed S. 1, its own version of the bill back on January 18 almost unanimously, 96-2.

Roll Call ($$) offers insights as to what the Federal Election Commission (FEC) may now do after the Supreme Court ruling in the WRTL case. An option for the FEC would be an emergency rulemaking process which circumvents the public comment period, but would inevitably bring criticism. The more probable scenario would be for the FEC to do nothing and continue to address possible issue ad violations on a case-by-case basis, as the agency does with complaints made on 527 groups.

CQ ($$) reports that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-KY) has blocked the appointment of Senate conferees on the lobbying and ethics bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) tried to name conferees Tuesday afternoon, but Republicans objected at McConnell's request, saying they would only allow action if promised a vote on a bill to require electronic filing of campaign finance reports (S. 223).