The leadership in the House has been working on its legislation to reform lobbying disclosure and ethics practices and is expected to unveil the plan today, May 15, or tomorrow, May 16, with a mark-up of the bill in the Judiciary Committee expected May 17. Despite repeated statements that a bill will be filed soon, controversy over grassroots lobbying disclosure, limits on bundling of campaign contributions by registered lobbyists and expansion of the cooling off period before ex-members of Congress can lobby have stalled progress. Rumors abound that the Democratic leadership bill will address the revolving door issue by doubling the cooling off period to two years. But the other two issues — grassroots lobbying disclosure and bundling of campaign contributions — are not likely to be addressed, although the leadership seems willing to have them offered as amendments or separate bills.

On March 28, the House Committee on Education and Labor heard emotional testimony from miners and miners' families about the dangerous conditions that currently exist in the coal industry, despite recent federal legislation that addresses mine safety. The main focus of the hearing was to provide a forum for the families and miners to argue for legislative and regulatory action similar to laws recently passed in West Virginia and Kentucky and to describe conditions in the mines.

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) office is still working on the details of grassroots lobbying disclosure as part of a package of Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) reforms, both supporters and opponents have continued to debate the merits of the idea.

In nominating Michael E. Baroody Mar. 1 to be chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), President Bush demonstrated yet another example since the 2006 elections of his efforts to slow down or roll back government regulation. CPSC is the independent regulatory agency charged with protecting the public against injury and death from a wide range of consumer products.